C'era una volta...: When In Rome, Do As The Romans Do

This past week was full of Museum visits and fun parties! Monday my art history class visited the Vatican Museums where I had to give a presentation on the Laocoön and the Belvedere Torso. Of the three tours I've been on of the Vatican Museums, this one was definitely my favorite, simply because my professor, Mr. Rome as well call him, is SO knowledgable about everything. Just a few fun facts:

1. The Hall of the Maps is actually a progression from Northern to Southern Italy, with the Tyrrhenian regions to your left, and the Adriatic regions to your right, and the panels on the ceiling depict famous miracles that occurred within the corresponding regions. For instance, the one corresponding to the Lazio region depicts the moment when Peter ran into Jesus (already resurrected) while he was fleeing the city of Rome out of fear of being persecuted as a Christian. He asked Jesus where he was going, and Jesus replied "to Rome," convincing Peter he must return and face persecution (and then be crucified upside-down by Nero). The Hall of Maps, as a whole, is supposed to convey how Italy is the new Promise Land, full from head to toe with miracles.

2. In the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo painted Minos' face (Minos is the character in Dante's Inferno who is the Supreme Judge of the Underworld, his tail wrapping around his body the number of times equivalent to the soul's assigned circle of Hell) as Pope Paul III's Master of Ceremonies because he dared to criticize Michelangelo about the amount of nudity he had included in the Chapel. Unfortunately, loin cloths were added to the nude figures after Michelangelo's death in the mass Emasculation started by Pope Paul IV in the mid 16th century and completed by Pope Leo XIII in the 19th century. Leo XIII also added the fig leaves to all the naked sculptures in the Museums.

3. In Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura (the former Papal Library), his painting, The School of Athens, conveys how one must depart from science to build knowledge. This painting includes Euclid, the Father of Geometry, Plato (who points upward, signifying how everything exists because of nature/God), and his philosophical opposite Aristotle (who points downward, signifying how knowledge can only be found via the investigation of nature). This portion of the painting depicting Plato & Aristotle is what is pictured on the Vatican Museum tickets. Also, Raphael, after viewing the Sistine Chapel, promptly made a last minute addition, depicting a man in the foreground with the image of Michelangelo; but he strategically painted him wearing sculptors' boots so as to say that Michelangelo was only a sculptor, not a painter. The painters were so sassy!

Wednesday my class went and viewed the Galleria Borghese, which is now my favorite art museum! The Bernini sculptures were simply incredible. I loved the Apollo and Dafne! Unfortunately, they dont allow to bring ANYTHING into the gallery with you, so pictures were impossible. You'll just have to visit it for yourself! That afternoon, IES held a bar-b-que to celebrate the 4th of July, which meant THERE WERE HAMBURGERS! After eating a copious amount of red meat, I interviewed a bunch of my classmates for a project I'm working on for my internship covering foreign tourism in Rome. That night, we went out to various American bars and celebrated our great nation's independence like true Americans!

Thursday my class went to the new "hit" museum of Rome, Le Domus Romane, which is a new take on how antiquities and archaeological sites should be presented. It is a tour of a 4th century senator's home -- well it was basically the size of a palace -- with multimedia additions that portrayed how the home would've looked at that time. The entire tour is done by walking on clear glass panels, with the ruins of the home underneath, and lights and videos are used to point out and "reconstruct"various aspects of the different rooms. It was VERY cool and definitely unique. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city -- especially is you're looking for a great way to beat the heat because it's underground!

Yesterday (Friday) I spent the day with Jillian! She is working on a research project and needed a translator. We got a awesome guided tour of the Sanctum Santorum, the holiest place on Earth, as well as a tour of what was underneath it and the Scala Santa. It was AWESOME! Then we had one of the best lunches ever at Enoteca Cavour 313 -- YOU MUST GO THERE! We split a traditional salami plate and each had a warm goat cheese salad; it was to die for! Then on our walk home we passed about every single major monument in the city. It was a GREAT day! That night we held a Toga Party at my apartment and the one next door to celebrate the last weekend we would all have together (the non-internship students will be leaving this coming Friday). It was quite fun dressing up, but it definitely took multiple tries to perfect our ensembles.

Well the summer sales have begun, so I'm going to go to Via del Corso! Enjoy the pictures! Ciao!

This is the Laocoön at the Vatican Museums. I had to do a presentation on this piece for my art history class. The most interesting thing about it, in my opinion, is what it symbolizes: not trying to stop the inevitable course of events. Laocoön was punished by Athena and Poesidon for objecting to letting the wooden horse into the gates of Troy. They sent serpents from the sea to murder him and his two sons.
Photo Credit: Andrea Tocci

This is the Belvedere Torso, one of the staples of the Vatican Museums. I had to present on this piece as well.
Photo Credit: Andrea Tocci

Me, Andrea, & Ellen in front of the Borghese Gallery. If you are ever in Rome YOU MUST GO HERE, simply to view the gorgeous Bernini sculptures and the largest set of Caravaggio paintings housed in a single museum.