Just one picture the rest will come in March!

All is done

I managed to connect the laptop to the internet. So many things happened last week that I dont even know where to start. I have seen more than I could ever imagine ranging from antiquity to baroque art. Some highlights: I went into the excavations underneath the St. Peter, saw Bernini's marble statues in Gallery Borghese - which are more beautiful than anything else -, saw lots and lots of churches - so many that I cant even name them all anymore - and soooo much more. I had lots of courses on Roman history, did a presentation and wrote a paper. Oh and I had very *very* little sleep.

The weird thing is that two weeks ago I didnt even know the group of people with whom I did all this but now we consider each other very good friends. That is a good thing.

So now I will stay for a couple of nights at the Best Western Hotel where I hope to have an internet connection. But I will spend much of the time sleeping.

Next stop is an English bookstore to buy some books to read, then Best Western, sleep, sleep, sleep and than to Geneva, Sion and skiing :)

Quick post from Rome

I am in Rome!! And it feels like I have always been here :) Its funny that you can know so much of a city out of books you read and maps you saw that when you are actually there it all makes sense.

I had a great flight wednesday, arrived incredibly early at the institute. Strolled through the Villa Borghese parc and found a great place with a view over Piazza del Popolo, the Tiber and the St.Peter. Thursday we started for real to look at Mussolini's Rome. We travelled to the EUR district which is filled with fascist architecture mirroring the Roman imperial style. M. definitely was a man of ambition ;)

Friday we went into Roman Rome. Friday was also a day that it didnt stop raining. And when it rains here it pours... I was ripped of by a streetvendor to pay 5 euros for an umbrella!! The umbrella survived about 5 hours ;) We did courses on the Augustan construction program, were guided through the Forum Romana by an expert urban development archeologist. It just kept on raining and raining an raining. When it eventually stopped raining, about 1600, everybody was cold and wet except for me and two others. It might have had something to do with the fact that none of us had ever been to Rome. So we continued alone :). Thursdaynight we bounced through the city and ran from the Imperial Fora, the Palatine, the Colloseum to Victor Emannuel's Monument to the Pantheon, Piazza Navone, the Spanish Stairs back to Piazza del Popolo.

On Saturday the rain had returned. I stubbornly refused to buy an umbrella... but after an hour the rain won. I bought an umbrella cheap this time (4 euros!) which still lives. Saturday was all about early Christian and Constantinian Rome. We went to the Lateran Basilica, the Baptistery, Sta. Croce in Gerusaleme before we split up
again. I eventually saw a dozen or so Sta. Maria churches, best was without a doubt the one who was actually three churches on top of eachother. Deep beneath the streets there was a labyrinth used by the cult of Mithras, on top of that was a 8th century church and built at street level above it was a 12th century church. This was really cool since you get all the way into the Mithras cult site where a fresh spring was located. We even drank from it :) Eventually it got into saturdaynight so church services were starting. In a Jesuit church they started playing Bach (Jesu meine Freunde). We saw lots of Carravagio and Bernini... I am making tons of pictures. Three days and 160 pictures ;)

About work. I am going to research the changing image of the 'good Christian emperor' Constantine from late roman antiquity (how did he work his propaganda to show what kind of emperor he was) into the high medieval period when the church started using this image for its own advantage. I will do this by studying the fresco's of Constantine in the SS. Quatro Corronati basilica: A 12th century basilica/castle.

Oh and today is sunday, no classes, and... THE SUN IS SHINING IN ROME!!

Never knew they had sun here too ... always when I am in Rome it rains :P

Regarding blogposts, uploading of pictures etc. I still havent been able to connect the laptop to the internet so I can only do quick updates on the staff computers here. Hope to change this tomorrow or next week.