When I visit a new place, I always get this sense of estrangement, then the eventual feeling of belonging. It is important for me to have this process beacause it allows me to better understand the culture of a place. For me, this is the first time that I feel immersed, the first moment that I forget about home and sink myself into the essence of the foreign environment. In most cases, this feeling takes me by surprise. I feel all of a sudden small – like how a gear would feel inside of a watch.
Interestingly enough, the first time that I felt this way in Rome wasn’t in a stereotypical Romanesque space such as the Forum or Campo de Fiori on a crowded Friday night. It was during our tour of the Jewish ghetto. I had fallen behind the group a bit and as I was catching up, I saw the most fascinating building. The building itself was haggard, with more paint peeling off than normal, but the most interesting part was that the walls were literally built up from Roman ruins. Ancient marble archways were reused as balconies. The shot which I believe characterizes Rome is simply of the wall of that building.
In Istanbul, I first felt “immersed” while on the tour bus. During our first day there, we were driving through an extremely squalor portion of town, and then all of a sudden we were upon modern high rises and tall apartment buildings. This hastily shot photo of a wall was taken through the window of the bus. The side of the building is decked with advertisements and stores. The sheer amount of stores is staggering, on the left, it seems that there are three stores, all stacked on top of each other.
The two shots symbolize the contrast between the two great cities. I think the key difference between Rome and Istanbul is the ideal of each city. To me, both cities can be distilled to a singular idea, a foundation which builds the character of each city. In our case, one city is pleased with its position in the world, while the other is in constant motion, trying to change.
Rome, like much of Italy, is trying to preserve its heritage. For thousands of years, the city of Rome has been an influential part of the world. It has been everything from the capitol of the greatest empire in the world to the capitol of the most powerful religion in the world. Italians (especially those that call the eternal city home) are very proud of this linkage to antiquity. Much of Italian life is surrounding this idea of keeping the status quo – that Italy is absolutely fine the way that it is. This to me is the reason why Italians are stubborn and resistant to change. The photo is symbolic of this idea. Rome sees nothing wrong with showing ancient ruins on the façade of its buildings. In fact, I believe the Romans are proud of peeling paint on its buildings, in great contrast to the Turks.
Before discussing this contrast, it’s fascinating to note how modern the city of Istanbul is. We spent a lot of time touring the old city, a place that was ancient and as old as Rome. In spite of this however, history is much less in the foreground in Istanbul. From the beginning of the 19th century, Istanbul has undergone a progressive change in an attempt to modernize itself, pushing its history (and its religion) to the background. As we learned in class, the historic city of Istanbul has been absolutely dwarfed by the modern city that now surrounds it. Even now, Turkey is trying hard to be accepted into the European Union, to the point of making its own currency look like Euros.
Unlike Rome, Istanbul is constantly changing because it doesn't know its own identity quite yet, and the photo that I chose is representative of this. Notice the variety of shops that are present: a makeup shop is located above a photo store, to the right of which is what seems to be a (Greek) plumbing shop. The organization is almost chaotic. How much more likely to change this is than the building in Rome? I would not be surprised if for instance the Kodak shop will close within the next five years, but I can’t imagine the building in Rome changing at all. The marble archways and the fading rust color will still proudly stand, even in a hundred years.
