Kay, so you all know that I’m on a study abroad program in Rome. If you didn’t know this…see the last few blog posts. A lot of you probably also know that my program is not the only one in Rome this semester…far from it. There’s like a bajillion. There’s this one, though, that’s fairly close by. The John Cabot University is a study abroad program fairly close to us. We at the ICCS (aka the Centro) are sometimes a little envious of the people in this program. A few kids know some others at John Cabot, and they basically seem to do no work. More of your typical study abroad program, where you’re really just getting to explore the cities (read: the cities’ bars and/or nightclubs). Our program is not like this. In fact, that’s why I haven’t written that often. Because I legitimately spend a large percentage of my time either in class or doing homework…or eating. I love to eat. And I really love to eat Italian food. But I’ll save that for another post.
Point is, these John Cabot kids have it easy. It’s a little absurd.
But as of our site tours in the past week…I can tell you I will never be jealous of the John Cabot kids again. Ever. No qualms about it. In fact, they should be jealous of us. Hmm, you say. Why in the world would anyone be jealous of you suckers having to get up at 6 or 7 every morning and work straight all day? Good question.
It’s because we get this incredible VIP treatment. You know you’ve got it good when your 50-something-year-old professor looks at the group and smiles and says, “So, actually, I can’t tell you that much about the interior of this church. Because I’ve actually never been before.” Seriously. When someone with a doctoral degree in the subject who has worked in Rome on and off for years has never gained entrance to a site, you know it’s gonna be awesome. I can actually picture the red carpet being rolled down. Except the carpet is a dusty travertine floor from the late Augustan restoration in the first century CE.
I’ll just tell you a bit about the sites, since you’ll unfortunately not get to see them. (I swear, this isn’t going to my head or anything. The reasons the public can’t see most of this stuff are legitimate: primarily, the sites are really, really old and in need of restoration, so they don’t trust just anyone.) You already got a sneak peek at my trip to Tarquinia and Cerveteri, where I climbed through a bunch of tombs. This week, we also hit up:
The Fons Juturnae: in the Roman Forum, this is where Castor and Pollux supposedly appeared miraculously during the Social Wars. Two beautiful, strong young men had shown up at the battle of Lake Regillus and helped turn the tide to victory; before news could have spread back to Rome, reports cropped up of two youths watering their horses at the Fons and telling everyone the good news. Though the magistrates of the time sent minor officials to search the city for these men, they were never found. The Romans then decided that the Dioscuri, twin demi-gods, had shown them divine favor, and founded the Temple of Castor and Pollux nearby. You can see this temple as a normal visitor to the Forum, but the Fons is hidden in a fenced back corner.
Santa Maria Antiqua: admittedly, this isn’t quite as old as what I normally study. BUT…it’s right next to the Fons, and since we were already there, the incredibly nice guard went and had a chat with the art conservation team that was working inside. He convinced them to let us in, as long as we promised to touch nothing, take pictures of nothing, and stand really far away from everything. The church itself dates to the fifth century, and there were a bunch of Byzantine frescoes from the 600s and 700s of saints. The plaster is detaching itself from the walls because it’s so old, hence, the current restorations-in-progress.
Temple of Portunus and Temple of Hercules Victor: These two temples are right next to each other, immediately to the east of the Tiber island. The Temple of Portunus is the oldest extant marble temple in Rome, and the Temple of Hercules Victor dates to about the same time period; the two survived primarily because they were used as Christian churches after paganism fell.
Sorry there aren’t pictures of all of these places. I have pictures of some of them, but my computer refuses to upload at the moment. I’ll be a better blogger someday, I swear. Maybe next time the uploader will cooperate. But til then, ciao!
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