Tivoli

I went to Tivoli with my Architecture class a couple weekends ago. Tivoli and the Anio River are where the majority of the ancient Roman Aqueducts were sourced from (7 of the 9), as I learned from my archaeology report. Our purpose, rather, was to see the Emperor Hadrian's old, modest ranch house. The most interesting aspect of Hadrian is that he is never simply called Hadrian. It's always "The Emperor Hadrian." Why? There were dozens of emperors. "The Emperor Julius Caesar"? No. Back on track... we also saw the Renaissance Palace which looks straight west towards Rome. When the sun is fading you can see the cupola of St. Peter's against the horizon. But looking east from Gianicolo, you can't really see where Tivoli should be. Quite the mystery. I'm sure a simple 30-second Google search would enlighten us all, but I don't care enough. The palace was charming. By the Renaissance the Romans had learned how to move water much more effectively and were capable of constructing pretty tall fountains. There ain't nothin like water.

There isn't much else to say that the pictures won't describe better.

Hadrian's digs

Sorry... THE EMPEROR HADRIAN'S DIGS

Incredible detail, these guys

His throne. Gimme a break, Hady.

 Italy.

Barbara. Poor woman hurt her knee and couldn't show us around the Renaissance Palace. The word palace, by the way, comes from "Palatine." The old Imperial Palace(s) were located on the Palatine Hill, just a short 10 minutes walk from il mio apartmento. I may start referencing how close things are, not to brag, but for my own benefit. It's weird to be so close to all these ancient, influential places. Well it's weird because I'll be leaving soon. I better not forget this when I'm older.

Rome!

May 19

Woke up late. I went to Villa Pamphili - the massive park and former palace up the hill from me - and read and laid in the sun. Then I walked. I walked for about 3 or 4 hours all in all. The park is huge, plus I got lost. I ended up walking down the same road from 3 months ago when I got lost during "The Snow." Talk about coming full circle...

Tomorrow I'm going to walk around the city and hopefully make it up to the Orange Park on the Aventine Hill. The only hill of the famed seven I haven't been to. If I have time, okay, if I have the motivation, I'll go see the Capitoline Museum. Then I'll come home to a final dinner with the family, pack up, and go to bed so I can get up and meet my family at the airport. 

Exchange rate

If you believe Paul Krugman, the Euro is about to collapse. During my stay it was up to 1.35, during today's trading period it was down to 1.26. It will only go down from here. Time to travel Americans.

May 16

Tomorrow is the final day of the program. Bittersweet. I'll finish my last final at 2 then hurry home to change for the tennis match. Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer play back to back. It should be awesome. Afterwards there has been talk of watching the sunrise over Rome from Gianicolo Hill, maybe see all the famous sites at night - the only true time to see them, well after the crowds are gone. Regardless of the plan, it will be a fantastic capper on the greatest 4 months of my life. La mia famiglia comes in 5 days. It'll be fun to go into tour guide mode and see just how much I learned this semester.

I expect the scene tomorrow night to feel something like this (minus the cops (hopefully))

Roma game

Too lazy to check if I mentioned the Roma game I went to. Well... I went. Lots of fun, lots of drama and lots of angry Italians. One of the cooler sporting events I've been to. Can't live in Europe without going to a soccer match., right?

The Art of Lucking Out Pt. II

Yesterday I woke up without a phone or iPod alarm, both of which are lost or gone forever. Maybe on a beach, maybe in a pocket of some pants on my floor. I woke up with just enough time to get ready and walk to Foro Italico for the Internazionali d'Italia tennis tournament. I could have taken a cab, but it is summer in Rome. So that worked out pretty well. It was a nice hour and twenty minute walk. The majority of the time I was stewing about how the website I bought six Ground tickets off of would not let me print them out, leaving me with just a confirmation sheet. When I got there I was met by Tally, Alex and John Edwards, who played tennis is high school. I know a fair amount about tennis, but he was sort of our tour guide to tennis. I told them we should try to just act like they screwed up the ticket-printing fiasco, which they sort of did, since there were never tickets online to print out. I told the ticket taker in my humorous English/Italian combo that I had tickets but I had to pick them up. I was pointed in the direction of a make-shift ticket office. I could immediately see this ticket office was for sponsors and ATP execs to pick up their VIP passes. I used my skill of "Act like you know what you're doing, and you'll get what you want" to use. The ticket ladies, all of whom undoubtedly worked as models at some point in their life, told me I had to go to the other ticket office. I asked how to get there. One of them said I had to go out the way I came and around the exterior fence. A couple of others chimed in and basically said there was no one checking tickets at the entrance 5 feet from me with a half-wink. So in a way, justice was served. We did pay for our tickets, but instead of having to pay for another set, we waltzed right in. What we found was a much more organized and attractive area than we imagined. In terms of athletic arenas and areas, Foro Italico was pristine. We walked a few hundred metres (not feet, or metERs) to find a pseudo-ancient-statue-lined practice stadium with rows of marbles seats where Maria Sharapova was practicing. One of the most well-known modern WTP tennis players. You've seen her in camera commercials.

