A Day in Ostia

Emperor Hadrian and Belonging

I had such an amazing summer. Still trying to “process” it all (despite not being a computer).

Today I thought I would share a little bit about my experience organizing and facilitating my first study abroad course: Drawing from life in Rome, Italy. My students and I experienced so much together: sketching ancient ruins where artists and emperors walked, drawing in the same light that inspired Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Raphael, digging into the stratified and complex history of Rome. It was a hot, dense but wonderful adventure that now seems like a dream. It’s difficult now to capture it with words.

However, during the trip in the evenings I wrote daily travelogue/pedagogical notes to my students. Students told me these notes helped them to remember and synthesize all that we had done, and that they enjoyed reading them as they fell asleep. And I enjoyed having a captive audience beyond you and my mom here on Substack, ha! (thank you, reader! Love you mom).

I wrote this in a hostel near the Vatican a couple months ago. Although it was written for students and is peppered with inside jokes, I thought I'd share it as it provides a more authentic in-the-moment account than a polished retrospective. Here's a snapshot of one day in Italy with students.

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What a week! Veni Vidi Vici!

Notes first tonight followed by some assignment details and what to expect on Monday.

Today at Ostia Antica we explored ancient Rome's bustling seaport, founded in the 4th century BCE as the city's commercial lifeline. Every grain shipment from Egypt, every luxury good from across the Mediterranean passed through those now almost eerily quiet streets. Ostia is remarkably preserved. Unlike the Forum, which was built over for centuries, Ostia was simply abandoned and buried by silt, creating essentially a Roman Pompeii but without the volcanic ash. Our knowledgable guide Sarah showed us incredibly intact mosaics, complete building facades, ancient apartment blocks, public baths, theaters, and temples. It was great to see so many cool Roman architectural details, spatial relationships and even graphic design (in the form of mosaic logos) without the crowds of central Rome, and with green parrots and other flora and fauna.

From there, we took the train a couple more stops to Ostia beach for some much needed rest and relaxation. Today was an absolutely perfect beach day with a cool breeze, hot sun and water much warmer than the Snake river in Washington. After some haggling with a lifeguard and the owners of a private beach, a forty-euro loan from Evie and towels Kevin bought at a nearby store we had all the permissions and equipment we needed to post up under an umbrella with reclining chairs for several luxurious hours of sand and sun. We had an early dinner (for Romans) at the nearby Ristorante Antico Traiano where we tasted local foods and drinks while discussing our "highs and lows" of the trip so far.

We concluded the day at Pontile di Ostia, a nearby jetty with a circular observation deck where were we serenaded by an Italian woman singing American standards and took yet another WSU Cougar logo flag photo -- possibly the best picture yet -- in a series that now comprises an ongoing personal and professional side-quest. On the train ride back we watched Aubrey's sunburn slowly develop like a polaroid photo.

I've been thinking of something I'd like to put into words. Under the shade of an umbrella pine tree at Ostia Antica while ya'll were drawing I was chatting with our guide Sarah about the ruins. I mentioned that Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire, must have been so busy at the time to have built and overseen so much! She replied that yes, while Augustus was indeed busy her favorite emperor was Hadrian, because of his open-mindedness. (bear with me as I connect this back around to something). At dinner after the beach at Ostia we discussed a lot of seemingly random things from high school relationships to culture shock. but as I recall them I realize they are all essentially connected to this idea of belonging. Of knowing who you are and where you fit.

We all sometimes feel a sense of unease upon arriving in another place or realizing something odd about another culture. And travel has this weird way of holding up a mirror to ourselves. Because when we travel we see ourselves more clearly in contrast to others and our newfound surroundings. That experience can be jarring. But as I sit here and think about it (sipping my Sanpellegrino), I realize that surely even Emperor Hadrian must have had those same feelings at times, as he traveled the from the Via Ostiensis (the Ostian Way) to faraway lands of the early Roman Empire in his chariot. Imagine it: a Roman Emperor obsessed with Greek culture at a time when the Romans mostly looked down on Greek culture, riding around in his colorful chariot pondering cultural difference, a man as bisexual as a cross-legged pigeon.

What I am saying is that despite our personal and cultural differences today, the human story often hinges on ideas of belonging. Who gets to be Roman? Who gets to be American? Who gets to be an artist? While all that is obviously beyond the scope of this course, it brings me some solace that we are not the first to ask these questions or to even to draw the things we are drawing. Humble artists like us and powerful emperors alike have wondered, struggled and found ways to belong -- often through the simple act of observation, of paying attention. To art, to nature, to other cultures and most importantly to each other.