The Past Weeks

A week ago today, my family got here!

Two weeks from Saturday I leave Rome!

I haven't had time to say much the past few weeks because I've been so busy!

I saw the Pope! This is Pope Benedict XVI. Every Sunday at noon, he comes out this little window to bless the crowd that has gathered in St. Peter's Square. There was a call and response portion, then he greeted everyone in the square in multiple languages. I'm not Catholic, but it was still an awesome experience to be able to see him and be blessed by him. My favorite part was a group of really hip priests behind us that were waving a banner and singing some really upbeat songs in Italian. I wish I knew what they were so that I could learn them and introduce them to churches in America. Viva il Papa!

Taylor and I bought a Christmas tree. We named him Leo and took him home via bus and metro. Then we crowned him with a Burger King crown and decorated him with Kinder chocolate and our collection of Kinder toys. Only the classiest of alberi di natale for this apartment!

 I celebrated mio compleanno with my roommates! We went out for Mexican (any ethnic food [American included] is now our top pick for a nice dinner out). It included a delicious burrito, a super strong blue margarita, and some birthday cheesecake!

Then I got to meet up with my family at the airport and take them around Rome!

We saw:

Il colosseo

e

 Forum Romanum, including Nero's old gym, which is especially beautiful:

e Basilica di San Pietro, finally. I finally got to go in again!

 Including Michelangelo's Pietá. Which is just so beautiful.

My dad went to Rome's Comedy Club with me one night. Renee, a friend a work, gave me her friend Marsha's contact information. Marsha helps run this English comedy club and has been inviting me to all her shows. I finally got to go which I was really happy about. They had 9 different comedians doing some standup. Some of them were definitely funny. Some of them were over my head. Marsha definitely had the smartest bit out of all of them.

Oh! And I finally got to see my mom's book in real life!

It's so beautiful! I made all my roommates read it and they loved it even though they're not from Cincinnati. I told them they would love it even more if they were from Cincinnati. My mouth started watering when I saw those paintings of Skyline Chili (cheddar cheese, miss it). And my eyes teared up when I finished it. I'm so proud of their hard work and I'm excited to be surrounded by all these familiar Christmas things when I return home.

We went out to really nice dinners, which is something I don't always get to do. We also had a relaxing Italian-American thanksgiving dinner with turkey breast, grilled vegetables, bread, mashed potatoes, and of course vino and chocolate.

We saw Campo di Fiori, I showed them around my neighborhood and my school. We tracked down car stores and shopped and ate gelato and pizza and pasta. Even though three days is nowhere near enough time in Rome, I'm glad they got to see a little glimpse of the life I've had the pleasure to be living the past three months.

It was a strange feeling having my family come here. It made it seem more concrete now that my old "real" life has merged with my new "fake" life.

Some mornings I still wake up and say, "Wow, I'm in Rome." Some days I can't believe that I'm casually walking through St. Peter's Square or on top of ruins that are thousands of years old.

I love it here and I'm not ready to leave in two and a half weeks!!

Tonight I have to finish my 15 page Art History paper.

Tomorrow I go to Paris.

Then the next two weeks are crunch time before final exams (can't wait for school to be over) PLUS crunch time for absorbing as much of Rome as I can before I get sent home.

Bittersweet.

The best part about a birthday abroad: My birthday started at midnight my time and ends at midnight Ohio time (of course). Which means I have a 30 hour long birthday!

Weekend Trip #4: Florence

Last weekend we went on our final API trip to Firenze. We took a bus and it was about 3 or so hours. Here's what we saw:

The Arno River. They have beautiful bridges and beautiful buildings lining the banks. One of the bridges has buildings on it, which almost makes it look like Venice. People were playing sports on the banks, and rowing down the river. It was so much more beautiful than the Tiber here in Rome. I think the Tiber has way more potential!

On a walking tour, I learned that these buildings (and all other buildings with brick at the base) were originally used as tower houses. For safety reasons, there were no entrances from street level. Instead, they used ladders to climb up to the doors, and the buildings were connected to each other with ladders systems across the roofs.

The Florence Cathedral, designed by Brunelleschi. The duomo is painted on the inside by Vasari, a late Mannerist/Broque-influencing artist. I love how ornate the cathedral is on the outside. It includes a bell tower and baptistry, but it has elaborate doors, windows, and niches with sculptures in them. It's much more breathtaking than many churches in Rome from the outside, although the inside is underwhelming (in my opinion).

These are the bronze doors from the cathedral's baptistry from the competition of 1401! This is a big deal, and it's mentioned in every art history course, because the competition is basically what kicked off the Renaissance. Basically, Ghiberti and Brunelleschi (and others, but they were the main men) were asked to design a panel of the sacrifice of Isaac for the baptistry doors. Even though Brunelleschi's panel was more emotional (and preferred by some people..), Ghiberti won, mostly because his panel used less bronze, and was therefore cheaper. Even though Brunelleschi lost, he became one of the first leading Renaissance architects.

This is Brunelleschi's on the left and Ghiberti's on the right. I still say Brunelleschi should have won, but I guess he did in the end because he got commissioned for awesome things like the duomo. And who's really heard of Ghiberti anyway? The only thing he won was also getting to design the doors on the other side of the baptistry.