We watched hours of world class tennis in the 7 ground courts throughout Foro Italico, including top-100 ranked American Sam Querrey.

The best part about the tournament is the access you get to the courts. The Rome tournament is one of 9 ATP 1000 events in the world. These are the biggest Tennis tournaments besides the 4 Majors (US, French and Australian Opens plus Wimbledon). Of the 9, Rome is usually considered the biggest. It is played on red clay and is the final warm up for the French Open. So there we were at the 5th biggest tennis event of the year, sitting front row, and we didn't even show our tickets. 

After 2 great matches we decided to see who was practicing where Sharapova was previously. We sat down at mid-court in the first row to see the end of two guys finishing their session. Not fifteen minutes had gone by before we saw a guy coming out of the locker room for his session. This guy:

The man in the orange hat is Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest tennis players ever, and THE greatest clay court player ever. As soon as he walked in the mini arena filled up within 2 minutes. People came sprinting over from all around the park. Nadal's practice sessions are more meaningful than almost any other player's real matches. I'm sure the other matches were deserted. (I actually didn't bring my camera, these pictures are Max's.) For the next two hours we saw Rafa practice against David Ferrer. At the beginning of the session, Rafa was the No. 2 tennis player in the world, at the end he was actually No. 3, since Federer had passed him after playing in Madrid. This is pretty much the golden age of tennis. Nadal and Federer are 2 of the top 5 players ever, and the current No. 1, Novak Djokovic, will be up there after a few more years. His fellow sparing partner and fellow Spaniard David Ferrer is no slouch either. He's currently No. 6 in the world. Few people get to see what we saw. We really lucked out.

Ferrer

Our seats

Nadal

The experience was so great that Alex, John, and I bought tickets for the main stadium Thursday night. The winners of the matches will go on to the Quarterfinals. Since the top 4-8 players are so much better than everyone else and always advance to the end, we are nearly guaranteed to see more great tennis.

IES

I remember off-handedly mentioning Barbara (don't want to make their names searchable in this blog) was the only IES instructor I could see teaching at colleges like the University of Illinois. I was very, very wrong. I believe an IES job attracts the best instructors in Rome. It is a very light course load, the brightest  minds usually speak English, and most importantly, the payscale is American not Italian. Italian educators don't get compensated anywhere near their American counterparts.

Barbara indeed could be found at a top US school. She is a regular contributor to La Repubblica, Rome's most prominent newspaper, in the Home & Garden section. She is passionate about architecture, but is an interior decorator and freelance landscape architect.

Gianni, who I have mentioned several times, went to UNC-Chapel Hill to get his BA in the Classics, and somewhere along the line got and MA and Ph.D too, I believe. When the national archaeologists were excavating parts of the Imperial Forum, they called Gianni, the expert, to make sure they were doing it right. He ended up being one of the main excavators in the Forum of Augustus, one of the most famous ancient squares in the world. He spends his summers in Africa and the Middle East excavating ancient Roman civilizations. And he tells a mean story. As I am one of his favorites, I get to hear all of them. There are some doozies.

Efisio was a visiting fellow of economics at Princeton around the time Ben Bernanke was there. He was the head of Italy's council of ministers or something. He played a minor role in Italy's integration into the EU, and created the cirriculum for one of Rome's best public policy programs. I was thrown off at first by his teaching style, but then realized that the course was about economics, not an actual economics course. This is one of those rare instances where someone is actually too qualified for a position. He simply knows too much. He can't lecture for too long without having an anecdote or example that better explains the topic, which then leads to another, and another, and another.

They are all good. I have heard of two other professors that students love and say are brilliant. My Italian instructor is really effective too. She is fantastic at recognizing each students deficiencies, something my two other instructors couldn't do. 

Beach Day

Went to Rome's beach today. One euro train ride since it's on the metro line. Little over 40 minutes. It was a very legitimate beach. Not different from beaches in Florida. Great time.

Tuscany

Finally...

I went to Tuscany with IES sometime before Spring Break Pt. I. It exceeded expectations more than anything else in my 3+ months in Rome, with the exception of the IES teaching staff (more on that later).
The first stop on our way to the Val d'Orcia area of Tuscany was Orvieto. Orvieta was an ancient city-state a long, long time ago, back when each hill was a separate entity. Sort of a cool - and scary - idea to think about; waking up, looking out your window, and seeing several rival cities contemplating how to take you over. There is a rather elaborate system of caves under the city but we didn't have time to see them. I was a little disappointed by this and it made my low expectations for the trip be even lower. It's not that I didn't trust IES to sponsor a good trip, I was just so used to traveling fastly and furiously with action-packed days, that the proposition of having meeting times and points with the inevitable straggler that everyone had to wait on just did not appeal to me. I wish I could say more about Orvieto, but besides the incredibly intricate facade on its church, we did not see much. The view was cool though. And lunch was better than expected, considering I think it was a pretty touristy place (the whole town seemed dependent on tourism).

