View Article: 082905 Trajan, the Pantheon, and Wine Tasting

	082905 Trajan, the Pantheon, and Wine Tasting - oh my!
	written by joeplumb / 08.31.2005

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Itinerary

Gooooooodmorning Roma!

We met near Trajan's Column, a little sluggish but ready to start the day!

SPQR

This is where I did my presentation on SPQR.

Shivali in Trajan's Forum

Shivali gives a detailed description on the rule of Trajan and his Forum.

Pantheon

The Pantheon - pretty cool isn't it?

Zinnia's Presentation

Zinnia answering questions about the Pantheon

"Optional" Writing Class

Here Shawn contemplates the merrits of my two favorite books: The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. Ultimately Green Eggs won.

To Vino or Not to Vino

In this shot we see Joel examining a glass of wine. After a few minutes applause breaks out as he pronounes, "It's Red".

Oh so many choices!

Shawn helps Sariah and Leah choose a wine which stimulates the creative writing center of the brain.

Oh the walk home.

The golden hues of the forum at night is something that will be etched in my mind forever.

Daily Dairy
Monday, August 29th

Today has been a fun, albeit full, day. It began with the slamming of a door. A most odd way to start the day but that was it nonetheless. Davey had left our apartment about 7:30 – for where I’m not sure. It always takes him about an hour to get to the Campo Di Fiori, about twice as long as it does Peter and me. I’d like to think that he leisurely crosses the street to a tiny café crowded with locals. There he would surely be chatting with the Italians, his face lighting up whenever he could finagle the Arch of Titus into the conversation. Most likely, though, he just goes out for a cornetto and cappuccino, struggling like the rest of us with the most basic Italian.

But while Davey was out and about I mustered up enough energy to make it to my shower, a whole three meters from my bed. After performing the three S’s I found it time to head over to the Column of Trajan, which lies on the Vial Della Fori Imperiali, only ten minutes from our apartment. On the way I walk through the park, avoiding the horde of pigeons which have managed to mass before me.

Past the Colosseum, by the Roman Forum is where I find the Column. I really do mean to just mention the Colosseum and the Forum, as they have become totally incorporated into my world here. Yesterday I was asked by a tour guide if I wanted to see the Colosseum, I gave her a very puzzled look as if to say “I get to see it every morning”.

Shawn and Lisa are waiting there for us. More and more people gather as time nears. I ask Lisa a few final questions about a statue nearby; it’s the statue where I’ll be giving my presentation in a few minutes of SPQR. You may be asking yourself what the means, but don’t worry, I’ll get to that.

Finally we realize that we’re all there … well almost all there. Katie wasn’t around, but the girls in her apartment said she had left before them, so no one was worried. Eventually it was discovered that she had been waiting for us at the Column of Marcus Aurelius. The two columns appear very similar at first glance, so no one could really blame her.

So we went Katie-less to a statue of Trajan which lined the Fori Imperiali. It was time for me to enlighten the class with the nature of SPQR. Now SPQR was a Latin abbreviation for “Senatus Populusque Romanus”. It was proudly portrayed on monuments and became a recognizable symbol of Roman power. Walking around Rome you can see it on everything from statues to building to manhole covers. That was basically my presentation, so it was pretty short, but I felt like I had adequately covered the topic.

After that we went over by the Forum of Trajan and Shivali spoke on the history of Trajan and why he erected the forum. It was interesting because she showed how this great Roman Emperor had simply been a politician. You see, Trajan had waged an unpopular war and, in a move to appease the people, he build a large forum and the worlds first covered market. Shawn said that it had a Starbucks in it, so the Roman people must have been very happy (though they still didn’t have caramel). It should also be noted that at this time, circa 110 AD, a small restaurant opened in western Rome which served great pasta with free salad and bread. Truly, the Olive Garden has stood as a monument to Italian cuisine for centuries.

Anyway, Trajan built a huge column which describes the war he was fighting. Scenes flow around the column, showing Roman encampments, battles, and the man himself, a whopping 58 times. The whole column is hollow and there is a staircase inside it. Even though it lays eight or nine meters below street level, it shoots up like a glistening candle from the ruins of the forum.
After the column we took a stroll up to the Pantheon. There Zinnia talked about the Pantheon. If you haven’t been, go. There are two things that come to mind when speaking about the Pantheon. First is the size. The only word to describe it ginormous. Yes, ginormous – as in part gigantic and part enormous. “It feels like a stadium, like Safeco Field,” said Davey. The other thing is how long it’s been there. Yes, the Catholic Church has altered it over the years, but the main structure (out of concrete!) still remains today. Zinnia’s presentation was great, as was Shivali’s (if I forgot to say that). After that everyone broke for lunch.

I was starved because I didn’t eat breakfast, so I found a pizza place halfway back to the Campo. Afterwards I went with Kayanna to try to find a grocery store. It didn’t happen. Grocery stores in Rome aren’t like they are in the States. They occupy maybe a tenth of the space of your standard Safeway or QFC, and are usually stuck in the side of a building with no really recognizable sign. So after about a twenty minute search we came up empty handed (except for the Basil, but I won’t get into the Basil).
Then we went to a park near the Spanish steps and found a place that rented bicycles. After pedaling around for while, I decided it was siesta time and took the metro back to the apartment to crash.

I woke up about 4 pm to get to the optional writing class Shawn was having with a few students. In classic honors style, 16 out of my 18 classmates were there. My guess is the other two overslept, because there really isn’t anything optional for honors students ;)

The class was pretty cool, and put me at ease. It’s really interesting for me how this class is a creative writing class. I always thought that creative writing was about making up a story, but all we’ve really been doing is analysis and interpretation. Shawn talked about how creative writing is incorporating elements of style into the type of analysis we were writing. It put us to ease, for now…

Then the thing I was waiting for came, wine tasting! Now I’m no stranger to wine, but I think that doing this as part of a class is fantastic. It was really cool, but quite boring at times. This guy, Massimo, who owned this wine bar, spend like 90 minutes explaining why Italian grapes are better than other grapes and how to smell wine. Halfway through I was contemplating just buying a bottle for myself to drink while he was talking. Bad taste, to be sure, but when I think about college students getting bored with three glasses of wine in front of them I know something’s wrong. Anyway when we were finally allowed to taste the wine, all three tasted nearly the same to me. There were slight differences, but I guess I don’t have the taste buds for wine, because most reds taste the same to me. It was fun once the vino started flowing. Vino is Italian for Wine. This is very important, because if you’re going to have a party in Italy, with all these fantastic wines, it becomes BYOV instead of BYOB or BYOW. I think it’s these important cultural differences which makes Rome so great.

Anyway, after wine tasting was over some of us found some pizza and returned to the Rome Center to do some work. We do a lot of work, so don’t think that we’re taking it easy. Yesterday, on our “day off”, I saw most of our class spend the day in the Rome center playing catch-up on homework from last week. Hopefully we’ll get used to things in the next week and have more free time.

Anyway the internet at the Rome Center pooped out, so everyone went home early. On the way back I walked near some students from the US. A week ago I would have jumped at the chance to meet them and fine out where they’re from and what they’re doing here, but that impulse is gone now. Instead I feel a need to distance myself from them, leaving only one connection with home, my fellow students.

I’m walking home now. A couple of Australia tourists are ahead trying to figure out how to cross a street. I don’t help them or even betray my knowledge of English. I feel more comfortable now being an anonymous Roman, just another Mario or Giovanni walking home after a hard day’s work.

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