Rome

Rome! It's going to be quite a tesk to recount everything, but we'll see what I can do.

Our Hotel

We left Siena for Rome at 7:38 Friday morning, and arrived around ten (we is Kate, Krissy, Simon, Alexa, Paige, Julian, Cooper and me). The first thing we did was find a metro station and get ourselves to the part of town where the hotel that Kate had booked for herself, Simon, Krissy and me-the others were winging it, but they found a nice hotel close to ours for the same price. First, let me say how nice it is to travel with people who like to plan. Krissy and Kate like to plan, and made good use of the assistance offered by one Mr. Rick Steves. Rick rocks. Kate found a lovely hotel for only 60 euros each for two nights in an excellent
location; within walking distance of Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps and the Borghese, among other cool things. Krissy, with the help of Rick's 3 day in Roma plan made out a schedule with all the cool stuff planned out and made us a reservation at the Borghese Gallery. And I nodded and smiled. It was great. And one of the most useful things that Rick told us about was the Roma pass. This pass costs 25 euro and gets you into 2 museums free, works for all buses and metro, and gets other various discounts. Awesome. So once we picked us up a few of those at the closest tabbacheria we headed to the Colosseum.

Lion Taming

Friday was a wonderful day to be at the Colosseum. Wonderful. When we left Siena it was raining but in Rome we abandoned our layer and I was comfortable in a tank top. Plus, the Roma pass allowed us to skip the entire line, and admission was covered in the pass. I think one of the reasons I liked it so much was definitely being outside in the sun, but it was also huge and interesting to see the underground part where they kept the lions and gladiators and whatnot. We also saw the Arch of  Costantine (since it's right next to it), but we skipped the Palatine forums because we're going back to see that later with our art history class.

Arch or Constantine

Where they Kept the Lions

After meeting up with the other four, we found a place to get some pizza (mmmmmm) and then made our way to Pantheon. The Pantheon was huge and crowded, and lovely of course but I have to say, I would have loved to see it with all the pagan statues and gods, before Pope Boniface IV had to go and turn it all Christian. Seriously. I cannot tell you how many Madonna e Bambino paintings and statues I have seen. They're all gorgeous, but still. Still. OH and it was kind of cool to see Raphael's tomb. A bit creepy, but cool.

Feast!

After the Pantheon we stopped by Trevi fountain, but not for long since it was teaming with tourists. Now let's get one thing straight: it's February. February. I can only imagine what it will be like in the summer. Needless to say, this is not somewhere I will be going then. Next we found a supermercato and rounded up some cheese, olives, tomatoes, wine, gin and tonic for a pre-dinner cocktail feast. This was just what we needed after a full day of traveling and culture-ing. When we were all rested up and ready to go we met up with the other four (who had gone back to their own hotel) for dinner. We went to a place we had seen by the supermercato, which turned out to be delicious. We split some appetizers, carciofo (artichoke) and also some cheesy eggplant things, and for my main course I had roast chicken. Yes. So good. After we went to the Campo dei Fiori, which is where all the American students go to bars. We checked it out but in the end were tired and unimpressed so we headed back and happily got into bed.

Inside Vatican City

The next day we woke up to breakfast served to us in our room (since the hotel lacked a common dining area) and then headed out to Vatican city with all eight. Luckily for us, Julian had made a reservation so we didn't have to wait in line at all. The first place we went to was the pincoteca which was full of amazing relisous art. I honestly could tell you very little about exactly what I saw there was so much but it was absolutely beautiful. There was some Bernini, some Raphael, some Crespi. All lovely.
And of course, we had to see the Sistine Chapel. This is another place I would hate to be in the summer, based on how crowded it was this weekend. The Sistine Chapel was cool to see, but I have to say, it was quite different than I imagined. A little dimmer, and the God giving life to Adam frame was smaller than you would have though. It was still all very cool, of course, but as Michealangelo goes I'm still going to have to say that David is my favorite. The panels of the Chapel that no one talks about I liked a lot, especially the ones with Moses (although admittedly and understandably I understood those panels more easily than the new testament ones).
One thing that did not disappoint was Raphael's School of Athens fresco. I love frescos, I really do. And I loved that this one shows figures I study as a communications (rhetoric) major. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, the whole gang. And I love how Raphael painted himself into it looking straight at you. Clever boy.

School of Athens

Finally we had to go to St. Peter's Basilica, mostly to see Michelangelo's Pieta. Lovley. Kate told us it was controversial because Mary looked so young and beautiful, and it was now behind glass because someone crazy had tried to attack it (according to wikepedia it was a geogolgist with a geologist's hammer yelling "I am Jesus Christ) and so the nose is chipped. Wikepedia also says it's the only work Michelangelo ever signed, but later regretted his outburst of pride. The line outside The Basilica looked monstrous, but it moved very quickly since it was just security, and so getting in was no problem. And since it was early evening it turned out to be just the right time to be there because we got to see mass beginning. I have to say, I feel a little unconfortable in those grand churches, not necessarily because I'm not christian but because I have a hard time feeling comfortable with religeon in such grand places, I think I would feel insignificant there. It just strikes me as rather inaccessable, I don't know if I could identify with the grandeur of it all. But I suppose that's very Jewish of me, to think of religion as more personal than grand. Allora.
We stopped briefly by the Spanish steps but those were crowded. So crowded that I could barely see the steps themselves. I'm sure they would be AWESOME if there was no where around, but as it was we were tired and not particularly inclined to stick around. 
Eventually we returned to finish the cocktails and wine from yesterday, watched a bit of The Princess Bride on TV in Italian (Il mio nome é Ingio Mentoya.  Hai ucceso il mio pradre. Preparti morire), and headed out for another dinner.

Me and Simon at the Borghese Gardens

The last day of the trip was Borghese day. Strolling though the Villa Borghese I swear I could have been in Golden Gate Park of somewhere in Portland. Compared to the tourist filled parts of Rome this was (quite literally) a walk in the park. Lovely trees and wide, pleasant path. I felt very relaxed and at home. Our reservation at the Gallery was at 11, and once again the admission was covered by the Roma pass (thanks again, Rick). The Borghese reminded me alot of the Barnes museum in Philadelphia, what with it being a converted mansion and the laminated cards that told you about the ceilings and the paintings and things in each room.  I have to of course mention Bernini's Apollo and Diana, another lovely marble statue. After all the religous art it always fun and refreshing to see some pagan art too. They had an exhibit of Lucas Cranach, which I loved. I like how he would do several different verisons of the same scene, such as Judith and Hoferous, Salome and John the Baptist's head, and the suicide of Lucrezia. It was fun to see them all side by side. I also had some time to sit outside the museum for a while on my own and enjoy the sunday laze. We also checked out the garden and fountain behind the Borgehese, again incredibly pleasant, before settling down outside of a restaurant for luch (risotto Milanese. yes.). We walked around a bit more and grabbed some coffee before finally catching our bus back to Siena at five. On the bus it was dark and rainy so it was fun to pretend for a while that we were driving through

Borghese Fountain

the bay area, because the lights in the distance looked just like lights across the bay.
Overall, I liked Rome way, way better than Florence, but I'm glad that I got those two cities out of the way during the off season because I liked the art much more than the cities themselves, and I wouldn't want to go deal with even bigger crowds. Once again, I was happy to return home to Siena.