When in Rome... Be a tourist and See everything!

Rome was amazing!
This class has given me the opportunity to travel and imagine the lifestyles and cultures of ancient civilizations that isn't possible through an Internet cable by any means. Rome itself was more than I could have expected, and as a history buff, I was amazed. My presentations locations, the Pantheon and Ostia were opposites in expectations. After going to Pompeii, Ostia seemed in preserved shambles so everyone wasn't impressed, but on the other hand I think everyone was impressed by the Pantheon.

Thursday - We left for Rome

Friday - After checking in to the hotel, we explored in the rain the sites of Rome but not before eating AMAZING lasagna at these little greenhouse-looking restaurants on the sidewalk.

Saturday - We visited these monk catacombs around the corner from the hotel. It was disgusting what they've done with these bodies! There were roman crosses, monks still preserved with eye sockets and arm flesh! Interesting, yes, gross and scary, yes, will i see that again, hopefully not.

We went to the Baths which are gigantic! Mosaics completely covering this place, the image in my head was surreal and I could only imagine that is was breathtaking back in its heyday.

Circus Maximus was disappointing; my regards to the presenting group as they did their best to make a dirt road seem cool. The history of the place is impressive but all that is left now is a tower surrounded by rubble and a winding dirt oval.

Afterwards, we were free to explore so Marceus Areillus and the tomb of the unknown soldier was the destination. There were marble stairs and giant statues, inside there was a museum that held historical swords and war paintings.

I was so proud of the Pantheon after visiting Circus Maximus. Everyone was impressed. I loved seeing the tomb of Raphael, as he was instrumental in the grandeur that is Rome today and back in the day as well.

Sunday - We went to the Colosseum. It was humongous and intimidating even today. I can't even imagine what spectators or gladiators must have seen or felt. If we would've walked through the maze underneath the floor that would have been cool.

Next was the Arch of Constantine and the Forum. The forum was an interesting concept, unfortunately there wasn't much left to build an imagination. We found the center were at one point all roads lead to Rome. It sucks that a lot of things were looted and only a few things were left but the things that were still amaze me.

Monday - We arrived in Pompeii for a guided tour. Our guide was extremely educated in Pompeii's history. Here's some interesting facts:
-Roads were always straight hence why all the roads were in intersecting perpendicular arrangements.
-Nomadi was a widow who became a priestess and got her son Julius elected as president - she was good at influencing others with her powers in the textile world along with having the floor of the forum remade in marble.
- There are temples to all the religions, not one was persecuted - Romans, Greek and Persian
-They used the invention of sliding doors since the shops were small and there would be no room to swing a door open into the store or out onto the sidewalk.
- When the umbrella cloud erupted over the city no one left because they didn't realize what was happening. - 5ft of rock covered the town by noon and by night there was 10ft of rock and people were buried alive in their homes. Those who tried to escape breathed in toxic gases that would cement in their throat causing suffocation. On the 3rd day when the cloud collapsed it was basically a tsunami of rocks that crushed anything that was left standing and blew over 70-80 miles into nearby towns.
-Plaster casts were made of people in which you can almost feel the pain and agony those people had to have been feeling right before their death, their faces are frozen in this horrid expression with still all their teeth and bones- clenched fists and curled toes further their anguish as they probably tried to escape their fate.
-Romans invented the fireman - a person who knew what to do to put out a fire had to be justified for entering so it became an organized way of life, mostly slaves held the jobs and were able to rise in status since they would get paid for saving someones house.
- There were lead pipes imported from Britain but only 5 cases of lead poisoning were found.
-Bakeries were run by blindfolded donkeys and 51 pieces of bread were found in the oven during excavation.
-their tools for medicine and work are similar to what we have now
- In 70B.C the oldest amphitheatre was built
-Pompeii also housed the 2nd most important school for gladiators

Tuesday - Today we saw the Bernini and Brunelleschi Churches - AMAZING!!! We walked in the rain to the Borghese museum and saw Bernini's David which shows him in the action of the fight instead of like Michelangelo and Donatello who show David after the battle. After that a group of us went to explore the Vatican - no line at the museum and went through the different collection of Egyptian to modern religious art. The Sistine Chapel was amazing and as inspiring as anyone boasts. And St. Peters Basilica is justification for being an international landmark! It is so belittling and decorative. I don't know if it's my love for anything pretty and glittering , but I am proud to say that I'm catholic when I see the basilica and everyone's chin drop as they enter. Everything is enormous, every statue is at least 8ft tall and the Pieta was the smallest one and so shinny and protected by glass.

