The apartment where I am staying for 4 months is in one of the best possible locations in Rome. Right on the Piazza Navona, the apartments are owned by my study abroad program, and about two-thirds of the students in my program opted to live in them. They are dorm-style apartments, with double or triple rooms and a common room, a kitchen, common bathrooms including 3 showers, and a laundry room. The rooms came with linens and a towel, which was nice space-saver for my suitcase (although I am happy that I was able to bring a second towel and a washcloth).
The Piazza Navona is built directly on top of the Stadium of Domitian, which was used for chariot races in ancient Roman times. The Piazza today still maintains the ancient shape of the racecourse.
Facing the Piazza is Sant' Agnese in Agone, named after Saint Agnes, who was murdered in the ancient stadium. In agone refers not to the word "agony" but rather to a greek word meaning "in the site of the competitions," or the stadium of Domitian. The church was built in 1657 by Francesco Borromini, one of the great baroque architects of Rome.
The center of the Piazza Navona features a wonderful fountain by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, known as the Fountain of the Four Rivers. According to legend, one of the figures in the fountain was built to look like it was cowering in front of Sant' Agnese on purpose, because Bernini and Borromini were great rivals. This is a fun book about the great rivalry between the two great architects if you're interesting in knowing more.
Today we had our first real class- our cartography class. I had assumed that this class would be about drawing maps, but instead it is about reading, interpreting, and following them. Our first assignment was a wayfinding assignment, where we were given a point A and a point B and expected to find our way between them. During the short lecture that followed, we began to discuss the history of Rome and how that shaped the architecture and social fabric of Rome. I'm very excited about this class- it seems to be a combinations of a lot of the geography classes that I have taken in the last few semesters, with a little bit of my ancient Roman Empires class thrown in. The class involves a Tuesday lecture and a Thursday walking tour where we actually get to see the lecture in real life! The professor runs a consortium/studio known as Studium Urbis, which is an interesting overview of what I think that the class will entail.
The room where the cartography lectures take place is very close to the Campo dei Fiori, a fantastic daily open air market, full of fresh produce grown locally, and of course trinkets for tourists. The food is delicious and very reasonable priced- I can tell that I will be stopping here quite frequently!
Today ended with a casual sight-seeing tour of North Rome, including the Piazza del Popolo, the Borghese Gardens (see picture above), the Spanish steps, and of course a stop at a caffè for some cappucino.
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