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Today was the initial arrival to Rome after an approximately nine hour flight. After arriving to Rome and boarding the coach bus, the initial look of the area including the plant life looked similar to arriving in Florida. There was a short walk to the hotel which had a very tiny and rickety elevator, while our rooms were on the 6th floor. That much stair climbing was definitely not fun.
After getting settled in we went out to explore some of the streets of Rome. Near the hotel was a staircase which led up to a secluded garden area that contgarden many fountains and statues. Apparently many of these fountains are spread out throughout the city and provide fresh drinking water.
Exploring more streets led us to find more students within our group. Together everyone walked around to get an overall feel for the surrounding area, while checking out a few gift shops and cafes along the way.
One street led the group go Trajan's column to see the monument earlier than anticipated. The column was much larger and taller in person, while also having very clear and detailed carvings all running throughout the monument.
After seeing the column, the group continued through Piazza Venezia to explore the very large and imposing white monument, which is apparently located in central Rome, called Altare della Patria or "Altar of the fatherland". The altar was extremely large in size and upon first entering we noticed that people were not allowed to sit on the steps. The building contained many statues, the most iconic ones being the chariots with horses on each side of the structure. From the top of the structure, the Colosseum could also be seen in the distance. After exploring all throughout the building, the group rushed back to the hotel by four to meet for the first dinner together in italy.
Dinner was at a small Italian Ristorante, which consisted of bruschetta as a starter (tomatoes, olive oil and toast), pasta with strips of different meat which was a new experience, and finally vanilla gelato for dessert. The whole table also ordered a bottle of white wine chardonnay.

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Started the day with a small breakfast at the hotel, consisting of meats, pastries and coffee. After breakfast we left to the hotel to see some of the sights of Rome. The mornings are much cooler than in the afternoon.
We briefly saw the Colosseum while passing by, the area had already begun to fill with tourists as early as 9am. Many street vendors crowd the area and are very insistent on you buying their "water, water, water!" - which loses its charm very quickly. Passing right by the Colosseum and approaching the Via Sacra, the large Arch of Titus can be seen slightly up the road. The amount of heavy security in the area had been a surprise to see.
Also noted, the Colosseum, Arch of Titus, and Arch of Constantine are all very close together and can all easily be seen from one point in the middle. This is something that can't be described in textbooks at all.
After passing security, we briefly saw the Arch of Titus before entering the Forum Romanum. The Forum had been a large open area consisting of the remains of structures such at the temple of Saturn and the house of the Vestal Virgins. While some structures still stood, many had fallen over the years. One area that I had not known about in the forum was the Altar of Julius Caesar, which still currently had many offerings of money and flowers, courtesy of oncoming tourists.
After seeing the Forum, we briefly returned to the Arch of Titus before making our way back to finally enter the Colosseum. Just being near the structure gives you a sense of how massive the size actually is, nothing you can experience by just seeing photos of it. We made our way through the hall and to the upper levels, where we enter the inner part of the Colosseum, and see the interior of the walls, from the bottom where ancient spectacles would have taken place, to the modern scaffolding that adds modern support to the ancient walls.
Once we finished our visit to the Colosseum, our group had some free time to venture through the city to go and find the Trevi Fountain. Once we made our way to it, we were surprised to see the large number of tourists that crowded the area. Security guards also remained in the area, to supervise people and make sure nobody entered the fountain. The fountain itself was made of beautiful white marble with significant carved details which was amazing to see. Many of us threw some coins into the fountain for good luck.
After the fountain, we stopped for a brief lunch at "Nana's Ristorante" where we tried authentic Gnocchi a la Sorrentina.
Finally, we visited the Basilicas of Santa Pudenziana, Santa Prassede, and Santa Maria Maggiore. Here we saw the beautiful wall paintings and mosaics within these buildings, getting a sense of the architecture with the many rooms, high ceilings, and altars within where you can light a candle for an offering.

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Stained glass window within the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore 

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Stained glass window within the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore 