Wednesday - We drove to Florence. We got to see an older church with a facade like the Duomo and wooden ceiling that held Marconi's tomb -inventor of the radio- as well as a statue that was used as the basis for the statue of liberty. We then climbed to the top. The view from the top is so gorgeous and the weather was absolutely perfect! Then after the Duomo we all went to the David, which is just something to be experience, I found it extremely awkward to be staring at a man's naked body. I understand the time and talent and effort that went into the statue but, honestly! After that we raced over to the Palazzo Vecchio to see Mick and Mac (I made sure to kiss them!)as well as run to the top of the Ponte Vecchio.

Thursday - Off to Ostia! It was like a little Pompeii but not as great of a view because it wasn't on a hill. There were tons of mosaics and half intact buildings. It gave me this secret garden feeling because things were overgrowing and you could turn down any little path and come out somewhere completely different. The theatre is actually still in use in the summer which would be pretty cool to see something in action there. After wondering around for a good 5 hours we headed off to the EUR. It was very contemporary feeling, white marble arches and the axis of evil was marked with a marble obelisk in the center of a round about and looking in either direction you could see the 4 main buildings of the fascist party.

Friday - Day to do as we pleased. I walked all over Rome, bought a skirt. In retrospect I think I was trying to capture the Roman culture of daily life. Because when I returned to the hotel, I took a nap and then went and shopped some more! haha

That night, the hotel staff through us a little party with champagne- the owners were so sweet and one even offered to hook any of us up with a family to live with if we wanted to come for a longer period of time! Yes, Please!

Packing time and one last time to just hang out with some pretty sweet people that I really hope we can maintain friendships over time.

Saturday - Arivederche Rome!! We flew back home and after a hectic juggle in the Atlanta airport got home around 9pm.

Everything was wonderful. I can't explain to the full extent how much fun I had, how much I learned about Rome and about myself. The problem based learning throughout the quarter definitely took some practice, as I get so nervous when giving presentations.

The Second is the Best!

I was so nervous! And I don't even know why because we did AMAZING! The video presentation played without a hitch which you can view via youtube below.





I think we nailed the assignment as the question were all facts knowledge. It was beneficial towards our process in creating the project theme that we diverged and converged our presentation pathways. In the end, we choose our original plan.

Pantheon Research

I have full confidence that this presentation will be a great improvement on the last from Group 1. (Oh yeah, if you didn't know, I switched groups.) This time we're planning to entertain and educate the class on the Pantheon. Acting as reporters, the Pope, the Italian Communist Party and achitechture buffs, we'll bring to the table a future use for the Pantheon and our reasons why it will benefit everyone. I researched the Communist view and the current uses / controversies of the Pantheon. Argumentative Points:

• The "Angels & Demons" Film has wanted to use the Pantheon for movie setting purposes. Producers hoped to stick closely to the plot of the book by Dan Brown and ensured minimal building damage.
• The Pantheon is one of Rome's oldest, best-preserved and most popular monuments. It is located in the heart of the old city, which was included on Unesco's World Heritage List in 1980.
• Within the Pantheon is the tomb of Raphael, who was long considered as the greatest of all painters and whose genius conferred so much beauty on Rome. Other major artists interred there are Giovanni da Udine, Perin del Vaga, Annibali Carrachi, Taddeo Zuccari and Baldassare Peruzzi.
• The Pantheon is also a favourite meeting place for Romans and for visitors to Rome. People often arrange to meet in a familiar place where they can sit and wait. The portico of the Pantheon with its sixteen towering granite columns and its pediment of white marble provides perfect shelter on a torrid summer day or during the acquazzoni the diluvian summer.
• It does not stand in splendid isolation; its mystery gives light and meaning to everything around it. Not only on the Piazza della Rotonda, but far beyond in the narrow, cobbled streets, everything--from stray cats to fashion shops--is somehow illuminated by its poetic grandeur.

Therefore, our dicussion is expected to get very heated, be very entertaining and hopefully effectively educate our class about the history, architechture and culture surrounding the Pantheon. Enjoy the Show!

PBL Assignment #2

So on to round two!
Now, our group has been assigned to research the Pantheon. Apparently for the last several days in the Piazza della Rotunda, people from all walks of life are protesting the purchase of a crypt in the Pantheon by the wealthy Prime Minister. Now, this is just not done! The Pantheon is a symbol of the Eternal City of Rome and shouldn't be bought off piece by piece to admire those insignificant political leaders. A church member from the Vatican, a monarchist, a communist, an architechtural historian and a person of the arts meet behind closed doors to discuss the future uses of the Pantheon and to prevent this terrible act of injustice.
So far we've not decided on how to present this solution, and we've not determined who should be included in the discussion as there are 4 group members and 5 character options. We have done general research about the Pantheon. However, now it's time for some decision-making and further research about our personal character within the presentation. Good game plan? As our problem prompt ends, "we'll have to wait and see!"

