Gisele

After the Vatican, we had to rush over to class for our presentations, but got a moment to breathe after class before we were off once again to the ballet, Gisele, that CEA got us tickets for. The show was supposed to start at eight, so after class we hurried and showered, got a little dressed up, and went to mass at six at Santa Susannah, an English church near the theater, so that we could get our ashes for Ash Wednesday. I have to say, this American priest was a little uninspiring, although the church was beautiful, like every church I've seen in Rome. It was interesting to see all of the Americans, and I wondered what their stories were and why they were in Rome. The mass was actually really short (like I said, the priest wasn't very fascinating), and we went and got something to eat at a nearby trattoria before the show.

Since Anna and Kathryn, Alex's friend visiting from Paris, weren't going to the show, Alex and I headed over to theater to meet up with Katherine and Danielle. When we got there, everyone was all dressed up- I loved it! We got to our seats, and the theater was really cool. Our seats weren't that great, but it was the experience that mattered anyway. I actually really enjoyed the ballet, but Mike fell asleep. I'm not surprised: some of the dance sequences got a little lengthy and if you got lost on the plot in the beginning, you were kind of screwed. Plus it was reaaaally warm in there--not so hot that you were sweating, but just warm enough to lull you to sleep.

During intermission, we all went to get some snacks, but because I had just eaten I didn't get anything but snack on some of the nuts on the bar. When we got back to our seats, I was soooo thirsty--stupid salty peanuts.

By the time we got out of the ballet, we were exhausted and ended up going to bed soon after.

In the morning, Anna and I woke up to go to Santa Maria Maggiore and Basilica di Santa Prassede for art history class. Santa Maria was beautiful, and all of the mosaics on the ceiling were so detailed that I was surprised it was even possible. Also, they had pieces of the manger under the altar which you could go down and pray at. At the second church, we went into this amazing room that was just covered in colorful and gold mosaics. My pictures just don't it justice. Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to walk around after and ended up getting 20 euro black boots at a little store near the train station!

Because today is Valentine's Day, on the way to pick up some lunch, Katherine and I bought a bottle of Prosecco and did a little toast at lunch, to the holiday and to our upcoming adventure this weekend. Off to Paris tonight!

Parts of Jesus's manger (the missing parts were metal, so it was bright)

Papal Audience

So, if you’ve been living under a rock for the past four days, THE POPE IS RESIGNING! With that said, there’s gonna be some cool stuff going on in Rome over the next two or three weeks, and I’m so lucky that I’m going to be here for it all. To put things into perspective, this hasn’t happened in 600 years. In fact, the pope who most recently resigned was Pope Gregory XII in 1415, in the midst of crisis. His resignation helped to end the Great Western Schism, in which more than one person was claiming the title to the papacy.

Benedict will resign officially on February 28^th, and a new pope will hopefully be elected soon after. The process of electing a new pope is pretty intense, and the first rules state that a person must be elected with a 2/3 plus 1 majority, but if after a certain point that fails to work, more votes take place over that afternoon and into the following days (at which point black smoke comes out of the Vatican to indicate each time a pope is not elected with a new vote). Finally, when white smoke instead appears, this means the new pope has elected, aka get my butt across town to witness this momentous occasion. The metro that day better not mess me up…

Crack of dawn

Anyway, instead of our normal site visit to a church today, we actually asked Professor Gondreau a few days ago if he could attempt to secure us tickets to the papal audience instead. He was definitely for that, and it would be a cool moment to witness considering it would be his first public appearance since announcing his resignation. He was able to get the tickets, so we woke up at the crack of dawn to get over to the Vatican to get good seats!

The metro was actually more packed than we thought it would be, which was very inconvenient considering we actually had important places to be, people to see. And of course once we got to the Vatican, we went through the wrong line of security (this time I didn’t get stopped three times; I was proactive) and had to walk back out and around the square. We heard a ton of voices and got a little nervous that perhaps we were really late, but the lines weren’t even open yet and there wasn’t a massive crowd of people yet. Luckily, it was around 8:15 am when we got to the line, and people were just starting to be let through so we didn’t have to wait too long. We actually got pretty good seats, considering there were estimated to be about 8,000 people in attendance.

German band

We ended up waiting for over an hour and half because we had gotten there so early, but were entertained for the most part by the groups that had come from around the world that were scattered about throughout the audience. Directly to our left was an elementary school choir that had come from somewhere else in Italy, in the front of us was what we think a French high school choir, and then behind us was a singing group from the pope’s hometown in Germany. Their music was by far my favorite, because it was happy and upbeat and they had a whole band!

We also became friendly with some nuns sitting behind us, and learned that they were Missionaries of Charity, an order started by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They told us that they were taking their final vows to officially become nuns in the coming weeks; the whole process takes ten years! Their “mother” was sitting next to them, and invited us to come visit them on Sunday at 5 pm for Adoration, which I think Anna and I are definitely going to go to. When we asked what time their mass was, they told us that we probably wouldn’t want to come to that one because it was at 6 am! They were so friendly, and invited us to come visit them anytime. We also got into a conversation with the priests in front of us, who were from Argentina and barely spoke any English. They were soo friendly though, and talked to us about church in the States. Seated in front of him was another very young priest, and after our conversation with the Argentinians, he interjected us, saying he overheard that we went to Providence College. He studied and Notre Dame, and he told us that they loved PC! He also said that while Notre Dame was in the midst of certain controversies, the administration had repeatedly said that they wanted to be more like Providence College (I think they meant in a theological way, obviously). He was really nice, and he gave us all the times for masses at an English church.

