Hi everybody! I know I promised a blog entry right after I got back from Rome on Sunday, but I had finals on Tuesday and Wednesday and was out of town today, so sorry for the delay! Anyways, I went to Rome this past weekend and saw all the main tourist attractions, Vatican City, and the POPE! The weekend was beautiful, but EXHAUSTING. After not getting much sleep the night before (or the whole week before, to be honest), we took the 7:45 a.m. train from Siena to Rome on Saturday morning, and arrived in Rome at around 10. We hadn't had breakfast and were hungry by the time we got there, and Maria and I finally got the McDonald's we had been craving for weeks :) We don't even love it all that much in the states, but when you're in another country and have had literally the same meal every day for two weeks, you can't help but crave food from home.
Our first touristy stop was the Trevi Fountain, and when we turned the corner and saw it to the right of us, it looked a lot different than I had expected it to look! The actual fountain looked the same, but I had this vision in my head that in front of the fountain there was going to be a big huge piazza or open area filled with camera-toting tourists with plenty of room to move around as you please. Well, there were plenty of camera-toting tourists, but not a whole lot of space to move. There were rails, stairs, a road, and then buildings pratically right up against us. I had read somewhere just before we came to Rome that the fountain was named "Trevi" because it is located at the junction of three roads (tre vie), but I was still surprised to see such a small square in front of it. However, the actual fountain was absolutely stunning, and I made like a typical tourist and had my obligatory make-a-wish-while-tossing-a-coin-over-your-shoulder Kodak moment :)
After that we happened upon the Spanish Steps (so named because they are in the same piazza as the Spanish Embassy - even though they're not even the steps to the embassy), walked up the steps, and went inside the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. Shortly after, we made our way to the Pantheon (whose name at first I confused with the Parthenon in Athens). It is now a Catholic church, but was once a temple to the ancient gods of Rome. It was really cool, the ceiling was open and they had teeny-tiny drains on the ground of the building for to drain the water when it rained. The Pantheon also contained the tombs first two kings of Italy. Our next stop was a mini mall type of place with all kinds of shops inside, and it was here that Maria, Alvaro, Tony and I ran into our friend Haley from back home at GCSU! She is actually going to be joining us for the Milan program next month and is already here in Italy doing a mission trip. But we had no idea that we were all going to be in Rome at the same time until we were a few feet away from each other! It's crazy how small this country actually is, I feel like I have so many friends and friends-of-friends that are studying and/or visiting Italy this summer, and I've already ran into several of them!
In the early evening on Saturday we headed towards the Colosseum where Tony bought tickets for us to go inside for the next day, since they let in the last group of people at 6:15 p.m. While Tony was doing that, Maria, Alvaro and I poked around the different souvenir stands outside the Colosseum, took a few pictures of the amazing Roman ruins that were all around us, and Maria and I got really excited when we saw a bride and groom being photographed with the Colosseum in the background! We ended up seeing another bride and groom later that day, too. Hey, it's Saturday in Italy :)
We went back to the hotel and rested for a bit before going out to eat and checking out Rome by night down by the Tiber River. It was really beautiful :) We didn't get much sleep again that night, against our better judgment since we knew we had to wake up early the next day to go visit the VATICAN! If you're Catholic, I seriously recommend saving up and making a pilgrimage to this place - how can you not? And even if you're not, I'm sure you will still love it. That's what so great about the city - it doesn't just attract Catholics, but people of every religion. People all over the world are fascinated by the Vatican, the museums, and the pope; and the fact that Vatican City is actually it's own country all by itself is pretty awesome, too :)
We stood in line to enter Saint Peter's Basilica (the line for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel was at least two miles long, no exaggeration) which moved fairly quickly, and once we got inside we saw Michelangelo's Pieta and the tomb of Pope John Paul II, which was right next to it. Simply. Amazing. I got to go to confession at the basilica too, and I got a bunch of gifts at the gift shop for my family and friends back home :) While I was at the gift shop, I overheard one of the cashiers telling a French woman that the pope would be speaking from his window at 12:00 p.m., which was only about twenty minutes away! He doesn't speak publicly every Sunday, but June 26 (the day we were there) is the patronal feast of Saints Peter and Paul. I found Maria, Alvaro and Tony and told them about the pope speaking soon, so we went outside and joined the crowd that was forming in Saint Peter's Square. Very shortly after we found a spot, we heard the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Italian, followed by French, English, German, Spanish, and Polish! Maria, Alvaro and Tony all know Spanish, I know French, and of course we all speak Italian and English, and we all agreed that out of all the languages the pope was speaking, he was easiest to understand in Italian, followed by French/Spanish, and then English!
