Easter Weekend in Rome

Easter in Rome seemed to deserve its own post because what could be cooler than spending one of the most important Catholic holidays were the Holy See is located??

On Saturday I decided to climb the Aventine Hill where there are a number of churches. It almost seemed like I was in a small Tuscan town on top of that hill, it was very quiet and beautiful. I stopped and sat in an orange tree garden that had a great view of St. Peter's and the rest of the city. Then I stepped into a couple of the churches. Anyways, I don't know too much about the hill or the churches, but the emptiness of it was really refreshing.

walkway up to the Aventine Hill- surprisingly EMPTY

Orange tree in the orange garden

St. Peter's is in the background- it was hazy outside so it is hard to see

square surrounded by churches

After this I walked over the to Protestant Cemetery- meant for the English who died in Rome or those of the non-Catholic faith (there were some Jewish graves). The cemetery is beautiful, the gravestones are extremely elaborate and there are some famous people buried there- John Keats, PB Shelley, the son  of Goethe, and a few others. The cemetery was also very empty- which could've made it creepy, but having lived next to one my entire life I'm ok with cemeteries. Walking through it was also very relaxing.

The cemetery and some of its elaborate graves

Left is John Keats' grave, the right is his friend Severn, and the middle is Severn's baby son

I just took this picture because I recognized the symbol (chi ro) as a Christian one used by Constantine, otherwise I don't know much about it

This morning I walked up to the Vatican.  I was going to try and avoid the holiday crowds, but after thinking about how many crowded important events I've been to- Inauguration and the Inaugural concert, and the Rally to Restore Sanity- I figured I could handle thousands of Catholics on Easter Sunday- as intimidating as that sounds. I am very glad I went, I stayed towards the back so it wasn't very crowded around me. I was only going to stay a couple minutes just to check out the crowd but I stayed for 45 minutes instead because I figured a lot of people I know probably wished they were there. I did leave before the Pope's speech though (which I wish I knew he did because I would've stayed) because it was mostly in Italian/latin and I had no idea what was going on. They also had large screens set up, I started out watching the wrong one that was just clips of Pope John Paul II in preparation for his beatification next week (sadly I will miss it), but I finally realized my mistake. Then, some old Italian man tried to point out who the Pope was on the video screen to me- as if I don't know what the Pope looks like. I wonder if he saw the Jewish star around my neck and figured I didn't know anything. Anyways, I'm glad I can say I've been to Easter mass at the Vatican now.

An extremely zoomed in creeper pic of the Pope

The crowd at Easter mass- it was really hard to tell how many people were there in this picture

The pope on the big screen

Hope my Grandma's proud of me!

The Eternal City

Between all my trips and special outings within Rome, I have not gone into much detail about what else I do in Rome. There are a lot of things I have done with classes and on my own that are, in my opinion, very cool. I have quickly learned Rome really is the "Eternal City" because there are buildings still standing from all important time periods.

Mid-March:
In March, for my archaeology class we went on an on-site class that was very cool. It was around my trip to Paris so I didn't talk about it on this blog. But, we went to a place called Monte Testaccio. Testaccio means clay, and the mountain is literally made entirely of clay. This is because in antiquity Romans would import wine and olive oil from places like Spain, Africa, and Greece. The liquids would be transported in pots with a pointed bottom called amphorae that were useful for packing on boats. Then, when the liquid was all gone, Romans would take the amphorae and throw it on a mound of thousands of amphorae. This eventually made an entire hill, one of the many you can find in Rome

Oh yeah, Testaccio is in the middle of the city and you can find sheep on the top of the hill, a "green" way to keep the grass short

view of Rome from the top of Monte Testaccio

The clay pieces that make up the hill

Also later in March I went on an onsite with my Roman history class for about 4 hours. We just walked around the city and looked at monuments and sites that we had already learned about. Anyway, on this trip I saw things that I hadn't seen already so I will post these pictures.

