CET Student Correspondent News: Umbilicus Urbis Romae

In mid-February we spent three days in Italy's capital city on a traveling seminar. From Audrey Hepburn to Lizzy McGuire, we've long been inundated with cliches about living la dolce vita. Finding ourselves in the dead center of Rome's 'umbilicus urbis' (literally Rome's belly button) in the place to which "all roads lead", and wanting to "fare come fanno i romani" (do as the Romans do), we turned to our resident blogger, Hannah Rogers, for a list of the top five when-in-Rome tips, which we have we extracted from her entries (which you can read in full here):

5. Get a Roma Pass
"the best deal if you ever visit Rome and want to see all of the museums and use the public transportation". 


4. Forget sex on the beach, 
              have a Vestal Virgin on the rocks.  

Our professoressa, Alexandra Massini, is the most intelligent person I have ever met. She is a licensed tour guide for the entire city, wrote this guidebook, speaks five languages fluently and is working on her second PhD. Basically, we could not have asked for a better tour guide of the Roman forum,  the center of Roman public life, the site of elections, public speeches, gladiatorial matches, commercial affairs and the heart of ancient Rome. This was the most important stretch of real estate in the Western World. Now, it is just bunch of rocks, but it was interesting to imagine the temples and buildings that existed during the peak of the Roman empire. The most interesting section of the Forum was the House of the Vestal Virgins, which was the model for medieval convents and monasteries. Chosen from noble families before they reached the age of 10, the six Vestal Virgins served a 30-year term during which they were honored and revered by the Romans. They took a vow of chastity and their main duty was to keep the fire in the Temple of Vesta burning. As long as the sacred flame burned, Rome would stand. If the Vestal served her term faithfully, she was given a huge dowry and allowed to marry. If they found any Virgin who wasn’t, or if a Vestal let the fire go out, she was buried alive. How crazy is that!?!


See Hannah's slideshow of Ancient Rome here


3. Cliches are cliches for a reason, 
    the Sistine Chapel actually is amazing.
A fresco is the art of painting on freshly spread, moist plaster with water-based pigments, so that when the plaster dries, the painting is a part of the wall and when executed correctly, will last forever. It took Michelangelo four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and it took eight years to clean all of the smoke, soot and candle wax that had accumulated after centuries of use. The restoration is still controversial in Italy and both sides believe their opinion strongly. Some believe that the restoration greatly enhanced the fresco, while others believe it destroyed the nuances of Michelangelo’s work. I am not entirely sure what I think. The Last Judgment was my favorite part of the entire chapel, especially since there are three hundred portraits included in the fresco, and not one of them resembles another. Impressive indeed. I could talk about this forever. 

Also check out the Borghese Gallery! Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio. This museum was beautiful. My favorites were Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, the Rape of Proserpine, and most of the paintings by Caravaggio.

See Hannah's Vatican slideshow here

2. It's okay to be a tourist 
                     (and for a good cause!)

Becky, Kendall, Lauren J., Lauren M., Hannah, plus Shannon (VU '10)

By throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain over your left shoulder, legend has it that you will return to Rome. Also, all of the coins collected in the Trevi fountain are used to help feed the hungry and poor in Rome. An estimated $4000 (3000 euros) are thrown into the Trevi Fountain each day and collected each night.












5. Weigh in (literally) on the best gelato:

photo cred

The two oldest gelato establishments in Rome compete over who has the better recipe. The owners of San Crispino are considered gelato “purists.” They only use ingredients that are in season and will only serve their gelato in cups because they believe that cones interfere with the natural taste of the gelato. Whatever works. I had the cioccolata fondente (dark chocolate) and carmello (caramel). Giolitti serves 50 different flavors, in cups AND cones, with a delicious whipped cream on top. It is definitely the better of the two. Since I was already so full of chocolate, I had the lampone (raspberry), mandarino (mandarin), and banana (same spelling as english). They were DELICIOUS and the most amazing gelato I have had in Italy, so far. I would go back to Rome for the day just to get gelato from Giolitti. 




Hannah Rogers, 
CET Student Correspondent 
Spring 2011