Blogging from Paestum, Italy, October 10th, 2019

Bloggers: Sophia and Kylie

Steps Taken: 9,000

Today we woke up in Naples and left for Paestum at 8 am. We arrived to find a Hellenist’s paradise: three remarkably well-preserved Greek temples. We watched as the temples’ features developed over time and learned about their different architectural features. Another important development was that of our Instagrams, as the temples provided for great photoshoot opportunities.

We then looked at the Roman phase at the same site, noticing how the Romans made a public monument out of open space. By comparing the temple, comitia, and basilica of the site, we noticed the commonalities in the Roman public space we saw both in the Roman Forum and in other Roman colonies.

During lunch, we enjoyed numerous bottles of water and different foods of choice. We then went to the museum and learned about the Lucanian culture through a thorough analysis of their tombs. Like a Quentin Tarantino film, there were a lot of gory representations of battle. We saw the enigmatic tomb of the diver and a ton of pomegranates. We also broke into groups so that we could see how maleness and femaleness were depicted in the tomb paintings. Finally, we went to the gift shop to explore how we could best contribute to the preservation of cultural patrimony.

After a great day, we retired to the hotel to teach Arnoldo the wonders of American football during dinner while he politely nodded along. We then ate all the mozzarella in the region.

Grazie e ciao!