Somehow I find myself on the Italian speaking computer today.. as I am delerious from sun, sketching, and sightseeing it only adds to the exhaustion! This week has flown by! We had hopes to make the weekends travel opportunities however it seems as though the much better option is to use weekend to catch up on internet, sleep, homework, and personal time.
Last night was the perfect example, after an afternoon sketching session in which I decided that my hands might be more breathtaking a subject than buildings (my professor disagreed) i followed the boys over to the circus maximus.. (home to chariot races and bordered by the ruins of beautiful baths of antiquity..) .. they set up a soccer match of 4 on 4 while I did stairs, spins, and cartwheels amongst a long run round and round the circus maximus... It was a fantastic mix of pop culture through my ears (and ipod) and history everwhere I looked. The soccer match lasted well into the night so dinner around 10 was a good close to a long but extraordianary week!
Other highlights included a session of sketching in the afternoon in a small piazza across town, and three amazing tours by a Temple University professor, Jan!! Jan is probably the best professor that I have ever encountered for explaining history..he is energetic, funny, smart as hell, and seems to have a twenty year-olds energy in a fifty year old body. He particularly enjoyed his interactions with Jon-A-Than... and Jon and I quickly won his affection by answering his questions correctly..we make a good team. Jans tours included the entire Roman Forum on Tuesday morning, all midieval areas of Rome on Wednesday morning, and on Thursday we visited Hadrians Villa. I had been dying to go there and was not disappointed. I already have a list of books on the Emperor Hadrian that i want to read!
As if Hadrians Villa were not enough (it is the size of the entire city of Pompeii) we went to visit another Tuscan villa,..this one built by a very rich bishop who was pouting in the countryside because they would not let him be the Pope..I hear that no minestrone soup will also induce pouting but I wouldnt know about that... :) Villa d Este is a lavish garden retreat with hundreds of fountains which flow down hundreds of feet of terraced landscape... the afternoon was spent sketching there and trying to make sense of an overwhelmingly large landscape plan. It is definitley a must visit for anyone coming to Rome and the views out back toward the city almost compete with the gorgeous gardens themselves.
So finally, after a long week of drawing, walking, listening, and basically school stuff the group decided that it might be best to just take it easy again this weekend... so early to bed last night and up early this morning to get to a beach nearby (about an two hour commute door to ocean).. The beach was amazing, Jon, i am sure, will tell you all more about it...i was reading and napping on the beach most of the time while he was scaling the cliffs and swimming into caves... now i need to get some sleep because we have a ton more homework to finish tomorrow and we are hoping for a visit to a nearby museum to see the ruins of an old theatre!
Kathleen, there is a cat sanctuary nearby where there are so many cats you would love it! There are many that we have found that look like Ping, of course not nearly as cute! Ciao and Good night.
Last night was the perfect example, after an afternoon sketching session in which I decided that my hands might be more breathtaking a subject than buildings (my professor disagreed) i followed the boys over to the circus maximus.. (home to chariot races and bordered by the ruins of beautiful baths of antiquity..) .. they set up a soccer match of 4 on 4 while I did stairs, spins, and cartwheels amongst a long run round and round the circus maximus... It was a fantastic mix of pop culture through my ears (and ipod) and history everwhere I looked. The soccer match lasted well into the night so dinner around 10 was a good close to a long but extraordianary week!
Other highlights included a session of sketching in the afternoon in a small piazza across town, and three amazing tours by a Temple University professor, Jan!! Jan is probably the best professor that I have ever encountered for explaining history..he is energetic, funny, smart as hell, and seems to have a twenty year-olds energy in a fifty year old body. He particularly enjoyed his interactions with Jon-A-Than... and Jon and I quickly won his affection by answering his questions correctly..we make a good team. Jans tours included the entire Roman Forum on Tuesday morning, all midieval areas of Rome on Wednesday morning, and on Thursday we visited Hadrians Villa. I had been dying to go there and was not disappointed. I already have a list of books on the Emperor Hadrian that i want to read!
As if Hadrians Villa were not enough (it is the size of the entire city of Pompeii) we went to visit another Tuscan villa,..this one built by a very rich bishop who was pouting in the countryside because they would not let him be the Pope..I hear that no minestrone soup will also induce pouting but I wouldnt know about that... :) Villa d Este is a lavish garden retreat with hundreds of fountains which flow down hundreds of feet of terraced landscape... the afternoon was spent sketching there and trying to make sense of an overwhelmingly large landscape plan. It is definitley a must visit for anyone coming to Rome and the views out back toward the city almost compete with the gorgeous gardens themselves.
So finally, after a long week of drawing, walking, listening, and basically school stuff the group decided that it might be best to just take it easy again this weekend... so early to bed last night and up early this morning to get to a beach nearby (about an two hour commute door to ocean).. The beach was amazing, Jon, i am sure, will tell you all more about it...i was reading and napping on the beach most of the time while he was scaling the cliffs and swimming into caves... now i need to get some sleep because we have a ton more homework to finish tomorrow and we are hoping for a visit to a nearby museum to see the ruins of an old theatre!
Kathleen, there is a cat sanctuary nearby where there are so many cats you would love it! There are many that we have found that look like Ping, of course not nearly as cute! Ciao and Good night.
posted by cgove at 16:39
3 Comments:
"kristen write something to tell him that we're going to seattle" - mom
... the parentals have been wondering if you were alive. way to miss ma's birthday. seattle, wa sunday to saturday. give a call sometime, los padres son preocupados. all is well, keep up the (speed) bloggin.
So glad to see that Jon finally wished his Mom a belated happy birthay! She was getting worried that she had not heard from you guys. I told her it sounded like you were having a wonderful time. I would like to see more pictures with you in it....or are you shying from the camera after being so near that great Rome bakery? Kat came home late last nite after a late nite babysitting job in Greenville (she made $80) and we practiced and played a few holes of golf. Cooked out on the grill and then she headed back of UD. Miss you, Mom
mom,
if you click on the picture of the interior of the church in the set of pictures under the grafiti set you will find me sitting sketching in the corner under the arch... its like Where's Waldo.
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