Rome (if you want to)

Last weekend, 40 or so other students and I waved farewell to Florence (at 5:45 in the morning) to head to Rome for a 2 day excursion. I chose Rome as one of the field trips because one, I felt the need to go, and two, I knew I couldn't navigate the city by myself, much less wait in the lines for all of the incredible, historical attractions. For these 2 days, we had 2 wonderful tour guides: Stefano and Franco (basically 2 older men who teach at LDM and fight and make up like they are married). I couldn't get enough of them! I'm excited to see them again when I go on the hiking in the Alps field trip (and even more excited to hike with them).

With a tour bus and fast passes to all of our visits, we packed in a week's worth of sights into the weekend. Most everything was above expectations. I was expecting to see a bold and generally cold environment of the Roman ages with concrete everywhere-- I was pleasantly surprised to find sunny weather, a lot of parks, and green everywhere! I didn't know much about Rome in general; just the few general facts I have learned in my Renaissance class and famous sights seen in movies. The ruins ended up being more incredible than I expected and the Roman cuisine was a delight!

We arrived in Rome around 9 in the morning, skies still grey and the weather a bit dreary. I guess it was appropriate, as our first stop was the Colosseum, where barbaric, deadly games took place. Once again, I couldn't believe that I was there... looking at something I had heard about since I was a little girl. We walked around and took pictures after leaning a bit of the history from Stefano and Franco. One of the interesting things we learned was that lions and other animals of that sort (the legendary animals that fought in the Colosseum) were not generally used as much as boars in the arena because they had to be imported to Rome and were much too expensive. I found the area to be much smaller than I thought, but still very extraordinary. A peaceful protest of different labor unions around the country gathered outside of the Colosseum, so to get to our next "activity" we had to weave in and out of different protestors with noise makers, signs, etc. Apparently there were a few protests happening that weekend, some even violent (against a train line that will ruin many small towns in Italy), but luckily (or not?) we only saw this peaceful one.

The next stop was the Roman ruins and the Forum. With the chanting and drums and crowds from the protest in the background, it was difficult to hear the history of this area. Nevertheless, it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The tall trees and first blooms of the year created a pleasant walk around the ruins. The sun, by now, had also shown itself revealing a beautiful day! (Even thought may have given us all a little sun--- helloooo spring!)

After the ruins, we headed to Vatican City (which is actually a country?-- I told you I didn't know much about Rome...) We all went on a guided tour through the vatican museum and ended up at the Sistine Chapel, then to St. Peters Basilica (which was SO beautiful--- the windows let streams of light in that almost looked like they were apart of the architecture, not to mention the famous Pieta was there). Every room in the museum was a huge surprise. It was a long tour but I was glad that we got to go through the museum traveling through Roman history (and A TON of famous works of art and frescas). I will say at the end of it all as we were walking through the last bit of full decorated halls-- the suspense of the Sistine Chapel was killing me. When we finally arrived, it took a while for all of the colors to settle in. Then once my eyes had adjusted, I was quite blown away. However, it is not much of a chapel-- but rather a large rectangular box (this didn't really take away from the fact that every inch of the ceiling and wall was covered by beautiful works of art). We weren't allowed to take photos because the flash would ruin the artwork a Japanese company who restored the building didn't want anyone else to sell their priceless hard work without their permission. Lets just say, my Iphone came in handy for this one--- and no, no one would even want to buy this picture: my chin is in it, and the quality could be a little better, don't worry Japanese restorers.

Dead tired, we all headed to our hotel and had a lovely dinner near by. The rest of the night was history as I lay my head down on my pillow and....zzzzz.

Woken up by the sun, I quickly checked my phone to see who won the unc-dook game this time. And well rivalry wins it all, as we tied up this year's showdown with a complete blow out. Unfortunately I happened to wake up Mary and Kenan with my celebratory "yes!" Sorry guys.

Sunday was much more relaxed as we went on a walking tour with our Favorite guides, Stefano and Franco. We hit many of the big sights including (but not limited to) the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Me being a very superstitious kind of person, I made sure to throw my coin into the Trevi fountain and make a wish. (Unfortunately I did NOT find my pop star look alike and I'm not on stage right now singing to a million fans--- I guess its for the better considering I can't sing. at. all). What amazed me the most about what we saw on the tour was the contrast of old and new in Rome. Look right and you see the stereotypical, brightly colored italian buildings; look left and there is the Pantheon built in 126 AD. And then again: walk down streets of Louis Vitton and other high fashion stores only to end up with a view of the famous Colosseum.

We ended the day with a 5 COURSE lunch (I'm not kidding guys) and a trip to the catacombes... It was an interesting experience as 40 or so of us walked behind one another through an underground maze of different graves. But soon we were off on the bus again, heading back to the quainter, slower city of Florence. I still can't believe I was in Rome less that 36 hours ago... Some weekend!