Day 5; Vatican and Capitoline Museums, Trevi Fountain and shopping in Rome.

Because I'm half asleep, I have just stuck some pictures in the blog, I will provide more writing at a later time. The highlights were definitely finding another Domitian bust and the amazing work of Michael-Angelo in the Sistine Chapel.

Updated!!! Day 5 was a pretty full on day with an early morning visit and queue for the Vatican Museum. The museum was definitely worth the wait though, it was amazing. Finally seeing the Sistine Chapel for myself and all of Michaelangelo and Raphael's work firsthand was unbelievable!!

The Vatican Museum also had an unbelievable number of busts, almost too many to be fair!! It was very hard finding a recognisable face in there among the jumble of portraits of ordinary citizens but I did manage to find one of Tiberius and Titus. After our visit through the hall of busts, we saw the Sistine Chapel and the works of Raphael, absolutely beautiful and dwarfing really. My friend actually cried when she saw the Sistine Chapel.

After our Vatican Museum visit we were free to do as we wished, so I joined a group including Tom, one of our wonderful lecturers to the Capitoline Museum. The Capitoline was also out of this world. The museum was hosting an exhibition on Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and their partners. It was great to see so many cool artefacts!

After this adventure a group of us started the trek home through Rome, with many stops along the way, including the Trevi Fountain!!! It was quite funny, I threw my coin in the wrong way and Adalia almost fell in!! Besides our comedic mishaps, it was an enjoyable experience. After that visit we went into a few shops in Rome and finally made it back to the British School, which was a good thing! It was definitely a very tiring day!!

Day 4; Hadrian's Villa (aka, the day of being very sick)

Day 4 was not really a super exciting day considering how unwell I was. We left the BSR at 8am for an hourish drive to Tivoli, which was absolutely freezing. As a result another sick friend and I sought shelter in the restaurant near the entrance of Hadrian's Villa.

I had my first big bowl of pasta in Italy and strongly appreciated the delicious warmth it gave. We sat in the restaurant for a good three hours during which we met a couple from Melbourne who had seen us at a couple of other sights. Other than that, the day was not eventful. A group of us went out for dinner and enjoyed a chilled out night full of gelato and pizza.

Attached are a few pictures of Hadrian's Villa.

Day 3: Colosseo, Trajan's Column and Markets and the Forum of Augustus

I know that my day 3 and 4 are late, but better later than never... As the title of this post indicates, day 3 was an extremely busy, but enjoyable day. It was a very early start with a 45 minute walk to the Colosseum which was a real struggle in the freezing cold of Rome's early morning!!

It's very cliche, but nothing could prepare me for just how huge and amazing the Colosseum actually is in real life... It was visible from a very long way away, with the sun shining on it as we approached it, definitely a magical moment... We had a very brief tour of the amphitheatre and I had the chance to do my second (and final!) speech of the trip. The best part was the fact that I again had a rock to stand on and speak from! The experience we had in the Colosseum is one that I can hardly explain for how amazing it was, we went down onto the field, seeing the labyrinth on the grounds. The best part was definitely ascending to the highest remaining level and having the amazing view over Rome, with landmarks such as the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus, forum and Trajan's column in this distance. It was astounding seeing the views of Ancient Rome, basically at my feet. It's safe to say that I definitely had a moment of zen standing on the Colosseum. It really made me realise that Romans were real, and I reflected on the horrible, but extremely important events of history that happened in that arena.

After our brief tour and my moment of zen, we were off walking again, this time to Trajan's column and markets for a museum visit. After listening to a couple of presentations and surveying the mighty and very impressive column (which is much bigger than you anticipate), we visited a museum that was specifically for the the markets of Trajan and the various imperial fora in the area (Forum of Augustus, Trajan, Nerva etc.). The museum's contents were not particularly enthralling as it is a mix of modern art combined with ancient artefacts. However, the museum itself was amazing as it was actually a building from Trajan's markets. That was definitely another special moment. After our visit to the market and column we were off walking, yet again!! This time we walked to the Forum of Rome.

Again, there was something crazily surreal about entering the forum, especially the senate house. The fact that such an important building for history still stands and is in very good condition was just so special. Standing inside was definitely a moment to reflect on what I am studying and why. It all came to life upon realising that all the Romans I have learnt about once stood exactly where I was standing, a very surreal moment. The rest of the forum was amazing as well, the highlight was walking to the very top of the Palatine Hill and seeing the sights of Rome. There are just so many things I wish I could detail, the whole day was magical, that side of Rome has so many sights that it is actually impossible to know what to take in and what to ignore, or at least, save for later.

The final exciting part of the day was seeing the Arch of Titus up so close. As it was a work of Domitian I am of course slightly biased towards it, but I believe that it is a truly beautiful monument for the memory of someone well loved by his people and evidently by his remaining family.

Part 4 and 5 will be uploaded very soon. Attached are some pictures of this exciting day!!

Day 2: Museums, pyramids and Ostia!!

Day 2 of our adventure was definitely an action packed day, we experience the public transport of Italy, crazy driving and good food.