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On our way to visit the Capitoline museum in the morning, we took a quick stop to see the Forum of Augustus. The forum of Augustus, built to rival Julius Caesar, stands between Trajan's column and the Forum of Nerva. Trajan's column was our next stop, and only a short walk away from the forum. This monument stood tall with a relief carving, commemorating Trajan's victories and accomplishments. With this column being so large, some of the scenes could still be easily seen from a distance away. Extra cables and supports were put into place to add extra protection and support to ensure a long lasting future for this monument.
Our next stop had been the famous Capitoline museum, from outside this looked to be a small building with some lasting marble statues displayed in the entrance area, however we soon found out that the well known bronze statue of a she wolf suckling Romulus and Remus has resided inside. This statue represents an integral part in the story of the foundation of Rome, and it was exciting to actually see in person. The statue was much larger than anticipated, and stylized details in the carving of the fur was recognized in person. Also, there was a large damaged piece on one of the hind legs of the wolf, which I had not been aware of before seeing it in person.
The next place we visited was the National Museum of Rome, which had housed many classical marble sculptures from Rome. One of the most interesting pieces to me from this museum had been the Ludovisi battle sarcophagus, which had many high relief carvings of intense detail on the front, with light relief carvings on the sides that looked to almost fade into the piece, giving it a 2d effect before transitioning to the front scene which demands the viewers attention. Another important piece at this museum had been the Ludovisi throne. While this piece didn't have nearly as much detail as the sarcophagus, it was interesting because it depicted the scene of the birth of Aphrodite, and had been made from Parian marble, which gave an almost glittery effect to it that could only be seen in person, and not something I would have expected through pictures online.
After stopping for some gelato along the way, the group had made it to the Pantheon, intended as a temple to all gods and widely recognized by its dome shaped roof. Only being inside will give a sense of how large the dome actually is, with beautiful designs along the interior walls and ceiling. The dome also served as an oculus, letting through light which would change directions throughout the day, depending on the position of the sun.
Our final stop of the day had been at the Ara Pacis, which resided right beside the mausoleum of Augustus. I was very surprised to see that the Ara Pacis was kept inside a very open and modern looking building, surrounded by windows that were very easy to see into. The white marble of the Ara Pacis really reflected the light, making it appear very bright and emphasizing the small details of the relief carvings, which consisted of many plants and small animals along the outer walls. Many important scenes in Roman history were also depicted on the altar, such as Romulus and Remus, as well as deeds of Augustus.

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In the morning, we walked to the station and took a train to the Ostia Antica archaeological site. Once arriving at the site, one thing I noticed immediately was the amount of umbrella pine trees that covered the area. These trees were named after their peculiar shape, which resembled that of a mushroom cloud. Near the entrance of the site were a number of sarcophagi, called "strigel sarcophagi" - the word sarcophagi meaning flesh eater. The entrance area had been a large cemetery consisting of multiple tombs in various states of decay. One of which we were able to enter and get a look at what they would have looked like inside. Most Romans were buried outside of Rome. Only important people we buried within, including emperors, which was still sometimes very controversial.
As we continued farther into the site, we saw many mosaic tiles and pictures that were spread throughout the site, which are apparently are the main feature of this area, as the gift shop items had many designs of them. Some of the largest mosaics in the area were designed to be part of the baths, with very intricate tile designs that were very well preserved.
After returning back from the site, we visited Piazza Trastevere for dinner. This area was filled with many street performers and artists performing for people seated outside at the restaurants surrounding the area. For dinner, I ordered "linguine with lobster", only to find out after being served an entire lobster that it was not already in the linguine. After everybody ate, we got gelato, and I had finally got to try the pistachio flavor which was definitely a different taste when made into a sort of ice cream, but still very good nonetheless. We then went to see one of the street artists, who had made me a beautiful painting of the Colosseum using only cans of spray paint and fire to quickly dry it.

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After packing up all our things from the hotel room, we boarded the coach bus and headed for Villa Giulia as our last stop before leaving Rome. This villa had a large courtyard and beautiful garden on the outside, with a very nice collection of artifacts within the museum inside. However, one thing that everyone noticed immediately upon entering the museum is that the Star Wars soundtracks from various movies had been playing on the speakers throughout the entire time we were there, which was very unexpected.
An interesting fact about some of the bronze artifacts within the museum, was the addition of a bright blue, almost turquoise colour, which was to show what areas of each piece were reconstructed as opposed to the normal green colour of the bronze. The sarcophagus of the spouses was on display in the center of the museum, and was one thing I was looking forward to seeing there. This etruscan style sarcophagus, although proportionally inaccurate, was very large in size, and showed a display of tenderness between husband and wife.
After departing from the Villa Giulia, we headed to the Rome Termini station, on our way to Naples. Train stations in Rome are extremely busy so it was a rush and an effort to make sure we made the correct train on time.
We got settled into the hotel then went out to explore the area and find a place for dinner. While walking around Naples, we soon realized that not as many spoke english as they did in Rome, and there weren't nearly as many places to shop at in our area. Also, most restaurants in our immediate area were very limited to either pizza or pasta. So it's safe to say we ate a lot of pizza.

