A thousand apologies for the lack of posting, I’m very
ashamed.
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| Nice wet morning in Rome |
I know I always say this, but I have been incredibly busy –
A Levels are not fun. And that is a fact. I’ve been very bogged down with
coursework, homework and a week of work experience at the Wilts & Glos
Standard (more to come on that later.) I’ve been meaning to write this post for
a while, and have been putting it off for ages. I’m sorry.
Anyway…
At the end of January I was fortunate enough to go on a trip
to Rome with my Classical Civilisation class. We stayed in the beautiful city
of Rome for four nights, and just around four days and I have to say it was one
of the most wonderful cities I have ever
been to (it may even top Paris…)
Admittedly the weather was appalling. It rained the whole
time we were there, with the exception of the sun making an appearance on our
last day in the city – typical. The rain unfortunately caused a few problems to
our schedule, for example we were not able to visit Ostia Antica because the rain
had left some “puddles” which meant we couldn’t look around. It’s safe to say
my lecturer was extremely irritated.
However, we didn’t let the weather affect our spirits as we traipsed around the
city of Rome with our troop of umbrellas and soaked shoes.
Initially we couldn’t get into the Forum, again because of
puddles. The Romans must not be as well adjusted to the rain as we Brits are.
However we did eventually get a chance to take a tour around the political
centre for the Roman Empire and it was absolutely mind-boggling.
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| Me and a bust. |
It was
absolutely fascinating to see where Cicero would have performed his speeches,
where the Caesar was cremated, where the Vestal Virgins lived and prayed, and
all the other bits of history that I got far too over-excited about. Along with
the Forum, we also visited the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum, which were all
valid for our knowledge on Roman History.
Amongst all the Roman historical sites, we all visited all
the ‘typical tourist’ sites of Rome including; the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s
Basilica, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We also went to many other
churches and fountains but unfortunately I can’t remember all their names.
One
of my favourite places was definitely the Vatican and the Vatican Museum. It
was so unbelievably mesmerising and everything was so beautiful. The Vatican
Museum in particular was astounding. There was so much to see and there was art
and history everywhere; on the walls, floors and ceilings. I would be walking
down a corridor and my eyes would be automatically drawn to a painting on the
ceiling, and then to the main features on the walls, and then to some more art
dotted around the whole area. Just incredible.
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| (L-R) Me, Zeus, Georgia |
We were lucky enough to get a guided tour around Cinecitto
Film Studios (kind of the Hollywood of Rome.) We went into the studio’s
mini-museum which had props and costumes from various films filmed on the location,
along with information about the films and a short documentary about the
studio’s prime set designer Dante Ferretti. Cinecitto also happens to be the
location where HBO’s series ‘Rome’ is filmed and the set is still currently up.
This proved to be very interesting as it gave us an insight into what Rome
would have looked like ‘back in the day.’
Other than all the touristy and historical sites, we also
got the “real Italian experience” when we went out for pizza and pasta for every
meal. I’m pretty sure I doubled my weight out there with the amount of pizza,
pasta, ice cream and wine I had. It was so worth it though.
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