Day 9

**Written May 16th, 2009 about the day before, while on my study abroad in Italy**

I've been waking up pretty early all week long. Yesterday Nancy asked me if she could borrow my notes to compare with hers, she said she'd wake up around 5:45am to go over them but when I woke up at 6:30am she was still sleeping. I tried waking her but she wanted to sleep in til 7am so I let her be. :)

I went outside to check on the laundry that I had laid out the night before and it was all wet! I had forgotten about the morning dew so I'm going to have to leave them out again today so that they re-dry. 

 ***

Steve's nephew met us in Barberini Piazzo after breakfast and continued on with us to Santa Susanna and Santa Maria, two churches with huge facades. Inside the churches were amazing (overdone of course, but never the less beautiful)! One of the girls, Tempest, had a report on the Vittoria so we all sat down in the pew as she told us of the story of Saint Theresa (the statue that resides to the left of the altar).

Just in case you were wondering, St. Theresa had a "vision" in which an angel (who apparently was very beautiful, and high-ranking as angels go) came at her with an iron-tipped arrow and stabbed her repeatedly in the heart. After the vision occurred she later wrote in an journal that it was agonizing, but at the same time, ecstasy itself. 

Any how.... The next building we went to was the San Carlo. 

A totally Baroque building that has got to be one of the coolest places I have ever been!). It was constructed with ablsolutely NO right angles! It's completely made up of concave and convex-es. 

The next building we went to was the San Pietro in Vincoli. It had some eerie tombstones, one had two skeletons holding up a portrait of the dead guy, while the other had the grim reaper. Also in the church was the tomb of Pope Julius II. It was designed by Michelangelo and was one of the few pieces of artwork that Michelangelo both started and "finished". It took him over 40 years to complete because he was also commissioned to do 50 other works of art at the same time.

After leaving the church everyone went around the corner to get a bite to eat and then we split into two groups: one that went to the catacombs and the other (the one I was in) to Villa Borghese and the Soccer Stadium. However, by the time we got off the metro at Flaminio Piazza it was raining so we decided to skip the Villa Borghese and move on to the Olympic Soccer Stadium, Stadio Olimpico. However, when we got there it was all locked up so we went to a small park instead and listened to some music.

Day 7

**Written May 13th, 2009**

Today we got up early and crisscrossed town all day!

We left the hotel around 8:30am and took the metro to Termini, where we then took a bus to the Mausoleum of Santa Constanza  While we were there our professor pointed out all the 'pagan artwork' along the walls. 

Mosaic in Santa Constanza

It was interesting to hear how the Christians, whenever they brought Christianity to various people, didn't necessarily rip out all the old traditions. Instead they would merely put a Christianic spin on it, thus they could turn any pagan artwork into Christian artwork just by saying it was so.

Next we went to the St. Agnese Church (which had many beautiful paintings)

Inside St. Agnese

 then we went to St John Lateran.

The baptistry in St John Lateran was from the 14th century and at that time, it was the only baptistry in Rome so everyone went there to be baptized! We went into the central basilica, as well as the cathedral of the church, and to say that this place was big would be a gross understatement!

The Doors to St. John Lateran

Gigantic Statues of the 12 apostles lined the navel of St. John Lateran, and above each apostle lay a relief depicting some aspect of Christ's Life, and above that was a painting of one of the prophets from the Old Testament.

Peter

The entire Cathedral was dedicated to St Peter (I'm sorry, I can't remember which one), and the gold leafed ceiling was incredible (as well as the tiled floor)!

After leaving the Cathedral we went to St Mary's Basilica (where Bernini was buried) and gazed at the Arch of Triumph (the arch dedicated to the triumph of Christianity over paganism).

After all that we tried to visit The Catacombs  as a group, but it turns out they are closed on Wednesdays, which we didn't figure out until after we had taken the bus out there so we were stuck out on the outskirts of Rome for an hour until the next bus could come by and take us back to the city.

It was late when we returned to our hotel so we rushed through dinner and then collapsed in bed. On the upside, since Steve felt bad that we weren't able to get to the Catacombs we'll be getting some gelato tomorrow!

Good News!

Mike will be graduating... 

Spring 2012

from the

!