School Begins

Musei Capitolini, Piranesi awards ceremony

Well, the Piranesi Prix di Rome competition is officially over. We had presentations last Friday, and we had the awards ceremony at the Musei Capitolini at Capitoline Hill on Saturday. The museum was beautiful, though we didn't get to see much of it. We also had to go through security to get in, which was interesting. Made us feel official.

The awards ceremony was interesting. It was mostly in Italian, which wasn't too helpful. I was able to understand bits and pieces. It was nice being able to see all of the participants in one room, and apparently more international students (American, Romanian, and Russian) participated than national, aka Italian students. I thought that was pretty neat, having so many nationalities designing together. Despite some organizational issues with my group, the experience overall was nice. It was refreshing knowing how other design students around the world work, as its fairly different from how we think in America. My group actually did win some sort of prize, but as the awards were given in Italian, I'm not actually sure what we won. It was probably an honorable mention of some kind, though.

On Saturday night, a group of us decided to try to find a bar that was showing the Penn State vs. Alabama game (9:30pm our time). We found a place called La Bonticella that is an American Pennsylvania sports bar. They had all kinds of Pennsylvania sports paraphernalia, and it was a nice, cozy space. We had some Peroni drafts and free peanuts (the container of which said 'Giovanni's nuts'). Though we lost rather badly, it was still a nice night and the bar had a really nice atmosphere. Not to mention we ran into newlyweds and a one-year anniversary couple. It was too cute. It was also nice to spend a night with some other Americans and chat about your experiences in Rome.

We went to a Sunday flea market in Trastevere as well. Its at least 3 kilometers long, and a lot of the stuff they sell is pretty reasonable. I got a pair of shoes for 4 euro, and I plan to go back again. Some of the shop venders do try to rip you off and most of them don't respect personal space, but that's really just how it is here. We're just not really accustomed to that in America.

Allan Ceen's Studio Urbis

The past two days we have officially started a normal class schedule. We've now had each of our classes at least once. They all seem really interesting. Our analysis class seems to tie into our studio. In our studio, we're doing a French competition. At first I freaked out at the thought of another competition, but this one seems much better. I think we're designing a university, and our site is in Via Trinitatis near the Spanish Steps in Rome. We should be having a site visit sometime this week, so there will be more pictures to come with that. Our cartography professor, Allan Ceen, is a real character. He's a great professor though, and you can tell he's quite knowledgeable. Our first assignment was to find his studio (Studio Urbis) from our studio at Via della Gatta (yes, that translates to Street of the Cat). He gave us a map and an assignment paper and basically told us to go, avoiding all main traffic roads (which I suspect was to make the assignment a bit harder, honestly) and drawing our path as we go. It was actually quite fun, exploring Rome alone and being able to take everything in. A lot of the back streets are quaint, even if you do run the risk of being hit by a Vespa. Given the nature of the class, it seemed like a fit assignment to start with.
Allan Ceen brought another interesting fact to our attention that I really hadn't given much thought to. He gave us a brief history of Rome during the first class, and a lot of the core ideas of Roman government (Republic, Senate, etc) are all used in American government. I feel like I really should have already known that, but I didn't. Rome, an ancient city, has tons of similarities with our country. He was saying how Rome has lost some of these ideals since the Roman Empire, as it fell over a thousand years ago, and how it is refreshing to see the United States operating with similar ideas. As Americans, we usually feel isolated from most of Europe since we are such a new country, but that connection was pretty meaningful to me.

Well, that is all we've really been up to. Our travel plans for this weekend are uncertain, but we're considering going to somewhere else in Italy. Next weekend we will be venturing to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest with bus2alps. It should be a great time, and I am excited for Bavarian pretzels and some German beer steins.

I'll be sure to keep this updated (yes, I'm talking to you, Julie) once we have more experiences. Living in Italy finally doesn't seem so strange. I really enjoy cooking with fresh food, especially handmade pastas, fresh fruit and vegetables, and fresh meats. American preservatives will not be a nice change when we go home. I'm trying to speak a bit more Italian, though I usually panic when it actually comes to speaking to Italians. I know most of the basic language, I just need to make myself use it. I'm sure I will in time. I don't think I'll ever get used to the traffic, though.
Well, ciao for now. I'll leave you all with a nice photo of my group (gruppo 14) from Piranesi in the Italian students' apartment in Tivoli.

