and I have seen inscriptions everywhere. Despite my years of Latin, some inscriptions are nearly cryptic unless you know what the letters stand for. Very helpful lecture! Monday afternoon I began research for a presentation that I am delivering tomorrow with a partner. I should mention that the weekend was not too exciting. I visited the Vatican again and on Saturday night went to the Jewish ghetto for a fantstic dinner with a group of friends. Anyway, back to Monday. So my presentation is Greek Temples versus Roman Temples and the Temple of Neptune at Paestum- very exciting. It is the third best preserved temple in the world- yay! Tuesday, we had another one of our lovely all day field trips. We went to Lavinium and the Alban hills. This felt like such a long day because we made so many stops. I can't even remember all of them right now. We began with a visit to a heroon and altars at Practica di Mare. This was actually quite exciting as I had studied heroons in Greek archaeology before. Basically they are temple-like places for the worship of 
a hero. This was the mythical place that Aeneas founded after the sack of Troy! So neat! Though this heroon cannot most likely have belonged to him, it was a former grand tomb to someone who was probably an early king of the city. We also saw a row of 13 altars that was quite cool. After this we headed to the nearby museum- this was an experience. The museum was very interactive, though cool, it was kind of strange. The rooms were filled with strange music and videos were included with exhibits. The videos weren't your typical documentary type- they were super mystical... weird to say the least. Despite that, the museum's holdings were fascinating. A pit had been found not to far away from the heroon that is now believed to have been a Temple to Minerva. In this pit were found terracotta votives- tons of them, all preserved remarkably well! They were incredible! After this, we got back on the bus and traveled to Albano Laziale. We ate lunch here and then toured a museum. This tour was a waste of time. The director of the museum spoke Italian and had a translator. The translator was so difficult to understand. I'm pretty sure that we all understood the Italian more than the English. We were also brought through exhibit rooms that were completely unrelated to classics and held finds that dated to tho
usands of years ago. Nonetheless, the director was able to take us to a few cites in the city. The first church we visited was again unrelated, but after that we saw an amazing cistern dating from the time of Emperor Septimius Severus (early 3rd century). This was spectatular! From here we headed back to the bus and went to Nemi. A city set on a hillside overlooking Lake Nemi, it was so picturesque. There was a museum that we visited before going on to the Sanctuary of Diana. This was a very cool museum- it was originally built to house two amazing ships that were raised from the lake in 1932. Unfortunately these were set to fire by the Germans at the end of WWII, so the museum has been filled with other finds. The size of the museum displays how big these boats would have been. They basically were pleasure boats for Caligula to throw parties on, I suppose they would be comparable to modern yachts. I so wish I could have seen them. After analyzing tons of votives that were excavated from the nearby sanctuary, we left for a hike up to the actual sanctuary. So this served as a place for the sick to come and be healed. They would give whatever they had- literally to visit this place. Operations were even performed here- scary! What is left of the sanctuary is quite impressive. Overlooking the lake, it is a very spiritual place- great location for a healing sanctuary! This was also the region in which famous Romans had their summer homes- from Cato and Cicero to later Popes. Leaving this beautiful region was bitter-sweet. We were all exhausted and hungry, but it really was quite a breathtaking place. Wednesday we were back to talking about Caesar and visited his forum. One of the wonderful things about the Centro are the passes that we get into sites that others aren't allowed into. Caesar's forum is usually not open to the public, but we were allowed in and it was so cool! The temple that he erected was absolutely massive! We then went and visited the main forum and saw the remains of Basilica Julia- another building project commissioned by Caesar. The basilica was just a gathering pl
ace before the plan was taken and used by later churches. It also was huge! After this we saw the foundations for the temple that was built upon the place that Caesar was cremated (also on the Forum). Wednesday afternoon consisted of Latin class and working on my presentation. Thursday we had a different schedule that included lectures on Sicily and the Greeks- yay! These lasted until 12:30. After lunch I had a review session for Art History. Our midterms begin the week we get back from falll break. After this I went on a walk throuh Trastevere with Jenna and Rachel. It was relaxing after an intense week. This morning I woke up and finished packing. We left the Centro by 7:30am and were on the road until 1pm. Then we stopped at Velia- the last Greek colony on Italy. I will blog about this site later (almost time for dinner). We will continue on to Sicily tomorro. That's it for now. Ciao!-XOXO
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