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An example of reconstructed bronze areas

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An example of reconstructed bronze areas

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Today was one of the rare less busy days for us, in preparation of going to see Pompeii tomorrow. We boarded the coach bus from the hotel and made our way to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. This museum had many Roman and Greek works of art, most importantly some Roman copies of Greek bronze originals.
Upon entering one of the main areas of the museum, stands the well known statue of the tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogeiton. This is an example of one of the statues that only survives as a Roman marble copy. This statue of the tyrant slayers themselves resides as the centerpiece in a room of many other marble statues.
Continuing on through the museum, we came across marble sculptures of ancient dogs, which were interesting to see as I have never seen these before now and was unaware that they even existed.
Upstairs, I had seen a painting that I was looking forward to visiting on this trip. The painting of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background, with snakes along its sides was much larger than expected, and filled with many intricate details that could only be seen in person. There had also been an exhibit at the museum showcasing underwater style paintings inspired by their ancient originals. For example, the famous Portrait of Terentius Neo was modified in this exhibit to make the couple appear underwater, with their faces covered by scuba gear.
Within the museum gift shop and outside on the streets nearby, many shops sold small keychains, figures, and jewelry based on red peppers. We learned that this was an old myth that red peppers were used to ward off evil spirits.

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After buying groceries yesterday and preparing for a picnic lunch, the group set out to spend the day at the site of Pompeii. A tour guide had come with us to teach more about the site and the locations within it. When approaching the sloped entrance way, small marble round pieces can be seen embedded into the cobblestone road. We learned that marble reflects the moon light, and this was used to guide people along the roads during the night.
The main open area in the forum remains of Pompeii gove a sense of how large the structures in this area would have been. Today, Vesuvius can be seen from almost anywhere within the forum. When looking over the walls, you can get an idea of just how expansive the city was, with the remains of walls and building foundations still standing all throughout the streets.
While being in Pompeii, I expected to see many more of the plaster casts being available to see around the site, however there had only been one near the forum area, being a locked metal gate surrounded by a large amount of pottery, amphora, and modern day coins thrown in. Beside this plaster cast of a cowering man, there was a cast of a baby, as well as a dog within a glass case, which is not something I thought would have survived.
We made our way through a lush garden area and onto the Stabian baths, separated by men's and women's baths respectively which also had changing rooms still as a part of the structure. The floor in these baths was raised in order to allow a method of heating to be added to the hot bathing area, which had been separated from the cooler baths, giving citizens an option to choose between the two.
As the day came to an end, we visited the amphitheater in Pompeii. On the way we noticed many "Italian wall lizards" climbing along the sides of brick walls that we passed along the way. When we arrived there, we were able to enter inside and walk along the bottom of the amphitheater. From the outside it looked extremely large inside, however when walking along the center, the walls seemed to not be as large in comparison, due to many of the stone seats being destroyed and covered in grass.
Our day came to an end as we had a refreshing drink of fresh squeezed orange juice from a vendor, while waiting to board our train back to the hotel.

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Today we visited the site of Herculaneum, which is basically just Pompeii's lesser known yet more well preserved neighbor. The city had been buried under many layers of ash during the eruption, which can now be clearly seen when excavated, showing its layers and how far down the buildings go. As we descended the steps down into the site, we began to take a look at the still surviving and well preserved frescoes that resided within some of the buildings.
We made our way to the very bottom of the site, approaching the boat shelters that would have been built along the beach. Within these shelters were skeletal remains still partially buried in ash. These scenes tell a story and show the struggle of these people trying to survive as they attempted to flee from the eruption. Because no boats were able to exit the bay of Naples due to the tide, these people tried to shelter themselves inside, resulting in their own suffocation. I found this to be the one of the most interesting parts of Herculaneum, as everything is still extremely well preserved and able to give the viewer an unsettling yet accurate perspective of what may have been going through the minds of these people when Vesuvius had erupted.
We later returned to Naples via train and set out to explore the underground beneath the city. As we descended approximately 500 steps into the cool underground, our tour guide had prepared us for what we were going to see. In one area we visited, there was a very large garden set up, keeping live basil plants underground with the correct lighting installed. These plants never needed to be maintained, as the humidity within the cave always kept them watered. These plants also had a noticeably larger size than ones above ground, as they were exposed to cleaner air as opposed to the ones growing in the streets of Naples.
The second part of our journey underground was my favourite. We explored an extremely dark and narrow "dangerous" part of the caves, having to shuffle ourselves between walls that were barely 30cm apart. This part of the tour was pitch black for minutes as we made our way through the passages, even having to leave our bags behind back with the rest of the group. When we reached the end of the narrow passage, we entered a large open area filled with water and high ceilings. Once we finally went back and reunited with the rest of the group, all of us had to climb back up those 500 stairs to return above ground again.