The pope came out at exactly 10:30 am, and everyone gave him a standing ovation. He read off an Ash Wednesday blessing in a few different languages, and a high school from New Orleans stood up to sing when he blessed the Americans. Then, the little kids in front of us sang, and the pope was so sweet and blessed them, too, saying that music was one of the things that gave him the most joy in life. After all of the proceedings, everyone gave him a standing ovation again and chanted ,”Viva la papa!” That kind of made me sad.

The Vatican Square

I didn’t realize at first that this had been his first public appearance since announcing his resignation. All in all it was a great experience, and I can't believe that we might be some of the last people to see the pope before he gives up his position. Pretty cool that we were there to witness it!

515 Stairs and Bagels

On Friday, we woke up bright and early to head over to the Vatican for the St. Peter's Basilica dome climb. I've been in Rome a whole month, and it was actually my first time at the Vatican. The square is actually so beautiful, and it didn't hurt that we were there on a clear, not too chilly, morning.

We did have to go through some pretty strict security though, and of course it took me three times to get through. I had to keep emptying my jacket of all the stupid random earrings that I tend to take off when I feel like it. It came to a point when the Vatican guard was laughing at me. Great start to the day.

The pope's bedroom!

When we met the rest of our class at the obelisk, we headed off to the basilica. There were these crazy-looking guards everywhere that, in my opinion, looked like jesters. Well, they're the Swiss Guard, and some of the most well-trained military men in the world, and there's some intense restrictions just to get accepted into it. I think they just looked silly, but tradition is tradition, and it was entertaining. I also wondered what kind of weapons they could fit in those jester/genie/balloon pants...?

Gorgeous Friday morning

Catarina, our CEA Activities Coordinator, led us to the start of the climb, and asked if anyone wanted her to buy them a ticket for the elevator. No way. I was totally in it for the full experience. Me and Anna and Kevin started out ahead, and then ended up way ahead. I think that being the most impatient person in the world, I had to be the first to the top. Kevin actually ran the first 195 steps, and we met him at a break in the staircase where you could go outside on a large patio to take some pictures and go into the souvenir store. We decided to save all of that for later, even though we were way ahead of the 30-or-so kids below us. Okay, at this part, we did get a teensy bit confused when we didn't understand that once in the basilica, we had to walk around to this unmarked, totally obscure doorway to finish the climb. So we walked out of the dome at first, thinking we were done, and then had to run back in when we realized that first, we hadn't finished it (good thing, cause it wasn't that impressive yet), and second, we were risking our chances of beating everyone else up there to get the first look. Also, I just want to point out that it wasn't my ridiculous competitive nature that was pushing me to get up there ahead of everyone for once--it was the fact that I wanted to see it uninterrupted and less crowded.

So as everyone started to catch up to us, we snaked our way along the narrow path around the dome to the door. People were taking pictures, but I honestly had no interest. There was this giant, dense chain-link fence that went at least five feet above our heads, so its not like the pictures would have turned out anyway. We got to a new staircase that continued to get more and more daunting than the first 195 steps had been. At one point, Kevin joked, "The walls are closing in!" after someone joked about claustrophobia, but then the walls literally started closing in. My first thought was, Just how old is this building?, but thank god my stupid self didn't say anything out loud because it suddenly dawned on me that, yeah, the walls were going to start slanting in sometime, we are climbing up through a dome!

Where we were standing

We got to another doorway and there was this ridiculously narrow spiral staircase that just went straight up. There was this rope hanging down from the top, which you could use to hold onto if you felt like you might fall backward. Reassuring. I did have a small moment of brilliance when, before everyone could see through the doorway, I pulled the rope out and said, "Guys, we have to swing across." I would pay to see their faces again.

Finally, after much huffing and puffing and whining, we made it to the top, and it was so worth it. I could see the entire expanse of Rome, including all of the landmarks, and in the distance, a mountain range (that I still haven't figured out what it is). I definitely told people it was the Alps, even though it most definitely was not, it was just the only mountains I could think of in Europe. Why were they asking me anyway? After we spent a good half hour up there taking in all of the landscape, we made the journey back down the dome. Still a little tedious, but much easier.

We explored St. Peter's after that, which was really amazing. There are numerous popes' tombs in the basilica itself (besides underground, which I'll be seeing on the Scavi Tour next week!), most notably Pope John Paul II. We got into a discussion about his possible road to sainthood, and how his body not decomposing has been considered one of his three necessary "miracles." Pretty fascinating stuff.

Since we had all been craving bagels for the past month (they're not so easy to come by in Rome apparently), we decided we would reward ourselves with a trip to the Jewish Ghetto, the historical Jewish district. Our goal was to search for this so-called famous bagel place that was started by a family from Long Island. Although the Jewish Ghetto is very small, we couldn't find it. I was devastated, but I got over it fast with some delicious meat and potato egg roll thing. Totally hit the spot, but I vowed to find that bagel place soon (we're trying again tomorrow!). The food in that area is actually delicious, and is pretty unique to what the rest of Italy has to offer. When we were lucky enough to stumble upon the Jewish Ghetto, it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and it seemed like the whole community was out to enjoy it. Definitely going back to try more food!