After our fantastic visit to the Vatican, we encountered more Roman ruins and took some more pictures. Once we were back on the city roads we started looking for a place to eat lunch. The restaurants and waiters in Rome are ruthless when it comes to trying to get you to dine with them, they will stand outside their doors shoving menus into your hands, shouting the specials at you, and then some will even go as far as to follow you as you try to walk away, even across the street. Nonetheless, we ended up giving in and eating at one of these places. How do you pass up a glass of wine, bread, caprese salad and lasagna for 10 euros? After lunch it was finally time to go inside the Colosseum! We explored some of the ruins and when we made our way into the center of the landmark and encircled it, around every corner and bend we would say, "Ooh! This would be a good picture!" so now we all have pictures of ourselves and each other from just about every possible angle of the Colosseum. We toured some gardens and finally hopped on our bus for the 3-hour drive back to Siena at around 8 p.m., where we all slept the entire time. "Bella, ma stancante!" is how we decided to describe Rome - beautiful, but exhausting!
Back in Siena, we had our written final exam on Tuesday, and our oral final on Wednesday. I did well and ended up with an A in the class :) We went out with our friends from around the world to celebrate Wednesday night. I'm actually kind of sad to leave Siena, especially since I just made a lot of these friends within the last month, some of them even in the last week, and now we are all departing from one another :( Walking through the streets and passing my favorite gelateria, my favorite pizzeria, and my favorite marketplace in Siena, I realized I am going to miss this little town more than I thought I would!
However, one thing I am probably not going to miss is the constant noise coming from outside our window at all times of the day and night (we live in the city center and our street is also a bar crawl), especially at this time of year. The Palio is taking place on Saturday, July 2 and this town is so hyped up about it it's ridiculous. What the Palio is is a horse race, one that lasts for 90 seconds, that the whole town goes crazy about for weeks beforehand. Maria and I awoke to the loudest possible group of drummers outside of our building one Sunday morning, and the whole lot of them went on for about ten minutes. Loud. Right outside our window. On a Sunday morning. I'm actually pretty glad I booked my flight to Sicily for the day before the Palio. I had no idea about the Palio before I made my reservations, but I would much rather be relaxing on the Sicilian coast with my cousins than watch a horse race that I probably wouldn't even get to watch, what with all the locals and tourists that will be here for it :)
Today (Thursday) Tony took us to visit the Umbrian towns of Assisi and Perugia. That's right, Assisi as in Saint Francis and Saint Clare, and Perugia as in where Amanda Knox was in school. Assisi was one of my favorite places in Italy that I've seen thus far. When we arrived in the town there was a sign that said "Welcome to Assisi - City of Peace" and the town definitely lived up to that introduction. Of course it's pretty touristy, but definitely not touristy like Rome, Milan and the like, because it's not industrial at all, the only industry in Assisi is tourism. It's a quiet, beautiful town, and the only shops are souvenir shops, restaurants, tiny boutiques, etc :) We got to see a lot of churches, beautiful views, and the tombs of Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi. I decided that if my mom were here in Italy with me Assisi would probably be her favorite town, and I intend to take her here one day :) After Assisi we visited Perugia, which reminded me a lot of Siena in that it had a lot of the big-name clothing stores and chains in the city center.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the Tuscan towns of San Gimignano, Lucca and Pisa, and then Maria, Alvaro and Tony will come back to Siena after dropping me off at the airport to catch my flight to Palermo, where my third-cousin Guido (yes that's his name, isn't it awesome?), whom I have never met and whom I didn't even know existed at this time last year, will meet me at the airport and take me to his hometown of Castellammare del Golfo, which is the same town where my great-grandfather Luca Fontana lived and grew up before he came to America in 1919 at the age of seventeen. This is going to be one of the most exciting times of my life, and I know I'm going to want to record as much as I can, both in words and in pictures, so I will be sure to post blog entries and snapshots whenever possible!
Off to go finish packing and get some sleep before the day's adventures start! Ciao!
Chloe :)
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