Rome is a larger city than the small part I've see so far. I've mostly seen the interior parts of the ancient Roman city walls. The city does sprawl out farther onto the surrounding hills of Rome.
My High Renaissance art history teacher named Paulo (who is an amazing good teacher and such a fun and informative person), said that the sprawl of the city ruined the hills. We walked up a hill behind The Alter of the Homeland (also known as the wedding cake because it is a white marble building with many layers and tiers), and had a great view of the whole city. Paulo told us all about the history of the Piazza Venezia below. The Via Dei Fori Imperiali was built by Mussolini so he could see the Colosseum from his office in the top floor of the early Renaissance Palazzo Venezia building. He tore down houses and baroque churches to make the road, while also covering part of the un-excavated Roman Forum which remains split by this road today. Along the Via he put four large maps of the Roman empire at various points of it's expansion. However, the maps do not go in chronological order leading to the Colosseum. Instead, they go in order leading to the Piazza Venezia and Mussolini, effectively declaring himself the final part of the Roman Empire's expansion.
Mussolini also decided the hill we walked up was ugly covered in small houses (many historically owned by artists including a good friend of Raphael). This was the hill in the center of Rome where the city started, and he ideally wanted to place a large monument on top. Mussolini "scraped the hill" of the houses and churches, but then funds never fell through for a large monument. Instead, gardens were planted leading up with paths and native species of trees and plants. The gardens actually became a safe haven for the gay community in Rome who Mussolini was persecuting, which Paulo noted was ironic that Mussolini inadvertently created this.
Paulo said that the most beautiful things in life are not necessarily the ones you notice first or are the most flashy. He said "imagine you are at a disco. The loudest and most masculine or the most feminine person at the disco is not the most beautiful person. After a few minutes of talking to them, you can't stand them any more, they are so stupid. The most beautiful person may be the quiet person in the back that you have to look for but they are the best person there". Paulo compared this to architecture. The 1880 Alter of the Homeland building dominates the Piazza. Tourists flock to it, snapping thousands of pictures of the sleek white building with it's sculptures and decoration that looks like icing on a cake. They don't notice the Palazzo Venezia, which is the more beautiful building in Paulo's opinion. The interior courtyard of the Palazzo has a rare example of an 'L' shaped pilaster in the corner. The building is quiet, but unified and unique. It was designed to be on human scale but still present mass and grandeur.
Those were some highlights of my art history class today. I didn't bring my digital camera on our excursion, but pictures of what I experienced today wouldn't do it justice. It was a whole experience looking at these buildings while listening to Paulo explain the history that you could never learn in a textbook.
These are videos from a while ago. The first is from an adventure I went on with some friends to ultimately end at the Colosseum. It gives good examples of what the streets are like in the city here. It also shows the masses of tourists that can be found at the Trevi Fountain at all hours:
This next video was taken on the Temple University trip to Todi in Umbria. Todi is a small hill town in the Province of Umbria, north of Rome. We traveled by bus. I love to watch the landscape pass by on the bus. This video shows the countryside of Italy in this particular area. There is also a part of the video taken from the balcony of a restaurant where we had a 15 course lunch. It was an incredible trip, and Umbria is so beautiful. The view from the balcony looked like a diorama. Everything was so far away, that it looked like it was all on the same 2-D plane. It was a view that looked too incredible to be true. I wished so badly there that I could have had my painting supplies with me.
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