Basilica San Clemente Presentation

Basilica San Clemente

For my art history class, we each have a week where we present to the class on-site. I decided to choose a presentation that was earlier in the semester, so I went with Week 2 at San Clemente: "The Legend of St. Alexis and Other Medieval Frescoes," which happened to fall on last Thursday's site visit. It's actually really funny because of the crowd beyond the class that starts to gather when you're presenting. Whether you look like you're a tour guide or just a student, as long as you sound like you know what you're talking about, people are going to listen!

Luckily, we'd been to San Clemente already with our New Testament theology class, so me and Anna kinda knew which direction we needed to head in. Although we were five minutes late, we were actually the first ones to arrive. One thing that is drastically different here than in the States is the tardiness of the professors. I swear, I have never been to a class where an Italian professor has beat me there. Works for me. Me and Anna waited outside in the garden area under the shade because it was a little rainy (typical). The outside of Basilica San Clemente is actually really pretty, and last time I was there I bought some postcards of it in the sunshine. Also, the 12th century Byzantine mosaics on the inside of the church are absolutely stunning. They might be my favorite under those at San Marco in Venice.

Mosaics in the main basilica

There are three levels of the church that have been excavated. On the bottom is the 2nd century level, where it is believed that the Mythraic cult worshipped. Not much is known about these cults because they were extremely secretive, but they did take part in sacrifices of bulls. Almost no first-hand accounts exist of the cult of Mythras, but their most popular rituals seem to be centered around feasting. Before this Myrthaic temple, some scholars believe the building housed the Roman mint, where money was made during the reign of the Roman Empire. However, there is not enough conclusive proof to fully support this. Walking around this level is kind of creepy, especially because no one is actually sure what exactly went on down there. I literally felt like I was in one of those "Haunted Places" Discovery Channel shows. Actually, I don't see why this wouldn't be on it.

Legend of St. Alexis

My presentation took place on the second level of the basilica, which was the initial level of the 392 AD church described by St. Jerome as being dedicated to St. Clemente, and where the former pope is now buried. Professor Massini brought me to where my first fresco was, which was The Legend of St. Alexis. The legend is kind of weird, considering some of it may not even be true. Basically, Alexis was the son of a wealthy, Christian, philanthropic family in Rome, but on the eve of his arranged marriage to a beautiful woman, he went to her and told her that this life was not meant for him; he was meant to be with God. So he ran away to Edessa, which is somewhere around modern Syria, and spent the next few decades living in poverty and helping the sick and suffering, even while he starved. Some accounts describe the Virgin Mary coming to the people in the area and claiming that he was the "Son of Man," however, he had no interest in the fame and instead ran away again. He found himself back in the Roman Empire at his family's palace, and his family thought that he was a beggar and he did not correct them. Because they were extremely kind to the poor, they thought they were doing him a favor by offering him a job as a servant, and for the next 17 years he lived, allegedly, under a staircase in the palace. Eventually, he succumbed to malnourishment in the beginning of the 5th century, and there are two different accounts on how his family discovered who he was. Either he had documentation on his body that identified him, or he told a servant and the servant then told his parents after his death. Either way, he was venerated as a saint. However, there are a few issues with this story. Many of the accounts can be confused with that of the story of St. John Calybata, but the Church continues to venerate him as a saint as far back as records dating to the 10th century, when it was believed his veneration was moved from the Mesopotamian region to Rome. However, although his feast day is still celebrated, it was officially taken off the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1969. There is a church on the Aventine Hill dedicated to him, and parts of the staircase he lived under in his parents' home are there.

Legend of Sisinnius

My other fresco was actually quite comical, and was kind of laid out like a comic strip on the wall. It depicts the Legend of Sisinnius. Sisinnius was a wealthy Roman official who's wife, Theodora, became a secret Christian. She attended masses and prayer gatherings held by Pope Clemente in secret locations such as private villas. When her husband found out, he stormed into one of the gatherings and furiously ordered the pope arrested. However, he was suddenly struck blind and had to be helped out by his wife. Pope Clemente took pity on him, so he went to his home and cured him. Sisinnius (apparently he didn't learn the first time) orders the pope arrested again. This time, as the second part of the fresco depicts, his guards start to hallucinate, and instead attempt to pull out a giant pillar... didn't work too well. One of the most interesting parts of the fresco is that it holds one of the very first examples of modern Italian writing in the bottom left hand corner, where the soldiers are trying to move the pillar. It exclaims, "Son of a whore!" Yes, we were in a church, so I refrained from saying it. But interesting that one of the very first Italian phrases is that...

Empress Theodora/Virgin Mary fresco

My last fresco, which she didn't have time to let me do (annoying) was that of the Empress Theodora (so many Theodora's!). This one was actually older than the other ones, which had been done around the 10th century. This was had been done around the 5th century, and then restored to look like the Virgin Mary, in which both the Son, a chair, and arm were added in the 10th century. Interestingly, there should have been an identical fresco across from this one depicting the empress's husband, Emperor Justinian, but it has never been found.

A theory of why this church was eventually filled in is perhaps due to the close association that it had to the antipope, Clement III, but regardless the now modern level of the basilica sits on top due to Cardinal Anastasius's efforts around the 12th century. Anna did her presentation on the life of St. Catherine up here, which was actually really interesting.

