Blogging from Rome, Italy on November 4, 2019
Bloggers: Mack and Margaret
Steps Taken: 16,000
Ah, Mondays. Nothing ever seems to go according to plan on Mondays, and today was no exception. Our morning began with a brief train ride to Ostia, where we planned on spending our entire day. This plan got cut short (by about six or so hours, no less) when, after our second coffee break of the day, we arrived in Ostia only to find that the site of Ostia was closed, despite it historically being open on Mondays. Oimoi.
But at this point in the term a closed site does not throw off FSP 19 for long. Instead, we quickly recalibrated, hopped back onto the train on which we came, and went to the Baths of Caracalla, one of the biggest bath complexes of the Roman world.
Having recently seen the Pantheon we could better appreciate the caldarium (hot room) of the baths, which Caracalla had modeled after the dome structure of the Pantheon. Though the FSP has seen many different bath structures before, from public baths in Pompeii and Herculaneum to a private bath in a Roman villa in Roman Britain, the baths of Caracalla far outsized any of the baths we have seen. They were so large, in fact, that ten tons of wood were required to heat the tepidarium (warm room) and caldarium (hot room) each day.
After walking around the entire bath complex and discussing everything from sight lines to shims (what you would put under the leg of a wobbly table to stabilize it but the Romans used to hang marble on walls), the group hunkered down and had a brief picnic lunch in the garden area of the baths before continuing on with our day.
Then, because the good weather granted it, we started to walk down the Via Appia towards the Catacombs of St Sebastian. More than two miles, a brief bus ride, and a walk through a very scenic garden, FSP 19 had seen a lot. The Tomb of Caecilia Metella (a woman!!) was the biggest tomb we’ve seen after many weeks dedicated solely to looking at tombs. We also walked past the Circus of Maxentius, almost a knock-off version of the Circus Maximus built by the emperor Maxentius in the early 4th century CE. Then we proceeded to the catacombs.
After taking a brief stop to get snacks, we headed to the ticket office where Professor Ulrich told us a little bit about the history of the site and we waited for an English tour. A display in the lobby showcases many of the artifacts recovered when they excavated the catacombs, a few with inscriptions, which is better than candy for some members of FSP 19. We were able to keep ourselves adequately busy with antiquity.
The Basilica of Saint Sebastian was built over a Roman tomb site with fabulously well-preserved tombs. When those tombs were constructed, they were likely open to the air. The construction of the church above the tombs is likely why they are so well-preserved. Slightly above the pagan Roman burials is the site where the bodies of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were buried when their original burial sites were endangered. Because two of the most holy bodies were kept there, there is a ton of graffiti on what used to be their gravesites.
After emerging from the catacombs into the beautiful church, we briefly discussed the history of the church before moving into the much-missed sunlight to figure out how to get to Italian class.
We took the bus from the catacombs to Piazza Venezia where we split off to find a quick bite to eat before our first Italian class since we left for Britain. It was nice seeing Luigi and the beginners (like your bloggers) enjoyed learning about adjectives while the advanced students practiced talking about what gives them energy, which one student hilariously misinterpreted as a sustainability exercise. Oh Italiano.
Stai manzo,
M&M