ROMA summary

Well...I hate to do this but I am going to have to do a summary post about Rome because I am behind! We spent four bustling days in the city. It is a confusing, trafficky explosion of a place but very very beautiful, with an amazing surprise around every corner!
       The first day we arrived by overnight train into a deluge! With a firefighter hose worth of watter shooting into our faces, we stumbled blindly to the hotel, swinging our bags wildly as we dove between cars. That day we visited the Pantheon, then went to my favorite gelato place ever called Della Parma nearby, then had a group dinner where I got a 4 cheese calzone which to my disappointment had bleu cheese in it...

       Day 2 was our early Christian mosaic day! After a slightly excessive hour-long hike across the city we visited three different basilicas from the 5th and 6th centuries to study their mosaics: Saint Prudesse, Santa Maria Maggiore, and Saint Pudenziana. All three have spectacular mosaic work. In Saint Pudenziana we got to go behind the apse to look more closely at the famous mosaic there, but the guide was a little over-enthusiastic and ended up keeping us for two hours telling us about random bricks and cement while we were all super exhausted. Still, quite an experience!

The afternoon that day was very hot and tiring as we walked all around the city for hours, going to see the Spanish steps and Michelangelo's Moses which is stunning (surprise? It's michelangelo, of course he's amazing). It is a very muscular, Classical Moses who looks a lot like a Greco-Roman god. I tried to buy a postcard there for my journal but only had bills instead of coins, thus angering the lady who worked there who thrust it at me for free. It really made me almost want to cry, but Olivia kindly lent me the coinage to repay the woman, who actually smiled when I came back and paid! 

     The next day was our free day in the city, so Alex and I went a met up with AMY STOUT for lunch and gelato! It was so nice to see her and she looked so happy and beautiful--she is quite in her element in Rome! We also went and walked around in the Borghese gardens which are an absolute dream. That night we had a fabulous group dinner with a cheese and tomatoes appetizer, zucchini pasta, then carpaccio (seared beef thinly sliced) and a chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream--I think the red wine we had was the best so far! 

      Our final day was the busiest ever and it is taking me forever to right my journal entry about it! In as few words as possible, Alex Whitney and I began at the Capitoline Museum where we saw some of the greatest sculptures of antiquity including the Dying Gaul, Romulus and Remus, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and the Marius.

We then walked the long walk to the Galleria Borghese where we finagled our way in without a reservation to see a huge collection of Bernini sculpture and several works by Carravaggio, Titian and Raphael! I absolutely loved this museum. I could stare at Bernini's Apollo Daphne for years, and Carravaggio's David Holding the Head of Goliath was everything I had hoped! (The Goliath head is a gruesome self-portrait of the artist!)

         In the evening we did what has probably been on of my favorite things so far. After going into St Peters basilica (eh) to see Michelangelo's Pieta (yes!!!) we got to go on a private tour of the Vatican Museum including the Sistine Chapel and papal apartments painted by Raphael. This was a major opportunity which few people ever get the chance to do. Instead of seeing these works with about a thousand other people crowding in front of you to take photos, we got to have the entire thing all to ourselves! It was fun and quiet in the way that going to school after everyone has gone home is, coupled with seeing some of the greatest works of art ever made! Highlights in the Belvedere courtyard included the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon.

It has been an exhausting week, every moment jam-packed with activity! All in all I really enjoyed my time in Rome, and some of the things I got to see rank in my very favorites so far!