Rome/ Long Weekend: Entry

Whew. It's been a crazy week. I'm happy to say I am now back in Castiglion relaxing before classes start again on Wednesday. From Monday to Friday of this week our whole group was in Rome and I think we all loved every minute of it! I knew I was going to like Rome, but after going there I love it even more than I imagined. The whole city is absolutely beautiful and has a really great energy to it. Everywhere we went had something interesting to do or see. There isn't any wasted space in Rome, which is rare even in the best U.S. cities. It went by so fast I can hardly remember what all I did, but here goes.

The first day we arrived in Rome by train and then went straight to the Roman Forum. It was really amazing and much better than I've ever seen in pictures. It's hard to even fathom how huge these ancient structures are until you see them in person and in comparison. to all the modern buildings around them. Then we headed over to the Colosseum, which wasn't originally on our agenda, but I'm glad the plans were altered to include it. It was neat but I'd seen it so many times in movies and pictures that nothing was much of a surprise about it. Still really interesting though. The only bad thing about Monday was that I left my camera in my suitcase that we dropped at the hotel before heading off into the city, so I have no pictures. Really disappointing.. but nothing I can do about it now!

Tuesday was a little more low key and consisted of a few really beautiful churches. There was some really great frescoes in one of them that you could get up really close to. You can rarely see works like frescoes so close because they are normally on ceilings or very high walls. The rest of the day unfortunately only consisted of window shopping and looking everywhere for a park. Not the best day.. but Wednesday!

Wednesday we went to the Vatican City. And I though the roman forum was huge. Everything in the Vatican is at least 3 times the size of normal cathedrals. And the extent of their museum is almost unbelievable. I guess it just goes to show how much power the pope has. It was SO neat to see the Sistine Chapel in person. The Last Judgment was way more beautiful than I ever imagined. I was also pretty surprised to see how small the Laocoon statue was. I guess the features just make it look really large in pictures. After seeing it though I think it is the perfect size. We also went to the top of the St. Peters dome which had a unbelievable view of the city and allowed you to see some of the elaborate mosaics up close. All I have to say is that you have to be pretty rich and/or dedicated to art to have that much gold in one place. I can't even imagine what it's worth..

So Thursday was a Carravagio themed day. Not the only artist's work we saw obviously, but he had paintings at most of the stops we made. The highlight would have to be the Borghese gallery. Some of that marble statuary is completely beyond my comprehension. I loved everything there and the statues may have been my favorite thing so far.

Friday I left Rome for Florence where I met up with Holly. We spent the night there in Florence and then her and I came back to Castiligion so she could get a taste of the countryside. We had a very relaxing day of shopping and a really great dinner at Roggi's cafe. And of course I made her try the amazing Gelato we have here in Castiglion. She loved it of course and was sad to go back to the big city. The rest of the long weekend I plan on doing some serious relaxing and trying to work on some of the assignments we have for drawing class. Should be nice. Until next time, Ciao!