Plowing Pompeii

I must first start by saying, “studies” have never been so fantastic! We learn about a monument, important city, important artist, etc. etc. on a Monday and Wednesday, and the following Tuesday and Thursday we travel to said historic importance. Learning has never felt so real or so alive. Every landscape I see, ruins that stand confidently in their deterioration, church that towers to the heavens with ornate walls and openings, I am find myself dumb-founded and consistently amazed.  I am developing a new, or rather, deeper love for art and the restoration of what was.  The focus of Italy is beauty. And to revive beauty into life again, reviving a legend, an artist, a life which once breathed onto the canvas or touched the marble rock in order to create the masterpieces that now serve as the cornerstones of cultural studies, that is incredible. As put by John Keats (a little something I learned in lecture today) “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” This is what the history and ruins and art and artists and people of Italy have taught me.

Week 3 we journeyed (as a class on program-sponsored field trips) to the cities of Ostia Antica, Pompeii, and Montecassino. It was almost surreal being able to walk in a place that was once teaming with life, and is now so historic and mummified. Once standing on the over-sized cobble stones, still grooved with the deep tracks from the busy wagon wheels and cart bulls pulling rich supplies, it was hard not to envision the lives that originally hurried along the streets. 

Our group of 20 girls was greated by a very lucky, very suave Italian tour guide, Stefano. I don’t think he was objecting too much to the uneven male-female ratio. He firstly introduced our tour by saying we would be moving by Italian-time, “piano piano”, or “slow slow”. Take your time. Enjoy. Absorb. Ok, I can so those things—check, check, and check. But, when one enters the first archway of Pompeii one will typically desire to move ahead quickly, as the introducing structures are more of a should-height cluster of stone squares, attached to eachother and all missing roofs, and all looking very much the same. One will typically be in search of the “meaty” stuff of Pompeii, as we see in history books (or as my Dad’s chosen source of knowledge, the History Channel).

Stefano led us through at a perfectly “piano piano” pace, explaining the meaning and importance behind some of the tiniest details. So here goes some factoids I found incredible about Pompeii:

-          It was not destroyed by the lava of the eruption…lava never came close to Pompeii. The city was destroyed completely by the heavy volcanic ash, hardened molten rocks which fell from the sky like tennis-sized hail, and carbon monoxide poisoning. It’s actually because of the ash that the city was so well preserved. Without it, we would hardly even know about Pompeii.

-          It was more of a resort town/getaway for the upper class Romans. So it had a total population of about 20,000. However, the time of the erruption was off-season for most vacationers, so only 2,000 were present in the city at the time it saw its last hours on earth. Another possible cause for the smaller number is a result of many actually fleeing the city out of fear.

-          There is no word in the Latin dictionary for “erruption”…so no one had a clue as to what was going on. The volcanoe actually pulsed for a full two days before it spewed its guts. It more so shook the earth than just boil over the whole time. There are written records of people praying to the gods for forgiveness, thinking the earth was just temporarily shaking due to their sins or lack of sacrifices. To them, it was an act of the gods, and nothing more.

-          Everyone had ample time to flee the city before the volcanoe errupted.

-          The famous casts of people “frozen” in time as the ash burned their lungs, are actually molded casts where archeologists would pour a liquid mold into the holes in the ash where body formations were when the ash fell, but disintigrated over time. So the casts were made by us, and didn’t actually exist before as if they were molten solid and then chiseled out (as I had originally thought).   

-          They found the bones of a pregnant woman, and the subsequent infant bones resting in the area of her stomach…both shocking and overwhelming to visualize when I saw the cast.

-          Pompeii was covered with ash, and then over time, due to the fertile organic material filled with organisms, lush green pastures grew on top. Over more time, a town was built on top. It was discovered when men were digging an irrigation system, but instead found perfectly perpendicular remnants of buildings and shops. The excavations began

-          Only 2/3 of the actual remains have been uncovered. The remainder is intentionally being left covered.

It was incredible. And shockingly enough, our first day without rain, so all in all, the experience was nearly perfect.  

To give a quick summary, and only just that, of the remainder of the trip, Ostia Antica and Montecassino were also cool…more ruins, a lot of graves, and cool above-ground burial huts which attach to the ground and continue as a rut in the ground in Ostia Antica, and a beautiful abbey in Montecassino which overlooked the Tuscan hills.  Everything back then was a massive undertaking, but inncredible to witness. 

 

No bologna ("bolonee") in Bologna ("Boloanya")

To my dear dear blog readers~

Firstly, if you are anyone outside my immediate family, I am humbled by your dedication and true love. Seccondly, apologies for the sudden MIA status. Apparently I have this disease which my parents have diagnosed me with since I was in second grade—Procrastination. Thirdly, it comes with legitimate cause, as I am long-winded for the sake of painting a literate word picture…these things take time. So enough with the prologue…here is life in Italia via the life of Becca Burslem.