Our morning started off with a visit to the amazing Museo Monte Martini, a museum filled with the latest acquisitions placed in a very different setting: an old power plant. When I first heard of this set up I was skeptical of how it would work and look. I was pleasantly surprised!!! The effects were amazing and the artefacts were spectacular. Everything from sarcophagi, friezes and busts were within. The most exciting part of this visit was finding my first real busts of famous Romans, most importantly, Augustus and Domitian!!!! As most know, Domitian is my all time favourite Roman, and words cannot describe how excited I was to actually see one of his busts, I would have loved to have taken it home!!! A photo of Domitian and I is below :). Another great artefact that I adore is the Barberini Togatus, it was amazing to see an artefact that is so iconic and in every text in real life!!!

After our adventure in the museum, we caught the train to the Pyramid of Cestius where I had my first presentation and we had the opportunity to look inside the awesome structure. It may sound morbid, but my love of funerary monuments is very large, and this pyramid is just an awesome example of commemorating someone's life. Entering the pyramid was strange, the tunnel to get in (made by grave robbers) was awfully narrow and low, like something out of a film! After the walk through the tunnel, we arrived into the chamber, which was unexpectedly tiny. Personally, I was expecting an Egyptian styled inside, with many rooms and corridors (especially considering the vastness of monument). After getting over the shock of the size, the room was quite beautiful, with friezes still existing and graffiti from centuries ago on the walls. Considering most people do not have the chance to go inside, it was a very worthwhile experience. After our visit to the pyramid, it was time to make way for Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome. Personally, this was a part of the trip I was not looking forward to, but the hours we spent in the town of ruins completely changed that.

The city of Ostia is so well preserved, the lower level of most buildings is still intact and in good enough condition to walk through, on and around. It was astounding to think that we were walking around what was once such a great, busy city. I don't have a great deal to day about Ostia other than it was a surreal and awesome experience to see all the buildings, mosaics and artefacts almost in situ. The day was tiring but very worth the amazing experience!! Ostia was also where I had my first Italian gelato, a vanilla (I think) gelato for the first and a strawberry sorbet as the second, definitely very exciting!!

Anyway, more will hopefully follow tomorrow after another jam packed day!!

First post from Roma!!!!

We're finally here!!! It only took thirty long, sleepless hours to get here!!
The past few days have been very painful when on a plane and very busy when here in Rome!!!

We ended up being a few hours late to Rome thanks to fog at Dubai, was really not fun after a 17 hour flight there and no sleep!!! The airport in Dubai was really quite amazing, I have never been somewhere quite as huge!!! We actually had to catch a train from one end of the airport to where our gate was located... That is how large it is!! The highlight of the stop over was the free wifi and the cheese covered chips for breakfast... Healthy, I know!!!

After finally getting to Rome yesterday afternoon I had my first experience through customs as an EU citizen. Needless to say, it was extremely underwhelming, with the customs man not even looking at the picture page of my passport! They were so very relaxed!

When we finally arrived at the British School we had the chance to relax, just for a little while before dinner, which was the highlight of the day, having the opportunity to lie horizontally was the highlight of the day! Sadly, our little rest wasn't enough to stay awake during the director's speech, I fell asleep three or four times while trying to listen to him, the lecture was actually very interesting!!

After a good night's sleep, it was time for our first day in Rome, and it will be hard to top it!!!

We went to the Vatican and had the opportunity to go down into the necropolis to see all the tombs, exactly how they were 2000 years or so ago. As you'd know, St. Peter is buried there too since it is his basilica and all.. We didn't get to go into his tomb, but we did have that chance to do so for about three of them. It was such an amazing opportunity, being able to walk into a room, with sarcophagi that have never been opened and being able to touch it all and see everything as it was before/at the time of Constantine! Sadly we couldn't take photos, which is a real shame considering how beautiful some of the wall paintings and mosaics were. My personal favourite was a peacock mosaic in a family tomb of a rich Roman family.

After viewing the family tombs, we caught a glimpse of St. Peter's tomb in the distance and then when we got closer, we saw the boxes in which his bones are supposed to be, it was quite a surreal experience knowing that they belonged to someone from the Bible and that he was killed very near by.

After viewing the bones we went into St. Peter's and it was just absolutely jaw-dropping to go from such humble little tombs family tombs (which were still incredibly impressive)to this amazingly huge space!!! There are no words to describe how I felt besides flabbergasted and astounded and overwhelmed, I actually teared up when we stepped up into it. After we wandered for a while we went up to the Vatican archives and saw some incredibly old codexes, books and a frieze depicting scenes from the life of St. Peter. The most exciting part of the archives was seeing original letters from Michelangelo and Bernini! That was again, a surreal moment, it made the two very prolific artists seem so human and close! After our Vatican adventure we had lunch and walked to the Ara Pacis for the rest of the afternoon. While it isn't my favourite monument, it was still enjoyable. Anyway, that was the end of our first, exciting day! Tomorrow will be full of fun times and more amazing things to see!

Hope you enjoy the random assortment of pictures :)

The Waiting Game

Only three more sleeps until departure day is here! I have never really considered how stressful packing is! Let alone trying to figure if you have enough warm clothes for a European winter! As it's getting closer and closer I'm getting those jitters of denial about this trip- I know I'll be well and truly fine when I get on that plane!

Something that has me extremely excited is that my presentation on the funerary monuments of Eurysaces the Baker and Caius Cestius' pyramid is that I get to deliver the talk INSIDE the Cestius' pyramid! This is the ultimate level of excitement!

Anyway, best be getting back to packing!

Blogging from my iPad!

My attempt to figure out the blogger app on my iPad before I leave for Italy! So here are some random bird pictures. Just so I can see if it works!