Rome via Brooklyn

372 words, 2 minutes read time.

Today we were invited to go to the American academy of Rome where we were kindly allowed to look at some artifacts and learn more about Italy. The university was very beautiful and they even had their own sustainable garden! In the garden, they grow seasonal vegetables like tomatoes, and in the winter cabbage. They also had lots of herbs like rosemary and parsley and even flowers called, nasturtium, that apparently are edible and taste like peppers.

I also liked their multiple art pieces and sculptures they had throughout the university. For example, the one I included below was of a woman covered in a blanket, referring to femicides.

Then, after the tour of the university we went inside a room where we were able to hold some pottery and artifacts. I asked the curator to see some of the jewelry and it was so cool to see a bulla, which is the necklace young boys who did not come of age yet wear around their necks to symbolize citizenship, but also protection. I also liked seeing how some things have not changed, like a sewing needle and a pair of tweezers are the exact same as the ones we have now. We also saw a mirror that had beautiful designs of Venus, which I set up as my featured photo for this post. We also saw vases like a drinking vase. The drinking vase had images of stories around the signs where it could start conversations with people, asking if they knew the stories. In addition, the bottom of the vase usually had some figure or an erotic scene. Either way, it was a scene portraying the nature of life, like a little surprise when you finish your drink. The curator also was kind to show us her favorite piece in the collection, which was the bottom of an oil lamp. What was so unique about this piece was that it still had the fingerprints of the person who made the object on the bottom. This really humanized what we were doing and actually set the perspective that it was a living person who created these and not some material.