Since 1667 when England outlawed Catholicism, Irish Dominicans have run Basilica San Clemente. The 1950s excavations of the lower levels are attributable to their collaborations with Italian archaeological students.

Well, I hope that was educational and no one's asleep at the keyboard...

Inside of the first level, 12th century basilica

GO RAVENS!

If you’re reading this blog, you know well enough my deep-rooted love for everything that is the Baltimore Ravens. Unfortunately, as they fought their way through Broncos and then the Patriots, I was sitting in Rome, streaming each game through a shoddy connection from my laptop. Of course I’m not complaining about being in Rome. Just about my unluckiness and the irony of this occurring while I’m on another continent. Also the fact that, at the last minute, I took my Flacco jersey out of my suitcase before I left. Hey, I didn’t have any room! Another complaint: after waiting twelve years for another Ravens Super Bowl, I leave the country, and Joey and Dad go to New Orleans for the big game.  To add to my jealousy (but excitement for them), I got pictures all day of them at various Super Bowl sights, and let’s not forget that Joey was rocking my Flacco jersey. MY LIFE.

Anyway, regardless of my cruddy luck, we made plans for the game here in Rome. We made reservations for a party at T-Bone in Trastevere, and all any of us could talk about the week leading up to it was how excited we were for cheeseburgers and fries. The only thing I could scrounge up that would even hint at me being a Ravens fan was Katherine’s purple t-shirt, so thanks to her, at least I had something. We left at around 10 pm on Sunday night, and were immediately seated thanks to Katherine insisting on making reservations. We did wait quite a while for a waitress to come to our table, but since the game didn’t start until 12:30 am our time, we had plenty of time to kill.

T-Bone restaurant Super Bowl party!

Interestingly, the party ended up being a majority of Ravens fans. We had a perfect seat looking out over the projection screen, and I was out of my mind excited. After kick-off, I even found myself sitting on my knees to see better. We ordered a round of beers and then ordered a round of appetizers: nachos, onion rings, fries, etc. The nachos were sub-par, but the onion rings hit the spot. At around 1 am, we ordered burgers and chicken fingers, which were actually delicious, much better than the ones we had at Scholars. After watching Jacoby Jones return that 108-yard touchdown, I think I was almost feeling euphoric.

At halftime, the entire restaurant went nuts. Beyonce was unreal. Maybe a little too unreal, considering what happened directly following her electrifying performance…

By this point, the Ravens were up and I was out of my mind excited. Then everything went black. I was furious. How could they let this happen? It was totally going to ruin their momentum! By this point, it was almost 3 am, so we decided to pay our check and head out—I could watch the rest of it at home, and the girls, who had no claim to either team, were getting tired. It took us more than a little while to find a cab, and by the time we got home, I wanted to cry. THE RAVENS WERE BLOWING IT! San Francisco had scored 17 unanswered points.

I hurried up and set up the game on my computer. My mom Facetimed me just as I was starting to really get nervous. The worst part was the delay—she was seeing everything just a few seconds before me. At one point, right before Randy Moss had a great catch that could have potentially set up the 49ers, my mom made a face and quickly tried to recover. It was too late. I told her to stop reacting like that, because now I knew something bad was going to happen. I hung up with her and then talked to Peter, and I could again tell what was going to happen through the Facetime. I guess I just couldn’t talk to anyone…

I’m pretty sure my roommates wanted to kill me at this point. It was almost four am, and I was screaming at my laptop, especially when that coughquestionablecough play occurred in the end zone on the 49ers last drive. The worst part was, the game wasn’t over—it had to be played strategically until the last seconds ticked off! I almost went into cardiac arrest when they decided to waste time and give San Francisco the safety… if he dropped that ball I would’ve cried. But in the end, the Ravens took it home, 34-31. Wouldn’t have been a Ravens Super Bowl, let alone game, without a minor (MAJOR!) heart attack.

Dad and Joey at the end of the game! GO RAVENS!

Jewish Catacombs

We woke up bright and early last week, looking forward to finding the Jewish Catacombs for our class visit. Anna, Danielle, Sara and I had the earlier class, so we headed out around 8 am in order to be at the catacombs by 8:30, when our tour was scheduled to start. We were running a little late and didn't have time to grab a cappuccino... I could've really used one before this adventure.
We got on the metro and transferred to another line so that we could get to the San Giovanni stop to then grab a bus. We ended up meeting up with some more of the girls on the way there. The email with the directions made it seem much simpler than it was to find the bus. We literally wandered around in circles, and finally came across it after getting directions from a police officer. We were supposed to sit on the bus until the Ardeatine bus stop... too bad there's three different Ardeatine bus stops.

As we were sitting and chatting on the bus, I asked Danielle to read what the stop we were at. As she took about ten full seconds sounding out the word, "Ardeatine," the bus doors started to shut and I screamed, "This is our stop!" Almost a dozen American girls came bulldozing off the bus, and realizing that we needed to go to the third Ardeatine (they threw the word 'fosse' in front of it to be tricky), we turned and chased the bus down and got back on.

