Entry 1
Today has been a day of extremes. It started out incredibly. We took a bus over to the Capitoline Hill and stopped for a moment to acknowledge the cloaked statue of Cola Di Rienzo on our way up to the museum. The museum itself was mindblowingly amazing. It might honestly have been the best museum I've ever been to. We approached it on Michelangelo's entryway which led to a square between three buildings with a copy of an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in the center. We then entered the museum and came into a courtyard which housed fragments of a colossal statue of Constantine. The fact that only a small amount of the statue remains adds to the sense of awe I get from it. I can only imagine how massive it used to be. We went up the stairs to the main gallery. This place was a maze. We were put into groups and assigned themes which we needed to find representations of in the gallery. My group found a green marble dog to represent luxury. As we wandered through the museum, I was struck by how many pieces I recognized. I reached the end of a long room and suddenly I was looking at the statue of Commodus as Hercules. I also saw the awkward tetrarch hug. The presentations were all really well done. Each group gave the assignment a lot of thought. Along the way we saw the original of the statue of Marcus Aurelius that was in the square. We also saw the foundations of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, over which I think the museum is built. The significance of the ruins only became apparent when I noticed a miniature of clear plastic, inside of which were small stones representing the foundations in front of us. The temple must have been beyond huge. After we finished with the main area we, we walked underground and to the adjacent building. We then found the good view of the forum and took some pictures before doubling back to the building across from the entrance. The first thing we saw was the statue of Mars Ultor that probably stood in the temple in the Forum of Augustus. It is an absolutely incredible piece of sculpture. We then heard Sarah D's first presentation about the talking statues. After she finished, a few other people and I went up to the second floor to see the gallery of busts that Florence Nightingale mentioned in her letters. This floor is what truly made the museum amazing for me. I know that the sculptures would have been painted, but the almost uninterrupted whiteness of the heads and bodies, combined with the offwhite colors of the walls, somehow made me feel as though I was cut off from the outside wold and that all that existed was the art in front of me. It was an experience unlike any other. I spent a long time looking at the heads. I was extremely happy when I found my favorite sculpture of Cicero. I could barely contain my excitement. After a while, I went down to the main entrance, after buying a book, to discover that it had started pouring. Here's where the day took a downturn. I really don't like the bus system in Rome. We ran out into the rain and had a tough time finding the right bus. After getting soaked, we got onto a bus we thought would take us back to St. John's. However, I checked my phone and saw that we were going the wrong way. We had a bit of trouble deciding whether or not to get off and to try to find a metro stop, which I had much more confidence in, or stay on and hope it would loop around. Eventually, I got off with Sarah D; I could barely breathe on the bus. I felt bad as the bus drove away with Ally and Elyssa still on it. We soon found a metro stop and got back without further incident. However, when we got back, the headache that had been brewing for a while got really bad and I had to rest for a few hours until dinner, which did the trick. I felt much better. After listening to a small talk by Prof. Curley's friend, Allesandra, we went to eat. I ate the best meal I've had in recent memory. The two waiters we had were also excellent. I ordered gnocchi with a white truffle sauce for the first course, breaded veal cutlet for the second, and a chocolate and cream concoction for dessert. After dinner, a mistake was made and we got on the wrong bus, but Victoria came to the rescue and asked the driver how to get back, which we eventually did without any serious problem. I'm just resting in my room right now. What an interesting day.
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