Gianicolo Hill
On Wednesday, we walked around the neighborhood of Trastevere in Rome. Our first stop was Villa Farnese, a beautiful villa that was home to Cardinal Farnese, who later became Pope Paul III. The villa was extravagantly decorated, maybe a little too much for my taste. Still, it was beautiful nonetheless. We then made our way up to Gianicolo Hill. On our way up, we stopped at the place where St. Peter was actually crucified, although his body lies in St. Peter's Basilica. This basilica was very small and our professor said, "It's similar to Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but it's Honey I Shrunk the Temple." That definitely gave us all quite the laugh. We sat around the temple for a few minutes, eating peaches that he had brought for us. These peaches were flat and incredibly sweet. If I remember correctly they are called white peaches. After our refreshing snack we continued our trek up the hill. As noon approached, our professor hurried us along to the site where the cannon blows every day at noon. We made it just in time. Literally as we stopped in front of the canon, it went off. It was a pretty awesome experience; one more thing to check off of my To-Do list. We began to make our way back down the hill and our professor stopped us at the edge of the mountain. He pointed out the jail and explained how communication back in the day was done through shouting names. Even if your loved one didn't hear you, word would travel through the jail that someone stopped by to say hello. I suppose. Well, our professor had us scream "Bruno!", apparently one of his friends. Unfortunately, and rather anti-climatically, there was no response from Bruno. "No matter.", said our professor. "We will be seeing his family on Friday when we travel to the gypsy camp." We all exchanged looks of terror and confusion, but also laughed. More adventures with Professor Ferro.
The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Capuchin Crypt
After class, Kaleb and I caught a bus towards the Pantheon. We had a few things left to accomplish here in Rome, and time was running out. The Pantheon is probably the second or third biggest tourist attraction in Rome, and for good reason. It is truly a remarkable building and is my second favorite place in Rome after the Colosseum. The architecture was mind blowing as well as the sheer size of the building. The Trevi Fountain ranks pretty high on the tourist attraction list as well, and it was conveniently just ten minutes away from the Pantheon. Unfortunately the left side of the Trevi was under construction (typical), but it was still beautiful. And packed with people. Kaleb and I squeezed through the crowds and finally put our 1 euro cent coins to good use. Make a wish and make it count! It was impossible to find a place to just sit and relax for a while, so we decided that we would have to come back at night with the rest of the group. After another ten minute walk, we arrived at the Capuchin crypt. This crypt is "home" to hundreds and hundreds of Capuchin monks. Boy was it creepy. The crypt walls are "decorated" with thousands of bones. Some monks were still in their robes, propped up, appearing to be looking at us. The "Crypt of Skulls", "Crypt of Pelvises", and "Crypt of Femurs" were exactly as they sound. Rooms just filled of bones. Although it was a very cool experience, it was nice to be outside and back in the fresh air when we were finished. There is something a tad weird about being in a room with a few hundred dead people and being able to see their bones.Tivoli
Thursday, Domenico accompanied us to the town of Tivoli. Just over an hour outside of Rome, Tivoli is another ancient town. The layout reminded me very much of Sorrento, but without the coast nearby. Our main attraction was the Villa d' Este. Now, this was my kind of villa. The inside of the villa was...well, exactly like every other villa that we have seen. But the outside; it was beautiful. The "backyard" of this Villa was overrun with magnifient fountains (including the 100 fountains featured in the Lizzie McGuire movie), pools, and just gorgeous trees. I was in heaven. We found tons of little baby frogs and I picked them up, of course. I did have a small mishap with one as I tried to place it on my nose and it fell off. I thought I had killed it, but it survived, thank goodness. We spent a couple of hours just frolicking in the garden and taking pictures. Domenico suggested a sandwich shop for lunch and Shelley, Kaleb, Jennifer, and me took him up on his suggestion. Tivoli is famous for its pork, so that's the kind of sandwiches that we got. Oh my gosh. Fresh sliced pork and fresh sliced peppercorn cheese. It was probably the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my entire life. No joke. Finish the meal off with a lemon slushie and I was in heaven. At 3 o'clock we made our way out of the town and back to the train station to catch the train home.Now, this is where things got interesting. God bless Domenico, for without him, we would have had no idea what was going on. Apparently there was a fire somewhere between Tivoli and Rome and all trains were temporarily suspended. We were told to wait on the train in the AC until it was cleared for departure. Well, two hours later we were still waiting. Everyone was sleeping except for Shelley and me. We don't have the gift of being able to sleep anywhere and at any time. So, we just sat and talked about our future school and career plans. As 5:45 rolled around, I was beginning to accept that I would have to move to Tivoli and never return to America. Thank goodness that was not the case. At 6:00 p.m. a bus came to pick us (and 50 other people) up and take us back to Rome. We boarded the bus for an hour and a half ride home on velvet seats with no air conditioning and static playing over the radio. Shelley, Jennifer, and me attempted to stay positive and played the "Share your dream life with me" game, but after thirty minutes or so we were all clearly ready to be back in Rome. When the bus finally arrived in Rome, we boarded the metro and arrived back to St. John's 30 minutes later. Turns out that we didn't make it back to Rome until 8:00 p.m, 4 hours later than originally planned. That made for a 11 hour day of class, yuck. If not for this transportation issue coming home, the day would have been perfect. Villa d' Este was truly magnificent.
Gypsy Camp
Today was the day that we would brave a gypsy camp with our professor. Going into this visit, we were all quite skeptical, and for good reason I believe. It's not everyday that you go and visit gypsies in their homes. I stored my money in my bra and was ready to go. Turns out, that was an unnecessary precaution. The family that we met was extremely nice and welcoming, despite the humongous language barrier. I could tell how much they appreciated our professor and the food he brings for their family. Contrary to the stereotypical images of gypsies, they were not dressed provocatively and in colorful garments. They were dressed rather normally, I thought. After formal introductions, Professor Ferro suggested that we went inside and drew with all of the children. Even though we couldn't communicate through talking, drawing is universal. I was pleasantly surprised and had a wonderful time with the children. We stayed for an hour or so and then headed back to Rome before we overstayed our welcome.
Olympic Opening Ceremony
Climbing St. Peter's
Saturday morning Shelley, Jennifer, and me climbed St. Peter's Basilica. Talk about an early morning workout. We made it to the Vatican shortly after 9:00 a.m and began our climb up the dome. 551 steps up, 551 steps down. 90% of these steps are spiral staircases. The first 200 steps or so weren't really steps...more of like a spiral ramp with small steps every feet or so. We didn't feel anything until about 300-400 steps in. The spirals began to get narrower and steeper. We never really knew how close we were to the top of the dome, but somewhere along the line we all got disoriented and had to take a couple minute break. Good thing none of us are claustrophobic...or at least not really. We knew that we were nearing the top of the top when the walls began to slant inward. We had to lean to the right in order to climb the steps. The final fifteen steps were the worst of all. Steep spiral staircase that was just narrow enough for one person to fit in, at an angle.
After we made it to the top, we were all sweaty, exhausted, and rather confused. That was probably the weirdest experience I have ever had climbing to the top of a building. I can say that I am glad that I did it though, the view from the top of the basilica was breathtaking. It was a long way down, but that meant that we could see for miles and miles. The dome allowed us to get a full 360 degree view of Rome and we all pointed out the famous landmarks that we have been too many a times. After a solid twenty minute rest at the top of the dome, we made our descent back down the dome. It was much easier going down, but it still felt never-ending. 1102 steps later, we had climbed St. Peter's Basilica, and in just over an hour. Power climbers!
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