Romulus and Remus

We left on Friday morning to go to Rome. We had an awesome trip and the weekend was well worth the amount of work I have to do to catch up from being gone 2 weekends in a row. I think we picked the best possible weekend to go. Quoting Irene, "It's like God wanted us to love Rome."

After landing we checked into our hostel and met up with the other architecture students in Rome and my friend Tom and some other Catholic students in Rome. We went to the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

The coolest thing about the Trevi fountain is that it grows out of the building behind it and actually forms some of the stairs and benches in the piazza around it.

Everyone knows that the best Gelato in Rome is found near the Trevi fountain, but I feel like no one knows which one of the Gelateria's is actually the best. We got some that was supposedly "the best in Rome" and even if it wasn't, it was muy delicioso. Someone must of had a different opinion and decided to shove their cone into a door, it was stuck by the power of frozen desert.

Saturday was spent completely in the Vatican. This was my favorite part of Rome, even though it's not technically in Rome.

When we got to Piazza San Pietro we had to go through metal detectors (which apparently isn't common) because there was some sort of festival and performance with children from all over the world, but we never figured out exactly what it was for, unfortunately this meant we only got to spend a couple minutes in Saint Peter's Cathedral.

But it was all worth it because we got to stand about 10 feet from the Pope. (video coming soon)

The Pope-mobile completely surprised me, it's a G-wagon. G-Wagon= Mercedes Benz Gelandawagen, which is an off-roading little truck that you only find being driven by Gangsters in the US.
The plan of the Piazza looks like it is some beast opening its jaws to eat you (i drew in teeth) maybe I just have something against the oval in plan.

The Vatican was different than I thought it was going to be because the art was the building itself. For the most part it was not about looking at a picture in a frame, it was looking at an entire room that was frescoed by Davinci or some other genius; the building itself was the art. Like Britain, there were artifacts and artwork from everywhere that the Romans conquered, there's an entire Egyptian exhibit. It was cool to see all of the Renaissance artwork that you see copies of so often, but it is definitely coolest because those artists were the ones that actually figured out how to paint in perspective, and you can tell when they were still working out the kinks. We even saw a piece of LeCorbusier's artwork. All the rooms of the museum are impressive and you could definitely spend an infinite amount of time exploring the exhibits but their whole thing's really a teaser for the Sistine chapel; maybe this is why I found the Sistine chapel a little disappointing.
Leaving the Museum we walked down this ramping, cylindrical stair case that reminded me of the Guggenheim, so I looked up to find out when it was made and found that it was made in the 1930's which is bizarre because that's the same time that the New York Guggenheim was designed by Wright, but because Rome hates everything modern the two look nothing alike. There are actually two of these cylindrical ramps and the original one was used in cases of emergency because horses could run up and down them, so that's where the design came from.

We walked to Campo de Fiori along Tiber River and saw more of the city at night.

The other architecture students in Rome live in Campo de Fiori, which is a really lively plaza with a dark past. It used to be where executions took place during the Roman Inquisition and one of the last people to be executed in the piazza was the philosopher Giodorno Bruno, who was burnt alive in the very spot where his statue stands now. This is probably one of the creepiest statues that I've ever seen in a plaza, Tom commented that he looks like a Sith from Star Wars.

Saturday night we explored Testaccio, one of the areas on the edge of the old city.

Sunday we walked around the Colosseum and the Forum and visited the Piazza del Campidoglio, and the San Carlo alle Quatro.
We didn't pay the money to go into the Colosseum but we did walk around and meet a few characters, including a model and her agent. The day was too beautiful to stay inside.
I sampled some of Rome's famous water that still runs through some of the aqueducts. It was surprisingly refreshing.

San Carlo alle Quatro and the four fountains are still beautiful now, but they must have felt completely different before the car. The roads had to be widened to allow traffic to flow so there is now ZERO public space around the church and the fountains, and like every other marble building the church is now black with soot and grime, just like everything around it. Rome is pretty dirty and needs to put more money into its cleaning crew.

Sunday night we went to mass in a church where all the young American priests who are studying in Rome stay. It was on one of the seven hills that Rome is built on and we had a great view of the city. It was funny though because you would see a group of young American guys walking to dinner after mass and then realize that a few of them were wearing their collars.

So the trip was perfect....

Then we got home Sunday night and found bed-bugs in our hostel. That put a damper on the night and flying home on Monday morning. But I still Love you Rome.