The people on the bus were totally unfazed. I'm not sure if that's because they were either 1) too ashamed to even look at us stupid Americans, 2) embarrassed to associate with us or 3) just literally didn't care, but we actually illicited no reaction from anyone. Just to give everyone a point of reference, we were in the Roman countryside. Straight up acres of land, cobblestone roads (made for an uncomfortable bus ride), and sheep. We waited for a little, passing stops until we realized that, hmmm, maybe the first one was our stop? But who really knew? So we got off the bus, and began to trek up the country road. At one point, eight (yes eight, I counted) St. Bernard's came yelping and leaping at us through the fence. We also got honked at, and I'm almost positive people were laughing and pointing from a bus that passed. We walked at least a mile up the road, and by that time we were really late for our tour. Our whole class, minus Mike and Kevin, was literally traipsing up the countryside, utterly lost. At one point, I knew all was lost when we passed a shepard and dozens of sheep. Where the hell were we? I vowed to the rest of the girls that there was no way the boys would have found their way.

Lost in the Roman countryside

Finally, we got to a slightly more populated area, and went about the task of asking some old women were the San Sebastiano catacombs were, where we were supposed to meet Professor Gondreau. This woman, who spoke no word of English, immediately led us like little ducklings down the street. I almost died when, as a huge truck was coming up the road, she walked in the road, stopped, and held out her hand like she was Moses parting the Red Sea. Our faces still in shock by almost seeing a little old woman get nailed by a truck, she happily ushered us across the road and pointed in the right direction. She was still gleefully waving like we were her own granddaughters as she faded out of sight.

This road actually was a little better to wander down, as we could peek through these massive gates onto acres of land where, perched atop rolling hills, sat pastel and yellow colored villas. Hey, at least it wasn't raining. Let's be honest, I would've given up hours before this point if it had been. At this point, we broke down and called Chiara, our CEA academic coordinator, with one of our Italian cell phones. She immediately hopped into a cab and told us she would be there soon. That's one awesome thing about CEA- the people are so personal on every level and really look out for us.

The girls waiting for Chiara at the wrong catacombs...

As we wandered up the road some more, we realized that we might actually be in the right direction. We came across this amazing expanse of ruins and farmland. It was exactly what I would picture the Roman countryside to look like. I tried to take a picture, but couldn't even capture how beautiful  the scenery was. We almost walked through the wrong gates, and after taking another turn, discovered the church next to San Sebastiano's catacombs! At this point, we were an hour and a half late, and Gondreau was no where in sight. We walked past three guys smoking outside the church, eyeing us oddly. We wondered why they weren't directing us where we needed to go... hadn't they seen a big group of students for the tour? When we went in the church, we quickly remembered that Gondreau was meeting us here because the Jewish catacombs were on a private plot of land, and hard to find. Yeah, well, San Sebastiano's catacombs proved to be just as hard to find!

We crossed the street and sat at an obelisk that must have had some historical significance, though I didn't really care all that much by that point. Finally, Chiara pulled up in the cab and hopped out. Turns out we weren't the only ones who needed her-- Gondreau was at the catacombs, but had forgotten the money for our tour. I didn't feel so bad at that point. As she walked us up the road, she told us that we were in the wealthiest part of Rome. People owned multi-million dollar (euro?) villas out here. When she mentioned her friend, the "voice of Leonardo DiCaprio" lived out here, I realized that the "voices" of our celebrities were celebrities in Italy, too. She joked that she wanted to marry him.

Mike in his yamaka, all ready to go

When we finally walked through the gates, I was surprised with how beautiful the setting was. There were rolling hills in front of us and the sun was shining brightly. Everything looked so green. Then I looked to my right and saw, standing with Gondreau, Mike and Kevin. Not gonna lie, I was slightly disappointed that they had somehow made it, until I learned that they had actually run into Gondreau on the metro. I think the tour guide was pissed that we were so late, but Gondreau felt so bad. The nine of us grabbed flashlights, the boys grabbed some yamakas, and we were off into the catacombs after a lengthy introduction. Apparently, there were about six sites of catacombs, except there are only two that can be seen today. The catacombs we were at were on private property (very expensive), and the owners now ran tours to keep the history alive.

Skull!

I was surprised at how humid and warm the catacombs were when we first stepped in. I made Mike go in front of me because, typical, they ran out of flashlights before I could grab one. There was no way I was going first. Unlike catacombs in Paris and other places, these had no electricity or lighting. Pretty creepy. We walked by shelves and shelves of places where bodies had once laid. In the late 1970s, bones kept getting stolen from the catacombs, so they had to remove the bones from their places and put them in this giant hole that he showed us. Yeah so basically, you couldn't have paid me to go on this tour pre-1970s. Also on a sidenote: why would you ever steal someone's bones? I don't get it. Anyway, we walked into some private rooms that families would have. In Jewish tradition, there wasn't supposed to be any contact with the bones of the dead, but people could go in there to pray. Another thing you couldn't pay me to do if there had been actual bodies in there still. Apparently, the smell was pretty bad too.

Pagan frescoes

At one point, we reached a point where, way above us, there looked like a well. The tour guide told us that slaves and servants would use this hole to get limestone out before the catacombs were actually full of bodies. As we moved deeper into the catacombs, our tour guide stopped. He said, "Are you guys afraid of animals? Especially the girlies?" At that point, I was kind of chilling next to the wall, not really wanting to step on anything he might be referring. I looked at him and said, "You mean like rats, or mice, or what?" Right as I said that, he pointed his flashlight to the wall, and I think I (and everyone else) may have jumped nine feet, ending up all huddled together in the center of the path. Literally lining the wall was a coating of some kind of humungous insect. That feeling of creepy-crawlies all over my body would not go away for the next few seconds, as all nine of, including the boys, refused to move an inch. Well, that was the end of me clinging to the wall.

