Come si dice.....?

My new favorite phrase here. It means "How do you say...?" Definitelya good one to know. I apologize for the delays so I'm going to give you some highlights lately and some reflections. I've seen soooo much - so to give you highlights, I'll tell a few stories and put them with some of my favorite pictures from the past week and a half! And this is a pretty long post - but I really hope you make it to the end, some of the best stuff is there. And let's see some comments people!!!!

Vatican With Father Al

Our Vatican trip with Father Al - I already told y'all about it so here are some pictures :)


The Vatican!!! Father Al took a group of us there and this was my first view of St. Peter's square. Lots and lots of people there :)


Me and St. Peter's Basilica - you have to go through security to get in hence the wooden blockades.


Inside St. Peter's. It really is so awe inspiring. The detail on everything is just phenomenal...


The Pieta!!!!


Soooo beautiful!!!!

Things of the Past

I saw the Roman Form, Colosseum and Palatine Hill with my Art in Rome class. It was a fairly nice day - no rain! Our teacher's favorite phrase "gather around closer now." He says it about 20 times a class, kinda funny. I was really glad that I went to the Forum with him though - because otherwise I probably would have just walked in and said "cool, old broken stuff" and walked out. With our professor though he could tell us all about the building materials and why stuff was there and the significance of everything, granted I'm going to have to know all of that for the tests - but it's still really awesome to be able to have alll of that information.



Me at the Roman Forum. The arch behind me is called a triumphal arch - they were built to commemorate successes of emperors and what not - when the emperor came back there would be temporary ones built with wood but one was later completed to be permanent.


The tall pillars used to be a temple - I don't remember for who...



The Arch of Constantine - It's very very large and has what is called -historical narrative relief - so instead of just having symbols and what not on it, the inside of the arch depicts what actually happened.


Inside the Colosseum. Can you imagine having so many people in there?! The bottom part used to be covered and then sand was put on top of it to absorb the blood from the gladiators and the animals killed there. Below it was where alot of the animals were kept.


Me and the Colosseum.


again...


Up on Palatine Hill. It gives you a reallly fabulous view of the city. A little muddy from the rain when we went - but totally worth the hike up :)

Okay - so I just realized it may look like I'm wearing the same clothes in every picture - I swear I'm wearing different clothes - just the same jacket and scarf....

Kitty Kats


There's a cat sanctuary here in Rome, and it is one of my favorite places. It's down in a ruins area that hadn't been excavated until Mussolini. The sanctuary basically has squatting rights on the area and there are something like 250 cats there. People just drop them off. Inside, there are cats who can't go outside for a variety of reasons. This is Somalia - he just climbed up my jacket and sat on my shoulder. He had cancer on his nose and is recovering.



There were lots of other cats there too, one had a nervous system disorder and couldn't really walk that well, he just kinda flung himself all over the place. There was another cat with no ears because they had to take them off (he had cancer too). A few three legged cats and blind ones too. All just want to be loved <3 style="font-size:130%;">Roman Randoms



A group of us headed over to the Jewish Ghetto - we tried to go into the synogoge and museum but they closed about 15 min before we got there, so we just wandered around. We wanted to find the Turtle fountian (where Kevin and I are in this picture) and we were trying to ask people where it was. However, we did not know how to say turtle in Italian. We knew fountain, fontana, but not turtle. Finally one of the girls said "well in Spanish it's tortuga" and this Italian man we were talking to said "oohhhhh fontana tartaruga!!" My new word for the day - tartaruga!


This was the view from Ponte Umbrio on our way back home. Incredible huh?


Me and St. Peter's Basilica on Ponte Umbrio.



View of the Vatican at night. Sooo beautiful!!!!

Piazza is not Pizza


At Piazza Navona. One of my very favorite places in Rome, not quite sure why but it is. This is in front of the four rivers fountain, or Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. The rivers are the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges and the Rio de la Plata. The Nile has a thing over his eyes because they didn't know where it ended at the time.


