Saturday we had a major disappointment.  Something was going on in the Pantheon and we couldn’t even get close to the doors.  However, before that happened a few of us went to visit the Mouth of Truth which is supposed to bite off a dishonest persons hand.  It was fun and we got to see more parts of Rome, including a surviving Pagan statue of Triton.

At 3:15 we met up with Devon and he took us on our tour, we saw a few fountains and five of the seven Obelisks of Ancient Rome.  I learned that when people create a statue on a fountain, if the are depicting a river they will create a human but then place an object unique to that river on the fountain. For example, the Tigris would have a tiger and the Nile would have a pyramid.  After this was when we were supposed to see the Pantheon but didn’t.  It just means that one of these days we will have to return to Rome.

In order to make up the time we would have spent at the Pantheon Devon took us to a lot of churches.  From this point you could really see that he used to be in theology training as a Monk.  I can’t say a lot about what we saw because all the churches started to run together in my mind and I couldn’t differentiate between them.

After that we went to the Spanish Steps, which I am super glad we didn’t have to climb because I was exhausted from all the walking and step climbing from previous days.  The street venders selling things at the Spanish Steps were extremely rude and forceful.  They were forcefully stuffing roses into the hands of people and chasing down couples.  It was amusing to watch.

Friday was our last day of class.  A bittersweet day.  I am going to miss the view of the Vatican from my class window, the Pontificia was a truly beautiful place to study.  Today was mainly a free day because at 6:00 we had to meet up with our tour guide at the Vatican Museum and we couldn’t plan anything before that.  However, a bunch of us went back to St. Peters Basilica because our first trip there was a jog and we all wanted to experience it again and see more things.  Again, St. Peters Basilica is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in.  The majesty of everything dwarfs you and it makes you feel so insignificant amongst all the grandeur.  It was also exciting to see the tombs of previous Popes under the Basilica, I discovered it my surprise and it was fascinating seeing a whole new area that I didn’t know about.  Some of the Popes buried there were from six hundred years ago.

At 6pm we all walked to the Vatican Museum where we ran into a few problems with paperwork and meeting times but it all worked out well.  The Vatican Museum was a piece of art.  It was not only filled with art but every wall, ceiling, floor, everything was beautiful artwork.  My favorite room was to room of Maps because every single thing on the wall was painted, there were no frames or anything and I didn’t even notice.  It was so incredibly detailed and beautiful that I didn’t even notice the paintings were on the walls themselves with no frames.  The painters were so talented that they made everything seem three dimensional.

However, that was almost nothing compared to seeing the Sistine Chapel.  The Sistine Chapel is something that almost everyone knows about and almost everyone has seen the painting of the Birth of Adam by Michelangelo in a textbook, but now I can say that I was there in person.  It was very humbling to be surrounded by the work of Michelangelo and see his personality and skill with three dimensional painting.  When I looked up at the ceiling, it didn’t seem to be a ceiling.  Everything was three dimensional like I was looking out a patio window.

On Thursday we went to visit the Jewish Ghetto and two Jewish Synagogues.  Before we went to see the synagogues we went to see the home of Octavia, the sister of a Roman Emperor from over 1700 years ago.  Sadly, it was covered in scaffolding and we could not see a lot.  Plus since it was so old and quiet, I couldn’t get any pictures of the inside.  Down the street from Octavia’s home was a theater that looked like a much smaller version of the Coliseum.  I thought it was pretty fascinating that people were able to live on top of the thousand year old building.

The Jewish Ghetto did not leave much of an impression on me.  It looked like all the other parts of Italy, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the cities if we hadn’t passed through a gate to prevent driving.

The first synagogue we went to was the Spanish Synagogue that was underground and very small.  It had some parts of the original five synagogues of Italy in it.  The second synagogue we went to was the Great Synagogue.  This one truly deserved the name Great.  It was magnificent and huge.  Everything was colorful and filled with rich minerals and beauty.  I could clearly see why it wasn’t destroyed during the Holocaust even though Italy was an Axis.  It was positively stunning.  I was extremely happy when our tour guide told us we were allowed to take pictures because my instructors told us that in previous years they weren’t allowed to.