Temple for Hercules- it is rounded whereas most temples are rectangular

archway of an ancient marketplace

circus massimus- where ancient chariot races were held

Then we stumbled on a present day protest- seemingly for workers rights

column of trajan- the column depicts his war against the Jews in Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple

On another day in late March my Roman history class went to the Capitoline Museum, which houses items found from ancient sites. There are statues, remnants of a pre-Republic Pagan temple, and mosaics. The most famous though is what is left from a gigantic statue of Constantine. Only the head, a foot, and parts of his arm are left. 

Constantine's foot- it is about the same size as I am

his head, elbow, and hand

Outside of class and my trips I tend to go on long walks around the city to see what I stumble upon. One day I took a walk around the Campo di Fiori and Pantheon area to find Piazza Navona because I heard it was really beautiful and I hadn't been there yet. In this area, if you take the wrong turn down a tiny cobblestone road, you'll get lost for a very long time. I did this a bunch of times this day but I stumbled upon a part of Rome that I didn't know existed. I'll call it the hipster/yuppie part of Rome. There were hip clothing boutiques, antique stores, and art galleries. It was really beautiful. I also saw some religious procession I didn't know anything about so I tried to avoid it. Anyways, I finally found Piazza Navona and of course, since I am my mother's daughter, that day there was an anti-war rally going on! I am not so sure what they were rallying against since at the time Italy was not involved in any war (they had not yet intervened in Libya) but it was really cool since there was live Italian music. Piazza Navona is also interesting because it is an oval shape because it is built  over the ancient stadium of Domitian. In the Middle Ages Romans didn't know how to make concrete anymore because it died with ancient Rome, so they would build using ancient Roman buildings as their foundation

The rally wasn't that crowded, but it was a rally

A cool Bernini Fountain- Four Rivers

Also on this day I stumbled upon Castle San Angelo, which used to be Hadrian's mausoleum until the Christians took it over and it was made into a castle/fortress. Now it is a museum

A very unique looking building

Within just 2 weeks at the beginning of April I had 4 people visit that I know from school. First Cheryl and Laura stayed with me for three nights. I made dinner for them 2 nights- a lot of pasta and some veggies, and we went to Le Fate one night for bruschetta, ravioli, and tiramisu. One day I even put my tour guide skills to use and showed them around the Pantheon, the Forum, and the Colosseum. The next week my friend Mariel stayed with me for one night. Gabby and I took her for pizza for lunch one day then I cooked her dinner- sausage, asparagus, and little bit of pasta of course. Then we took her out that night. Anyways it was great having such close friends stay with me and made me miss the USA that much more. Finally last Friday Jared stayed with Gabby and we took him to the Colosseum (which was free for culture week!) and the Vatican. This was my first time there and the Museums are just as good as any other I've been to. The entire Museum though is just a long pilgrimage to the Sistine Chapel. It is amazing how Michaelangelo could paint that ceiling but I have to say, it wasn't much more impressive than any other Renaissance ceiling I've seen. Maybe I just didn't get a good enough look, or I should have taken an Art History class in Rome to fully appreciate it. Finally we went back to Le Fate that night and had more bruschetta, gnocchi, and a gelato + coffee dessert.

St. Peter's

a hallway in the Vatican Museum

This ceiling is probably just as cool as the Sistine Chapel!

As is this one!

Jared really love gelato, but we wouldn't let him have two gelatos in one day. 

As I mentioned above, last week was culture week, which theoretically meant all museums were free. But this being Italy museums found a way around this and I didn't get to enjoy the perk as much as I wanted to. I did get into the Colosseum for free but then I went to the Capitoline museum since I wanted to see some artefacts I hadn't seen but the guy handing out tickets tried to convince me I had to pay 4 euro and I got so frustrated and left. Other museums I wanted to see had long lines. Then, on Sunday I had to go to the Roman Museum of Modern Art to see a special exhibit for extra credit for a class. I thought going during culture week meant I would get into the exhibit for free but I still had to pay for it. The exhibit was boring- modern artists trying to replicated Middle Ages and Renaissance Italian art. But the rest of the museum was interesting. The website said there were a lot of Kandinskys there (I only saw one), but they also had a lot of Duchamps, and Fascist era Italian paintings I recognized. Afterwards I walked around the Villa Borghese- kind of like Rome's central park. It felt just like central park anyways- a green haven away from Rome's dirty streets and traffic. I would love to rent a bike and ride around there just like I saw almost every other family do.

