When In Rome...

August 22, 2011

This weekend I went to Rome with the Accademia and they had a hotel waiting for us! Yay! So, after we took a bus there, we dropped off our belongings in a luggage storage closet – yes, it gets used by everyone and anyone in the hotel, so ‘safety’… eh. Then we headed out to our day activities.

A few days beforehand, we all had a meeting to make sure everyone knew what it was we were doing and the route we’d be taking once in Rome. There was a powerpoint presentation and everything. I wish they had done that for the other trips too; they’re still learning; it’s a fairly young program. Well, there was an issue some people had with the fact that we never seem to have the time to actually go inside the amazing structures we visit. In Florence, we didn’t go into the Duomo; in another city, they didn’t plan on tickets so we didn’t get to go inside; In Florence, to see Michelangelo’s David, they had planned on a certain price to go into the Accademia (this is also called the Accademia, but it’s not the program I’ve been studying with), then the Accademia – David’s Accademia – decided it would be more that day because they had a new exhibit, so we had to pay our own way in. So being able to see where we were planning on going and seeing that we wouldn’t even be able to go into the Coliseum, many people spoke up.

There were some hot tempers. Many people tried to lobby for 1) Going inside the Colosseum and only walking to the Trevi Fountain (it really would’ve taken up all day) OR 2) Doing a walking tour – but not really going into things – with the Art History teacher through the Accademia program who actually lives in Rome and knows local gems that even tour books don’t know. Obviously, it was split half and half; one half wanted to see the things that people don’t normally get to see – and NOT have to wait in a super long line for three hours doing nothing to see the inside of the Colosseum – and the other half wanted to see the inside of the Colosseum and were just fine with not seeing other cultural treasures. After all, that was only Friday. Then we would spend the night, and have Saturday all to ourselves to do whatever we wanted and with whomever we wanted, and find our own way back to Arezzo.

Well, since so many people were split on the decision and the room was very loud and our coordinator was getting a little short tempered, I quietly walked up to our coordinator and asked gently that since both she and the art history teacher would be going and they both wanted to do separate walking tours, as did the students, if it would be possible we split the group and whomever wanted to see inside the Colosseum could go with her and whomever wanted to see the hidden treasures of Rome but not see the Colosseum, they could go with the art history teacher. Her face lit up and she quickly went to tell the art history teacher. They loved the idea. And I had a very proud moment of, ‘That’s right; I rock.’

Everyone else also loved the idea. Apparently someone else had mentioned it, and the coordinator shot it down, but I really think it’s very important in the approach to things like this. If you’re going to shout out your suggestion, 1) it might be too loud to hear your full suggestion anyway, or 2) it might be taken as aggressive and refused right out. But if you are calm and approach it with ease and respect… You catch more flies with honey, dears.

I chose to do the walking tour. I knew it would be a four hour tour, but no one had any idea it would be as hot as it was! And there is practically NO shade in Rome. So, I told my body, you can do this, and I pushed through it. It was tough, but we saw so many beautiful things and went so many places. Everyone tells you that there are ruins in Rome, but they really are everywhere. Even in really random places where there is nothing now, there are at least ruins. I guess it would be a shame to tear them down, but so many of them are just kind of for looks. And Rome has been rebuilt so often – or buildings were partially burnt down and rebuilt – that most of the structures don’t even match their own bricks and stones, let alone the structures surrounding them. It’s very interesting.

That night, I went with Torey, Rebecca, Jenny, Ben and Isabel to a small pizzeria just down the street from our hotel. We were supposed to have gone out to a bar or something – I had still never been out, for drinks or dancing (even at home). But dinner was nice. I got a steak. Sounds normal, right? But I hadn’t had beef in so long. Even before I left for Italy, I don’t really eat that much red meat, even though it’s glorious!

On Saturday, Torey and I visited the Vatican Museums. We were trying to visit the Vatican church, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there. And apparently, you are supposed to pay for the buses there. People told us they were free. Thankfully, we were not stopped, but some other girls on the trip were fined 50 euro! The tickets are normally 1 euro per bus ride. Wow! So, we were fine, except that we couldn’t figure out where the Vatican was. We had two maps, but we couldn’t apply it to the real streets in front of us. So, when we saw one of those hop-on, hop-off bus tours come through, they looked like they knew where they were going, so we attached ourselves to that group and followed them to the Vatican Museums.

