*Friday, January 16*
After our welcome buffet we all met in the lobby and decided to take a trip to the Vatican and check out la casa di le Pope. We jumped on the 913 bus and headed towards the city. Now, I know what you’re thinking, the Vatican is huge, and there’s no way anyone could miss it. Well, we did. We got a little lost. So we walked around for quite a while, asking “Di dov’e le Vaticano?” Of course everyone spoke English back to us, which was probably for the best considering that none of us would have been able to understand them anyway. Finally we found it and it was absolutely beautiful. As we walked up to it we entered at the end of a white columned, U-shaped spaced that surrounded the Vaticano. It was dark but all of the columns were lit up by soft orange light casting a majestic glow all around. In front of the Vatican stood a huge, extremely detailed nativity scene. About fifteen minutes, many pictures and one very bad video later, the bells started tolling and that is when you get the true effect of this little city. It was, literally, divine ;)
When we had stood around long enough and all had their fill of da Pope’s casa we decided to search for a gelatoria (which was, in all honesty, the main reason we went there), well not just any gelatoria, but the Old Bridge Gelatoria. This was my first (real) gelato experience in Italy, and let me tell you, it would put Randy’s (Lake of the Ozarks) to shame. I ordered black cherry, raspberry and caramel (I know that sounds like a strange combination but the gelato guy was cute and adamant about me getting a third flavor so I told him to choose it for me). In Italy they don’t eat just one flavor of gelato; they typically have at least two or three. Regardless of the flavor, all of it was amazing. It was so creamy but very light at the same time. While eating no one said a thing, except to mutter a quiet “ohmygod this is amazing”. We all literally struggled to leave, seriously considering going back to get more. It was painful. We decided not to be fat Americans and that we will be here for 4 months…therefore there’s no need to rush things. Keep cool baby, keep cool.
*Saturday, January 17*
Today Cait and I woke up, went to the IC (Information Commons, we have one of these on the Loyola Chi campus, it’s basically a computer room) and caught up on our emails, fb, blogs, picture downloading and what not. We then went to a lecture about the Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and The Colosseum, which was being given by one of our history professors, he’s Dutch and very passionate about what he teaches. The lecture was great but went into overtime so we were rushed through lunch (didn’t sit down for more than 10 min, can’t even remember what I ate) and herded into 4 huge buses. It took about 20 min to get to downtown Roma and let me tell you, I thought the Vatican was cool (which it was)…when I saw the Colosseum I literally squealed out loud and started crying. Everything downtown is eye candy. You can’t swing a cat down there without hitting something famous and ancient. I wish I could describe everything we saw down there but I can’t. Words won’t even begin to cover the vastness and the magnitude of the Colosseum, the amount of genius that went into creating Roman architecture, and the persistence of the ancient artifacts. It really is a wonder to behold.
Once we made it through the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, which we are planning on doing again because one day just isn’t enough (get the pictures in one day and then really get in deep the second time), we headed to the Colosseum but we weren’t allowed inside, they closed early so we could only see the outside. But not to worry! We will be going back sometime very soon!!
Da Roma, con amore.
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