roma

October 13th - 17th
I spent last week in Rome with my class. We chartered a bus and had about a 10 hour drive ride from Vicenza with a couple stops along the way. Other than the necessary pitstops, we saw a few churches; one along the motorway in Florence and 2 others on the outskirts of Rome. The one in Florence was quite beautiful. I had seen it last time but finally got to see the interior last week. One of the churches in a remote area outside the main city of Rome was not well received by any of the 28 of us that visited it. Our professors had seen a magazine article praising it which gave reason for our trip there. As we approached the building on foot from the road, we became speechless. It was a big blue tiled box reminiscent of the ˝This is my house˝ drawings from kindergarten. Beyond the surprise of the exterior our overall impressions of the building dropped even more once we saw how pourly the interior was detailed.

The next morning one of my professors came to me about his ˝nightmare˝ from the night before. He said he had dreamt that the awful blue church had grown arms, picked up the white structure next to it and began beating him on the head with it! I think that best explains everyone's feelings!

Throughout the rest of the week we met as a class each morning @ 9 to tour various areas of the city on foot. A few of my favorite sites are still the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, The Vatican and Piazza Navona. Friday, our last day in Rome, my group of friends and I headed on the long trek from our hotel to The Vatican. About halfway there it started raining, something none of us were equiped for so we were dripping wet. I joked on the walk that ˝This better be worth it!˝ I, of course, knew it was having already been to St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel before. By that evening Amy and I were more than ready for our fall break and headed to one of the Rome airports for our flight to Berlin.

Check back early next week for pictures!