Sam, Natalie, me, Megan, and Chelsia at the fountain!


There are lots of artists selling their paintings there. I bought some water colors from a guy who was working on his. He was incredibly nice. Oh and if someone walks up to you and tells you to put out your finger, don't. They will make you a bracelet and then want you to pay for it. My friend Lane learned the hard way ;)



At Campo dei Fiori (fiori means flowers). There are vendors there every day with lots of fruit and flowers.

Wedding Cakes and Museums

I wandered on my own last Sunday and went to the Musei Capitolini and the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument. Really beautiful views from the top of the monument.


The clasic Romulus and Remus statue with the she wolf. It was really cool to see it in person. For those of you who don't remember your 4th grade mythology and stuff - Romulus and Remus (or R&R as I call them) were the supposed founders of Rome and were sickled by a she wolf.



Me and the monument. It's also refered to as the wedding cake monument. Alot of Romans really don't like it at all because under it is ruins that were just plowed over and it blocks the view of the Colosseum from the center of the city.



However, from the top you can see the Colosseum! :)

Pretty Pantheon




We went to the Pantheon for class last Wednesday. Again - really glad I went with my professor because I had gone in before and it just wasn't as cool. Did you know the dome of the pantheon weighs like 5,000 tons. No joke.



Victor Emanuel II is buried here along with some of his family members.


The dome of the Pantheon - the little square looking things are actually trapezoids and help support the dome.


"Oh my gosh, I'm in Rome."

After the Pantheon, Robert and I went to the Vatican. I had to pay for the Scavi tour (for when Mom and Dad and Colleen come).



And then we decided to climb the Cupola (which is basically the top of the dome). It's around 330 steps to the top. But it really like there were more than that. Anywho - once you get out of these really narrow steps you come into the dome of St. Peter's basilica. Oh my goodness.



The dome - not zoomed in at all may I note.




Looking down from the top of the dome. The letters that go around are 6 feet tall. I didn't believe it until I was up there.



The mosaics. My absolute favorite part. It was so detailed. Each piece fit in soooo perfectly and I can't even put into words how phenomenal it was. Like so great. I wish I could really explain it.




Looking down again. So phenomnal.



Me inside the dome :)

The coolest part is yet to come. After you see that you climb some more steps and you get all the way up to the top of the cupola and this is what you see when you walk out....



And all of the sudden it really hit me that I'm in Rome. And I know that that sounds fairly lame that I've been here for a month and haven't really had that moment -- but it was just this overwhelming feeling of being a place that has so so much to offer.



The Vatican Gardens are pretty sweet looking. I don't know if you can go in them, but I really want to after seeing them from a bird's eye view.



Me and St. Peter's square. The crane in the background is because they were taking down the Christmas decorations. I really want to go back (when there isn't a crane) at sun set - it's supposed to be beautiful.



Climbing back down the steps. I don't know if you can tell but the wall is leaning in on me at this point - it was pretty funny.

Reflections

Overall - Rome is still fabulous. I learn something new about it everyday. But I've not only learned stuff about Rome, but also about myself. I've really learned that I have to relax, and although some of you may laugh and say "hahaha, Amelia can't relax, she's too much of a control freak" I think that I have learned to relax some. I've come to accept that not everything is under my control and there are things that are going to go wrong. But there are also a lot of things that are going to go right. Even if I get lost or we miss a train (which I haven't done yet) or get on the wrong bus or whatever it is, an adventure comes from that. And memories - memories that I may be upset with at that moment, but later I know I will laugh about and will be some of the best memories that I have from this experience. So my theme for this trip really has become one of relaxing, enjoying the ride, and not sweating the small stuff. All totally cliche phrases, but phrases that I really need to internalize.

Thanks again for reading, I hope you made it this far. I miss all of you and can't wait to see your comments (which by the way, I hope there's alot of for this long of a post....).

Love,
Amelia