Let's see, last Tuesday my morning on-site class was cancelled, so I went to S. Ivo della Sapienza and read in the beautiful courtyard for awhile before going to my next class. My teacher for Politics and Power in Roman Architecture gave us a two-sided sheet of paper with a list of things to see in Rome, and I have been working to see everything on the list. It is very worn and has holes where it's always folded and re-folded, and I've found some pretty neat stuff with it!
I registered for classes next semester! I'm taking all theater, Latin, and classics classes, all of which are required for my majors and sound really interesting. Also on the perhaps less-exciting note of my academic life, I have been spending time in the library finding sources and information for the term papers for both of my on-site classes. Whoohoo, putting the "study" in "study abroad!"
Last Saturday, Claudia, Kate, Catherine, Liat, and I went to the Gianicolo Hill, which is the second-largest hill in Rome. I've been trying to do all the outdoor walks and parks now before the weather gets too cold. It was a beautiful day- we climbed to the top of the hill and saw the Church of San Pietro, which is where the ancient aqueduct Aqua Paola used to be. Outside the church is a fountain, and across from it is a spectacular view of Rome. We played Name That Monument, which is exactly what it sounds like. There's the Pantheon! There's the Wedding Cake! There's St. Peter's! No, wait, that dome is St. Peter's! Or is it THAT dome? Anyway, then we went searching for, wait for it, a cannon! It goes off every day at noon as a tradition to mark the exact time. It was really neat to see it go off, even if it made all of us jump! Afterward, we went to the Jewish ghetto for lunch at a place right by the Porticus of Octavia and sat outside, which was neat. When we were done, Catherine, Liat, and I continued to walk around the ghetto and Tiber Island, where we walked around the island on Tiber level and saw the broken bridge and the ruins of the temple of Asclepius.
On Sunday, I went to Milan with Catherine and Kate. We flew Easyjet, and everything going there went smoothly. We had some trouble finding out hotel, but we eventually found it. We went to see the Last Supper, but reservations to see it were full for the next two weeks! So, we moved on to Castello Sforzesco, a very picturesque castle which was beautiful despite the rain. Inside the castle is now a museum, and we saw lots of Renaissance art... and a weird contemporary furniture room? We were kind of confused about that. After, we had a nice lunch before the museum Pianoteca di Brera, where we saw more Renaissance art. We then headed over to see the Dali exhibit, but seeing as the line was three hours long, we decided to go back on Monday! We kept walking and stumbled upon the Duomo- we just looked up and there it was, a great, lit-up Gothic cathedral. It was breathtaking. We walked around the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and listened to a pianist playing in the covered courtyard. After meandering through some stores, we saw some people in costumes doing a zombie walk- Happy Halloween! One guy popped up behind me and scared me, haha. Creepy! We kept walking until we found a restaurant that wasn't crazy expensive. It was a good pick, because I had some great pasta and the waiters were funny. They kept looking over our shoulders and sneaking up behind us! After some good food and conversation, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed having heat, which we are still missing in our Rome apartment.
In the morning, we went to the top of the Duomo. I love climbing up these tall cathedrals and looking out the tiny windows as I get higher and higher. It was so beautiful at the top, and the rain just made it even more so. Unlike the Duomo in Florence, there was a lot more area to walk around, and much more architecture at the top to see. I've decided I really like Gothic architecture. After walking around and soaking it all in, we took pictures jumping at the very top with our umbrellas and attracted some onlookers! Haha. We went back down and went inside the Duomo, where an All Saint's Day mass was going on. Next we went to Palazzo Reale to see the Salvador Dali exhibit. We were in line for hours, and a woman asked to wait with us after about two hours. She seemed nice and genuine, saying she changed to a later train back just to see the exhibit which she desperately wanted to see, so we agreed, and she talked with us for the rest of the line. She ended up paying for our nine euro tickets and wanted to take pictures with us! The Dali exhibit was really cool- I liked examining the paintings and noticing things that didn't appear right away. Sadly, after the exhibit, it was already time to go, so we walked back to our hotel, went to the airport, and found out our flight was delayed three hours! It wasn't so bad, though; I finished the play I was reading and read another one.
Friday I went to Orvieto and the thermal baths with API. The bus left bright and early at 7:30. When we got to Orvieto, we saw a beautiful panoramic view of the city. Orvieto is in the Umbria region of Italy, which is kind of like Tuscany but less touristy. We walked down to the bottom of an old well (and back up!) which was neat. In the town area, we saw another pretty Duomo, but I didn't have time to go up in this one. We had a short while to wander around the town and explore. Even though I was there for only a little while, I really liked it- it was very small, open, and not crowded at all. Next, the group met up again and went for a tour of some underground tunnels at the restaurant where we had lunch. The tunnels were carved out of the tufa. Orvieto has lots going on underground, not just tunnels, but the hot springs that feed the thermal baths and an extinct volcano! After a tasty lunch which we ate in the tunnels, we drove to the thermal baths. It was so weird to be swimming around in a hot pool and seeing the fall foliage! The closer you get to the springs feeding the pool, the hotter the water is. It was very relaxing and and also fun- at one point, one of the API directors decided to get a large part of our group to do water aerobics, which was so funny!
Today (woo, finally caught up!) I went to the Baths of Caracalla with Claudia and Kate. We walked around and took pictures of the ruins for awhile. We were trying to follow a walk from Claudia's guidebook, but after Point 1 (the baths) we got a bit lost... so we ended up just walking around a new part of Rome, and I went back to the Piramide and the non-Catholic cemetery with Kate and Claudia since we were close by and they had never been.
I cannot believe that I'm over halfway through my semester abroad- I have less than two months left! That is so crazy and a little scary... suddenly my study abroad time seems so finite. I feel like I still have so much I want to do here!
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