Duchamp took a urinal, turned it upside down and called it a fountain and wrote R. Mutt on it. But is that really art?

The Museum of Modern art- looks like an American Museum

Villa Borghese

Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, and Vesuvius

This past weekend I went to the Amalfi coast with school. This was by far my favorite trip of the semester. The school was so organized and knew exactly the kinds of things we should do. The Amalfi coast is South of Rome (a bit South of Naples), it was warm and sunny all weekend.

Friday: We drove three hours to Mount Vesuvius, and climbed up the pumice stone to the caldera. This is the famous volcano that covered Pompeii and Herculaneum in the first century AD. It was a rather steep incline, so a man at the bottom was giving out walking sticks (which Gabby and I ditched at the top because they turned out to be more of a problem than a walking aid). The only people at Mt. Vesuvius that day were elementary school kids and senior citizens. It was a little embarrassing when both would pass us on the way up. At the top we ate our lunch and enjoyed our view. Then we made our way down and drove an hour to Sorrento, a town famous for limoncello. This is where our hotel was (which was absolutely beautiful) and the town is right on the coast. When we got there we walked around and looked at the tiny streets and shops. Then we had dinner at our hotel (pasta, pork with potatoes and peas, and the weirdest dessert- it tasted like butter but we later realized it was the filling of tiramisu).

me with my walking stick climbing up the volcano

the caldera

view from the top- it was hazy that day

giant lemons in Sorrento

Saturday: This day we took a ferry from Sorrento to Capri. I want to live in Capri forever. Basically the island is one giant rock and towns are located mostly at the top, so we had to drive around cliffs to get there. First we went up to the town of Anacapri to take a chairlift to the very top of the island. The chairlifts didn't look to sturdy to me and they were single chairs- but it turned out to bet  the most relaxing 10 minute chairlift ride ever. I felt like I was floating on air since basically clouds were surrounding us. Then, a few of us went back down the chairlift and down back to the port to eat lunch. I had pizza and calamari. We then found a private boat tour around the island. The old Italian man driving our boat was great, he brought us snacks and his homemade wine. We first went to the blue grotto- a cave where the water glows blue- I didn't take my camera because I was worried I might drop it in the water. But we had to switch to tiny row boats to take us into the tiny opening to the cave. Then we continued our tour. Our guide took us a to a few other caves and pointed out coral. He also took us to places to cliff jump. Only a couple people did it, I was worried about the cold water (and the jellyfish in the water!). Basically the best part about the tour was lounging on the boat looking at the island and enjoying the sun. It was the best part about our trip. We ended the day by sitting on rocks by the water. Then we took a ferry back to Sorrento and had dinner again at our hotel (chicken, potatoes, green beans, pasta, and tiramasu).

view of the port

going up the chairlift

view from the top

us girls at the top (me, leigh, gabby, lisset

our boat tour guide

the water is so blue

I felt like I was in a different world!

Sunday: On this day we left Sorrento for ancient Pompeii and took a guided tour of the excavation. It was a rather short tour and took us to all the main sites. Our guide was really boring though plus we were all exhausted from the weekend, so it'll be nice to go back when I am more interested. Anyways, remnants of the entire city are still there, so it was easy to imagine what it was like to live there. 

Pompeii- on the left is a street food stand

Pompeii's forum

one of the plaster bodies they found

plaster of a dog, amphorae for storing wine and olive oil

another body

Roma, Roma, Roma

Last Sunday I went to the Roma soccer game. They played a team called Juventus, apparently one of the oldest soccer teams in the league and based in Turin. This was quite the cultural experience. Fans singing and chanting together while everyone holds up their Roma scarves and waves massive flags. Apparently it is ok to bring smoke bombs and fireworks into the stadium (there are special pits for these things). Fans of the other team are isolated from Roma fans, but Roma lost 2-0 so every time Juventus scored, they would throw waterbottles and Roma fans and try and get past security. Luckily we sat very far away from the Juventus fans and the firework pits. All in all it was a great time and I am glad I shelled out the money to go!

Juventus fans and smoke bombs

Roma fans and smoke bombs