Reflection on PBL: Ostia Antiqua

Well, our first project has been presented! I'm glad that our team worked diligently until the very end in order to make a great presentation. I think we served the objectives by creating legitimate Cd's of useful Italian phrases for student involvement and future use. I think our presentation was engaging, although it could have used a little more pizazz (something to work towards next time). Finally, I can't wait to see Ostia Antiqua in person on our trip to Rome in December! Learning about it's people and their lifestyles will help me to imagine the grandiose arrangements of some and the bare minimum of others. I believe that they lived alot like we do today:

• we still worry about our borders (as Ostia was a key port of Rome it had to be carefully protected from enemies)
• we still learn reading, writing and arithmetic then continue to college to become professionals in our field (although I am glad that women continue going to school today)
• and we still trade with other countries

My business professors talked in class about how our world is becoming smaller and smaller by the minute do to technological advances and increasing competition from other countries. I agree with them, however I think that our world has always been a global enterprise seeing as Rome traded with its neighbors many, many centuries ago.
Overall, I do not think our group took this project to its full potential, but I think that is the point of this class: when presenting a topic, how will you solve the original problem given, how will you have the topic relate to your target audience, and what would you do better next time. Problem based learning isn't about getting the correct answer (which is what I though it was until now), it's about learning from your answers to make yourself a better person, presenter, whatever it might be that is a weakness. On that note, I think on this next project I should concentrate more on time-management. I feel like I presented my topic well, but could have done a better job if I had focused more on the problem at hand towards the beginning of the assignment.

Ostia Interesting Facts

So going through the research, I found some interesting facts about the people of Ostia.
1. Ostia Antica is a rather large city as it was Rome's main port for global merchants and world-transportation.

2. Some excavationists say that it is better preserved in comparison to Pompeii.

3. The residents formed collegia which were groups of men within the same profession. These groups would support political leaders and lobby for benefits for the community.

4. An average family consisted of a father, mother, daughters under the age of 15, married sons, the sons' families and slaves. In the days of the republic, the father was the absolute head of the family. He could even sell his children into slavery! He could arrange marriages for his daughters when they were only 12 to 15 years old! He would do this for the money it would bring to his family. The young boy and girl had little to say about it.

5. If your family was endowed enough to educate you, tutors would come to the house or you would attend a private school teaching writing, reading and arithmetic.

6. However, only the rich could send their children to school and have slaves wait on them. His home may have looked like the Roman house shown in this picture.

7. In the 100's AD, people in many parts of the empire were becoming Christians. Like the Jews, the Christians believed in just one god. They worshipped only their god, and would not worship the Roman gods or the emperor. Romans were usually tolerant of other religions within the empire. However, when the empire began to have severe troubles, emperors tried to force people to follow the Roman religion. For Jews and Christians, this often meant sacrificing everything they owned, even their lives for the sake of their beliefs!


8. By the time of the Roman Empire, the Romans were sending ships to the far corners of the ancient world as they knew it. In Italy farmers grew grain and planted olive groves and vineyards. Olive oil and wine were shipped to cities throughout the empire. As the empire expanded, olive oil and wine were also produced in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa as well as Italy. Which meant lots of activity in Ostia!

9. The English surname "Chapman" actually comes from the man who used to call on houses and collect urine from people. His hands were invariably chapped from handling the stuff so he was called the chapped man. Sorry to my cousins the Chapmans!

PBL Assignment #1

For this group project, my group and I were assigned the city of Ostia Antiqua. We brainstormed different areas of research and then categorized them all. Four areas were apparent: town history, city culture, ancient construction and present excavations. I gladly took city culture to be my reign of expertise for this presentation.
I LOVE learning about other people. Now, I'm not a stalker or anything of the sort; however I love to imagine being in other places. Let me tell you: reading fictitious stories about the places you've been or even making up your own stories, allows you to visualize the surroundings, the emotions of the character and the sense of being in the plot line.
So, I undertook Ancient Roman Culture and more specifically those traditions and daily activities found only in Ostia Antiqua. How did they live? What did their house look like? Who was around them? Education? Religious Ritual? What was a typical day for a rich man, poor man or a young child? What was of value to them?