Rome Trip: Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

On our free day, Rachel and I decided to visit Pisa, and then head back to Florence to do some shopping. Last time I visited Pisa, I did not have enough time to climb the tower. It was definitely worth the extra trip to Pisa again just to make it to the top of the Leaning Tower. The climb is a little scary (narrow spiral stairs... leaning), but the view and the accomplishment are worth it.

Myself on top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

From here, it is pretty evident that the tower is leaning at almost 4 degrees.

Some stones on the side of the Cathedral in Pisa (the writing is different on each block indicating that this stone came from the Colosseum).

Rome Trip: Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008

This day was our trip to Ostia Antica, the port city of ancient Rome. This city was not as well preserved as Pompeii, but still very interesting. The most interesting thing here were the toilets. If you wanted to use these, you had to get pretty close to whoever was in the next stall, since there really weren't any stalls... just one long row of holes.

Myself sitting on a toilet in Ostia Antica.

Rome Trip: Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008

This was the day of our Florence trip. When we arrived, we found a German festival (of all things) in the Piazza di Santa Croce. Since we only had about 5 hours to see the city, we rushed to see as much as we could. We first walked in the Santa Croce, then into the Duomo, where several of us climbed the dome.

The shadow of Il Duomo, as seen from the top of the dome.

After this, we saw Michelangelo's David. Then we had just enough time to walk by the Vecchio Palace and the Ponte Vecchio, where several of us ran to get a quick photo on the bridge.

The Palazzo Vecchio and the facade of the Duomo.

Rome Trip: Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008

The start of this was the incredibly wet walk to the Borghese Museum. Although the museum was rather small, it was packed with artwork from floor to ceiling, and on every ceiling. This museum contained the collections of the Borghese family, including several works by Raphael.

After this, I went with a small group to the Vatican Museum, and Saint Peter's Basilica. This trip was a huge improvement over my last experience in the Vatican Museum. There was no line at all (as opposed to my previous wait of nearly 4 hours during the tourist season). The removal of this wait to get in allowed me to enjoy the artwork in the museum much more than before, especially the Sistine Chapel (it is tough to enjoy art immediately after standing in the hot Italian sun for 4 hours).

After the museum we visited the basilica. It has always amazed me how immense this structure is. It appears that many other churches in Rome could simply be rolled right through the front doors of Saint Peter's, if they had wheels anyway. The marblework on the inside is as incredible as its immense size. The bodies of previous popes are a little creepy however.

Inside of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Rome Trip: Monday, Dec. 15, 2008

My second visit to Pompeii to very informative (we had a long-winded guide). I learned even more about Roman lifestyle and culture from my visit here. It still amazes me how everything stayed as intact as it did after a major volcanic eruption, and nearly 2000 years of being buried under ash, rock, and mud. The cloudy day made this trip very interesting, since the clouds would sometimes make it look as though Vesuvius had just erupted.

The view of Mt. Vesuvius from the Pompeii Forum.

Since one of my group's PBL's involved studying Pompeii, we decided to get a good group picture here.

My project work group in Pompeii (from left to right: Justin, myself, Rachel, and Jordan)

Rome Trip: Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008

This day was we only visited places that I had seen before, but it was still exciting. The days events included the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill. These are always interesting places to visit, and usually the most visited by tourists to Rome. I learned one new interesting fact about the Colosseum's history on this visit. I already knew that the marble that once covered the surface of the Colosseum was stolen to build churches during the Middle Ages, however, I did not know that one of these churches was the Duomo in Pisa, Italy. The very church whose belltower is now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa (more on this tower later).

The Roman Colosseum (parts of the Forum in the foreground, taken from the balcony of the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele).

After spending the day around the Forum, I went with a small group on a Christmas sightseeing tour: to the Spanish Steps and back to Saint Peter's Square. We knew that a Christmas tree was being constructed at the Spanish Steps (since Spagna is close to our hotel and we saw the work on our first day in Rome), so we went there again to see if it was finished. Indeed it was. The tree was made out of cloth draped over large circular rings to make the shape of a tree. Lights on the inside flashed in an array of colors making the Piazza di Spagna look like a disco. The trip to the Vatican allowed me to view the tree in the dark, to better see its lights. Luckily, the subway cut out most of the rainy walk.

Saint Peter's Square on a December night.

Rome Trip: Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008

The trip to Rome was every bit as exciting as I thought it would be. Although I had already visited Rome, there were several new things that I got to see on this trip.

The first new thing that I got to see was the Circus Maximus. I had only driven by this ruin before; but this time, I had the chance to walk around it. All that is left of the Circus Maximus is some small ruins and a few hills where the seating used to be. Now it is used as a great spot for a morning jog for many Romans.

