Day 1: Imperial Forums and Capitoline
Ancient:
Imperial Forums: What do they show about about ancient Rome? About the Imperial period of ancient Roman history? Why were they built (mostly) in the first century?
Capitoline Hill: Statue of Marcus Aurelius etc. What was the importance of the Capitoline Hill among the ancient pagans?
Renaissance (Christian):
Campidoglio: Designed by Michelangelo. What are the most important elements of its design and decoration? Do they suggest any of the themes generally associated with the Renaissance?
Modern:
Monument to Victor Emmanuel (“the Wedding Cake”): What are its main characteristics? Are they in any way reflective of the values of modern Italy?
Piazza Madonna dei Monti: What is this lively piazza like? What does it suggest about the lives or values of modern Romans? How would it be different in an earlier age?
Day 2:
Ancient:
Coliseum: Describe it, your impressions of it, or the characteristic activities that took place there.
Someone might say the Flavians built it because they loved the people and wanted them to be happy. Do you agree?
What does the Coliseum have to do with Nero's Golden House?
Capitoline Museum:
Why even have a museum devoted to art from or related to ancient Rome? Were there such museums in, say, the 14th century? Why not?
Christian:
Churches on Scavenger Hunt
Coliseum consecrated as a church. Why were later Christians inclined to turn the Coliseum into a holy place? Was it useful only as an impressive space, or did it have symbolic value?
Coliseum as a family fortress in the dark days of the middle ages; Coliseum as a quarry
Modern:
Tourists and Gladiators at Coliseum; tourists on Scavenger Hunt
Mussolini excavates the Imperial Forums and builds Via dei Fori Imperiali
Day 3:
Ancient:
The Roman Forum
Ostia Antica
Christian:
Churches built into Roman temples and into Senate House
Fort built by Julius II at Ostia
Modern:
Life is a beach (the beach at Ostia)
Day 4:
Ancient:
Augustus and Ara Pacis
Augustus and Mausoleum of Augustus
Hadrian and his Mausoleum; its history
Christian:
Hadrian’s Mausoleum becomes the Castel S. Angelo
The story of the angel; the uses of the castle in Christian times especially by popes (recall the wall connecting the Vatican with the Castel S. Angelo)
St. Peter’s Basilica, the papacy as an institution, and its foundation on S. Peter
Modern:
Mussolini excavates the Ara Pacis, “restores” the Mausoleum, and builds Piazza Augusteo Imperatore
The Lateran Pacts and creation of Vatican City
Day 5: Galleria Borghese
Ancient:
Recall the themes of some of the statues and works of art in the Gallery
(Aeneas and Anchises, Pluto and Proserpina, etc.)
Christian:
Baroque art (esp Bernini and Caravaggio)
What are some of the main subjects of Christian art?
Modern:
What was the villa of a single family is now a public park (with zoo)
Day 6:
Ancient:
Sculptures in Vatican Museums: Augustus Prima Porta, Laocöon, Apollo Belvedere etc.
Busts of admired heroes of antiquity
Christian:
Caravaggio on Peter and Paul
Julius II, Renaissance recovery of Classical works (both literary and artistic), Renaissance frescoes in “Raphael Rooms” and Sistine Chapel (what themes?)
Modern:
Hordes of people eager to walk through the museums (or merely to say they did?)
Day 7: Orvieto
Ancient:
The Etruscans who preceded and fought with Rome
Christian:
Small town, big church; the themes of the Chapel of S. Brizio; the story of the miracle of Bolsena; the Bible stories carved on the church façade
The flight to Orivieto of Clement VII in 1527 during the Sack of Rome and his building of the well of St. Patrick
Modern:
Orvieto Classico
Day 8:
Ancient:
Theater of Pompey and assassination of Julius Caesar
Pantheon, former use of Piazza Navona
Christian:
Pantheon as Church, S. Maria Sopra Minerva (with Michelangelo’s “Christ Bearing the Cross” and the trial of Galileo), Caravaggio’s three paintings of Matthew
Bernini’s St. Theresa in Ecstasy and two very different Baroque churches (the colorful S. Maria della Vittoria and Borromini’s S. Carlino)
Modern:
Aldo Moro and the Red Brigades, the statue of Giordano Bruno, the every-day vitality of Campo dei Fiori
Day 9:
Ancient:
Still functioning underground reservoir of the Second Parthian Legion in Albano; the real or alleged site of Alba Longa founded by Anchises, the son of Aeneas, birthplace of Romulus and Remus, later conquered and destroyed by Rome, Nero again (and his treatment of Peter)
Christian:
Julius II, Michelangelo’s statue of Moses to be part of his funeral memorial, the story of St. Peter in chains, the College of Engineering takes over the monastery, Constantine’s Arch (was he fighting for Christianity?), the three levels of S. Clemente, an apse mosaic, the Cyrillic alphabet invented to help spread Christianity, a part of Vatican city at Castelgandolfo
Modern:
Enjoying a glass of wine on the piazza, a bride’s first cigarette
Day 10: Monte Cassino and Sperlonga
Ancient:
Marc Antony had an estate at Cassino; Tiberius a villa at Sperlonga
Christian:
St. Benedict’s abbey at Monte Cassino and the spread of Christianity throughout Europe
Modern:
WW II in Italy: the fall of Mussolini in August 1943, the occupation of Italy by German troops, the Allied landings to drive the Germans north, the four battles at Monte Cassino (Jan – May, 1944), the price of war and the necessities of war
Day 11:
Ancient:
Nothin’!
Christian:
The effort of S. Thomas Aquinas to reconcile the pre-Christian philosophy of Aristotle with Christian teachings: Might faith and reason be harmonious?
The aesthetic of Santa Sabina: how different from the Baroque!
Modern:
Attacks on Christianity (and faith in general) by (some) proponents of modern science or modern rationalism (Voltaire, Freud, and contemporary authors like C. Hitchens and Richard Dawkins). Science v. the Catholic Church in Angels and Demons
Modern Art: its subjects and its techniques. Is it a reflection of the modern secular age?
Day 12:
Modern: Garibaldi, the Risorgimento, and the birth of modern Italy.
Day 13:
Review your quizzes!
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