don't mess with Italian bus drivers!

June 3, 2008: a LONG day in Rome

Today has got to be one of the longest days of my life. We woke up to pouring rain outside, so our teachers reworked our schedule to give us the morning off. We were suppose to go on a walking tour of the Roman ruins, but instead they suggested a few indoor sites around the city that we could visit on our own. Our group decided to visit the Cornaro Chapel, which houses a Bernini sculpture called “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa.” Seeing the statue was amazing, but it also felt good to be in the chapel and get out of the rain for a little while. From there we went to the Capucci Crypts…probably the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. When monks were forced to move their monastery hundreds of years ago, they dug up all the monks that had been buried at their cemetery and brought the bones with them to their new location. But instead of reburying them, they decided to arranged them artistically all through the basement of their church. They groups the bones by their size and type and made designs on the walls, arches, and even lampshades! Very strange, but very cool. Our last stop of the morning was to see the chains of St. Peter at San Pietro in Vincoli. Two metro rides and a ton of steps later, we were there. They were encased in glass at the front of the church, and whether or not they were real they were very cool to see.

As we left St. Peter’s, the weather started to clear up. We met with the group at the Campolini Museum and Dr. Medina walked us through some of the ancient Italian art that they have there. It was interesting to see, and it felt good to be inside for a while. We headed over to the ruins after our museum tour, which involved crossing a major street in front of the Italian capitol building. Before we crossed, the tour group ahead of us decided to ignore the light and keep walking. This upset a bus driver, who started to go even though they were in front of him. That made their tour guide really mad, so he went up to the front of the bus and started yelling something in Italian. It is never a good idea to yell at any Italian driver, and this case is no exception. The bus driver threw the bus into park and got out and started fighting with the tour guide. Moral of the story: Don’t cross until the light says you can.

The ruins where absolutely amazing to see. Some of the pillars that were built up 2000 years ago are still standing and cannot be torn down….they have been trying for hundreds of years. We walked over to the Coliseum, which is probably one of the most impressive structures I’ve seen yet. Not only can it hold 70,000 people, there were aqueducts built leading up to it that could fill it with water for various events held there. Let’s see the Atlanta stadium do that!

We all rushed back to the hotel from the ruins to eat, shower, and get ready for the orchestra concert. We visited our new favorite pizza place for dinner…staying next to the university has been very beneficial for us; cheap good food is everywhere! It was fun to get all dressed up for a change, and going to the concert was a lot of fun. The concert hall was pretty modern, shaped in shape of cello! The orchestra was fantastic and it was so good to hear live music. Afterwards we headed to a gelataria close to the hotel, and then into our rooms for the night to try and get some time on the internet. Tomorrow is our last day in Rome…I can’t believe its gone so fast!