Day 3 Art History Overload

Today was the first day with my group. At 7:45 we were off to the center of the city. We started by walking threw the oldest part of town were the streets where quitet and you could see all of the old architecture. It is beautiful there are large tall buildings but not like what we have in the US. They are all diffrent shapes and I would never describe them as skyscrapers. Here the buildings are not made of steal and glass panels like ours back home which makes them very cold and flat, there's have years of wear and you can see the craftsmanship and warmth in there designs. The bricks are each hand layed some are very structurally straight and tight others have a bit more character kinda crooked and not perfectly spaced apart. These buildings are my favorite. They usually have a bit more wear and you can usually see into a part of the stone which allowed you to give the building a feeling. They also have been taken back by the plants a bit. The vines run threw the cracks and cling on for survival. We also strolled past the market that I had spent the day befor exploring. Then we where off to the metro station, it was very crowded and the walkways were dirty. We were on our way to the Campidoglio. Here we had a few minutes to walk freely. I strolled off behind the plaza to see the view over the runes. Even though you do see mostly runes and very little is still left standing you can visualize the layout of the city. The foundations and outlines of the building have left there scars. As I wondered around I get to see a large spand over Rome.  It's beautiful and every building is unique no really cookie cutter houses like we have. As we met back up we learned about the plaza. Michelangelo was commissioned by the pope to design it. He build a good portion but died before he was able to complete it. The main building however is beautiful there is so much detail threw out the window pains and the staircase. As we walk we come to the ruins again which is actually the Roman forum, this time I am seeing the other side were a few of the ruins are more intact. A few of the columns still stand, they are beautiful and allow you to get an even better feel of just how large these buildings were. There is an arch towards the side were we walked as a group the detail in the sculpture is spectacular. They made sure ever space was pleasant to look at and had a story or a pattern for you to see. As we stand and aww over the spectacular arch our art historian gives us a great lesson on the history of the ruins. We slowly move around the ruins until we go down inside to see a few more. We visit the sacred spot were Julius Caesar body was cremated and an old church that still stands tall. At this point my mind can nolonger take anymore in about the ruins. As lucky as I am to have someone explaining it all to me and helping to understand what has happened here I truly enjoy just looking and feeling the wear and work threw the ruins. After the ruin tour is over we make our way to the Colosseum. We run threw as quickly as we can, the amount of people makes it hard to enjoy. As I have seen a colosseum in Croatia which was not as crowded and we were allowed to view much more of it I was satisfied with our time there. Soon after we headed for lunch. As we wondered down the streets we split off into two groups. Most of the girls went to a close buy sandwitch shop were Amy and I went into a small restaurant called Cafe Cafe. Here I ordered veal meatballs with a green curry and wild rice. I also got a fresh juice. The food was spectacular the veal meatballs were very soft and tender. The curry was not a traditional curry but had a thick creamy mild taste. Peared with the meatballs and wild rice it really let the other favors shine threw. The wild rice was diffrent then any rice I had ever had, it was short grained and had a nutty sweet and salty flavor to it. The food was also very proportional and not at all overpriced which I enjoyed.  I also had my first juice of the trip which was a very nice reminder of home. It was a carrot ginger juice and had a great balance of tartness. Once we were nice and full we headed back to meet our group. We were heading back to the subway and on our way to the Borghese museum.  As we started walking towards the gallery we walked threw a park that use to be the Borgheses private estate. Is was beautiful much like the beer gardens in Germany or Thomas Jeffersons house at Monticello. As we walked into the museum I was in aww. There were so many sculptures, finally a museum I could stay in for hours. There was marble carving after marble carving the rooms were filled. Then there was the building itself, in layed marble walles and floors, the ceilings were beautifully painted with molding that had so much detail I loved it. As this day was very hot and we had been waking for hours I had a huge desire to just sprawl across the marble floors and cool off like a dog on a tile floor on a hot summer day. On the other hand I didn't want to get kicked out so decided better not. As we romed I found the statue of Hades and Persephone, showing as Hades drags Persephone down to the underworld. The way Hades hands are sculpted grasping Persephones thighs so tightly that the skin actually dimples and stretches is spectacular. How to get stone to have movement like that is beyond any talent I hold. After staring and circling this piece repetitively I moved on to many more. Then I came across the piece I had been waiting for all this time, Apollo and Daphne. Apollo is in love with Daphne and Daphne is repulsed by Apollo both thanks to Cupid. So as he goes to steal her away her father turned her into a laura tree to escape the clutches of Apollo. In the stature Apollo is grasping at Daphnee as her limbs start to be change and be incased by this laurel tree. It is beautifully carved out of marble and stunning how thin parts of the carvings are that you can actually see the light come threw like thin skin. This sculpture has my sculpture teachers and my jaws on the floor, it's truly spectacular. I also got to see Van Dykes crucifixion among other famous pieces of art, It was a spectacular collection.  Once I was all sculpted out I found my first magnum bar of the trip. It was as good as I remember last time I was in Europe. The creamy vanilla bean ice cream incased In a sweet shell of white chocolate, perfecto. As I sit and enjoy my ice cream I talk with Marco our Italian local. He is part of the cortona program and teaches Italian.  I get to learn about his travels and tell him a bit about mine. It's always funny to hear people visiting places were you live and see so frequently but I guess it's just the same for him. After we leave we walk to the Spanish steps. There are so many tourist hear you can barely make your way threw them all, but I did get to walk down the steps. We made our way back to the hotel and settled in for dinner. After we were all done shoveling our faces full we had a short meeting to prepare for the next day. You could see the exhaustion in everyone straining to keep there eyes open for a bit longer. Finally we were able to go back to our rooms and crash for the night.