Today we started off going to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.  Our guide, Alison, was very nice and informative.

The FAO is a program that tries to send food to countries and fix up their agricultural programs after a disaster.  However, the FAO can only advise and suggest, they can’t make people change their ways.

After the information session Alison brought us up to the roof and there was a very pretty view.

After that our tour guide, Devon, took us to the country of Malta.

One of the smallest countries in the world, around four square blocks.  Although, when we visited they were having a party of sorts with representatives from other countries.  The two I recognized were Canada and Brazil.

After that we visited a few churches, one being 1500 years old.  The last church we visited that day was Mary Major.  One of the top four churches in Rome.  Mary Major is home to the cradle of Jesus.

Today we climbed up St. Peters Basilica.  That is roughly around 550 stairs.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be but since we were constantly going in circles it got very repetitive.

However, seeing the work of Michelangelo was worth it.  The Basilica was beautiful.  Its incredibly difficult to believe that not a single thing in the huge building was painted.  All of it was beautiful mosaic which was artfully laid, it was not difficult to believe that this building took over a hundred years to build.  I felt like a tiny human in this giant place of God.

The next place we visited was Castel Sant’Angelo.  Castel Sant’Angelo was built by the Emperor Hadrian but then converted into a fortress for the Pope.  Lots of stairs.  I believe our tour guide got a little lost because we circled the place a few extra times.  After all of this, I was exhausted.  We had roughly climbed around 700 stairs.

Today was technically our second day in Rome, however, I am counting it as the first because it was the first full day.  As in, we woke up today in a convent turned hotel, and started walking the streets of Rome, Italy.

From 9 am to 12 pm we had our classes at the Vatican University.  It was interesting seeing all the priests, nuns, and monks in their full robes.  From our window we could see St. Peter’s Cathedral where the Pope gives his speeches on Wednesdays and Sundays, it was quite beautiful.  Dr. Stark taught us about Zoroastrianism and Judaism.  It was very cool learning about how Zoroastrianism influenced a lot of popular religions in modern times yet, I had never heard about it before.  Mr. Hesting taught us about Foreign Policy and how it is almost directly related to domestic policy. Foreign policy brings me back to how great Rome is.  Italy was an Axis country.  Meaning that it fought with Nazi Germany against our Allies in World War II.  This fact amazed me, I don’t really know why but the fact that it was an Axis country is really cool to me.

After classes we had some free time and I had a super amazing sandwich, one of the best I have ever had I believe.  Then we went to the Wedding Cake, Roman Forum, and the Coliseum.  The Wedding Cake has an official name but it escapes me right now.  It was a huge white building that has a lot of architecture that was built in order to pay respect to the first King of unified Italy.  The Wedding Cake was finished by the dictator Mussolini, again, a participant in World War II.

The Roman Forum was also really cool.  The detail the Romans put into the columns is remarkable.  My favorite part of the Roman Forum was seeing the place where Julius Caesar got cremated.  I found it amazing that here, right where I was standing, one of the most famous men in all of history was cremated.  That here, in the Roman Forum, people openly wept and cried for their leader.  I saw so many brilliant things that spanned from hundreds to thousands of years old and it was all beautiful.

The Coliseum is perhaps what I was looking forward to the most for today.  The Coliseum has so much history and bloodshed that, for me at least, it was impossible not to feel the whole energy of the place.  I could easily open my imagination and see the packed people in the stands and the gladiators on the floor.  The Coliseum is only a hundred years younger than Jesus Christ himself.  It’s amazing how so much history is placed in one area. Thousand of people died there and that is so shocking but it feels old and ancient with everything that went on.

All together, Rome is a fantastic place.  It’s fascinating how much history surrounds everything and that everywhere you walk in Rome, you are connected to things that happened thousands of years ago.  Plus, everything is huge.  In Rome nothing is small except the cars.  When I got up close to some of these ruins I felt extremely small and insignificant amongst the massive pillars.