Zach Brown - Rome 2018

Arriving in Rome

When we arrived in Rome after a long flight, the group of MBA students there did not know what to expect. We arrived in the morning and began wandering through the airport to try and find a person from the program in which we would be: the Paideia Living Latin in Rome program. We eventually found a teacher from Paideia at the airport and were transported to St. Stephen's School, the school at which we would be staying.

St. Stephen's School

St. Stephen's School is situated in the middle of Rome. It is essentially right next to the Circus Maximus and is only around a 10 minute walk to the Colosseum. During the school year, St. Stephen's School is a normal boarding school in Rome. Because it was a school rather than a hotel or someone's house, we had some great facilities like a soccer field and classrooms that only a school would have.

The courtyard of our school

Unique Aspects of this Program

One of the best features of this program was that our teachers emphasized spoken Latin as well as translating and reading Latin. They constantly stressed this idea of "loquī in locō" which means "to speak in the place." Whenever we would go out and visit an ancient Roman site we would generally read Latin about the place where we were. Seeing a place that we had always heard about in our classrooms coupled with reading Latin about that specific place in that place generated a special learning environment. For the most part whenever we were in the classroom or reading Latin, we were expected to speak Latin with the teachers and to each other. I have never really tried speaking Latin seriously as I would speak French in French class, and this transition was difficult but also rewarding educationally. I think that most programs for learning Latin would focus almost entirely on grammar and translation, but this Paideia program emphasized other aspects of the language.

The First Few Days

For a typical day in Rome, we would have classes the morning from breakfast until lunch time. In our classes we would generally discuss a specific period of Roman history, or our teachers would give us historical information about the sites that we would visit later in the day. We would generally spend the time just before lunch reading Latin from ancient authors as well as discussing the text in Latin. On the first full day of our trip, we ventured out to see the museums atop the Capitoline Hill. While we were sitting on the edge of that hill, we read an ancient story about a tradition of being thrown off the edge of the hill onto rocks below as punishment while we were at that specific spot. The museums were also interesting, and we saw many ancient pieces of art there.

Finn, Roy, and I admiring a statue in the Capitoline Museums

On our second day, we saw the Ancient Roman Forum. It was amazing standing in the same places where so much history had occurred. While we were in the forum, one of the friends of one our teachers was participating in an archaeological dig in the forum, and we were able to go see what they were doing. Seeing a real, live archaeological site was an amazing experience.

View of the forum from the Capitoline Hill

For our third day, we saw an entirely artificial hill made of fragments of pottery from large pots called amphorae. It was just a massive trash mound from the imperial period. I felt strange just stepping on ancient fragments of pottery. These fragments called sherds were mixed with years and years of dirt and sediment to create this hill of trash. One of the best features of this trip was that Paideia, being an educational institution and having many connections in Rome, was able to get us into special places. That hill comprised of all the pottery was closed to the public for most of the time, but Paideia managed to have us see it.

Trip to the Beach and the Next Days

On our fifth day, we boarded a bus in order to take a day trip to Ceveteri which is a modern Italian town near the site of a massive ancient Etruscan tomb complex. The Etruscans built large mound tombs in the Earth. It was interesting to see the Etruscan tombs since they were a large influence on Roman culture. After seeing the burial mounds we went down to the beach. This day was one of my favorites as the large burial tombs were amazing. Later that day, the Americans and one French girl part of the program took to the Italian beach. On that night, we ate at a nice outdoor restaurant very close to the beach. For the next day, we ventured down segments of the Via Appia, looking at various ancient tombs and villas next to the ancient road. On our seventh day, we went inside remnants of Nero's Domus Aurea. It was recently opened to the public, but it was still a site not close to being completely excavated, and therefore, he had to wear hard hats for the duration of the visit. Being able to see the Domus Aurea was another reason why the Paideia program was special because they had to apply months in advance in order to be allowed to go inside it.

Sperlonga, Tivoli, and the Vatican

On the eighth day, we embarked on another day tribe, and this time we were going to Sperlonga to bask in the Italian sun at the beach and examine the villa of Tiberius. The villa, part of which was situated in a cave right on the beach, was beautiful, and the modern day town of Sperlonga was truly something from a movie as it was just a beautiful, small town situated on cliffs overlooking the bright waters of the Mediterranean. We spent the afternoon on the beach, sometimes making models of Roman villas in the sand.

A soccer game on the beach between us Americans and local Italians

Our entire group at the Villa d'Este

We went on another day trip the next day to Tivoli in order to see Hadrian's massive villa as well as the Villa d'Este, a 16th century Italian villa. Seeing the Villa d'Este's gardens sprawl out over the rolling hills of Tivoli was truly a beautiful site. The sheer beauty of the gardens and fountains combined with the verticality of the area created an amazing place.

On the next day, we spent all our time at the Vatican. The art collection contained in the Vatican is just massive. Strolling through all the hallways and seeing such famous works of art felt almost surreal. One of my favorite parts was seeing the Raphael rooms, specifically The School of Athens. We also saw the famous Sistine Chapel and were mesmerized by the size and splendor of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Final Few Days

We saw even more artwork on the next day when we visited the Villa Borghese. The Villa Borghese had some of Bernini's most famous sculptures, including his Apollo and Daphne. In our Latin III class last year, we read Ovid's original "Apollo and Daphne." The next few days were spent going to various sites around Rome, including famous places like the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. We saw the famous ara pacis, which is the famous alter of peace created by Augustus.

On our second to last day, we boarded a train to travel down to the Ancient Roman port city of Ostia. Ostia was once a fairly large city, and we were able to see the layout of smaller Roman cities. Ostia was a very interesting place because it was essentially Rome on a smaller scale. For our final day, we spent a lot of time walking through Rome and translating various inscriptions. It was a fitting ending to the trip and was very enjoyable. I learned much Latin and the combination of Latin in the classroom, Latin from speaking, and Latin from seeing ancient sites benefitted my knowledge of the language greatly.

Enjoying some shaved ice on the final day

Thanks

Thank you to the Wilson Family and Ms. Ellery. Thank you to Ms. Ellery for helping organize the whole trip and helping us through it. Thank you to the Wilson Family for allowing me to have this amazing learning opportunity.