ROME! Again! Third time's a charm, right??? So today wasn't a pleasure trip per say, it was intended for work. I must say, I love Scott's version of work. The agenda was to go to Rome, find the flood markers and see the areas these floods would have effected, visit Richard at FAO, grab some lunch at a bakery that Scott has been talking up, then finish the day at the archives. This is probably the first time a plan of Scotts has happened flawlessly. Turned out to be a very good day.
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| Typical Italian car |
Day started with the sun, Lexy and I met everyone at the train station at 6:30. Just enough time for a cappuccino and cornetto, then we started our two hour train ride to Rome. Once we made it to Rome, Scott brought us to the Piazza Del Popolo. Still amazing this second time, staring down each of the streets to the different iconic Roman buildings. Scott led us down the one angling towards the river, which makes sense if you think about flooding. On our way there, we passed this little car. Ok, jumping subjects for a moment. Do you have any idea how many young kids I've seen sitting on their parent's laps as they are driving!? This was no exception. The little tyke in this one actually had his head sticking out the sunroof when we walked by. I also adore the tiny cars. I swear I could fit four of them in my luggage. Ok, back to Rome.
I really wish I could remember all the street names for this part. So bear with me. We traveled down Via De Ripetta to the San Rocco's Church. We were able to locate our first flood marker. This was so cool!!! It's basically a large ruler made of stone, then they marked the heights of each of the floods with the date traveling up the side. The dates for the floods started in the 1400s, and the most recent one was 1870. These floods ran from 15 meters to almost 20 meters above the Tiber river's normal banks which is about 6.5 meters. The entire area we were standing in would have been so dramatically submerged under water. In the 1800s they built a wall along the banks of the Tiber river to hold back floods under 15 meters. The picture to the right is Scott standing next to this flood marker. This is not the original location of this marker, so keep in mind it doesn't start at zero. They accounted for the elevation difference, I believe it started around 3 meters. The majority of the floods happened around where Scott is standing, but there were quite a few at the very top of the hydrometer.
Our second stop took us to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva beside the Pantheon where we found another set of plaques showing floods. These were a bit more "fun," they had the "hand of god" pointing to the water height. Again in the picture to the left Scott is standing right below them. Since Rome is such a historical city, it has undergone several rebuilds. They don't demolish what they build on, they simply build on top of it. The ground Scott is standing on is about 9 meters higher than it would have been during these floods. Around the outside of the Pantheon you can actually still see the original ground level. The amount of water that would be needed to fill this area is just astounding. I suppose it's good they didn't use a lot of drywall and carpets like we do now, having dealt with a soggy house recently I know its no fun!
Ok, so I mentioned the Pantheon. Yup, we checked it out. Very cool! I still can't get over how impressive these buildings are. Claire and I wandered around the building, and at one point we were standing by a small group of people. I questioned her why they had the center of the room roped off, and she said she didn't know. So, the gentleman behind her said it's because there is a dip in the floor. Above that area there is a round opening in the ceiling, so when it rains the water is collected there. Then they are able to bottle it up and sell it as bottled water. Yup. We both stared at him for a moment before he started laughing. They do use it to gather water, but it's not for bottled water. This group was from Australia, and it was their second trip to Rome. I can't imagine the plane ride they had to endure to get there. But anyways, we stopped and chatted with them for a bit, then headed off to our next spot.
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| Solar Calander |
From here till lunch it was a typical sight seeing tour. We stopped outside the diplomatic building to check out the solar calendar. This was awesome!!!! In the picture you can see scott pointing to it. It was far to large to get into one shot, it was crazy tall. The way it works is if you are there on a sunny day at noon where the shadow lies will be on a plaque that tells you the month. Well, it tells you the astrological sign. We weren't exactly sure how to read it, but still, this was totally awesome. At one point I was so focused on those little plaques on the floor I walked right up to a building. Then I noticed the large man in uniform right in front of me. The last few plaques are right at the front door, and they didn't want civilians in there. Meany heads. I wanted a picture of the top one!
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| Trevi Fountain |
Next on our journey was to Trevi Fountain. I have to say, Scott didn't really tell us where we were or where we were going. I was just walking along following like a good little puppy, then we turn this corner and POOF! Beautiful fountain. Totally wasn't expecting it. You know you see all these pictures of all these beautiful things in books, then people like me don't bother looking at where they are cause they never think they'll make it there. I've seen pictures of this fountain, but had no clue it was here. Absolutely beautiful. Scott told us that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain you will come back. So I threw in two.
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| Spanish Steps |
Next! Spanish Steps. I don't know a thing about these. Pretty impressive. I climbed up to the top, nice view of the city. I think if I hadn't seen so much other stuff this day I would have been more impressed, but around this time we were all getting hungry. These Italians eat so late in the day! We ate breakfast at 6:30, then we have to wait till 1 for lunch?! That's tough stuff. Especially for two teachers that are used to eating in 1.3 seconds at 10:32 on the dot.
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| Standing on top of the FAO building |
So one more stop before we were able to go to lunch. FAO. Richard, Scott's friend and the owner of the apartment Scott rents over the summer, works there and offered for us to come see the city from the top of his building. It was pretty cool! We had to give them our passports, get a visitors badge, Richard snuck my knife in for me, then through the metal detectors, then we were in. On the way up to the terrace Lexy and I walked into a courtyard full of pamphlets. We both stopped dead in our tracks immediately drooling at all the materials. She timidly picked up a poster and looked hopefully at Richard. He told us we could take one. Yippy!!! The next table had all sorts of books on food production. Again, hopeful stares at Richard. At this point Scott stopped us and said we were coming back through this room, we could go "shopping" then. The top of the building was amazing. We could see the Colosseum, the Forum, the old community baths, everything. At this time we were all so very hungry, which kind of took over from enjoying the view. After a short visit we went back through the buidling where Lexy and I quickly grabed so many of those little pamplets. Walking out I joked to her that this was the highlight of our Rome trip, teaching materials. We both laughed, however there was a nerdy truth in the statement.
FINALLY we got to go to lunch. Scott took us to a nice little bakery/pizzeria. I of course got mushroom pizza and a coke. Best stuff ever. We were silent as we ate, the food was so good. (Are you really still reading this? I'm only half way done with my day! Crazy. Let's just move on)
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| Church at the Archives |
The second half of our day took us to the Archives. Susana and Gabrielle were there prepared with all sorts of stuff for Scott. Ancient maps, records of sales for certain areas. First they gave us a little tour of the Archive building. The two flanking buildings were built at one time, then the church that completes the courtyard was built 100 years later. It's apparently unique for the baroque style because of the concave face, they would normally have made it straight across. Inside the building were all these incredibly old books. Many of them of course they wouldn't let you touch because they are so old, and they can't handle being shuffled through.
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| Claire, Scott, Gabrielle, and Susana |
Susana and Gabrielle are both Italian speakers. They did try to speak English on occasion, but it was clear they were struggling. At one point they pulled out this incredibly large map which showed the landscape in the 1700s I believe, and it contained all of our lakes! There were little plots of land with numbers. These numbers corresponded to a book that told what was being grown on that plot of land. Scott was more excited about this than I've ever seen him. It was so fun!
I could probably go on about the archives, the church, the ride home, but I think that's about good. Tomorrow we are back in the lab. Only five more lab days left. I can't believe the end is so close. But I'm not thinking about that right now!!!
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| Ancient Internet |
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