Rome via Brooklyn

Today was a long day if I ever had one! We woke up bright and early to go to the Trastevere train station where we learned quickly about validating our tickets and we were on our way to Cerveteri. We did all this without stopping for a pastry and I felt like the smallest size 00 in the world. the train ride honestly kind of felt like an adventure to a new country just because I always associated trains in Europe with the Eurorail that takes you to new countries. It also kind of reminded me of the train ride from the airport to the apartments because it was the same regional style of train. So from the busy and bustling streets of Viale Trastevere to the quaint and quiet town of Ladispoli, it felt like we transformed worlds. I was honestly so excited to see because I have always loved and was fascinated by Etruscan history. The quieter parts of Italy always remind me of the scenes from the Godfather when Michael Corleone was sent to Italy to hide out. It also reminded me of the small town of Acquapendente which is a town north of Rome in Viterbo.

We started the trip off by watching the young master Roberto Paolini and his demonstration of ancient pottery techniques. This was my highlight as it was just so different being in the midst of an expert. Seeing him use ancient techniques when painting and carving and then going on to describe to us how the baking was. He really is a craftsman and learning that he started by learning from his uncle and then overtaking him in skill, reminds me so much of star wars. I really liked his demonstration of how different kinds of paint pressure and how long each paint drawing will affect the way it looked on the vase. To me seeing a skilled craftsman such as himself reminds me how important it is for people like him to pass on his skill. I asked him how many people are like him but I got ignored :(. Still we need people like him and his work thats featured in places like the Metropolitan Museum of New York so these ancient techniques can be preserved for years to come on. It also kind of reminded me of Assassins Creed Odyessey, which I know is about ancient Greek, still has many scenes that show the same thing. It kind of felt like the video game and all those old textbooks came to real life. We also took a little walk around the small town of Cerveteri and stumbled upon Roberto Paolini’s workshop and store. Seeing this shop genueinly made my wallet cry. I loved everything in there and really felt like I wanted to buy everything in the store. I ended up buying a small Etruscan engraved mirror replica. I bought this because I remember before in class we learned that young men gave it to the prospective lovers. I was truly moved by the gestures and really wanted to buy one for myself so when I saw it I just knew I had to have it. I also got a small brass ring and it all totaled with a price that was better than what I expected.

“The shrine gradually became Etruscanized, with dedications inscribed in native
script for the goddesses Hera/Uni, Turan/Aphrodite and Demeter/Vei” was the quote I had decided to choose for this blog post. I truly only chose this one because I was so fascinated by the differing names. I had not realized that the names to the Etruscan’s had been so different. Anyways after the shopping spree we had, we took a small break. On this break we walked around the small town and the whole group found a small overlook that saw the entire city. Here we also saw a beautiful old clock that told the wrong time. We then had lunch at a small little trattoria in the city that was very old and famous according to the gentleman that was with us that I can not for the life of me remember his name. I had ordered myself a tasty little pasta dish that was good but not great. I am not a big fan of pasta therefore I did not care for the food as much as others but I realize how insane that sounds as someone who is to spend almost a month in the birthplace of pasta. This tasty little lunch was our second of the three group dinners/lunches.

We capped off our time together by going to a quaint little museum that housed a lot of Etruscan pottery and other wares of such nature. This was really cool as I could kind of compare what I saw Roberto doing to what I saw in the museum. It was really something. We saw a nice presentation by our classmates. On our way out of the museum I saw the true beauty of the architecture and it was honestly mesmerizing. It truly felt like an Assassins Creed mission.

My final quote that resonated with me was, “Miniaturization (vases, metal weapons, armor) in funerary and votive offerings is also interpreted as evidence of cultic ceremony.”. The only reason why was because when I read this the idea of a mini vase or mini sword jumped out at me because thats just cute and whimsical.

The day concluded with us trying to get back to the train station and that was a whole pain in the backside itself. Public transport in small towns like that are god awful and the taxi’s are not much better. But that was my day at Caere!