After the inevitable stragglers straggled their way to the bus, we straggled on to Tuscany. Tuscany is one of Italy's twenty Regioni, for those unaware. Tuscany actually has borders. There is no discernable border though. In fact, just outside of Rome the landscape doesn't look too different than it does in Tuscany. Umbria, Tuscany's neighbor and an increasingly popular tourist destination because of its low prices (low only when compared to Florence) and similar landscape, is still considered by a few of the IES staff to be the hidden gem of Italy. I do not think it is all that hidden, since I had heard of it before coming here. Our too-large-for-Tuscany tour bus entered the town of Trequanda (Three Cups.. or something like that) almost 90 minutes and the majority of the Financial Times later. Our little vineyard, which is probably named Donatella Cinelli Colombini, but in all honesty could have four other titles (I do not understand what each of their names refers too. Maybe it is named Fattoria del Colle? Anyway... ), is one of the many agritourism farms that keeps the Italian agricultural sector strong. The place is gorgeous. It's located at the top of a hill with the most perfect view of the famed Tuscan Sun setting. The Val d'Orcia, where Trequanda, Donatella Cinelli Colombini (or is it Fattoria del Colle?), and countless other identical towns and wineries are located is a UNESCO-recognized, national reserve-protected valley. If you have seen a picture of Tuscany before, there is a fairly good chance it was taken in La Val d'Orcia. It even played a part in starting the Renaissance period, which actually started in Tuscany's capitol of Florence. The most important architectural aspect of the Renaissance, according to my professoressa Barbara Briganti, was the idea of opening up villas to the outdoors and having a beautiful view. After looking at this next picture, which comes from Google, you'll understand why it had such a monumental impact on history.

Will ya look at that. I'm nearly positive the place I stayed was located about 20 miles directly behind where this picture was taken. 

At the winery we had a wine tasting (not before we we taught how to taste wine), a cooking class (I was the guest chef) and were able to walk around the acres and acres of olive trees and vineyards. I was roommates with Alex and John Edwards (not the politician), both of whom I am good friends with. I did not get stuck with any straggler-types, thankfully.

After leaving Trequanda after two glorious nights and the better part of two days, we loaded up the obnoxiously large tour bus and straggled over to Montalcino. Montalcino is one of the more famous small towns in Tuscany and even all of Italy. This is due almost entirely to the wine of the region: Brunello di Montalcino, one of the greatest wines in the world, they say. We had free time to explore the town for two hours before IES provided us with the last of our free meals. All of them were great. Go figure.

After this two hour lunch we left (a few minutes late because of stragglers) for our return to Rome.

This was probably one of the most unique trips I took the entire semester because I was actually in the countryside. When I come back to Europe I will be sure to be in the countryside more than in the cities. Tuscany and the area to the north of Paris and extending all the way to Amsterdam were easily my favorites. I could have stared out over the Tuscan hills all day. One day I think I actually came close.

I'll post pictures here and post about a few other happenings after.

Orvieto

Our winery

Trequanda

The old house, which has been around for centuries. It is most famously known for being the site of a Prince's affair.

Sunset

My room, the only room of the group in the main house (where the affair happened)

Sunrise

I somehow forgot to mention Siena above. Good grief. It was Siena. It was beautiful and quintessentially Italian. It probably has a higher Tourist:Resident ratio than Florence, amazingly.

Site of the Palio

One of the "hoods," distinguished by animals

More from the villa

The bus ride to Montalcino. The best countryside yet.

Italy

Get a haircut

This was a very Italian encounter. They were having a stroll and ended up talking for the whole time we were there... over three hours.

Only 4,800 Euro? I'll take a crate!

Ciao Tuscany

If you didn't get enough pictures of the Tuscan countryside, I have many many more. Uploading on blogger is a pain though.

Today was my Italian Oral Exam, which I'm sure none of you care about - I sure didn't. That means I have an Italian Final tomorrow and then hour eight hours worth of finals next week. On Sunday, five of my closest friends and I are going to the Internazionale d'Italia Championships here in Rome. It is the 5th most important tournament in professional tennis, behind only the four majors. Every current tennis player you have heard of will be competing. I am molto excited. Next week I plan on walking around Rome for the majority of every day, maybe watch the sunset from various hills and parks. I want to make sure I feel like I did Rome as best I could when I get back to America. I don't think that feeling is too far from where I am. One of the main things I want to do is take my host family out to dinner. Not only to thank them for the most enjoyable four months of my life or as a payback for how much water I wasted in this "model community of efficiency" of theirs, but also to get a feel for what it is like to eat dinner completely Italian. When I go out with my friends we cannot help but emit our disgusting American-ness. It's apart of who we are and we bring it out in each other. It will be nice to not have to worry about volume control, something I have become acutely aware of since arriving, and to spend over two hours on a dinner. If you think I'm exaggerating about the two hour part, you are incorrect. I guarantee it will take more. I also want to see how Italians are treated at restaurants and how they order. I have a fairly good idea after living here for three months, but I need reassurance. I will of course have to make the night stroll a couple more times, which starts at St. Peter's, winds around to the Spanish Steps, then the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and ends with the view of the Colosseum through the buildings of the Roman Forum.