Una Visita a Roma.

A week with Jumbo, Madelyn and Colleen in Rome was fun but certainly exhausting! So this past week was Semana Santa, or Holy Week, and because of that we had school off for the week. Spring Break if you will. So I, like a good half of my program, went to Italia. Flight and every thing went smoothly, and upon arrival to Termini station to meet Jumbo, I had my doubts it would work out because he doesn’t have a cell phone and we weren’t exactly sure where he meant to meet him when he said “Platform 22” of Termini, although that is where we were. Anywho, so we did actually find each other and when we did we made our way back to John’s house for pranza or lunch. Cooked by the Roman cook Vitorrio who was limping around the kitchen due to the moto accident he was in the day before. I think he came in even on the day of the accident. Stubborn, anyone?

Lunch was delicious. Pasta, clearly and some other delicious food. Then we made some tours of churches, and at 7:30 p.m. met up with Madelyn at Termini. We then headed to Carlomenta for delicious and cheap pizza. Like 3 euros. It was on our first day that we enacted the daily mandatory gelato rule. Yes, you read right. Everyday. It was Jumbo’s idea because we were only there for like a week. We made sure to enforce that.

Sunday we went to Palm Sunday mass with the Pope, which was really cool. Long, but really cool. Palm Sunday mass is always a long haul because of the reinaction of the Passion anyway. It was the most interesting thing though, because we all decided it’s like part mass/holy event/sporting event/rock concert. Those crazy European youth love el Papa. The Spaniards, like always, were well represented amongst the crowd with shouts of “Viva…el Papa!” Also curious is how Italian and Spanish are fairly similar. I found that for some of the mass I could actually follow what was going on.

Monday we visited the Vatican Museum essentially with intentions of seeing the Sistine Chapel. They really give you the run around there. There are signs in practically every room with an arrow that says Sistine Chapel, but it took forever for it to come. Then, we finally get there and it feels like a hostage situation. You’re not supposed to take pictures, and because of that people want to do it even more. To prevent this, there are bald scary Italian men who yell, “SILENZIO! NO FOTO!” I seriously felt like he was next going to say “Everyone on the ground.” I snagged one AWFUL picture and was content. After the museum we headed over to St. Peter’s itself and did our tour. Including rubbing the foot of a statue and taking a picture just because everyone else was doing it. Haha. It was St. Peter and people do it because it’s like they did their pilgrimage and have completed it and all.

Tuesday we went to Assisi and that was quite the workout. It is WAY hilly and mind you, I being the foolish “wanting to be stylish” girl that I am, only had room for/brought my flats. MISTAKE. My feet hurt so bad, but I’ll tell ya, by the time we got to Assisi I think they were so numb from it that it didn’t really bother me. Anywho, Assisi is where St. Francis and St. Clare lived, so that was cool to see. It’s very beautiful, just like the boys of Italy. Oh I am so enamored with Mediterranean men. Which is unfortunate because they aren’t enamored with me…haha. But yes, we did a lot of walking and visited the churches of St. Francis and St. Clare amongst many others. Due to poor planning on Jumbo’s part, we didn’t really get to eat lunch at a normal time, so we got pizza by the kilo (great, by the way) our daily gelato and some pastries. Then we headed home to Roma and ate our fill at a very charming restaurant there.

Wednesday we finished up what we had left to due. We started the morning with a hunt for what we were told was the most delicious cake. We referred to it as Benedicto Cake because Pope Benedict likes it a lot. So, we hunt for this bakery on the street we were told it was on and give up and get another piece of cake. Then, we find the specific bakery, but because it was Jewish they weren’t making leavened products, including Benedicto Cake! So sad, but you know. We then supplemented lake of cake with Nutella crepes. Italy is a very delicious country. We returned for another delicious Pranza by Vitorrio, and then headed to St. Paul Outside the Wall, which is perhaps my favorite church that we visited. It has really beautiful decoration, but unlike most other churches it wasn’t so completely filled that is was overwhelming. Then we walked down the Apian way where St. Peter walked after our failed attempt to visit the catacombs that were closed. For dinner we returned to our favorite Carlomenta for pizza and tiramisu, and afterwards, you guessed it. Mandatory gelato. Then to an Irish pub to finish off the night.

Madelyn and I had a goal of having, “Ciao bella” said to us, but the closest we got was when we were leaving the pub some boys from a window said, “Hi girls” when we saw them. We should have said “Ciao belli” to them and perhaps then we could have realized our goal! But, unmet goal aside, I like Rome but I like the smaller city feel of Sevilla better. Rome is so weird because it has that mix of modern culture/architecture along with some of the most ancients ruins you’ll see. So yet again I find myself happy with my study abroad decision.