Temples & Travels

One of the classes I am taking at John Cabot, and which I highly recommend, is titled Ancient Rome and Its Monuments.  The class period is four hours long, twice a week. We walk about the city and discuss landmarks, attractions, and ancient ruins in an attempt to put together the pieces of what once stood there and its significance to both the ancient world and modern times. The class is interesting as it applies context to landmarks, and helps you to understand the city of Rome and antiquity’s influence on today. One of my favorite monuments is the Temple of Portunus, the port god.

The Temple of Portunus we learned about in class when we studied the differences between Greek architecture and Roman. Greek architecture was very precise and had strict requirements. Greek temples were usually placed high on hills to be closer to the heavens, had columns all the way around the base evenly spread, had steps of access on all sides, and were low to the ground. These temples were built carefully and served as an honorable way to thank and respect the gods. In Roman architecture, they often used these temples to display the wealth of the man building the temple rather than to strictly honor the gods. They wanted their temples to show dominance from the front view (to convey dominance of the man), and anything else was really just an afterthought. This is evident in the Temple of Portunus which, from the front, appears to have columns all the way around (in reality full columns only exist on the front porch, the others are engaged half columns stuck to the side just to give the allusion of full columns without having to build these), is raised high and dominantly off the ground, and can only be accessed by a front small set of steps. The reason I like this temple is it sits very close to a Greek temple which is perfect in structure, and you can see the clear differences in designs. It also was a victory temple, which means that it was commissioned to be built by a general after a successful war and was along the triumphal parade route, or a path which parades would take place on to honor the war hero. This temple was dedicated to the port god and behind it, on the Tiber, used to be the first Roman port. Overall, this temple was very significant in Roman times and now sits just off a major roadway and is passed everyday by tourists that mistake the building for a government building, church, or large burial ground.

Exploring Rome in class is a great way to save weekends for travelling and seeing different areas of Italy. So far I’ve travelled to Florence, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast, and Tuscany. I am going to Venice this coming weekend. The Amalfi Coast trip was booked through a tour trip company called Bus 2 Alps, and is used by a lot of American students studying in Italy for excursions. It is priced reasonably and is an easy way to book a weekend in a new city without having to plan what to see and still knowing you will visit the popular destinations. However, I also encouraging booking weekend trips on your own. It is often a rewarding experience to piece meal together a trip and enjoy a new and beautiful city on your own whim.