Frigidarium

Lazy day today. Us lower division students don't have class this evening, so we're free as birds. We might go to another museum tonight that's in an old castle, if we get ourselves together.
We did see the old Diocletian baths today. We took the 64 bus all the way uptown--it was really jerky, because I was standing up and at a really awkward angle; I had to reach up for my handle, so it was almost like getting my sea legs. The subways are actually much smoother (even if they're more crowded, and you have some guy's armpit in your face). Anyway, Diocletian built these baths so that the people would like him, way back when, and now it's been converted into a church. The calderium (the hot baths) were no longer intact, and the entrance to the church was were they would have been, and then the entry way was the place where the room temperature baths were. The frigiderium (the cold baths) took up the most room, and that's where the bulk of the church was. It was beautiful. We also went to a museum that had some rare original Greek sculpture in it, but they made us check our bags and we weren't sure if we could bring cameras--turns out we could, but by then it was too late and we had an assignment to concentrate on anyway. It was fine, I figure it wouldn't have been very exciting photography. Lots of half-intact sculpture. The only one I wish I could have taken of photo of was the Seated Boxer. It was intense and majorly detailed--some of the finest bronze work to come out of the Greek arts.

The altar at the church.

Dome in the entryway of the church.

Outside the church, where a huge fountain sat in a massive square (the buildings are probably 19th century--they do look very French).

Oh--weirdest part about today: it rained! Not for very long at all. Actually probably less than a few minutes, but it was funny how all of us got a little homesick. It was a lot cooler today, with a nice breeze blowing. It almost felt cold, compared to what we've been walking around in for the past week. I guess rain in Rome in the summer is very rare, so that was pretty cool.