Travels Around Roma Part VII: Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Mirafiori

Here are some more travels around Rome. Even though these visits are all out of chronological order, here they are anyways. First off is the Trevi Fountain. This of course is the famous Baroque fountain by Bernini himself (Rome's most famous architect and sculptor) and is truly breathtaking. It features Oceanis, the god of all water, and is the terminus of the Aqua Virgo, the only aqueduct line still remaining from ancient Rome (all others were destroyed by the Goths in 537 C.E.). There are other figures in the fountain all with historical/mythological significance, but Oceanis (not Triton) and other mythical figures riding winged horses and blowing conches is definitely the main attraction. At night it's even more amazing than the day. Truly breathtaking.

First up is the Pantheon. Most people think of Greece, but there is something called the Pantheon in Rome. But what is the Pantheon you say? Well the Pantheon is an ancient Roman pagan temple completed in (as my internet source says) 27 B.C.E. It was rebuilt in 125 C.E. and of course it was converted to a church in 609. Paganism isn't that big in Rome where everyone is Catholic, so that's no surprise. For more info and better pictures than what I took go here. More on the Pantheon below...

Next up is the Trevi Fountain, which is ALWAYS packed. There are tourists around it all the time. The tradition goes that if you throw a coin over your head with your back to the fountain you will return to Rome. All the masses of coins in the Trevi fountain are donated to charity. Before Italy converted to the Euro, the lira were magnetic and this homeless man famously used a magnet to fish out the coins. But the story goes that he stayed homeless because he helped other homeless people and used the money for the greater good of others. Well he was caught and banned from the fountain and now Euro coins are non-magnetic anyways. It looks like times have changed.

Third is Mirafiori. This isn't exactly the tourist landmark of Rome, but its a nice park on the North East side of Rome near Piazza Bologna. I volunteered for an English conversation class and there is an extension of La Sapienza University (the biggest university in Europe, which is in Rome and was originally built by Mussolini). I'm pretty sure this extension only teaches language mediation, because those are all the classes I saw there. That and literature classes for other languages. All of my students were language mediation majors and a lot of them were also studying German, Spanish, English, and some other languages. It was really interesting and fun to talk to Italian students my age (in English, because I would get lost in Italian) and see what life is like from a Roman point of view (and a lot of students commuted to Rome from towns in the Lazio region). It also feels cool to be revered for speaking English and helping others out. And believe it or not most Roman students don't speak Cali English. Shocking. More on Mirafiori down below...

Here is a window from slightly outside the Pantheon. If you look closely you can see ancient Roman ruins through the reflection. These king of things are kind of common in Rome. In Largo Argentina, for example, there is a tram line that runs right next to ancient Roman ruins that are sequestered off. Once you live there you get used to it. There are also remnants of the Acqua Virgo around Rome, and ancient Rome still breathes heavily in modern Rome.

In case you don't know, the Pantheon is a perfect hemisphere with a hole in the roof. And almost everything is marble. The walls and floor are marble but the roof is not. And by marble I mean the most exquisite and elegant and expensive marble knows to the ancient Romans. For the floor alone different types and color marbles were imported from Greece, different parts of the Italian peninsula, and literally from the whole Mediterranean. And this was in ancient Rome nonetheless. Of course the Roman Empire conquered all of the Mediterranean at the time, so that helped. All around the wall are extremely significant tombs, sculptures, paintings, etc. Here is one of them. You can even notice the different colors and types of marbles on the walls.

When I said that the Pantheon is significant, this applies to all of Italy and not just Rome. That's because the grave the Vittorio Emanuelle II himself is here. He of course was the first president of modern Italy in 1870. Basically he's the modern day George Washington for Italy. Here is his grave, which of course under his name says Father of the Country. The picture is a little blurry but I tried using my camera with the indoor setting and that was a mistake. This is the best I got. Oh well...

Here are some of the insciptions on the marble next to his grave. I can't really make them out because they are in Latin (you can tell by using the letter V instead of U), but I thought they were pretty cool. You also see a lot of these in Rome, so if you go brush up on your Latin.

What other all-star cast in buried in the Pantheon? Why none other than the famous artist Raphael himself. Who is Raphael you say? Well he was an artist during the Italian High Renaissance, a true genius as they say, and like many important men (Caesar, Augustus, Bernini, he went by one name). That's enough for me. He is buried here, and you can see his name on his tomb below.

Here is his tomb a little below ground level. The picture above is a magnification of the rectangular tomb. For a better picture but without the nice lighting of this picture, look to the next pic.

Here is another view of Raphael's tomb, which was taken out of the ground and verified in the 1800s to make sure he was actually in the tomb. In the Pantheon there is a poster telling people this and a reproduction of a painting showing the moment his tomb was taken out. The Pantheon looked exactly the same in the painting as it does now. Indeed, the Pantheon is timeless.

The Pantheon is famous for its roof. It's roof is a perfect hemisphere shape with hole right in the middle letting in sunlight. You can tell the time of day from where the light shines on the roof if you want. Many pictures of Italy show this shot and its worth it to see in person. Pretty amazing. But what happens if it rains? Well the rain actually goes into the Temple, but the ancient Romans built the floor slightly convex so the rain eventually goes into the sides. I missed going to the Pantheon while it was raining, but I heard it was an amazing sight to see. It's also worth noting that the ancient Romans built a massive temple in the shape of a perfect hemisphere with of course ancient technology. The story goes that Romans in the Middle Ages simply looked and Pantheon and had no idea how to build it because the building methods were lost. That and the imported exotic marble from far across and Mediterranean make the Pantheon a keeper in my book. If only it didn't have so many tourists though...