Signatures all over

We reached an area where there were actually tombs in the ground, and at this point, besides the chips of bone that had been left on the shelves, we actually saw a grouping of a skeleton and a skull. That was creepy, but of course I snapped some pictures for some reason, because I definitely want to be reminded of someone's skull in a ditch? Morbid... I don't know what I was thinking. After that, we moved into some more rooms and found these really cool frescoes that were apparently pagan. They had pictures of people and peacocks and trees, and people's signatures lined the tombs. That might have been one of the coolest parts. People from 1919 and 1902 and 1930 signing their names and where they lived. There were a lot of Americans that were around the age of our great-grandparents that had walked around these catacombs, too. Although that was much more recent history (almost 2,000 years later!), it was still pretty cool.

The owner of the catacombs kept creepily lurking around with a lantern, and sometimes you could see him in the distance hunched over, walking alone through the tombs. I know he's probably used to it, but I don't think I could have ever gone down there alone. No freaking way.

All in all, the adventure was definitely worth it. After some initial frustrations and many more laughs, we got through the day having seen something that is rarely open to the public.

Creeeeeppy

Venetian Weekend

On the weekend of January 25th we went to Venice for an overnight trip with our program, which we ended up extending an extra night. I know that I've kind of been failing in the blog department lately, but I'm catching up... I swear!

On that Thursday night, we decided not to go out so that we could get up bright and early (6:30 am!) to get to the train station for Venice on time. We went out to dinner at this place that everyone in our program had been raving about, nicknamed Tony's. It is across the river in Trastevere, close to John Cabot University. We'd done quite bit of exploring around our area, and although we loved everywhere we went, especially a place across the street called Gran Sasso, we decided to try something new. I did have some initial reservations about it- we'd heard that the restaurants in that area were delicious, but catered more to American students. Everyone raved about Tony's chicken parm though, and we all wanted to try some.

We had a little bit of trouble finding the place, but the area was so cute and fun to walk around that it was fine. Tony's was a lot smaller than we thought, but it smelled so good. All of the tables were covered in red and white checkered tablecloths, and when we sat down we ordered antipasto and bruschetta. By the time we ordered our chicken parm (Al got the gnocchi) we kind of were getting the feeling that this was a distinctly American place, as there was really only one Italian group in the restaurant surrounded by American students. Some of the kids in their were obnoxious too, and I was almost embarrassed for them and ourselves that we all had to be associated together. Also, Andrea, our housing director, had told us the first week to be careful of places that were run by Arabs, as they did not make genuine Italian food. Tony's fell into that category. When we got our chicken parm, it was super greasy and HUGE. By far the biggest meal we've had in Italy. They also brought us out more courses of desserts, which was nice, but no one could finish them. When we left, we realized that maybe people loved it so much because it was literally the kind of restaurant that you can find in the States. We'd gotten so used to our neighborhood's restaurants (and spoiled by them), that we realized this kind of restaurant wasn't exactly a place we'd want to go again while we were in Italy.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to get over to the train station. Luckily, our metro stop is only two stops away from Termini, the main train station in Rome. We stopped and got a quick cappuccino at the place on the corner on the way up. The couple that own the cafe bar are super friendly, but speak no English. They always know our order, though, and joke around with us when we don't say a word right.

We met up outside the Nike store at Termini with our program, and the six of us were pleasantly surprised at how well we'd packed compared to everyone else. Some of the girls had packed a lot, but all of us had managed to fit everything into just a backpack and another small bag. When we got on the train, we all kind of got split up according to the seats that the program had saved for us. Me, Katherine, and Anna ended up together at a little table. As we were starting to get ready to go, a soccer (or football) team piled onto our end of the coach. We were literally surrounded, and I have to say, the ride ended up being pretty entertaining.

We arrived into Venice at around 11:30 am. I was so excited walking out of the train station. Venice is one of those places that is just so unique to anything else, and I was hoping that it would live up to my expectations. It definitely did.

I don't know why I was expecting the water to be so dark, like the Atlantic, maybe because it was chilly out? Well, I was very wrong. The water was a light blue turquoise color, made even prettier by the extra sunny day. We were later told that in the summer, Venice is one of the brightest places in Europe. Even sunglasses don't work well, and the mix of the bright blue sky and bright blue water is stunning.

All 50 of us loaded onto the water bus, and I was trying so hard not to take pictures because I knew I would want to take a thousand more later. As we took a seat in the water bus, still in port, there was a huge jolt and what looked to be another water bus hitting directly into us. Me, Katherine and Al secretly made fun of the drivers. Didn't they do this all the time? Then we realized that we weren't actually on the water bus, but a sort of bus stop, and the water bus that had hit us was simply a water bus coming to the stop. Oops. We all got on and sat in the front, outside, to try to take in all the views. After about a half an hour, we pulled into our stop and got off. Catarina, our CEA guide, brought us to our hotel. It was a very unique hotel... an old home for boys from the Renaissance that had been converted to a hotel a while ago. The hotel's name Don Orione, was the name of the priest that had started the home. We brought our stuff up to the hotel and went to grab a quick lunch before we went on a tour (mandatory for me for Art History, of Piazza San Marco and some other churches). We went out in the direction of the water and grabbed some caprese sandwiches and gelato.

