Rome via Brooklyn

367 words, 2 minute read time.

A mostly indoors and air-conditioned class, I thought I’d never see the day. The Ara Pacis is another one of those objects that I spent hours learning about in a classroom, I can’t believe how lucky I am that I saw it in person. Anything involving the emperor Augustus is automatically interesting to me; I enjoy learning about his life like it’s a terrible reality show where everyone is awful. I’m still reeling from that insane family tree backstory. I need a “Keeping Up with the Julio-Claudians” show right now.

Every little detail of this structure is so cool! I also really need to find more adjectives; I already abuse a thesaurus for words to use in my titles, I should’ve been using it to find synonyms for “cool” and “incredible” (do NOT hire me in any advertising departments).

About the details of the structure (I’m a professional digresser). Ram skulls are not a symbol I would expect from the Romans, but there were a bunch here! Apparently, they symbolized holding power over sacrificed animals. I just think they’re aesthetically pleasing. I also found it funny that politicians never seem to change; the little depictions of children added to prove Augustus cares about them were very funny.

After the class, I actually had the drive to go and do something (a very rare occurrence). Me and a few friends wandered a bit and visited the Lego store, exchanged some cash, and went out to eat. This restaurant was so blatantly touristy, but they actually had good prices, so I couldn’t really complain. I had my first pizza since arriving! Finally! I love spicy, so I ordered a diavola, which in hindsight is basically the same as an American pepperoni pizza.

After lunch, we visited the best (and most affordable) jewelry store I’ve seen. Foreshadowing, that place will be seeing me again multiple times. We then went to another pretty touristy spot, but they had amazing pistachio tiramisu, so I’m not complaining about that, either.

I’m honestly just happy to get out of the apartment for things other than class, to be honest.

–Nico Vila