Paestum

The second stop on our trip was the ruin city of Paestum. Paestum was founded by Greek settlers around 700 bc. The site contains three of the oldest Greek temples in the world. We stayed at a hotel in the modern town of Paestum where we were served a four course Italian dinner. The first course consisted of squid and octopus... These were not battered and fried so they were a little difficult to get down haha. Next was a large place of spaghetti with tomato sauce and a huge whole shrimp on top. Third was a salad with baked salmon and tuna (the salad was topped with mozzarella balls made from buffalo milk, which were quite delicious) and last was some sort of flan. Both the hotel and the ruins were just a short walk from the beach.

This is the Temple of Hera II which was build for Poseidon.
Its hard to describe how massive this temple is. Its interior could hold four full size basketball courts.

Hera I

Hera I and II

Small Ampitheatre

Political forum

Barcelona flag I got at a little futbol shop in Paestum for 5 euro!
(now on the wall in my room)

All of us checking out the beach

Last is a video of Scott attempting to jump the river that feeds into the ocean (he barely makes it haha)

Baiae

Well, I have returned from my adventures to the south. I have many pictures and videos to share which I will be uploading over the next few days.

The first part of my trip south was the town of Baiae. Baiae is an ancient coast town which was used by many important romans as a getaway or vacation spot. The town is located only 10 miles west of Naples, but it is a completely different world. This small laid back coastal town seemed far from the my previous urban experiences in Italy. We had lunch on the bay at a small pizza and seafood place. I ordered what I thought was spaghetti with fish... to my surprise it turned out to be spaghetti with mussels and clams on top (due to my poor Italian translation). I have to admit I was a little scared at first but it turned out to be quite delicious.

The most famous site in Baiae are the thermal baths which is what almost all my pictures and videos are from in this post.

On the bus

Bay of Baiae

Our tour guide... Nearly every major set of ruins in Italy seems to be infested with either cats or dogs. But it is kind of neat because they take care of the animals and give them their shots and food and in some cases even have adoption programs within the ruins. 

Tree roots growing down into a vault

These two videos are shot from atop the dome seen above. Below you can see the ancient thermal baths. Above you can see the surrounding landscape and the ocean in the distance.

I have four more posts to do from this trip which I will hopefully get up in the next couple days... but for now im short on time and sleep so... buonanotte.

Studio

Make sure too scroll down past this post because this is my second post today. You will find the Jewish Ghetto post below. In this post I wanted to give you a little glimpse of our studio space where we have class everyday.

Entryway

Terrace patio

One of the Studios

(and this is for my parents)
Look what we have in our store! haha

(for those of you who dont get this... you cant buy these in the US anymore)

Last, I have another video demonstration. This one is on Italian Security. It's a 17 step

process to close our patio doors in studio... seems a little much for a country who's

airport customs consisted of a fat guy on a stool looking at you as you walked out

the door haha.

The Jewish Ghetto

Yesterday we had our second neighborhood tour, which was of the Jewish Ghetto (Which is where our studio is located). The neighborhood is called the Jewish Ghetto because this is where Jews were forced to live for 300 years between the 16th and 19th centuries. This area also has a lot of history from the World War 2 era when the nazis came to the ghetto and took more the 1000 Jews.

The highlight of our tour was the Synagogue (or was supposed to be). We weren't in the Synagogue for more than 15 min when we were escorted off the premises by security because our professor failed to obey the no pictures rule. It's ok thought because they were some of the rudest people I have ever met haha.

Anyways, heres some pics from the tour...

View of Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island)

Theatre of Marcellus
Completed in 13BC (nearly a century before the Colosseum)

Last is a video I did as a demonstration of how to use a Roman drinking fountain. These drinking fountains can be found all over the city and are constantly running. The bottom hole can be plugged to shoot water out of a top hole for easier drinking.

Ostia Antica

On Wednesday we took another trip for class. We rode the train about 15 miles southwest of Rome down the Tiber river to the town of Ostia Antica which is about 2 miles from the Mediterranean coast. In ancient times this city was actually located right on the shore, but because of thousands of years of silting and ocean level changes the town is now 2 miles from the coast. Ostia Antica was the harbor town for Rome guarding passage into the city. It was pretty eye opening and jaw dropping to walk through these ruins dating back to 500 BC.

Houses and thermal baths

Ampitheatre

Shot of ampitheatre from inside a temple

Julie as a statue 

large mosaic

closer..

closer...

closest.

Ostiense

Yesterday we met in the Ostiense neighborhood of Rome for class (across the river from my apartment). We toured around the neighborhood to see its sites and learn its history and then we went to a museum that houses recovered sculptures and old machinery.

Old gas towers