The apse

The pigeons!

The tour with Professor Massini was actually a really great experience. Our first stop was the Piazza San Marco, which is probably the most famous attraction in Venice. It is a huge, open cobblestone square with the cathedral of St. Mark's (San Marco) at the far center. Once in the place of the doge's palace (the king of Venice), the remains of St. Mark were discovered and sent to Venice, where this cathedral was placed. When Venice was the most powerful empire in the Mediterranean, they decorated St. Mark's and the buildings in the piazza with conquests of their victories, most notably the sack of Constantinople. We got to go in and tour the basilica, and it was by far the most amazing one we've seen in Italy yet. The entire thing was covered in different colored mosaics and gold, and the apse, which we got to see for free, was unreal. It was covered in gold and rubies and diamonds and all different kinds of gems. I'm pretty sure I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I still got away with a few.

After San Marco, we sat on these wide platforms and took pictures, and then headed over towards Rialto. On the way we stopped at a convent which once housed the daughters and sisters of wealthy aristocrats who could not afford to marry them off. While these families were wealthy, after having five or six daughters to marry off, the cost of the dowry just got to be too expensive. It was kind of depressing to know that these girls really had no choice in what they wanted to do. Once we toured that cathedral, we headed over to Rialto, which is one of the large shopping districts in the city. Venice is so cool because even if you're walking a block or five, you're going to have to cross a small canal over a bridge. The city literally is on top of water.

BEST PIZZA

We shopped around for a while, passing Prada, Fendi and Chanel to find masks for this weekend's Carnevale festivities. Apparently, the Venetian Carnevale is what all other Mardi Gras festivals are based on, from Spain to New Orleans. I managed to grab some souvenirs and a black and gold mask for myself, and we headed over to dinner with our program at a delicious pizza place. We were served appetizers of mozzarella balls (the Italians' favorite) and then were allowed to each order a pizza. I ordered a brie and walnut pizza, and tried some of Anna's pesto and Katherine's four cheese pizzas. My pizza was literally amazing- I want to go back if I'm ever in Venice again.

Some people were planning on going out but since we knew we had to get up early the next morning again, we decided to go with some of the boys to explore for a place to get dessert and some casual drinks. We walked back in the direction of San Marco, and to our surprise, the huge piazza was beginning to flood. Water was literally bubbling up and out of the sewers. We avoided the places that water had pooled and kept walking through the square and up towards Rialto, where we finally found a  place to sit down. Of course, I had to get tiramisu (I should literally just make a blog for the many tiramisus I've tried), and split a bottle of red wine with Anna. Katherine, Danielle and Alex got amaretto and the boys got more wine- all of them tried out new desserts as well. Our waiter seemed to be very entertained that we were Americans, and he brought us over more little desserts to try. We ended up leaving the restaurant around 11:15, and trekked back to our hotel.

Bridges

Old people braving the water

While we had been enjoying our desserts, Piazza San Marco had literally completely flooded. We started to realize this as we wound our way through the narrow roads and got closer to the square. There was standing water in some places a few inches high. Old couples coming back from dinner didn't know what to do, and followed our lead as we just trekked through it. When we go to the edge of the piazza, there were dozens of other people that really had no idea what to do either, and it dawned on us that the platforms we had been using as benches all day were in fact makeshift bridges. We all took running leaps up onto the bridges, and followed the mass of people trying to get to the other end. The whole thing was very comical- people's feet were soaked and everyone was just laughing at everyone else's attempts to reach dry land.

Grabbed some yummy macaroons with Anna

Finally, we got across, and after an exhausting day, passed out in our beds only to have to wake up early the next day. The girls who didn't have to go on the art history tour decided not to, but it was mandatory for me and Anna. We were actually glad we went, and saw some really amazing paintings and artwork from famous Venetian artists such as Bellini, Bernini, Titian, and Tintoretto. We also saw where Titian was buried, and saw a Donatello sculpture in the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. We also got to see the controversial Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Titian up close in the Frari- it's easy to see why it was chosen for its place above the altar with the abundance of color and emotion. Tintoretto was also one of my favorites. Instead of painting religious art in the traditional way, I got the sense that he painted stories. In many of the pieces he did, it was hard to even find Jesus, and the amount of detail made the paintings almost anecdotal.

After the tour, the rest of the girls were all taking naps at the hotel, but Anna and I had no interest in returning to the hotel for a nap, so we kept exploring. We spent a few hours walking around the shops in Rialto, and stopped for delicious pizza and rice balls at this tiny little shop. Then we headed back over to the hotel to grab the girls so that we could go on our very first gondola ride!

Professor Massini had given us the heads up that we shouldn't be charged more than 60 euros for 6 people, so since there were five of us, I decided to not go above 50. The girls kinda left it up to me to bargain with the guys, and the first gondoliers we came across claimed that they were the only verifiable company that did gondola rides. Too bad they were charging way too much, so I thanked them and told them we might be back. We came across this other gondolier, and when I asked how much, he said 60. The guys was really nice, but when I said 50 euros he kind of questioned it, so I thanked him and said that we might be back. As we started to walk away, he called us back and told us that he could do it at 50. He led us to his little port on the canal and we all piled in and snapped about a hundred pictures. He pointed out some interesting stuff along the way, like the palace from Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie's movie the tourist, Napoleon's old palace, and the house where Mozart lived. We even passed by another gondola full of Asians blasting Gangnum Style (way too stereotypical). The water in the canals was so calm and surprisingly didn't smell too fishy. It was cool to ride past the hotels that literally came right out onto the water, and out gondolier Philippo told us that people can't live on their first floors because of the way the water levels fluctuate.

