Pax and Pulchritude

Today, in my class, we went to see (drumroll, please!)...the Ara Pacis Augustae.

I realize that the drumroll and the name and everything probably means nothing at all if you're not a classics major, but let me just explain that this was the one monument that, as I was thinking ahead to my trip, I was most excited to see. Not the Colosseum, not the Pantheon (as exciting as those are)...the Ara Pacis Augustae. Whew. It's amazing stuff. Here's a pic of one of the relief sculptures on the outside (which I didn't take--again, taking notes requires two hands):


Now, as for why this monument makes me so happy, it's hard to explain. Basically, it's just one of the many peaces of propaganda that the emperor Augustus put up to commemorate his own wonderfulness. Ara Pacis Augustae means the Altar of Augustan Peace. He's celebrating the fact that he brought peace to the empire (by slaughtering a bunch of enemies and destroying the democratic workings of the Roman Republic...but it stopped the bickering, now didn't it?) by setting up an altar to the goddess Pax (Peace) and placing it on one of the main roads into Rome. I don't know why this altar in particular makes me happy, aside from the fact that I love sculpture, and it's covered with it. I guess it's the whole family thing. The sculpture in this picture is portraying the Imperial family. I like it because it shows everyone--men, women, and children--together, which is rarely the case in any other forms of Roman art. Usually Roman art shows important men like the emperor or important senators or representations of the "common man," no women except maybe the Empress or the occasional goddess, and no children. So I guess I just really like seeing a portrayal of the more everyday existence of Roman society.

With that said, of course, history tells us that these particular people gave a whole new meaning to the term "dysfunctional family" and therefore are really not all that accurately represented as normal and peaceful looking. Still, one might could imagine other families perhaps looking like this. :) Anyway, I got to see it in real life, after studying pictures in textbooks for years! It's pretty big, too...the figures are about 3/4 life size. I like the way their shoes stick out over the edge of the frieze, like they're about to step out and start walking around. It's cool.

Okay, enough nerdy rambling about sculptures. I'll just ramble about life or something.

I ride the bus nearly every day, to get around the city, and the bus is always hot. Lots of people plus 90+ degree heat plus no A/C plus humidity equals furnace conditions. But you know, these Italians always look as cool as cucumbers. They usually aren't visibly sweating. It makes me very jealous. I personally have gotten used to the heat so that I don't sweat nearly as much as I did the first week (and mentally don't think of heat as unnatural torture, just the normal mode of summer life), but I have yet to reach that cucumber level. I'm not sure that I ever will.

And here's another thing about the Italians that makes me jealous: they're sooooo beautiful. Rachel was observing that while every 1 in 10 Americans is pretty good-looking, the ratio is more like every 1 in 1.2 here. Lol those are her numbers, but I pretty much agree. What is it about Italian genes that makes them all so gorgeous? I don't think I've ever felt more ugly than I do here. The Roman women are always dressed up in high fashion--and high heels--even if they're just going to the grocery store, and as mentioned earlier, they're not covered in sweat all the time. And they all look like models. I, on the other hand, always have on relatively slouchy-looking clothes and tennis shoes and no makeup (because it would just melt off anyway) and my hair just randomly yanked out of my face (because it wouldn't hold curl in the heat anyway, and I can't handle using heat-producing appliances in this weather). No pretty points for me. The Roman men are just beautiful, and the fact that they also dress impeccably and are always remarkably put together probably helps a lot too. No fair! Of course, the Roman men are also extremely flirtatious, and I've been told more than once by some random Italian that I'm beautiful, but that doesn't really mean a whole lot. Italian men will tell you you're beautiful if you're female and you have all your limbs and you are somewhat young. It's not reserved for girls with supermodel status or anything. They'll whistle at you, or say "Ciao, bella!" or something in English if they know any, and pretty much it's kind of an FYI sort of thing. They aren't stalking you, they're not going to follow you home, they're not even really expecting you to necessarily respond to them, they're just letting you know that they're aware of your existence and they think you're somewhat cute. Ok guys, thanks for the info.

It takes a little getting used to, but it doesn't bother me anymore. It's pretty much the only self-esteem boost I get in this country of beautiful people. Again I say, it's not fair. What can you do though?

Well, I guess that's my rant for today. I'm not doing much today other than doing some cleaning in the apartment and stuff. I think we're going out tomorrow night, but that depends on when we get back from our day trip to Tarquinia. I'm excited about the trip. Tarquinia has a bunch of old Etruscan ruins (so naturally I'm interested) and it's also reputed to be amazingly beautiful. We'll see! I'll post pics probably Saturday.

Until then, ciao ciao!