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The boat shelters, filled with people who tried to flee from the eruption 

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The boat shelters, filled with people who tried to flee from the eruption 

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Basil plants growing in Naples' underground 

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Basil plants growing in Naples' underground 

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Today we packed our things from our hotel in Naples and boarded the coach bus headed for Pozzuoli. On the way, we made a quick stop to visit Villa Oplontis. This villa was the summer home to Emperor Nero's wife, and was filled with beautiful frescoes and mosaics. While exploring the rooms there we came across workers who were carefully restoring the mosaic floors, cleaning and carefully placing down one tile piece at a time. As we moved on to more rooms with mosaics, we noticed that there was a trend with the amount of animals that were painted on the walls. In one hall near the back of the villa, there were many tiny and finely detailed animals, bugs, and plants as a design that extended over the entire wall. Outside the surrounding areas of the villa were pomegranate trees that had been growing in the wild, which was super interesting to see. As we prepared to return back to the coach bus, the group stopped for a quick photo near the villa.
The next hotel we arrived at was Hotel La Tripergola in Pozzuoli. This was probably the nicest hotel we stayed at, large rooms and located right beside the beach, with windows that opened up to an amazing view. The rest of the day was spent buying snacks and making our way down to spend a few hours at the beach, before returning to a nice dinner supplied by the hotel. For dinner we had fried zucchini, pasta, fish and salad.

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Today we visited the Cuma archaeological site after meeting up with the same tour guide that previously took us through Pompeii. We made our way up to the very top of the site where we saw the remains of the temple of Jupiter. From this point, we were able to see the remains of parts of the city below. We also went down into the cave of the Sibyl. As we were leaving, we passed by a vineyard that was located just at the base of this site.
After returning back to the hotel, having lunch, and buying groceries for another picnic lunch tomorrow at Sperlonga, we took another train to see more archaeological remains in Pozzuoli. Just near the train station were ruins that we saw, before beginning the large trek up steep roads to make our way up to the Flavian Amphitheatre of Pozzuoli, one of the largest amphitheaters in Italy. At first glance, this amphitheater seemed to be much larger in size compared to the one seen in Pompeii. There were also many grates spread out over the area in order to show what the underground areas where prisoners, performers, and animals would have been kept before a show. As we were about to leave, a man who worked at the site offered to bring us down underneath the amphitheater which was very exciting as we would have not gotten to see below normally. The tunnels underneath the amphitheater circled the entire structure, and were still able to show which areas were used for what, including halls and holding cells. We also learned that a contraption would have been used to raise people and animals to the upper floors.

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Today we left the hotel, on our way to visit the Sperlonga Archaeological Museum, where I was to do my presentation on the Blinding of Polyphemos and Scylla group sculptures which were within the museum. Before we did that, we made our way down the hill into the grotto, where I made my presentation then we went around to see the remains, and made our way over and into a very large cave that was part of the grotto. This cave gave a beautiful view out into the beach area, and the water inside was so clear we could see many of the large fish swimming below.
We made our way back up to the museum, where I had finally gotten to see the large sculptures that I had been excited to be in person. These plaster replications of the originals, which only had broken pieces there, were made in great detail to the originals. Both told stories of Odysseus during his journey, and were intended to give a view of the different sides of his character. The blinding of Polyphemos group told the myth of Odysseus and his crew being trapped in the cave with a cyclops. By making the cyclops drink wine and fall asleep, the crew was able to bring him by ramming a spear into its eye and making their escape. The second group sculpture shows the myth of Odysseus and his crew facing the monster Scylla while on their ship. This sculpture had signatures of the artists carved into the deck of the original.
After taking time to have our picnic lunch and leaving the museum, we boarded the coach bus and headed to  Villa Adriana, or, "Hadrian's Villa".
Villa Adriana was a very large and expansive area filled with different structure of many different uses. Many areas had reflecting pools of water to reflect the ornate gardens and statues that were placed around the gardens.

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On our last day in Italy, we headed out to see the etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, a UNESCO world heritage site.This site was in a very wooded area, with many moths, spiders, and wall climbing lizards around and inside the tombs. Many of these tombs were open for us to explore inside and get a good sense of what they looked like. These tombs were mostly carved in rock and placed above ground, much different than the tombs we would later see at the Tarquinia archaeological site. One of these tombs near the entrance of the site had been very large and spacious with many connected rooms, implying that this tomb may have been intended for an entire family.
When we later visited the Tarquinia Archaeological Site, the first thing I noticed is that there was a very good copy of the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, that we had seen the original of at the Villa Giulia. This site, located in what looked like a large empty field high on a hill, had many spread put tombs that could be entered down into, as they were located underground. These tombs were much different than the onesthat we had seen at the last necropolis. Inside, there were very detailed frescoes painted on the walls, that were still very well preserved, each one giving it's own story or telling a history about the person that was buried there.
Once we left the site, we visited some shops on the street to buy some very beautiful pottery and bronze figurines, based on the Etruscan art of those that we had seen at the National Museum at Cerveteri, earlier in the day.
We all returned on the coach and back to the hotel, where we all had one great final meal together as a group, before getting up early the next morning and making our way to the airport to head back home.