Buddy!

June 2, 2008: Happy Italian Unification Day

Today was our first full day in Rome. We started off the day with a much better breakfast than anything we had in Florence, and then we had an art lecture on the Sistine Chapel, which we will be seeing Wednesday. Apparently the 2^nd is an Italian National Holiday—Unification Day—so many of the local businesses were closed. Our group leaders rearranged our schedule a little, and we went on a Roman Church Tour of the city. We started at the Pantheon and then visited several other Baroque era churches. The pantheon was absolutely incredible. Even though most of the bronze was stripped to build the Vatican, the sheer size of the building was amazing. The dome was the largest in the world when in was constructed, and they left a perfect open circle at the center of it to let in light and lighten the weight of the dome. Since it was raining (yes, it was raining AGAIN…at this point we are just use to it…) you could see mist coming in the oculus; it was a beautiful sight.

The other churches that we visited we just as beautiful and ornate. They did a lot with combining sculpture and paintings, making the ceilings really look 3D. We also saw the place where Julius Caesar was assassinated while on our walking tour. Apparently they were digging a line for the subway and all the sudden discovered a bunch of ancient ruins. It was difficult to make out any buildings, but apparently running across sites like that is a pretty common thing in Rome. Dr. Medina said that’s why there subway system isn’t very spread out or useful…they keep running into archaeological sites!

After the church tour we were on our own for a while, so we decided to visit the Trevi Fountain. We ate lunch at a pizza by the kg place, and then went in through coins in the fountain. Legend has it that if you throw in coins you will come back to Rome some time in your life. I only threw in 3 American pennies though, so it may not be for a while… The fountain was gorgeous—it was probably one of the largest fountains I’ve seen and took up most of the face of the building.

We took a bus to the Borghese Museum and saw many Bernini sculptures. He is officially my favorite artist. The work that he did is so intricate, its something you can stare at for hours and always fine a new detail you missed didn’t see earlier.

We were pretty tired after the museum so we decided to head back to the hotel for a while. We headed in the direction that we thought lead to the metro station, but we never ended up getting there. After staring at a map for a while, we ended up talking to a tram driver who told us to get on his tram and he would just tell us when to get off. It was my first tram ride ever…and it was a lot of fun. The driver was true to his word and we got off right next to the hotel.

Some people did laundry for a while, but I took a glorious nap. I woke up and went with some people to get pizza at a local place next to the hotel. It was my cheapest meal yet…3.50 E for a good slice of pizza and a ton of breadsticks. It was also delicious. The hotel staff told us that there would be fireworks at the Coliseum in the evening because of Unification Day, so a large group decided to head over after dinner. We couldn’t figure out what bus to take over there, and every person we asked told us something different, so we decided just to walk. When we got there it was very evident that were not going to be any fireworks. We think the hotel staff might have made it up just to get us out of the hotel for a couple hours J. We still got to see the Coliseum at night though, which was good, and then we took the night bus home. Overall a great day!