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082305 Exploring Our New Home: The First Day of Class |
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by pev42 / 08.30.2005 |
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Itinerary |
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Our first day of class started bright and early at 8:45 in front of Palazzo Pio, the historic building where the UW Rome Center is located. We walked together from there to the ItaliaIdea offices in the nearby Piazza della Cancelleria where we had part I of our orientation to Rome. Our Italian teacher, Daniela Curioso, told us all about buying food, where to eat, how to order food, where to shop, how to tip, the centro storico (the historic district in Rome, where we live), how to use the buses and taxis, how to be safe, and all of the different ways to order coffee. We were amazed to find out how little and how infrequently Romans eat!
Directly after the orientation, we walked back to the Rome Center and had lunch from the leftovers of yesterday's dinner in the director’s apartment. The salad and the tortellini were still delicious and it was great to see the amazing view of Campo de Fiori from the apartment at a different time of day. It rained lightly, which was strange for Rome, but refreshing.
We met again at 4:00 for our tour of the Campo dei Fiori and the surrounding area with Lisa. As the name “Field of Flowers” suggests, the Campo was a grassy field before it was paved in the fifteenth century. Once the location of both a popular horse market and the gallows, the Campo is now home to a well known vegetable market and the famous statue of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for heresy in the middle of the Campo in 1600. After my short presentation on the Campo, we headed out to learn where to shop and how to make our way around. Lisa pointed out many of her favorite places to buy meat, cheese, and coffee as well as where to find office supplies, crepes, baccala, and ATMs. We passed a small park, a cat sanctuary, and the police station. Lisa treated us all to gelato at the Pantheon, which was both delicious and beautiful.
Back at the Palazzo Pio, we listened to Katie's interesting and informative short presentation on the history of the building. Its lowest foundations were part of the theater built by Pompey in the first Century B.C.E., which is why one of its walls is curved. This theater is believed to be the place where Julius Caesar was assassinated. The lions and eagles on the façade are from the family crest of the Orsinis, a powerful family during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that built the Palazzo Pio to be one of their palaces.
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Highlights |
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It was apparent that everyone really enjoyed getting to learn more about where we are living. Learning about how to get around in Rome, the history of the Palazzo Pio and the Campo dei Fiori, and the shops and monuments around us helped me feel more at home in this big city and more like I knew where I was. The strangeness of this new place started to wear off and I began to be truly excited to be here, rather than just missing the familiarity of home and the US. The rain was also a highlight of the day, because it gave us a different perspective of Rome and showed us that we could still experience the familiar among so many sights that are new and incredible.
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Images |
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| by Patricia Voll |
| Lunch in the Director's Appartment |
| Good food with a view in the rain |
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| by Patricia Voll |
| View of the Campo dei Fiori |
| What a view! The Campo on a rainy day. |
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| by Patricia Voll |
| Group Tour |
| Our tour took us down the Via Giulia. Here we are at the Church of Stanta Maria dell'Orazione e Morte. It was built in 1575 for those who were too poor to afford a funeral, so that they could have a proper Christian burial. |
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| by Patricia Voll |
| Gelato at the Pantheon |
| Mmm, gelato and pictures! A great way to end any tour. |
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