It cost 15 euro to get in, and we only went to two of the buildings, but it was definitely worth it. We visited the Egyptian Museum and the Sistine Chapel. In the Egyptian Museum, they had, can you believe it, tons of Egyptian stuff. They had mummies, busts of gods and goddesses and rulers. They had hieroglyphics and scrolls and stone tablets. It was amazing. Even if that was all we had seen, I was happy. On the way to the Sistene Chapel, we saw tons of ceiling paintings and wall art and whatnot. Then we got the Sistene Chapel and it was not as big as I expected. Nor was the singular painting of God and Man with their hands about to touch. It was the same size as all the other paintings shoved into the tiny ceiling. ‘Tiny’ a chapel, and for what I was expecting. And for that, Torey happened to miss the “Creation of Man’ painting. We were standing directly below it. And wouldn’t you know, there are no pictures allowed. I don’t really understand that. Flash I get cause it ruins art, but no cameras at all? Really?

And that was it. We took a train back home and Torey, Joey and I ate some of the best pizza of this whole trip – and I’ve had a lot of pizza – at a small Arezzo pizzeria called O’Scungizzi. Now, when people tell you they went to Italy and the pizza was amazing, they can’t possibly be telling the truth. Pizza here is very different than pizza in the states. I still stand by my comment that ‘New York really invented pizza.’ Because it’s too amazing. Pizza in Italy in a lot of places is like red sauce and maybe cheese on matzoh. A lot of places only do sauce on the crust; that’s ‘pizza.’ BUT this place we went to was legit! And delicious. And they had probably a hundred different types of beer. We had Delirium, which was quite nice, and I don’t usually like beer.

Rome for me, overall, was pleasant, but I really don’t ever plan on returning. Italy, YES; Rome, not so much. I don’t care to say how it happened, but somehow I ended up in tears during this trip to Rome as well. If you read my previous post from last weekend, Rebecca and were on our way to Venezia and ended up in Rome. I don’t know if you know the geography of Italy, but to give you a hint: If we were starting out in San Luis Obispo and were trying to get to Sacramento, we ended up in Goleta. Not as far as San Diego, but far enough that there were no more trains until morning – which we found out was only the tickets that weren’t available, cause we were on the Venezia-bound train upon our return to Arezzo. And the whole time, it was very difficult for me not to be crying. This time was similar. Some stuff happened in our group and I got emotional, again. It’s not important why, but the point is it keeps happening in Rome, so the most logical plan for that is to stay away from Rome.

After we returned from Rome and ate in Arezzo, we took a taxi home around 11pm and my body said, “Oh no you don’t. You’ve got energy; let’s do it!” So I worked out in the teatrino (little theatre) with only my music and the light from my laptop until about 2am. It was very nice. For me, I rarely get a huge burst of energy, especially when I’ve been late for my medicine this long (I’m supposed to get an infusion once every four weeks; it’s been a little over.), but when I do have energy, I’d be an idiot to just sleep it off.

And that’s been my weekend. I worked out a lot yesterday too. I was home almost by myself and I was starting to get bored, so when I got bored, I would go to the teatrino and work out. I hope I can keep this up all week and while I’m visiting home in Oceano, and still be able to keep it up when I go back to school in two weeks, September 4^th. Phew, it’s coming really soon. But I will enjoy all that I can while I can.

This week, the Commedia class is finally putting our finishing touches on our Commedia performance for Thursday evening for the rest of the students and staff. For the passed two weeks, we’ve been working on Commedia improv with our masks so we can learn how to move and speak and improvise with the different stock characters. Our initial assignment was for each of the fifteen of us to create a scenario and cast and direct others from the class to create a complete scene. With fifteen of those full scenes, complete with characters and conflict, last Thursday Michele (mi-kay-lay) led a full rehearsal from 4pm until 11pm (with a dinner break) to put all the scenes together into one big show. Even though some of the scenes had nothing to do with each other, because there are so many students and characters, there was a common theme to many of the scenes. Most of the scenes took place in a restaurant or at a party, or getting the restaurant ready or party preparations. So, naturally, the show takes place in a Romeo and Juliet type story about two feuding families who own two feuding restaurants, but they are located directly next to each other. The show will be located behind the Accademia, in its ‘backyard’ if you would. It will be amazing. I will post pictures and perhaps some video footage soon. For now, I’m off to lunch and rest before another full day of rehearsals.