Life in Rome

We've now been here for about four days. Some parts have been slow (and hot), and other days have flown by. Time just goes in a different way here. Italians like to take their time with everything. They walk slowly (nothing like Penn State where everyone is power-walking, with their head in the clouds) and enjoy their surroundings, and they like to sit and enjoy their food. Time is much more relative here. They don't really concern themselves with being on time. Its a lot to get used to, but they seem to live pretty full lives.

I'm getting more used to the dorm/apartment set up we have here. We also have a beautiful view, but we always hear the traffic at night. There's a festival along the river near our complex, and we hear the music at 1am. Italians seem to really enjoy 1970's and 1980's music, particularly Beach Boys and Madonna. They actually like a lot of our music. I've heard a lot of Coldplay too.
We're right along the Tiber River (Il Fiume Tevere), which is really beautiful, not to mention huge.

View from our room of our courtyard.

Naeemah and I look out over the courtyard in our dorm complex at Sant'Maria in Cappella. Its really gorgeous, and I'll probably sit out there when it's not so hot outside. Its been in the 90's basically the entire time we've been here, and its exhausting.

On Saturday, we went to the Villa Adriana, or Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, Italy. Its really gorgeous, and I wish I could have seen it when it was fully intact. Most of the ruins are brick, but all of the walls were covered in marble, which I'm sure was fantastic to see. The Villa is almost 2,000 years old, and its amazing to imagine that people that long ago had occupied the spaces. Unfortunately, a lot of it is missing because a lot of the material was stolen over the years, but it truly is cool how much is still left.

Unfortunately, it was really hot the day we went, and there isn't too much shade there. I've never had so many bottles of water in such a small amount of time in my life. We were there from around 9am to 9pm. It was a really long day, and eventually we just sat at the cafe to cool off. Our tour guide/future professor, Allan Ceen, is pretty ridiculous, but he's really cool. He knows so much about all of this stuff. He even demonstrated to us how to use a Roman bathroom.

A really awesome space, especially with the light.

Maritime Theater, Hadrian's Island Retreat

The Canopus, with caryatids and long pool. Used for dining and relaxing.

 We had aperitivo for dinner. I'm quickly learning that Italians don't eat nearly as much as we do. Last night was the first time I've had meat since I've been here. Aperitivo was basically like small appetizers, and though they were good, they were pretty small. They do have some delicious sodas here though, and the Fanta here is amazing. Its less carbonated, and it tastes more like tangerine than orange. Its probably going to become an addiction of mine.

We met some of the people we'll be doing the Piranesi Prix de Rome competition with. We're working with the Landscape Architecture students and Italian and Romanian students. Some of them seem nice. I don't know who I'm working with yet, though.

Yesterday morning, we went to the Terme de Caracalla (Baths of Caracalla). It wasn't as hot, and pictures really don't do the place justice. They're huge, hundreds of feet high. They're thousands of years old, and you just have to imagine that the people who actually used the space had never seen a space that big before. It was probably amazing to them, and it probably seemed like the gods lived there or something.

We went to a cute cafe/pizzeria on our way back from the Baths. I had some Marguerita pizza, which is a hundred times better than it is in the States, not to mention it wasn't greasy (looks like I'm never going to be able to eat Canyon again... what a shame). It was delicious, and it wasn't all that expensive. The euro to dollar exchange rate is a bit painful, as one euro is worth almost $1.50.

Italian restaurants/cafes operate differently than in the United States. They give you a glass and a can, and you pour your drinks yourself. You also have to specify between "frizzante" and mineral water. The water "with gas" is not really that great tasting to me, basically tastes like seltzer water.

We also went to an Italian bar last night at the Campo di Fiori. It was quaint, and had tables outside facing the plaza. Its very unusual for Italians to each order their own drink (we are such alcoholics) or their own food at a bar. We didn't realize this until after we ordered, though. We did get free pasta, though. They came out with a huge pan and started handing it out to everyone. Rachel and I discovered a new beer - Peroni - which is Italian and tastes pretty good, basically like Yuengling.

I was homesick when I first got here, and I still miss everyone from home, of course. We're finally starting to get into the swing of things here, though, even though this competition seems pretty intense. Hopefully it will be fun working with the students from Italy and Romania. Some of our classes start this week too, and they all sound really interesting. Today, I should be seeing some of the tourist locations of Rome - Colosseum, Pantheon, etc. Pictures are sure to come.

Ciao for now. :)

View from Villa Adriana of surrounding Tivoli. Hard to see, but lots of housing built right into the mountains.