Mozart's home

When we got off the gondola (check that off my bucket list!) we wandered around some more and came across a liquor shop. Katherine almost died and went to heaven to discover that yes, they sold vodka. She'd been getting sick of the wine and was cravin' some Absolut apparently. So we picked up some limincello along with that and headed back to the hotel. We grabbed dinner at a place next door, which ended up not being that great, and after I spilled my glass of water all over the table (what a waste of 2 euros!) we decided we'd made our mark and left to get our masks in our rooms.

Carnevale celebrations on the canal

We headed back out again, adorned with our new Venetian masks, and wandered over to Piazza San Marco. As we approached from the far end of the square, we saw a huge group of people dancing and chanting what sounded like some Spanish song. As we got closer, we realized that our guy friends were actually the ones on the platform, in the center of these festivities. There were bottles of wine everywhere, and everyone had on a crazy mask. We quickly jumped on the bandwagon and ran into one of the stores on the piazza to buy a few bottles of wine. Our nice cashier provided us with plenty of plastic cups to share. The song actually was Brazilian and in Portugese, and the Brazilians, who seemed to be at the center of the party, taught us the moves. There we were, standing in the center of historical Piazza San Marco, dancing on platforms with a bunch of Brazilians in which there was no shared language. It was a blast, and it was only the beginning of the night. We attempted to head over to Jazz Bar, but after a detour (those Venetian streets are confusing!), we ended up down at Rialto with a mix of packed bars to choose from. The night ended up being one of the most entertaining and best nights that I've had in Italy so far.

In the morning on Sunday, we woke up early to make our train from Venice to Verona, where we had decided to make a small day trip. I can't say we were all feeling our best after our wild night out in Venice, but we managed to catch the train in time. We got into Verona around 1 pm, and the detour turned out to be a great decision. The town (or city?) was absolutely beautiful. After we spent about a half an hour trying to figure out how to get out of the actually train station, thanks to our handy Rick Steve's guide, we were on the right path and got to see the famous Verona amphitheater. Kind of like the Colosseum, it actually still houses shows and concerts. Actually, a production of Romeo and Juliet is coming, ironic since our next stop was Casa di Giulietta.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little inspired by the movie "Letters to Juliet", and that's one of the first reasons why I got interested in making sure that I got to Verona at some point during my Italian travels. Before we made it to Juliet's home, however, we grabbed a delicious lunch at a place that was surprisingly inexpensive, considering its close vicinity to designer stores of the likes found in Venice and near the Roman Spanish Steps.

Holocaust memorial

Before we made it to Casa di Giulietta, we stumbled across a Holocaust memorial for victims originating from Verona in the middle of the main square. There was an actual part of the cattle cars where people were shuttled off to concentration camps in, and there was a line for people to go inside. Outside, there were pictures of all the Veronian people that had passed away. I was glad that we had caught this exhibit. We managed to witness the actual spirit of the community of Verona.

The only way that you can really distinguish the little place you need to duck into to see Juliet's balcony is just the hoards of tourists (especially Asian) that you find outside on the street. (Note: according to Rick Steve's Guidebook, Verona draw thousands of Asian tourists annually, more so than some other major Italian cities). Otherwise, it all seems pretty unassuming. We walked through this little tunnel leading up to to the casa, and I signed all five of our names in a giant heart and dated it. Hopefully it will be there if I ever make it back to Verona! The square which Juliet's balcony looks out over is actually pretty small, but packed with tourists snapping "love locks" onto a gate. The one thing that I really hated about it was that there was literally a souvenir shop in the tiny yard. Every time I looked in that direction it kind of ruined the experience just a little bit. The five of us got a picture with the statue of Juliet, and for good luck, had to touch her right boob. Yup. I laughed out loud when a group of small Asians took a picture with her and all fit their hands on the lucky boob. It was just too hard not to.

We explored the beautiful town a little more, and then headed to find some place to eat before we had to catch our 6:50 pm train back to Rome. There were literally hundreds of people outside walking around the main square, and whether or not it was a special event or just a regular Sunday evening, I loved it. I decided that if I were to ever consider living in an Italian city for a few years, I'm pretty sure my top pick would be Verona.


I got delicious pumpkin ravioli at a restaurant near the theater, and then we headed back for the train ride home. Me, Danielle, and Anna were seated in a table seat with this poor Italian man, who, I'm pretty certain, wanted to jump out the train window when he discovered he was sitting with three American girls. Plus, we were overtired and loopy, and combined with the eight phone calls Katherine was forced to ignore from an overzealous Venetian, we might have been a little too giggly for him. When we finally stumbled into our apartment around 11:30 pm, all I could picture was sleeping for days. Except I had class at 9 am the next morning. I think I temporarily forgot that, yes, I do study in Rome.

More pictures:

Basilico di San Marco

our masks