All roads lead to Rome, I guess. How else would a sixteen-year-old farm girl turned scientist find herself gawking up at the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica and geeking out over the ruins of the Roman Forum? This year, the Academies of Loudoun hosted an eight-day expedition through Italy under the name “Stem Dell’Italia”– and nearly forty jet-lagged AOS, AET, and MATA students landed in Europe for an unforgettable spring break.

Half delirious from an unsuccessful attempt at airborne sleep, my first introduction to the birthplace of pizza and pasta was very nearly a McDonald’s. Because of delays in our flight, our group of misfits stumbled into the streets of Milan at 2:30PM, local time, when most cafes and lunch-focused restaurants we had planned to visit were closed. The only open restaurant in our eyeline was McDonalds: a staple of culture, albeit not necessarily Italy’s. My stubborn temper, fueled by time-zone-induced insomnia, refused to enter the domain of the golden arches and instead dragged a fellow traveler along the street to a distant culinary paradise.

Case in point: the food in Italy is very good, assuming you know how to look. MATA culinary program, take note.

It’s hard to think science on an empty stomach, but after the forty-something weary vacationers recovered from their food comas the learning began. Milan, as well as much of Northern and Central Italy, is the founding ground for automotive companies: the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, and Pininfarina. Despite the extravagance and high demand associated with Italian cars, most vehicles in the streets are much smaller than those of Northern Virginia. Our tour guide, Maria, informed us of one major difference between American and Italian governments: emissions are taxed heavily on Italian streets, so smaller and lighter cars are almost ubiquitous.

Ecologically, Italy seems to have a leg up on America– not only are emissions more highly regulated, the outer walls of apartment buildings are, more commonly than not, alive with a veritable garden of plants. This architectural choice improves air quality– not to mention quality of life– and is commonly circulated among environmental scientists as a way of improving ecosystem health.

Our tour group moved almost constantly, traversing almost the entire length of the country in eight days. Before we knew it, we were in Modena, home of the car company Pagani. Though a newer and lesser known brand than Lamborghini and Ferrari, the designs of Pagani have always been my favorite of the Italian carmakers. Better still, we were allowed to tour the interior of the factory, where these unique and priceless cars are handmade piece by piece.

As the tour of Horacio Pagani Museo concluded, our tour group was in for a surprise– the owner and founder himself, Horacio Pagani, made an appearance to sign merchandise and take photos with our group. The bus ride down to Florence was full of excited chattering and gratitude– the car brand was nearly unanimously accepted as the favorite of the tour.

Florence remains a cultural center of Italy, in part because it was spared during the events of the second World War. Here, we explored the city in an extensive walking tour, briefly stopping by a smaller museum to discover the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci.

At first glance, these objects are simple. This is precisely their genius. The ball bearing and countless machines of mechanical efficiency line the walls, as innocuous as fidget toys, free to touch and experience. Without seeing any of these objects previously, it is difficult to imagine how Da Vinci designed the components, but many pieces ring a bell: almost all are used frequently in the inventions of today. We continued south to the core of an ancient civilization.

Entering Rome on Good Friday proved a vibrant but crowded experience– the Vatican was flooded with visitors from all walks of life, and Italian schools were out of session for a rare holiday. From the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica, we gawked up at the high ceilings and marveled over the two thousand years of history carefully collected and preserved by the Roman Catholic church. Though their collection was vast and their impact global, the Christian Romans are not the first culture to dominate the Italian scene.

Our introduction to the fallen Roman society– Kingdom, Republic, and Empire– started in its heart. Though much of the original marble has since been stripped away, it is easy to see how an empire was founded from Palatine Hill and ruled from the palace upon it. Music plays in the courtyard surrounding a once magnificent fountain, written by composers two thousand years younger than those who played for the original inhabitants.

Did I mention I’m a total nerd for Ancient Rome? First off, the Romans were geniuses. The architecture, the infrastructure, and the remnants that stand even today are a harrowing reminder of mortality, but a proud monument to a bygone era of innovation and humanity. Aqueducts carried millions of gallons of water to the citizens of Rome, exceeding all previous and future societies until the late 1980s AD.

That said, no society is infallible– and that much became clear as we approached Herculaneum and Pompeii, with Vesuvius looming in the distance. The air around the preserved city was somber, almost heavy, and the echoes of an ancient disaster seem to linger in the ruins. Perhaps the most vibrant Roman remnants we saw were within these ancient cities– after all, the ash they were buried in kept prying eyes away from the marble and artifacts in the centuries from their inhumation to their rediscovery. But not all is lost– a vibrant community of spare cats is cared for by locals, living like proper Roman citizens within the streets of a silent city.

A historical conundrum presents itself in Herculaneum: the long-buried town remains mostly unexplored beneath a modern society, with hundreds or thousands of inhabitants that would be displaced by a total excavation. Is ancient history worth the sacrifice of modern livelihoods? Vesuvius didn’t seem to care much about Herculaneum, after all.

As a scientist, I can’t help but wonder whether the ancient Latin peoples would have liked the society of today. Certainly the blood sports would have been sorely missed (ouch…), but in the sciences, we have returned to the level they once pioneered and advanced even further. Thousands of years of history and culture lived here, and we continue that legacy from another continent. Perhaps a student in the 2500s will find an ACL student’s inventions as ingenious as Da Vinci’s– perhaps in the 4000s they will explore the halls of our campus– perhaps the future we build will think as we do.

 

Written by Norah McCormick