Minutes after the semester intro by Cornell in Rome Faculty and Staff, we all gathered in the Architectural Studio where we had a series of refreshments waiting for us to enjoy while Faculty, Staff and Students chatted with each other.
Archive for August, 2009
25
Aug
“Pantheoning”
A Space to Experience Before Kicking the Bucket.
25
Aug
Adventure in Orvieto
August 16, 2009
With the need for adventure, I woke up early Sunday morning to catch the train with a friend to Orvieto, a small, originally Etruscan, hill town. With a cappuccino and cornetto (croissant), we started the day off right, and began to explore the town, which is perched atop a plateau with steep cliffs on every side. It’s easily defensible position also gives Orvieto some unseen attributes. The town is built upon soft rocks, which allowed the original inhabitants to carve down into the hill to create underground cellars, networks of tunnels, and pigeon hatching centers for food.
Further exploration revealed the city’s Duomo, a massive black and white stone church that still has one of the most ornate facades I have scene, locals playing beautiful street music, and great views from every side of the town. Knowing that there was a train back to Rome every two hours, we decided to stay later and later, wishing to fully enjoy Orvieto.
After dinner, we saw a free concert with the Duomo’s dramatic stone walls as a backdrop. While listening to traditional Irish songs though, we lost track of time, and realized, after rushing to the now closed tram station, that we were stranded in Orvieto.
With only three and four star hotels, charging over a hundred euro’s a night, to choose from, we decided to rough it out in Orvieto. We passed the night looking up at the illuminated Duomo, conversing with local college students, and searching for an acceptable patch of grass on which to sleep. After waking in a frenzy to spits and hisses, we realizing that the reason the lawn next to the Duomo was so nice and well maintained was because it was watered at night. Amazingly dry but still tired, we moved closer to the tram station and found large, clean cardboard boxes in which to sleep. As an architecture student, I saw my cardboard box as my first temporary housing project, providing shelter, bedding and blanket all in one! We woke in the morning and caught the early train back to Rome safe and sound. Our twenty four hour excursion had come to an end.
Looking back on the weekend, I would not have had it any other way. Yes, I would have slept in my bed if we had caught the train, but I never would have seen the concert, talked with local students about politics and life in Italy, experienced homelessness, or watched the sun rise over the hills of the Italian countryside. What was a normal day trip, turned into an adventure that I will now remember forever. I gained a greater sense of confidence and the knowledge that roughing it out can truly be fun.
21
Aug
Parla Italiano?
August 21
On our first day of intensive Italian lessons, the thought of being “conversational” in just two weeks seemed daunting. We sat in silence as our teacher questioned us on where we were from, what we liked to do, and what we were studying. We struggled, twisting and morphing our mouths, to try and pronounce words that we hoped made comprehensible sentences.
But through hard work, my classmates and I can now proudly order our cappuccinos and espressos, ask for directions to the Villa Borghese, and, if the occasion were to arise, ask for that cute girl or guy’s number, of course, in Italian. Yes, everyday conversation is still difficult and filled with long pauses, but simply being able to communicate on a basic level makes me feel less distant from Italians and Italian culture. The people here appreciate your struggle and interest in speaking their language and happily help you finish a sentence or name that thing. I know, that with continued practice, and a willingness to make and learn from our mistakes, we will be able to ask for that number, and be able to continue the conversation afterwards.
19
Aug
Roman Law
August 9, 2009
For our first (late) night out on the town, we were told that many young Romans pass the cool nights drinking beer and wine, and smoking cigarettes on the steps of many fountains in the piazzas of Italy. We headed to the nearby neighborhood of Trastevere to meet up with Michael Lee’s local friends, Giulia and Alexandra (pronounced Alessandra, she very emphatically corrected us) and share a couple of drinks. However, this was not the case.
According to Giulia, a new law has been passed in Rome that no longer allows public drinking in the streets. The once free feeling of being able to “do what ever you wanted,” she said, is gone. This new law, we found, seems to have come at a unfortunate time in our travels, but it was interesting to me that our local friends felt like there was “nothing to really do in Rome [at night and on a budget].” These words were strangely familiar, coming from a small southwest town of sixty thousand people, but didn’t seem to fit my impression of one of the world’s greatest cities. Fortunately, a late-night walk, and the sight of the Colosseum, illuminated against a dark sky, has not worn off for me, as it may have for many of Italy’s youth.
http://roma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/movida-regole-piu-rigide-niente-alcol-fuori-dai-locali/1691585
Forced Entertainment
19
Aug
rome
There’s something extremely soothing about waking up early in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome: as the first bus of the day stops under my apartment, I can hear the city getting up, traffic slowly increasing with the light, Romans headed to the bar for an early morning cappuccino, tourists coming out of their hotels and hostels to execute a carefully orchestrated assault on the city.
Rome has been, to say the least, a barrage of stimuli.
Almost daily my classmates and I embark on long walks, eager to find something we had previously only read about. Our journeys are not those of people with a schedule – we amble through diverse neighborhoods and colorful alleyways, concerned as much about the atmosphere of the city as the monuments we are visiting. There is something wonderful about the knowledge that one can revisit a place multiple times so easily, and we have all taken advantage of the central location of Cornell in Rome.
Beyond the buildings, there is the food. Not inexpensive, but completely worth every penny, regardless of whether you pick up fresh ingredients in the market at Campo dei Fiori or find a wonderful hole in the wall to have dinner. From breakfast (in Rome, coffee/cappuccino/espresso with a pastry) to the final gelato of the day – and yes, the gelato is (almost) obligatory – eating proves to be a wonderful pastime.
Getting around is proving to be difficult, as my grasp of the Italian language is weak, at best, in spite of daily lessons. Somehow the carefully constructed sentences of class become a jumble of broken Italian and hand gestures with some Spanish thrown in for good measure. Even so, I found myself in Ostia Antica this weekend, having figured out the metro and subsequent train ride, admiring an ancient port that is arguably better preserved than Pompeii. Merely 30 minutes outside of Rome, the ruins proved that the greatness and complexity of Roman history and culture is everywhere in this region.
17
Aug
To Rome!
August 7, 2009
After an eventful summer in Santa Fe, NM, the long awaited date of August 7th finally arrived. It seemed just yesterday that about half of my classmates and I opened our letters announcing our acceptance into the Fall 2009 Cornell Rome program. With bags packed to the brim, Cornell students made their way from around the globe (Norway, Korea, South America, USA) to gather in Rome, Italy to begin our adventure.
Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to find a very large room and grand apartment filled with the necessary amenities to make my stay comfortable. After a long walk to re-familiarize with the great city, my house-mates and I indulged in the necessary masticating activities that any well-informed Italian traveler would: strawberry, cherry and stracciatella gelato, fresh made panini, oven roasted sausage pizza, and house wine- all reaffirmed just one of the many reasons why I am happy to say that I am ready to begin my five month stay in Rome.
