Reflection on the trip

After what seemed to be the longest journey home, I have taken some time to reflect on the trip. Rome was a city very full of life. The ancient parts were in worse condition then I had hoped. It was hard to understand the parts of the forum as it is today even after studying it specifically for a month. For some reason signage especially in museums and monuments is not used which makes it very hard for a visitor, especially a foreign visitor, to understand what they are looking at. Having gone to Paris six months ago for a similar class, I was able to prepare for the different culture better. I made sure to learn how to greet people, order, and ask for directions in Italian and I brought a phrase book. I think that the class could have better prepared us for the modern day culture of Rome not just that of the ancient city. I found Pompeii and Tivoli to be more interesting than Rome. Pompeii was more intact than the ancient parts of Rome allowing visitors to get a better feel of how ancient Romans lived. Tivoli, home to Hadrian's Villa, is a beautiful hill town where most of the resident do not speak English. It is a beautiful town in the mountains where the Italians are kind and helpful, but you are forced to immerse yourself farther into the culture by speaking the language and getting a sense of Italian life with less tourism. All in all the trip was a great experience and I really enjoyed myself and learned quite a bit.

Favorite Images

This is a view out of my train window on our way to Tivoli. We first traveled through a very industrial area. After about 40 minutes we popped out the side of a mountain and all of a sudden we were traveling along a cliff looking at this beautiful scenery even including waterfalls.


The might of ancient Rome.


I thought this image was interesting with the nun continuing her daily ritual although surrounded by tourist. This seemed to represent modern Rome.


This is an image of the arch of Septimus Severus in the Roman Forum and the monument behind is a favorite of the people of Rome.

This is one of the shrines in a richer man's home dedicated to the ancestors of the family. It is incredibly ornate in its detailing and painting.

Pompeii

Pompeii was incredibly interesting mainly because we had a very knowledgeable guide who was able to teach us not only about the remains of the city but also about the culture. It is especially hard to visualize an ancient society in Rome because important cultural places such as the forum are nothing more than broken capitals.Pompeii having been buried by the volcanic ashes was fairly complete including gardens, graffiti, and paintings. Our guide helped to paint a picture of a culture not totally unlike our own with bars, restaurants, sporting events, gymnasiums, thermal spas and even brothels. Of all the things we saw in the city, one of the things I found the most interesting was that the residents of Pompeii prayed not only to the Gods of any religion that was brought into the city such as the Greek, Roman, and Sicilian but also to personal deities of their ancestors. Our guide told us that a part of the residents day each day if they were wealthy enough to own their own house was to pray to their ancestors in a special shrine to keep them healthy and fed. This practice reminds me of that of Asian and Hispanic cultures who even celebrate with a holiday for ancestors. I think our country today could learn from the culture of Pompeii to honor our ancestors more and keep them in mind each day. Our ancestors who have passed on help to ground us and remind us where we have come from.

The Baptistry doors, Florence

I found the bronze relief done by Lorenzo Ghiberti on the doors representing scenes from the old and new testament to be truly inspiring. These doors were called "The Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo because of their beauty. The bronze panels represent a switch to Renaissance style of art in which perspective is used to create depth in the image. The layering in bronze of the figures is really incredible.

The Vatican

I just really loved this image of the fountain in front of the vatican as an image of the magical quality of the fountain in the rain and St. Peter's Basilica representing the solidity of the institution of Catholicism.

Modern Rome Construction

Even though I knew that Rome was not the same stone city from antiquities that I had studied for 9 weeks, I wasn't sure what to expect from modern Rome. Rome is a city full of history but it is also a living, working city. Over the week and a half, I looked for points of compromise between the old and the new and tried to capture a few in photos. These two photos show modern techniques of construction and enclosure to meet today's building needs but still reveal the antique building.

Cartheginian Scrolls C-Map

Cartheginian Scrolls PBL

I must admit that I was quite confused when I first read our second problem based learning assignment.  I did not understand why we were researching scrolls that did not actually exist in a museum that did not actually exist and was located in Bangkok not Rome.  Through brainstorming with my team, I came to realize that the problem was more about making connections between the Roman empire and America.  Even after we decided that our task was to draw parallels between the two empires and possible reasons for their falls, I had difficulty getting excited about the problem.  The first problem assignment on the Forum related more directly to my creative side with the board game for kids.  This assignment forced me out of my comfort zone to try to imagine and draw parallels between the fall of Rome and what could possibly happen to America if we do not pay attention to our military, economy, and religious positions in the world.

Forum Model

This is a picture of a model that Robert Garbish made of the Roman Forum.  As an architecture student, models intrigue me and help me visualize what I am trying to learn about.  This model is incredibly detailed even to the point of tiny statues and it took him two and a half years to complete.  The link on the side labeled the Roman Forum of 179 AD will take you to the page with all of the pictures of the model.  Check it out it is pretty cool.

Reflection on my experience thus far

I think what is most interesting about taking a multi-disciplinary class is that if people come in with an open mind some really incredible ideas and products can be produced.  It is still fascinating to me to see all of the different styles and modes of learning that exist and how they interact.  When we first met as a team we struggled with how we wanted to brainstorm.  Two of us were cyclical thinkers who needed to draw or write our ideas.  Two of us were linear thinkers who wanted to use the C-map program because it helped to link ideas.  We worked through it and ended up doing a combination of both.  What was interesting to me was that in the end our c-map had a very broad range of ideas.  It had both the range of ideas that comes from spontaneous creative brainstorming and the links that come from a linear process of making connections.  This c-map lead to what I considered to be an excellent solution to a problem.  It was an incredible example of the fact that if you are willing to try new things and compromise, the combination of different styles of learning and thinking can produce really interesting and provocative ideas.

Thoughts on the first problem

So I have to say that after this first assignment I am very excited to go to Rome with all of these amazing people.  Our first assignment was to propose a way to teach kids and get them interested in the Roman Forum.  At first my group was a little uneasy about the problem statement because it seemed so open ended.  Our group was a mixture of students (architecture, architectural engineering, accounting, and engineering).  We were asked to us a tool called c-map which allows you to create a interactive thought bubble diagram.  We decided to not limit any idea and to write down everything that was said by a member.  By not limiting ourselves we were able to really discover that we needed to propose a strategy to get kids excited, not do research and tell the professors everything that we knew.  After this everything kind of just fell in to place.  We decided to make a game similar to Cranium.  This strategy allowed us all to play on our strengths.  I love art and so I wanted to research art questions and came up with artsy things to have the kids do such as model statues with clay.  I also was very excited to make the game board.  One of my colleagues was more interested in construction and loved learning somewhat trivial things so he was in charge of the trivia questions.  I think you get the picture.  We had to do quite a bit of research and creative thinking to come up with all of the questions for the game.  In the end I think we all were very proud of our final product.  It was great to see such a positive response from the professors about how interactive we were able to make learning about the Roman Forum be and that we had addressed the problem correctly.

Forum Board Game

Welcome

This is a blog to chronicle my experience leading up to visiting Rome this winter and the actual trip itself.  As an architecture student and someone very interested in history, Rome has always been a must see for me.  Check in periodically and see what new things I have learned about architecture, Rome, and even myself.  Ciao!