Now we get to the Trevi Fountain. La Fontana di Trevi, as it is called, is worth flying into Ciampino or Fiumicino airport at 6am tomorrow to go see. I would do that if I could. Here is one of the best pictures ever taken by man. It is of one of the men with his winged horse blowing on his conch. That and the waterfall perfectly falling into the water make the Trevi quite beautiful.

Here is a more zoomed-out view of the Pantheon. No more commentary needed for this one.

Another view of the Trevi, with a clear view of Oceanis himself. He has some sort of rod in his hand, and even my Urban History professor didn't know what it is when she was describing the Trevi Fountain for the class. The inspiration for this? I say yes...

And a zoomed-out view of the above picture. I'm not done with the Trevi yet...

Here is another view of the waterfall in the Trevi, which I really like. I would like Bernini to be resurrected and make me a Trevi 2.0 Fountain in my backyard. Being in Rome made me realize the things I really want in my backyard like the la fontana di Trevi, il Colosseo, la piazza di San Pietro, etc. It could happen...

And one more picture of the Trevi using the blue-green color function of my camera. As a final note you can notice the different types of columns such as the Doric and Corintheon columns, and the rocky motif that accompanies the fountain. Other buildings around the Trevi also have the rocky motif, which is pretty cool. When I return I want to actually swim in the Trevi fountain. Maybe at 5am if nobody is there...

Now on to Mirafiori. This is less about the pictures and more about the experience of teaching an English conversation class in Rome. When I first got there I had some time to spare and I went with my camera. I was surprised to see bamboo trees in Rome. They are pretty rigid and since it rained earlier if you shook them water drops came down. Needless to say I shook a lot of trees like a kid in a candy shop.

Another picture of the bamboo trees. Then I met some talking pandas and we had lunch at this really good Chinese restaurant in the middle of the Colosseum. Apparently Roman pandas speak fluent Italian and can even understand my Italian. Who knew?

Okay here is the actual school. There was a movement in the early 20th century to go away from the common marble and travertine look and go to more earthy terra cotta looks and colors. And mirafiori got this treatment. You can see the fascist architecture by the repetition of rectangles and arches, although there is no giant M in the building. I taught my class on the other side of the building, and it was a unique and interesting, not to mention fun, experience.

What is English conversation class like in Rome? My program offered us a volunteer option to sign up to teach these classes, and I couldn't resist. I taught my classes in the evenings with my friend Geleen. There was no lesson plan or script to the class. I winged all of it as I went along. The students there were taking it for some credit but no grade, so all they did was sign in and then just talk. Basically every class started with me introducing myself as a student studying abroad from California. Then I made everyone introduce themselves every class (they hated this because by the third week I knew the familiar faces), but oh well since I'm one of the teachers. Usually my and my friend split the class up after initial introductions so we could get as many students to talk. Believe it or not, Italian students aren't exactly inclined to speak English when they get credit just for showing up. So every class started with me saying "What did you do during your weekend?" and them saying "Not much." I taught two classes in a row and by the second class a lot of people left or didn't show up, so the class was small and we could talk about other stuff like politics, gay rights, cultural differences, etc.

What I learned is that nobody likes Burlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy. He owns multiple TV channels and newspapers and thus controls the media more or less. He hires cronies in political power and is trying to change the constitution so he can stay in power forever. He is the second richest man in Italy (behind the guy who owns the chocolate company that makes Nutella and Ferrero Rocher) and he also publicly cheats on his wife and publicizes this. I was told that imagine if Obama did this and got away with it, then you would hate your president too (even though Burlusconi is not the President, he still has a lot of power).

I also found out that some people hate the Pope and the Vatican in general because they hold too much political power, are racist, don't support equal rights, have too much money and political power, and brainwash the masses. Some of these are actually true to certain extents, but how much I don't really know.

I also found out that Roman students have pretty much the same life as I do. Which involves studying and going to school and then maybe going out once or twice during the weekend to have a little fun, and then repeating the week. I always started the class off by asking people what they did during the weekend, and I got a lot of short terse answers because of either "nothing much" or some variation of that. I also found out that American English is a lot easier to understand than British English. What I heard is that when you watch an American movie you can understand like 90% of it but when you watch a British movie you need Italian subtitles or else you are completely lost. I guess American English is pretty trashy, and I agree. Its not exactly Shakespearean English.

One of my students was a rapper (with his own self-made "album" and he said he has listened to a lot of Eminem, especially when the Marshall Mathers LP came out. Overall the class was pretty fun to each because people actually look up to you for speaking English when you dont even have to think about it. I started correcting people's mistakes a lot and they told me I was "good" so I guess I did an okay job. And I also tried teaching Cali slang like "later...", "sup?", "cuz" but that didn't really work out too well. I also got some funny mistakes like instead of turning on the TV you put yourself in the TV, or something like that. People also made their grocery shopping (a direct translation from Italian) and made their exercise instead of going to exercise. They said that next to Japanese Italian is the hardest language to learn all the way through because there are about 20 different tenses and even native Italian speakers don't know them. It was funny to learn that since all the clubs are 18+, the clubs are open in the afternoon for the teenagers like 13-15 and then the clubs open up for the regulars on Saturday night. One of my students said that you come out of the club at 4am while they come out of the club at 4pm. Then I asked the class if they did that back in the day, and they all laughed and said they had too much pride to do that. There was also one time when the class demanded that I speak Italian to say what I did during my second travel break, and I agreed. Of course I used really simple past tense and all I said is that I visited this, I saw that, and I forgot a lot. Then when I made one mistake, literally everyone yelled the correct verb at me all at once. It was a little scary.

They also said people will look at you funny when you use formal Italian instead of informal, which might have been useful to me earlier because I thought it was good to use formal sometimes to be polite. But apparently if you're not talking to someone really important it doesn't really matter. NOW I know that...