Week 3 Photo Recap

Day 11-15 photo recap

Day 9+10: Ostia, Trastevere, and partay!

Tuesday we went to the Ostia, a ruin of a city dated back years and years ago where many things took place that basically initiated the formation of Rome. The cobblestone road made our walking quite tiresome but it is really interesting to see different architecture techniques. The genius of the people 2000 years ago still carries down to present-day civilization.

Joe and Naomi posing

Francis and JT gave great presentation about the Ostia.

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To celebrate Francis finishing off his presentation, we decided to go out and drink that night!

We had some drink at the Campo then headed to an Irish bar not far away. We took shots and drink cocktails and DANCE! Apparently the DJ sucked so DJ FRANCIS decided to take over the DJ booth. I didn't really know what exactly happen since I was chatting happily with my friend Joey, Andy Yoon and a guy named Erik from U of Miami outside the bar. But I do have a picture of Francis singing at the DJ booth. Gosh...it is such a joy to see Francis being tipsy and fuzzy!

And of course I got pretty fuzzy myself. Not really drunk though. The Liu family can REALLY drink :P Many fun things happened and many hilarious things were said and performed. In short, it was a fun night.

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For some reason a Cappucino Fredo in the morning makes me feel just great...(especially in a morning after partying and drinking last night!)

Today (Wednesday) we went to the Trastevere, which literarily means "across the Tiber River". It is actually an area southwest of Campo di Fiori, where we live, and it's only a ten-minutes walk to go across the river. Trastevere consists of a large population of Jews. We ran into a building where there was a memorial sign for them, who were captured in the area and sent to concentration camp.

Out of 1500 people less than 1% of them survived. How sad. It was also interesting to see old temples being repurposed into churches.

The Trastevere is a beautiful area. It is greener than within the river, and it is less touristy. I definitely want to try some of the restaurants there. Anyone interested joining me?

We visited the church of Saint Cecilia, who apparently invented the organ instrument. Sculptor Mendora was there when people opened the coffin, where St Cecilla's body was still intact. He was moved and made an beautiful sculpture just as what the body looks like. That sculture was shown in the church. 

After visiting one more church we started walking uphill (or uphell......so hot!) and saw the beautiful Fountain Acqua Paola

then even more uphill to see the entire landscape view of Rome. It was just "ginormerously" beautiful.

We also went to the site where St. Peter was prosecuted and crucified upside-down. There is tiny but solemn temple built for him there. 

It is also a church where I see inscription in Bodoni! Since modern typeface was not popular until around 1800, we can kinda guess how old the church is.

On the way home we stopped by a gelato place. My blackberry gelato was apparently the gelato of the day!

In the afternoon and at night we had work session. We basically chose some pictures we like, edited them if needed and print them out for critique at later days. Many of us went to this seafood restaurant. I had speghetti with clams. It was a bit oily but still delicious! Besides I need some fat. I can't weight 140lb forever.

I eat to feel happy.

Day 8: Early christian churches, crit & bad waitress

Today went by pretty fast. In the morning the gang headed to some early Christian Churches: 

_Santa Maria Maggiore

Though a gorgeous church, they just put those janitorial stuff right by Bernini's Tomb! That's so bad. Chris (our professor) loves Bernini. I wonder he noticed that or not.

_Santa Pressede (unfortunately closed today)
_San Pudenziana

Those two churches anamed after a pair of sibling share similar stories, where both of used their home to hide Christians from the genocide taking place in Rome. Unfortunately, both of them were unsuccessful.

After the critique for our poster project many of us went to dinner in Governo Viechi (The Govener's Street), which has overtime become a hip and young street right next to Plaza Navona. There are some great restaurant there, but we stumped upon an just-okey-ish one called Mimi e Coco, where the server is just unprofessional and un-Roman-ish. She gave us all these bread but did NOT give us any place for oil and vinegar. As designers we decided to use the ashtray as the plate.....sounds gross but we were unabashedly creative! The thing is that the waitress seemed gross out too and still did NOT give us any plates. Well, if you see that maybe you SHOULD  give us some freaking plates you twit! Though the food got good reviews from my friends, it didn't really catch my heart.

But I had some good gelato (Pineapple flavor) afterwards. That's the savor of the day.

Did I mention the waitress kinda stinks too?

Day 7: First Sunday in Rome

It is the first Sunday at Rome. I set my alarm clock at 7am in order to get up and go to Porta Portese Market (supposedly the largest sunday market in Europe). However the god of sleepness defeats the god of curiosity/exploration. When I woke up it is already noon....Well, next Sunday it is

I went to lunch with Francis, Joey, Yoon and Andy. On the way we ran into Chris (our professor) and apparently there is a potluck at the girls' apartment. After having some pizza we all went shopping for food.

At night we all head to the girl's apartment with our contributions. I brought some blood orange juice, and Francis and Joey brought ingredient for Pomodoro Bruschetta. It was like a festival at the apartment. Everyone was so busy cooking and preparing! Yoon prepared speghetti Carbonara and it was just heaven. The Pomodoro Bruschetta was delicious as well. It was a wonderful dinner--with great food, great people and great spirit.

It's now 12 o'clock at night. There is an assignment due tomorrow and I am procrastinating by writing a blog entry...haha.

It's a great day.

Roma Expedition!

Traveling is stressful, and thank god I am finally in Rome! I spend 2 weeks traveling in some major european cities such as London and Amsterdam before joining 17 amazing people to spend 5 weeks in Rome for the U of W Design Program Exploration Seminar . For 5 weeks there are studio time for design projects, journal writing assignment and for sure some extensive walking, all happening in the one and the only Rome. Surreal isn't it!