Wonderful Wednesday, Meraviglioso Mercoledi

WEDNESDAY WAS SO COOL!!!! I finally got to go to the Vatican Museums! Pier Paolo flew through the museum with my Renaissance class in three hours (I was on overload already anyway by that point but missed so much!) Despite missing so much we crunch a good amount of art into that time frame. If I can convince someone to splurge with me I'll go back to look at the ancient art hallways more carefully, I missed Augustus of Primaporta! I gave a presentation in one of the Raphael rooms on La Disputa (The Disputation over the Holy Sacrament) which is in the same room as The School of Athens. I think I did fairly well but there were other works I wish I could've presented on instead.

Raphael's Transfiguration

Giotto's Stefaneschi altarpiece from St. Peter's

La Disputa

The School of Athens

Laocoon

Belvedere torso

Monolithic porphyry basin in the rotunda

The hall of maps

Lybica sybil

Christ Delivering the Keys

Sistine Chapel looking towards new entrance

My favorite part of the Vatican was walking on
the most beautiful floors
Don't forget to look down!

Francis Bacon, some American art in the
Vatican collection!

After my field study I power walked back home to finish and submit my paper, hooray! It's done! That made my day. I didn't even mind that our apartment was so chilly that Julie and I ran to IES to do homework because they had the heat on! haha a productive day. For dinner Pepperoni and I had our usual Le Fate date to see Gatta and Gabriella. Julie tagged along this time and the three (four cause Gatto's job is amazing) of us sat stuffing our faces with bruschetta, pasta, and nutella. The wine and water glasses were constantly refilled as the conversation bopped around between Rome, home, memories, stories, and jokes which were all being interrupted by fits of laughter. We were all in good moods and loving each others company. A little lemoncello to help with the digestion and we were ready to walk home. While our street might have been the first to put Christmas lights up it seems the trend is catching. On our walk home I took a good number of pictures of Pepperoni and Julie posing in front of roads with colored twinkling lights. It was a delightful walk home. After that Johnnie Walker and Quantum of Solace were used as a celebration of the completion of our papers!

This is love

Our street

Nico came home rather late that night and I had the first of two realizations. Wednesday night talking with Nico at 1am and then again the next morning at 8:30am I walked away from the conversations feelings so proud and happy because I was not focusing particularly well-- rushing around going to school or trying to talk and watch a movie-- but both times I managed to carry on a conversation in Italian with ease. My language skills have certainly improved and it's moments like that which remind me.

Thursday was another great day, man I love this place. I started my morning with a wake up by Ginny because I was late! eeks! Thankful I am a pro at getting up and at 'em. I made it to school to meet my Conservation class a minute early! Boom. Federica was very sad that she couldn't get us into the Vatican Conservation Labs :( but it's not her fault, Italian bureaucracy. Instead she took us to visit her two friends who were restoring a fresco cycle in a church close to IES. Actually it was on Via Giulia, right down the street from me! It's San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a church I've wanted to go into before just because I walk by it all the time but the one time I was really going in I realized I was wearing a tank top which doesn't fly in a church. Back when it was warm haha. Anyway we had our usual amazing class sitting on top of scaffolding talking about preservation techniques and damages etc. The second half of class we returned to IES for lecture.

Forma Urbis was my second field study and we were going to a museum to examine a miniature scale model of the city of Rome from Archaic times and the 5th century AD. This is our last field study with Gianni and was a form of review for our class and final. We were told to all go to the Chinese store and buy lasers because the model is on a level below where the visitors stand. So we all had little red laser pointer dots zooming around these maps. My classmate, Christina, gave her presentation on the 5th century map and had us all play a game with it. She deserves an A Gianni! Outside of the museum we all gathered round and took a picture in front of the colonnade with ROMA across the top. It's my biggest class but my favorite class. I came home and started my last blog before heading out into the dark (boo) to Italian class.

Archaic Rome with the defined hills

5th Century Rome, as built as it gets!

Anna hasn't been feeling well so it was nice to have a small class (5 people) and we played a Christmas trivia game with the other 301 section. Oh and we ate cake. Pannettone I think is the name of the fruit bread but there was also a yellow cake with powdered sugar on top. It was a fun and easy class, good way to end the week. Walking home of course Julie and stopped by Fillippo's for bread. We were having a birthday party that night for Davide!! He's 22! What an old man. Our big bash turned out to be really small but it was exactly what I wanted.

Most of our friends are out of town, hence the small Italian class, or had visitors or host family obligations. Nobody was free to come to the potluck, then Davide said he invited a bunch of people so we just set to work like usual. Julie made an extremely delicious carbonara, Gatta made eggplant parm (she didn't even know it was my favorite!), Sophia made mulled wine and a surprise for later, while I threw some beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, and pasta together with lemon juice for a simple dish.When the festigato himself showed up he informed us that his friends are all out of town also except for Roberto, an ISC, and Roberto was going to bring a friend. Everyone showed up just as the food was finishing up and we all fit around our dining room table with wine, pasta, and jokes! It was "pocco ma buono" in Roberto's words, few but good. Especially Sophia's carrot cake for Davide (D2) while we sang Tanti Auguri. We tried stumbling into Italian a few times and I think I finally nailed down the use of "ti serve". After dinner everyone rolled out to San C's while I hung back to do dishes and snuggle in bed.

They all surprised me when they came back an hour later with a bottle of champagne! So I came back out and socialized with my roomies, Davide, Silvio and Roberto. These guys can speak English perfectly fluently, it's outstanding!! But they pointed out we live in a language pledge and thus we spoke Italian with them. We are all so sad we didn't become best friends two months ago! But we are set to make up for lost time and have movie nights and dinners with them next week. I am so happy with last night and can't wait for everyone to be back and piled onto our couch for Italian movie night!