4 WEEKENDS ago I traveled with three other friends to the city of Bologna.  

“Bologna?” you say. Yes, Bologna; a rare city that does not often hit the “top 10 must-sees” of Italy, but is really a rare gem of sorts. We arrived in the city, filled with buildings, buildings, and more buildings, wondering where the Italian hills were. Well, although we had been recommended to visit this city, we did little research as to the terrain of the land, which was in fact, a city of cities. I was a little apprehensive as the shuttle brought us further and further from what we understood to be the “historic district” towards our hotel we got for a great rate. Great rate at a cost, I felt I would soon discover. Cost = far away from anything.

However, my traveling counterparts were more hopeful, and said that by the time morning came, we’d see the city and all its glory in the sunlight. (We had taken a pwer nap when we arrived, and by this time it was dark outside). We scoured the city and coveted over every boot shop we passed by. To accompany it terrain of city and cobblestone, Bologna is the wealthiest city in Italia (who’s to know?!). To accompany this reputation of wealth, a wealth of beautiful BOOTS! ‘Twas our main goal to acquire such beauty while we were in the city. The real notariety of the city, which most Italians associate it with, is the tortellini. So naturally, the first purchase of the trip had to be a big plate of authentic Bologna tortellini. Well, the Bolognese also capitalize on this, so after a 12€ dish of tortellini, which came at a shocking price but worth every cent (or euro cent). It costs to be an official tourist!

Stopped by a very promising boot shop, and were greated by an elderly woman, whom we quickly learned was extremely proud to be Italian…over the course of the next 45 minutes, we were greeted, spoken to in very quick Italian phrases, asked many questions, were found out that we understood 2% of everything she had just told us, and then somehow interpretted that what she said next included something like, “It is stupid that students come to Bologna, or just Italy, and don’t know our language. We are expected to know theirs, and they don’t even try. We do you not know Italian? Are you learning Italian? Why don’t you know more? It is stupid to come here and not know Italian!” We didn’t buy any boots there.

We came upon what we figured to be the central piazza by 10 p.m. (2200 european time). But no one seemed to be out, so we took that as a hint and headed back to the hotel, which we discovered was an easy 20 minute walk to all the hot spots and tourist sites, worries of out-of-reach-tourism was put to rest.

Saturday we awoke to a 3-tiered-table of all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and cappuccinos served to us. The incredible rate for the hotel actually turned out to be incredible! I could hardly believe it! We stuffed our faces with crème croissants, two helpings of yogurt and granola (this is NOT the “dannon Lit N Fit” stuff either, Italians know how to do yogurt!), and a jelly danish, and of course cappuccinos. Throughout the course of the day, we conquered a HOT pair of boots, climbed one of the “Twin Towers”    , met a guy from Connecticut at the top (yes! What are the odds?! Old home sweet home), wandered the streets of the produce market, experienced produce so vibrant I was convinced they were a different kind, experienced the town festivale

  

  , and hit up the McDonalds “walk-through”!, 

but opted for the 1 euro pizza

. 

Cool facts to know:

-          The towers were built about 3^rd centurt A.D.

-          No one officially knows why; but they were used as defense mechanisms against enemies

-          One leaned so far over they had to chop off the top, for fear it would fall onto the civilians passing by (ancestors were NOT happy about this)

-          The remaining whole tower has 498 steps …that do NOT follow A.D.A. code to say the least. We scaled it WITH our hot new boots ON! Beauty is pain.

-          The higher the building/tower/church means the better/richer/more awesome you were….Bologna is obsessed with tall, old buildings. They are beautiful.

-          The church in the central Piazza is different than most churches, in that the interiors were made completely out of red terra cotta clay. Quite striking as the walls reach even higher than most churches, and were not the typical marble walls with mosaics we are now used to seeing.

That night we went to THE most amazing restaurant, which was recommended to us by the Connecticut student we met at the top of the tower. He said "it is a bit of a walk, but completely worth it. It isn't 'touristy', and only the locals know about it. It has incredible food for fairly cheap prices. Quaint and completely Italian", he said. It was everything he said and more. We enjoyed a 2 1/2 hour dinner, the customary timetable of Italian meals (which I have FULLY embraced with open arms), and laughed until our full bellies hurt. Complaining from the aching pain, we stopped into a Creperia Bar (also known as "Creeper Bar?!" to some unknown travelers named Ali who read too fast and jump to comclusions:) for a Nutella crepe. Mmm! Perfect remedy.

Sunday we visited the old University of Bologna, the first university in Italy. We took a tour of the museum portion, which happened to be FREE! YAY! Bologna has a principle that all museums should be free in order to not limit any student, civilian, or simple lover of learning of seeing beautiful art and history  . Worked out great for us. I appreciate Bologna for this. Neat thing I saw in the museum: whole room dedicated to the guy who was responsible for discovering that the muscular system contains an electric current and sends messages this way. The way he discovered it: eletrocuting disected frogs and watching their muscles twitch. Apparently he was heralded as a guinius; I found it a bit disturbing. BUT, there’s a huge statue of him to the left of the central piazza. Dad, you would like him; he tortured frogs;) 

Updates on weekends 3 & 4 coming tomorrow.

 

Arrivederci!