Last Day
Italy has clearly touched some hearts in the Muhlenberg community, and I watched the love for the land blossom while I racked up detailed emails suggesting interesting destinations all over the country. My Religion Studies professor told me it was his favorite city, and Nina, well, you told me in a few more words, but I decided to make a day using them as my guides, and where they led me took the trip to a whole 'nother level:
I woke to the leaky cloud again, since it drizzled continuously all day, until the late afternoon. I misunderstood the directions I had photographed of the bus to the outskirts of the town, but I eventually found my way, making up for the wasted Euro with a free bus ride (my treat). I landed in the open hilly fields where located underneath were the ancient Christian catacombs of San Callisto, San Sebastiano, and San Domitilla. I started with Callisto, where I was followed an English tour, learning about the sites layout and submitting to my addiction of photographing and filming in prohibited areas. The catacombs went four levels down, 60m underground, 20km of labyrinths, and containing half a million tombs, and lots of small ones for babies and children.
Catacombs were made because of a special tufo rock which was very soft, but would harden when exposed to air. The Romans cremated their dead, so only the Jews, Christians, and some pagans buried their dead, and had to do so in private and outside of the city. There were 60 catacombs discovered, 5 open to the public, and 2 of 7 discovered Jewish catacombs. San Callisto contains the tombs of 9 Popes, as well as a few frescoes. Most of the bones were removed in order to honor the dead, and since the underground layers are humid most of the frescoes had faded. However, a little has survived as is well protected. The way I learned it in class, artists were hired to paint pictures, and since they weren't necessarily Christian (infrastructure was difficult) they would present a book of what they could do, so generic religious images were used by pagans, Jews, and Christians. There were more specific symbols as well, such as the Chi Rho, but because the catacombs were used from the 2nd-5th centuries and then again later, it's hard to date the artifacts, and a lot of history took place over that time, such as Christianity becoming an accepted and official Roman faith.
After San Callisto, I walked to San Sebastiano, which was closed for a few hours. I explored the church, where you can see Jesus' footprints, and the arrows that killed Saint Sebastiano, but I got restless. I purchased some Italian Ritzs with the limited cash I had left, impressed that Philadelphia was written on the back, and went on an adventure for the third area of catacombs. I found San Domitilla, but had no cash to pay for entry, so I had to walk to the center of the town, learn how to ask for a bank in Italian, but it all worked out in the end, and I we found the catacombs in a 4th century Church built underground. San Callisto had the most tombs of all the catacombs found, but San Domitilla was the largest, running even more long and narrow paths, many floors down. I eventually got a little sick of all the dead, so I took the advice of an unexpected english speaking couple and took a different bus back to Giovanni, where I walked to San Clemente Church, where underneath I visited layer after layer of civilization, like a walk around Jerusalem. The excavations included the Roman street level from the 2nd Century, a Roman house built right into a spring, a Mithraic Temple and school, a Church in memory of Pope Clement, and some wonderful preserved frescoes. I also broke the rules here, but only after I saw so many other doing so, since the place was very high tech with special lighting and automated security chains. Mind you I had to be covert about my activity, as in the catacombs:
From there I started to feel the hunger for dinner, but I knew of a better place, and on the way I stopped at Piazza Del Pasquindo a little square used for political protests since the Middle Ages (according to Nina, since I'm illiterate). Then I passed the Pantheon, and arrived at Della Palma, the greatest gellateria ever, with every pleasing taste imaginable available in a cup or cone
I left the first time with kinder chocolate, something with raspberries and cream, and something with pears. The mistake I made was in getting a cone, because I had about two minutes before the ice cream became hand cream. It was a tremendous feast of sweets, that I would remember for a long time, and dream of returning to until the next day...
By now the sun and begun to drop, and I wasn't far from it, so I headed to the Jewish ghetto and went back to the Synagogue that threw me out, for services. I got a bite size tuna sandwich out of it, as well as fresh spearmint, but I couldn't really follow anything, once again, because the cantor used very unique melodies. I then went five meters to browse the kosher restaurants that had just opened. I settled for fettuccine with beef stew sauce...matza was included too. How thoughtful.
This capped off the day, and I headed back to make sure none of my dirty clothes had been stolen from the bag I was borrowing from my counselor.
Sunday I woke and ran, to knock off the last sight I had been told to visit: the Capuchin Crypt, a spectacular artistic arrangement of friars from the 16-19th Centuries arranged in religious scenes, and along the ceilings. It was partially disgusting, even moreso than the catacombs I had roamed through the day before, but it was also pretty, and with poor eyesight it was like an art museum with a Hitchcock soundtrack guiding your way.
From there I went back again to the Ghetto and then to Della Palma, this time for caramel Nutella, mint chocolate chip, and watermelon. all magnifico. I caught the regional rail to Fumiciano (Da Vinci) airport, where they wouldn't let me pass security with the Hebrew Nestea bottle I had used and reused the whole trip, because water kills in Italy. One flight after another was delayed, so I got to Turkey late, sat with some very (=normal) talkative Israelis, and arrived in Tel Aviv at 2:30 am. I was even honored with a special Kosher for Passover meal on the second flight. Why taunt?
From there I made it to the apartment by way of a beautifully vivid crescent moon, just like the one in the Colosseum graffitti, crashed at about 5:30, skipped one class to sleep, but woke up for a field trip to the Southern Wall excavations of the Old City. I'll stop there, but I think you can see that my life has shed its dullness for almost a month now, since my parents started coming.
I also want to update you on my class schedule before I forget:
ATH-155 Rise of Ancient Civilizations
ATH-240 Witchcraft, Magic & Sorcery
ATH-388 Human Osteology
THR-240-04 Acting 1: Process
This means for the first time (I think) no religion classes, but yes to sophomore theater.
Finally, I updated the earlier posts from Italy with the videos I you missed, so check them out, it most cases they're better than the pictures!
accumulated web sites from trip
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