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090104 Early Christianity and a Late Dinner |
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written
by kjw2 / 09.17.2004 |
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Itinerary |
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| Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Walking through the catacombs |
| Though it is blurry, this picture gives you some idea of how dark and cramped the catacombs were. The claustrophobics among us were not happy. |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Hanging out at the gardens of Santa Costanza |
| Top left, from left to right, Shane, Amanda, Kara. Top right, from left to right, Helen and Alexis. Bottom left, from left to right, Jeff and James. |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Applause for Kelly for a Great Presentation |
| After every presentation we give the presenter a round of applause. Since Kelly's was in a church, and then she didn't take the bus back to the Campo with us, we applauded her work at the group dinner. |
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We met early and caught a small bus to Northern Rome, beyond the city walls to check out the Catacombs of Priscilla. Callie gave a great presentation on the early Christian church, and the catacombs. We then met our tour guide, a short Italian in a gortex rain jacket with a creepy voice, who took us down a spiral staircase, out of the midmorning heat into the cool damp passages of the catacombs. The Catacombs of Priscilla are a twisting labyrinth of 13 kilometers of narrow tunnel spread through 3 floors. We got to look down a hole all the way to the bottom, which is about 35 meters down. Very creepy. The walls are inlayed with row after row of rectangular little niches cut into the wall to hold bodies. Some of the niches were sealed with terracotta or stone, and the body still remained within, others were open and empty because the bones had been removed. Our tour guide made sure we knew which niches contained bodies and which ones didn’t. The niches were between 4 and 5 feet long, evidence that ancient Romans were much shorter than us Americans.
These catacombs contain some of the oldest Christian Frescos and the oldest image of Madonna and child. Contrary to popular myth, the early Christians did not hide out in the catacombs, but they did offer a welcome retreat from persecution. There was a chapel called the Greek chapel where they used to perform burial services.
After the catacombs, we headed over to Santa Costanza, one of the oldest Christian churches in Rome. Kelly presented on the church over the sounds of the floor cleaners. We went inside and gazed in awe at the beautiful circular design, the mosaics on the ceiling and the various alters and graves. After that we piled on a bus and headed back to the Rome center, leaving a few people behind to work on their sociology projects. We realized on the bus that we forgot to congratulate Kelly on a job well done because she was one of the people who stayed behind. We got back and many people went off to work on school work or the sociology neighborhood projects.
We reconvened in the evening for sociology class on religion and social order. After class we headed upstairs for our second group dinner. The professors had pity on Sabrina and ordered out for this week’s dinner. Dinner was fantastic and very filling.
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Highlights |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Desert! |
| Marzipan...mmm! |
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| photos by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| People enjoying dinner |
| Top left: Sabrina and Jeff. Top right, from left to right: Matt, Alexis, Martha, Helen. Bottom right, from left to right: Andrea, Callie, Sara. Bottom left, from left to right, Kara, Julia and Helen. |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| View of the Campo de Fiori |
| The Campo changes throughout the day. In this picture, the restaurantse have their tables all set out for dinner. Later, after dinner, the tables will clear and the Campo will fill with people hanging out and having a good time. |
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Though both the presentations were fantastic, and the catacombs were cool, dinner was definitely the highlight of the day. We gathered in our professor's appartment on the fourth floor for an evening of great food, good company and a good view.
Our menu:
Antipasti: grilled vegetables, marinated artichoke hearts, prosciutto con melone (melon wrapped with cured ham), 3 different types of cheese and (of course) fabulous Italian bread.
Primi: the best lasagna ever!
Contorno: insalata (salad) with olives, corn, and tomatoes
Dolci (desert) we had marzipan cakes and crostata
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Images |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Vespa tracks |
| Andrea got hit slightly by a Vespa, leaving a beautiful track mark on her pants. It just barely got her so she was not hurt in any way whatsoever, but we were all a little more careful of the mopeds after that. |
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| Photo by Kirstin Wiederholt |
| Nate and Shane Helping Out |
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One of the things all of us have had to adjust to upon arriving in Rome is the differences in traffic laws. The general method for crossing the street when there isn't a light is just to go confidently, and hope that people stop. Andrea, however, had an unfortunate incident with a Vespa today as shown in the first picture. She emerged unscathed. Her pants, however, did not.
Whenever we have group dinners, especially those when Sabrina cooks all day for us, we like to help out in the kitchen. Here are two of the guys doing a great job helping to clean up.
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