Ciao!
Today we left Florence for Rome. It was so bittersweet; we
were all so sad to leave the homes that we had made in Florence, but we were
stoked to be heading to Rome! We woke up early, ate some pastries from the
Forno around the corner for the last time, and just sat in our place for a
while. Capa had arranged for taxis to pick us up at our apartments and they had
apparently told the drivers to take us to the airport. We, however, were going
to the train station.
Katia, Geoff, and I got in a taxi and Katia said “Santa
Maria Novella train station.” The driver turned around and said “not airport?”
So we avoided that situation, but one of the taxis from Tintori didn’t. Three
out of four taxis got to the train station but one went straight to the
airport. Luckily, Dr. Zaho had planned ahead and made us go extra early, so
they made it in time for us to wait around forever to find out what binario to
go to to get on our train.
Once the train arrived, there was a frenzy of us getting on
with our luggage. We did really well though and everyone got everything on! So
Geoff, Katia, Chelsea and I sat in four seats together with a table between us.
I pulled out my deck of cards and we played war for a while. Katia won. After
that we just snacked and chatted and enjoyed the ride. An hour and a half after
we got on it was time to get off in Roma!
We all got off the train fairly easily (I accidentally
knocked a guy in the shoulder with my suitcase and I still feel bad about it).
When we stopped to make sure we were all together, Geoff put his duffel bag on
top of my suitcase and said that was much better than carrying it himself. So
he put his hand on my handle and walked away with it. While everyone else was
wheeling theirs through the train station, I got to watch Geoff pull mine ahead
of me. I’m so spoiled. He rules. Though he said
that was a better situation for him too.
Oh, and the first big sign I saw that greeted me in Rome was
of Beyonce modeling swimwear for H&M. It made us all very happy to see her
beautiful face.
So we got to our hotel just down the street, Hotel Gioberti.
It’s pretty nice. We get free breakfast and it’s not too far from a lot of
stuff. The only downfall, though, is that we don’t get free wifi. It’s 10 euro
for a password to use wifi on one device. It sucks. But it gives us time to
bond so that’s cool. Ana Maria is my roommate and it’s awesome!!
So we hung out in the hotel for a short time then left for a
walk around the city. We saw so much in the 6 hours we were out. Our first stop
was in Santa Maria Maggiore, a very early (maybe 5th century)
Christian church with a baroque façade and a gorgeous interior. Coffered gold
ceiling with frescoes and mosaics lining the walls above the nave, marble
floors with intricate patterns, and huge marble pillars lining the nave. We
looked at two big chapels as well. After peeking into the first one I turned
around to find a giant group of tourists behind me, so I spotted a clear path
and began to head for it. A woman then made eye contact with me, looked where I
was walking, and charged for that open space to walk closer to the chapel. I
realized this as it was happening but continued to push through the crowd
because I know that common courtesy dictates you let a person exit an area before
you enter. Plus there was no room to let her pass me. So I pretty much shoved
her with my shoulder then weirdly rubbed up against a guy to get past and all I
heard was this woman cursing at me as I pushed past and as I walked away. I
didn’t look back and frankly I didn’t care. Welcome to Rome!! So after that
little debacle we looked around the church more, saw Borromini’s tomb, and
viewed the reliquary of the manger which was pretty cool. It was set up under
the baldachino which was awesome.
After that we continued walking through Rome. We ended up
seeing the Colosseum down streets and in between buildings. Then we saw
Trajan’s column and markets and the wedding cake building, all with smooth
Italian jams playing over some loud speaker nearby. Then we went into a Jesuit
baroque church and it was stunning. The ceiling fresco was gorgeous and so
baroque and ugh it was just so beautiful.
When we left there we went to lunch/dinner at Rossopomodoro .
We all got pizzas! I got one called Padulese; it had a very sweet red sauce
with mozzarella, a buffalo cheese, and a few more cheeses. It was delicious of
course. Then we left and went to another beautiful baroque church that’s been
dedicated to St. Andrew. It was called Basilica of Saint Andrea Della Valle and
it has the second largest dome in Rome. We didn’t have much time in there
because it was close to closing time, so I just sat on a bench and soaked in
everything around me then we left.
After that we walked over to a big beautiful piazza with the
Fountain of Four Rivers in it. We went
to a famous restaurant, Tre Scalini, for their famous dessert, tartufo. Oh my
gosh. Oh. My. Goodness. Best thing I’ve eaten here. It was the richest dark
chocolate gelato with dark chocolate chunks on top, over a maraschino cherry
soaked in some kind of alcohol, all topped with fresh whipped cream and a
cookie. It was so gooooood! A lot of people couldn’t finish theirs, but man I
devoured mine.