Having Too Much Fun to Blog

Sorry I'm not sorry avid readers. With my time in Rome barely over two weeks I have been spending as much time with friends and experiencing this city around me (ok and final projects are due). Quick overview of my week.

Last Friday was the first time I woke up alone in our apartment and it was a wonderful experience. I slept in a bit and then roll out of bed to enjoy some left over Thanksgiving food for brunch (mmm stuffing!). With the peace and quiet of the morning and empty apartment I settled in to work on my Baroque paper about St. Peter's Chair. I love that Bernini. Later Pepperoni stopped by after the Woo Thanksgiving lunch which was just in time for dinner! I think I've inherited my Mom's genes in that I get joy from cooking for others. So we made an easy yet elegant dinner of broccoli pesto pasta with bread and caprese to join our wine on the table. We were all hanging out together while Pepperoni helped me settle on a tattoo idea that has been haunting me for five and a half years now.... Depending on the money I have left when I get back to Pittsburgh maybe I'll get myself a Christmas gift? We turned on Alice in Wonderland while tattooing it up. Gatta came home from her adventures with Julie and wanted a snuggle party so we all squished together to watch Kung Fu Panda 2, well ok I might have napped during a large part of it.

Decent tattoo design? :)

Saturday was one of those days that the bright sunshine and chatter from the street outside my window made me want to explore! Ginny had planned a trip for San Clemente's crypt so I tagged along! I've been to San Clemente with Pier Paolo to look at Masaccio's frescoes but this was so much cooler! First of all Ginny worked her magic and got us discounts on the already cheap tickets. We walked down into the darkly lit remains of the original San Clemente church. There were a few poorly preserved frescoes and columns, the altar was still intact and we could wander all around the aisles and nave. It gets better. Underneath that level there was a maze of ancient Roman rooms and temples and houses!! We went to the lowest level which is essentially a cave, one room leading into the next. There was a spring running underground in what used to be a house, natural running water in a house! That's awesome! It was so cool and between what I know from Gianni's class and resident expert Ginny I could make sense of everything better than any tourguide would explain. Sadly we didn't visit St. John the Latern because by the time we had explored to our hearts content I needed to scurry home to prepare for the evening.

Looking through all the doors

Mithra

The 4th century church

Oh boy. That night. The Woo Crew (you guys now have a nickname) were all going to go on a pubcrawl together with Ekate and her friends. I was kindly invited since my friends have insisted a pubcrawl be on my Roma bucket list. Before the crawl Pepperoni and I were determined to check out the Saturday Surprise at Le Fate. Gabriella was happy to see us again, glad she likes us as regulars! The bruscetta had arugula, the pasta was oil/garlic, and dessert was an apple strudel with raisins from their new oven! mmm so good! Then we meet everyone else at the Colosseum for the pubcrawl which was entertaining. I even got a t-shirt! We went to three pubs and only one club (the second kinda fell apart) but it was a good group of people and a great night. Only thing that would have made it better would be a classico at the end.

Moving onto recover/homework Sunday! I watched a few tv shows, did homework, and made chicken noodle soup! Between Julie's broth and veggies and my chicken and pasta we made an incredible warming comfort soup. That was an unexpected treat that warmed me right up during the chilly late afternoon. To warm my heart that night Syira Libra came home again!! Nico's puppy (she's growing so quickly) came to visit us for a day so we all were crawling on the floor playing with Syria.

Monday was a rough morning for me. I was having trouble staying awake during two hours of lecture from Federica. Solution: two espressi. Mistake! By the end of Renaissance I felt awful and jittery. The good news was that motivated me to go for a run! I had a great jog along the Tiber in the middle of the morning when the sun was shining, it wasn't too hot yet, and the paths were nearly empty. I felt great, even came home to try some of those butt and gut routines! Syria greeted me with a pounce once I walked in the door and I was happy to see Isotta was over. Nico and Isotta spent most of the day coming and going from the apartment walking Syria, shopping etc. They had friends over for a dinner at our place. After my dinner I popped over to Prati and watched Cowboys vs. Aliens with Pepperoni and Aven.... if you haven't seen it, don't. If you have, that is hilarious! The whole reason I wanted to see it was because I like Oliva Wilde but she turned the movie from boring to absurd. More discussing of the tattoos took place.

All weekend long Sophia's family came to visit, Sam had arrived earlier. They came and went from our apartment and it was a pleasure to meet them. I hope they enjoyed their time in Rome.

Tuesday morning was fabulous because my Baroque field study was lead by Pier Paolo which means Julie was treated to two hours with this fabulous man we all have class with except for her. She thinks he is adorable also :) We had to push our way through a farmers protest/strike to meet up with everyone but we survived. Together we toured San Andrea al Quirinale, a Bernini, and San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, a Borromini. Let the fight begin! They were big rivals but had very different styles. Sophia is a Borromini girl, I am a Bernini girl. They are both stunning churches and even those who don't care about art or architecture think so. Try and stop by if you're ever in Rome. I hardly ever go to the Quirinal hill and I don't know why! It was so charming! We said ciao to the Moses fountain again and then popped into Santa Maria della Vittoria and said hello to St. Teresa in Ecstasy at the end. Of course I love P.P. and chatting with him in Italian. The only downside was that I thought it was Wednesday all day because that's when I normally have a field study with him. After Forma Urbis with Gianni I returned to the apartment and worked on that darn paper. I might have taken a distracting three hour break but I got it close to perfect, leaving only a little editing for the next day.

Alter of San Andrea

Dome of San Andrea

Dome of San Carlo

The cloister

Alter of San Carlo

Cieling!

I'll catch you up on the rest in the next post, my days are just so fantastic and full recently! Buonanotte tutti