I had an amazing time in Rome. We had opening tour there from Thursday thru Sunday with roughly 130 new semester students on 3 buses. The first day we got there we toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peters Basilica. Thousands of sculptures and fresco paintings on every ceiling. We went through the Sistine Chapel of Michelangelo and the Vatican garden. There is so much hidden knowledge within these places. In each pillar holding up the dome of St. Peters is a small chapel holding various relics. One contains the spear they believe pierced Jesus on the cross. They also showed us a small opening in the floor where all past popes were buried below.

That night we had a group dinner at ristorante canova which we walked to under a 1.2 mile lit up flag (seen on fb).They had a older guy as dj and pianist who had a great voice. They served unlimited wine throughout. We went to a pub after where they sang irish music. They celebrate the epiphany on january 6th and the day after is like black friday. The streets were incredibly packed with thousands of people for the time we were there.

The second day we visited Villa Borghese which had another amazing museum. The sculptures were incredible with amazing detail such as the indent of a mans hand graping a girls leg just how it would look in real life. The surrounding area had umbrella pines which looked like they were imported from Africa. Funny enough, we ate at Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. It was interesting to see all the Europeans come into the back area where we were eating and taking pictures of guitars and other famous pieces from American musicians that were displayed all over the walls. Trophies that we didnt think twice about capturing on camera. That night we had a tour of Rome. We walked by the national monument, the place where Caesar was killed, the trevi fountain, a large area of ancient Roman ruins, with the colosseum lit up in the distance. Near the monument they had angels lit up going up the stairs. It was a great night tour and my group had a hilarious tour guide.

The third day we had more flexibility in schedule. Some friends and I decided to go to mass at the Church of St. Ignatius. We saw the tomb where St. Aloysius Gonzaga was buried. Afterwards we headed to the colosseum. Men and women lined the streets selling the same types of objects. We were told it was illegal to buy from them and could be fined a few thousand euros if purchasing from them. We saw people selling those balls that splat and then reform everywhere as well as camera stands and glass blocks right next to eachother. The colosseum was enormous, it was crazy to imagine more people died here per area in the world in these fights. I never knew before going about the underground area below the battle area that they used to transport people as well as animals. That night we climbed to the top of the Spanish steps and looked out at some of the streets lined with lights and the many people waiting in lines extending outside stores for some of the biggest brands like gucchi and prada.

On Sunday we waited in St. Peters Square for the popes weekly blessing. He showed himself out his window and climbed a ladder so people could see him. He did his blessing in a few different languages and a few different countries waved their flags. Who knew the Vatican had its own channel on tv which showed him give the blessing at that time. Afterwards we ate paninis with pesto and headed back to Florence.

Now Im back at Florence and started my second day of classes. So far great classes with english, philosophy, and italian. Have two night classes this week for religion and drawing. I might do an internship in the florence high school teaching biology to italian students in english, its kind of intimidating. Also Im hoping to do english for pasta where I meet with an italian family one night a week playing with their kids and eating dinner with them, or another volunteer opportunity such as a halfway house or elderly home. We’ll see.

Ciao!
Kelsey