After that wonderful experience I had an even bigger and
better one: we went to see the Pantheon. I was walking at the back of the
group, digesting the piece of heaven I had just ingested, when someone said we
were going to the Pantheon. I squealed and literally ran to the front of our
pack to Dr. Zaho and Geoff and basically skipped the rest of the way. As we
turned a corner into the piazza, I squealed again and got choked up. I couldn’t
stop smiling. As we approached it, it all became so real. It was an incredible
feeling walking through the porch, into the doorway, and seeing the whole of
the interior in one fell swoop. From the oculus at the top of the dome to the
circles and squares on the floor, the whole space was jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
I seriously had to hold back tears. That place delivered nothing but bliss and
pure serenity into my heart.
On a less serious note, I walked away from the group once to
find a certain chapel; I was holding Katia’s camera in a weird way against my
stomach as I walked because she asked me to hold it and I just grabbed it and
walked away. I found the chapel and was standing in front of it for maybe 30
seconds before this girl walked over, looked at Katia’s camera in my hand,
looked up at me, and said “will you take our picture?” to which I replied “yeah
of course!” while wondering why the heck they wanted a picture in front of this
chapel that is relatively unimportant (but I know about it because I’m
presenting on the Pantheon in a few days). So this girl handed me her friend’s
camera and they both kind of nonchalantly turned their backs to me so I was
just like, “uhhh, do you want the sculpture in the picture?” and they said
yeah, so I put the camera up to my face and they both gave me that
over-the-shoulder look, so I snapped the picture. They said “thank you!”,
grabbed their camera, and ran out. Like, what the heck was that. I’m fairly
certain that they walked in, went straight to that chapel in their business
casual (but also borderline club attire) clothes, posed for that picture, and
peaced out. I returned to the group pretty baffled.
After we left the Pantheon we continued our walk and ended
up in this weird courtyard space that we were drawn to by the sound of a
guitar. There was a man sitting in this courtyard playing instrumental covers
of songs that I vaguely know. It was beautiful. The acoustics were incredible
and the space itself was magnificent. It was decorated in the 1800s (according
to a plaque that I saw) and it had frescoes with scenes from women’s lives and
figures representing different states of mind or something. Dr. Zaho didn’t know
anything about it and neither did anyone else but it was lovely.
After that nice stop we made our way to the Trevi Fountain.
I got so many chills when we turned the corner and I saw it there in front of
me. It’s one of those things I’ve seen in movies and on TV and stuff but never
really considered to be much of anything. But to be standing in front of it and
seeing it physically there within my reach was more than I could handle. So I
got distracted and separated from the group taking pictures and stuff. I
stopped and walked over to them just as someone among us started saying “booo!”
and Dr. Zaho began yelling words towards the fountain, so I was immediately
confused. I eventually found what they were all angered by: a man was leaning
into the fountain with a magnet on a stick, pulling coins out of the fountain.
Within a few seconds we were all booing him and the entire crowd around the
fountain (which was probably in the 300s) turned to look at us and a few groups
of people noticed what we saw and joined in. After what seemed like forever,
the guy finally walked away from the fountain looking sketchy as heck. A police
woman came over near us a few minutes later and Dr. Zaho told her what
happened. The woman was glad that we had booed him.
After making a wish and throwing three coins into the
fountain (but I did it over the wrong shoulder!), we started to walk away until
Zaho stopped at a roasted chestnut stand and bought us all these big delicious
roasted chestnuts. Yum.
At that point it was 8pm (we left the hotel around 2:30) and
we were all ready to go back to the hotel. So Brittany, Krista, Geoff, Katia,
Chelsea, and I walked back while everyone else took a bus. It was nice. The
walk was kind of far and I was really tired, but I’m glad we did it because we
got to see the city a bit more. When we finally made it back a little after
dark and all went into our respective rooms. We’re all on the same floor and
close to one another so it rules. Brittany and Katia came over to our room and
just hung out for a few hours (since we don’t have wifi to distract us). We
chatted for a while and I showered in our tiny shower somewhere in those few
hours and now here I am typing my blog post into a word document because I
don’t have internet to post it with. Bummer city, man.
So I apologize that I’m posting a bunch at once! And that
this one was so long. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it. Rome is pretty awesome so
far. I’m still a bit wary about the people but I’m sure I’ll get used to it
real quick.
Good night!
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