Circus Maximus (Palatine Hill in the background of the top image)

I got to visit another new place today: the Baths of Caracalla. Originally, I did not think that this landmark would be that exciting. However, after I walked into the ruins, I changed my mind. The baths were far larger than I had imagined. The entryway appeared to be at least 100 ft. high, even without the arches that once spanned the columns. Olympic-sized swimming pools would have easily fit into many of the rooms. In Roman times, this must have seemed like the largest YMCA in the world.

The entrance to the Baths of Caracalla

This was definitely one of my most eventful nights in Rome. After a late lunch, we visited the great temple of Rome, the Pantheon, dedicated to all gods of the ancient Roman religion. From here, Jordan, Justin, and myself left to walk by the Piazza Navona, only to discover a large Christmas festival (complete with carnival games and a carousel). From here we walked on to the Tiber River where we witnessed a rescue attempt for a boat that had gotten stuck under Saint Angelo's Bridge (we later watched this on a CNN World News broadcast).

The boat stuck between Saint Angelo's Bridge and the immensely flooded Tiber River.

After we got by the commotion of the rescue attempt, we walked on to Saint Peter's Square only to find more commontion. Tonight was the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Vatican. I believe the tree was 33 meters tall (about 110 ft.) from what I saw on the news later. The tree was placed next to the obelisk, and was only a few dozen feet shorter. We stayed in the sqare for a few minutes to listen to some of the music and to try to understand what was going on (since none of us spoke Italian). We then left to meet back at the hotel to get some dinner and sleep.

PBL 2: Pompeii

The second PBL was much more interesting than the first. This problem was much less straightforward, and therefore much more challenging than the first. Rather than having an explicit objective, the problem included a fictional scenario and three questions that we were to answer in a 20 min. presentation. The story in the scenario is what made this problem more interesting.

My group's story was as follows: Centuries of waste and mal-treatment of the environment by humans has caused a dark cloud to cover the entire earth. People around the globe are now in panic. A Greco-Roman cult then proclaims that the statue of Apollo in Pompeii has come to life. It is then reported that Apollo's oracles preach daily from the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, and that he seeks to rebuild Pompeii. Even stranger, many renowned architects around the world have the exact same dream that they were all meeting with Vitruvius around a white round table. The oldest copy of Vitruvius' book, De Architectura, is then reported stolen from a museum. And finally, many religious leaders begin to meet in order to discuss "the end of world religion."

The Staute of Apollo in Pompeii (Vesuvius in background)

My group, including myself, was puzzled by this prompt. The assignment was completely different from anything we had ever seen before. We spent the entire first class period wondering what we were supposed to do. We had absolutely no idea how to answer any any of the questions that were proposed after the story. We hoped that our research would help this.

Eventually we decided that at least part of our presentation would be a news broadcast. We would script this part, and create of video to be played during the presentation. This broadcast would give the audience the background information for the problem (basically, what was in the prompt).

After about two or three weeks we had our research done on Apollo, Pompeii, Vitruvius, and climate change. We had also created a script for the news broadcast, however, we were still unsure how to answer the questions. For the presentation, we decided that some cult members, or Apollo himself, should burst into the room, interupting the presentation that was already going on, to answer the three proposed questions. These questions were as follows:

1. What will Apollo change to bring back the light?

2. How will the past and present be reconciled in Pompeii?

3. How will the reconstruction of Pompeii influence the rest of the world?

However, we still had no answers to these questions. It wasn't untill after we had filmed our news video, and there was only about a week left untill the presentation date, that we finally had all of our ideas for our presentation, and all the answers to the questions.

Our presentation start as a conference no climate change (in reaction to the dark cloud). This would be interrupted when a special news broadcast is aired live (which would be our news video giving the background of the problem). Once the broadcast is over, Apollo woullld burst in (to triumphant music) and reporters would begin asking him questions. These questions would eventually answer all of the proposed questions.

Apollo, initially portrayed as an all-powerful god (who caused the eruption of Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii and the current dark cloud), would then switch and become a land developer/real estate agent looking to get people to move into the newly reconstructed Pompeii.

The questions would be answered as follows:

1. Apollo would have humans agree to stop wasteful energy consumption, and utilize modern technology to provide waste-free renewable energy.

2. Pompeii will appear as an ancient city inn its architecture, but hidden under the surface would be geothermal energy pipes providing power and heat to the city. The heat of the volcano that once destroyed this city wold be used to power it. Some of the ancient structures no longer needed today will be converted into research facilities dedicated to finding new energy sources. Vitruvius' knowledge of ancient Roman architecture combined with the best architectural and engineering minds of today would be used to fit this ancient city with modern technology.

3. Pompeii's use of renewable energy would serve as a model for all cities in the world. A fund would also be set up in Pompeii that would give other cities around the world the monetary power to convert their own cities to greener energy sources.

All of this information would then be revealed by Apollo and his followers in the remainder of the presentaion prompted by questions from the press.