Friday October 10 Journal

Hey folks, ciao and all!

Today was another journey up north. We visited the Ara Pacis here in Rome, what a beautiful building that is! A refreshing upbeat modern contemporary building in the midst of such crowded and congested baroque and renaissance architecture. It sure sticks out like a thumb though, that's for sure; but not sore by any means. It's nice to see some simplicity in design, especially with art. Let the building be a basis, a frame. The artwork inside should be where the attention is drawn, in my opinion. The building of white steel, concrete, sandstone and mostly glass gave an ora pleasant to the mind. Finding the alter dedicated to the legend of the one and only Augustus, was extraordinary. The opportunity to walk around this extravagance was an experience to say the least. I was thrilled when I saw the intricate artwork that was involved in such a process, and that I got to see this first hand. To think of Rome as such an advanced society for its time, I'm pleased to learn from them. As an American I have realized how much we've taken away from the Roman republic, kingdom and empire. Our nation's senate takes note from the Roman law, as well as our overall justice system.

The thrills didn't stop here, for we visited a villa that used to belong to a Pope turned museum and tourist attraction. The beauty of the villa was only compared in quality with the amount of artifacts preserved in such amazing condition that they're still enjoyable over 2000 years later. It's honestly hard to believe that such a civilization would leave behind so many relics for our generation and civilization to discover and learn from. What will we leave behind? I can see it now; someday the Iphone 6 will be behind some shield and preserved on display for beings to stare at and take futuristic photographs of. Maybe they'll take art history classes on grafitti and street art, which we seem to leave behind more than footprints. Rome is plastered with the stuff, and after awhile it actually begins to grow on you; though I have no idea what it means less than a tenth of the time. As I lay here on my bed blogging to you, the window to the street is open, and the white silk curtains blow to and fro mildly with the hot humid wind from the Roman air. We're not too far from a wonderful gelataria, and a restaurant with the greatest homemade pasta and delicious house wine cheaper than 10 Euro, and worth more than $20.00 American easy. Though our challenges of art history comprehension are coming to a gliding finish to understanding, it will be nice to have another topic to study. As a man who has very few lessons in art history under my belt; this experience was definitely shell shock.Well, all in all its a learning experience and that's what this trip is all about.

Until next time, stay classy.

LS