Week 3

The major highlights of week three was the Amalfi Coast and Ostia Antica, and walking tour of churches with Jeffrey Blanchard.

For me the greatest experience at the Amalfi coast was a group of us that took a hike that overlooked the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal towns of Amalfi and Atrani. The view was breathtaking to the say the least. Southern Italy is known for lemon growing, and that was evident through out the journey! Lemons groves liter the side of the trail to about half way to the highest point. The hike took us about 45 to an hour minutes for climb the top, but bit longer to come down due to an ankle injury to one of our hikers.

Ostia Antica served as one of Rome major port cities during ancient times. The greatest experience of Ostia Antica was how well preserved some of the buildings and streets were. This gives the best insight of how ancient Rome would have looked like.


Jeffrey Blanchard tour of San Luigi Dei Francesi was the most fascinating church. Although architecture of the Church was magnificent, the most intriguing subject for me was how differently the Caravaggio paintings were from others in his time. This was the first time I had been to exposed to Caravaggio’s’ work. Instead of using classical architecture elements for the backgrounds, he used simple background scenes. In addition, his paintings have a dramatic use of lighting and really seem to capture the realistic human emotion.

Week 3 was when I started to think Rome as a second “home”. This really hit when we were on our way back from the Amalfi coast. On the train, I kept thinking how nice it was going to be to get back into Rome, and sleep in my bed. Although the bed here is not all that comfortable, it really strike me how much I had missed the city during my absence.