Doing Rome

In class this week, Professor Ammerman summed up our recent trip to Rome and Pompeii quite well.  “So we just spent about 30 hours of class time in the past week.  That is time in front of the particular sites, without counting the walking to and from.  That is what you would have at Colgate in 10 weeks of a 3 hours a week class.   So this was good.  Now you can say you did Rome; you did Pompeii.  We like this.”

 

Of course we hit the expected sites of the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the houses and brothels of Pompeii, and the Pantheon, and even visited some more obscure sites like the Villa Oplontis, Theater of Marcellus, and the Crypt of Balbi.  Each student prepared a presentation for a different site in Rome for which we focused on the archeological and historical significance of a monument, each surviving to varying degree.

 

 

 

But seeing the sites, even with a noted expert as a guide, could not truly qualify as doing Rome as Professor Ammerman had in mind.  He decided to bring us to the setting of an amusing story about his archeology in the city.  To that end, we gathered on the side of the Capitoline hill examining volcanic tuft, a Roman building block, and Professor prefaced his next move by telling us to act as though we belong. 

 

He led us across the street and through a group of repairmen to go up a flight of stairs into the police headquarters.  Despite our best efforts to belong, the profusion of bright colored raincoats and handbags, among other such cultural clues, betrayed that we were likely not officers of the law.  So three big uniformed men stopped Professor in the hallway and called their superior.  As Professor explained himself to the police, we gave up hope of belonging, and instead focused our attention on the statue of Romulus and Remus feeding from a she-wolf.

 

When the supervisor finally arrived, he brought us through the hallway to a courtyard and took Professor into his office, leaving the eleven of us to play telephone under the supervision of a uniformed officer in his squad car.  Professor later relayed that the supervisor dismissed his assistants and only then revealed his own interest in archeology and hinted at his own work.  When the pair finally remerged into the courtyard where Professor had cored years before, the supervisor led us under the station to show us Professor’s discovery of the Temple of Deified Augustus.  The supervisor then led us into the next room and revealed a corner of the structure which he had found himself; such novice excavations are technically illegal. 

 

So we saw how Italy works under the table, and did ancient Rome in the process.  So this was good.

 

A piu tardi!

 

Ciao.

 

Andy