Tarquinia, l'Infiorata, and Aqueducts

Being in the American Academy's summer program is an indescribable experience, and I don't think any number of blog posts will be sufficient to give you a proper idea of what we are really doing.  Each site that we have visited is thought-provoking enough to deserve its own post, but I simply cannot devote that amount of time to blogging.  Imagine it this way: in nearly ever place that we have visited we have been guided by a professional classicist or archaeologist who has spent a great portion of their life studying and being at each individual site!  I can hardly come close to representing that amount of depth in photographs and blog posting.  But despite it all, bear with me and I hope you enjoy what you are seeing and reading.

The first two photographs are of underground tombs in Tarquinia, and ancient Etruscan site north of Rome.  The Etruscans were the people that, in many ways, preceded and anticipated the Romans.  They spoke a strange, non Indo-European language, and had a culture that we still largely do not understand to this day.  In particular, what remains of the Etruscans is their necropoleis - literally "cities of the dead."  They created vast underground structures that mimic houses with banquet rooms, armor rooms, etc.  One that I saw even had what appears to be a fake well, and some of them wind on into underground chambers that are quite fun to explore :)  The first two photographs show two tombs at Tarquinia, and you can see particularly the wall paintings that still survive intact on the sides of the tombs there.  The fifth photo from the top was taken at another Etruscan site, Cerveteri, and some of us decided that in order to really feel Etruscan we should recline on the tomb couches; and then we decided to act like zombies, since there would have been real dead people down here posed as though they were still living.

The third and fourth pictures are from the city of Genzano in the Alban hills south of Rome, very close to Lake Nemi.  After viewing the Museo delle Navi (which is a story I will have to save for another time), we drove into Genzano to get lunch - which, I should add, was absolutely amazing.  I had some wonderful cannelloni.  Anyway, after lunch I was walking up one of the streets of the town and I noticed some chalk markings in the road (see the fourth picture).  I also saw a museum, and as I started walking toward the museum two Italians, a man and a woman, jumped up from the nearby coffee bar, ran to me, and started ushering me into the Museo dell'Infiorata.  I was taken aback by their enthusiasm, as the woman began explaining to me in much-too-quick Italian what the museum was all about and the man attempted to translate whatever words into English he could.  As it turns out, during the first week of June every year, which is in Italy a Catholic festival called Corpus Domini, artists from all over Italy flock to the tiny town of Genzano to do one amazing thing: paint the streets with flowers.  The streets of Genzano become entirely covered with flowers arranged in striking mosaics, and the town celebrates religious dignitaries along with whatever Corpus Domini is about (something to do with the wafers believed to turn into the body of Christ, I think).  Anyway, the museum and the city were absolutely beautiful and I really want to come back to Genzano during the first week of June sometime to see l'Infiorata for myself.  The gigantic rose, by the way, was meant to be the entrance to the museum but the locals decided that they didn't want to damage it and moved it to the back.  I thought the rose was really cool, so I took that picture to remember it.

Finally, the last picture was taken in the Park of the Aqueducts on the way home from Genzano.  The aqueduct in the picture is the Aqua Claudia - Anio Novus, begun around 38 AD and completed in 52 by the emperor Claudius.  The aqueducts were really awesome in person.  Aqueducts are the most visible and widespread symbol of Roman-ness.  The Greek geographer Strabo, I think, said that the three greatest things to come from Rome were the aqueducts, the roads, and the sewers.  I definitely agree with him.  In order to get water to the city from the Alban hills and other places, the Romans had to calculate with a great deal of accuracy the appropriate angle and rate of decline - too much and the water will develop too much pressure and cause damage to the city (which did happen), and too little and the water will only be at a drip (and might possibly be stagnant) by the time it gets to the city.  The amazing thing is that they accomplished all of these calculations with basically a piece of wood, string, and a rock.  Many of the aqueducts, including one that I saw, still contain flowing water, and in fact many of the ancient aqueducts have been refitted by modern Rome and still provide running water for the city's numerous fountains and drinking spots.

Ok, enough for today.  I hope everyone is well and I will post more soon!  Ciao!