We climbed the stairs of the bell tower. It was about 414 stairs (that's what they advertised, but I counted a few more). There were lots of views of Firenze through little windows on the way up, as well as a great view of the duomo and the city behind from the top. You can see the little people that climbed to the top of the duomo. We waved to them. I love how all the roofs are the exact same in the whole city. Brunelleschi's duomo was kind of a big deal at the time, although Michelangelo came along and did it better later (in my opinion):

I know you feel really fooled by this optical illusion. It's okay, it happens to everybody. One day this will be a big thing, just like Pisa. Someone had to do that for the first time too!

p.s.-In case you were wondering, today is the 81st birthday of Gió Pomodoro, according to Google (assuming the Google logo changes the same way in every country). He's the guy who made this sculpture, which is located in the Vatican Museums!:

I get it!

A Few of My Favorite Things:

(apparently) These are a few of my favorite things because I've been missing them the most:


1. Chipotle. Don't judge me. Last night I dreamed I left Rome early so that I could go home to Chipotle (but I was nervous because Rachel's package hadn't arrived yet and I didn't know if I should stay and wait for it or if they'd be able to ship it to me in America, even though it had just come from America, or what..).


2. Sookie. I know this is an obvious one. And I know you're not judging me for it.


3. A living room atmosphere. This means comfortable couches or chairs filled with familiar friends or family set up on a rug, in a real room, in an arrangement around a working television that encourages social interaction.


4. Driving (or passenger-ing, I really don't care) with the windows down and the music up.


5. The confidence that if I start talking to someone on the street they will understand what I'm saying to them.


If I think of anything else I'll let you know.

The Four Major Basilicas of Rome

I have now officially been to all four major basilicas. These four churches, all located in Rome, are considered "major basilicas" because they have a holy door [porta santa, which is sealed shut from the inside except during holy years, or Jubilees. Jubilees occur every 25 years and date at least back to the 1400s; the last was in 2000. Usually the Pope has to knock down the doors (which have been previously loosened of course), but Pope John Paul II changed it so that he only had to push the doors open (because they fell on Pope Paul VI the time before)], because they are the main destinations during the Jubilee (as appointed by Popes), and because only the Pope or people he appoints may celebrate mass here. 

They're located at these blue dots:

Going clockwise, they are Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano (the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican), Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore (the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major), Arcibasilica di San Giovanne in Laterano (the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran), and Basilica Papale di San Paolo Fuori le Mura (the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls).

First, St. Peter's.

St. Peter's has the largest interior of any Christian church (it covers 5.7 acres). It's important because Saint Peter was named the first Pope when Jesus handed him the keys to heaven. This basilica is built over the tomb of Saint Peter. It is built over Old St. Peter's in 1505 (or at least that's when Pope Julius II actually decided to demolish the old basilica. The building wasn't finished for the next 120 years). Bramante, Raphael, and Michelangelo all drew plans for the new basilica, but the majority of the final design is usually attributed to Michelangelo. Inside is an altar by Bernini (kind of seen in the lower picture), the Pietá by Michelangelo, and contributions by Bramante.

I live about a fifteen minute walk from Piazza San Pietro. If you get close enough, you can hear the church bells ringing on the hours. It's a giant square that includes post offices, shops, the steps with the Swiss guards, fountains, an obelisk, and the facade of St. Peter's. Right outside are numerous restaurants and tourist shops. It's an awesome place to be able to walk to regularly or ride by on the bus on a daily basis.

Next, St. Mary Major.

St. Mary's, located a few metro stops across the river from where I live, is the largest Catholic church dedicated to Mary in Rome. It's also called Our Lady of the Snow because of a legend that snow fell in the middle of the summer on the place that a temple should be built for Mary. It is also the burial site of St. Jerome, who created the Vulgate, the first Latin translation of the Bible.

The church was built by Pope Sixtus III in the 400s right after a council that proclaimed that Mary was the mother of God. It's been expanded and partially rebuilt since then, however, especially after the earthquake in 1348. 

Before the papal residence was moved to the Papal Palace in Vatican City, it was temporarily in a Papal Palace at St. Mary's.

This basilica has the highest bell tower in Rome, which you can see in the photo. Inside, the elaborate ceilings are decorated with Inca gold. The apse and nave are completely made of mosaic, which contains some of the earliest depictions of Mary, dating back to the 5th century. The nave mosaics mostly contain images of Moses.

To the right you can see the porta santa, which is always available from the outside, but is bricked off from the inside. 

Third, St. John's.

Saint John Lateran is the oldest (consecrated in 324) and highest ranking of the four major basilicas because it is the official seat of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope (which is why it is an arch-basilica), as well as the ecumenical mother church of the whole world for Catholics. As with St. Mary Major, it is part of the Holy See, which is kind of like an extension of Vatican City.

The basilica has been rededicated to Saint John the Baptist and later Saint John the Evangelist, who are now both co-patrons of the church, although it is understood that it is mainly dedicated to Jesus.

The facade was rebuilt in 1735 by Alessandro Galilei, looks like a palace, and was modeled after Michelangelo's palace on the Capitoline Hill, with colossal order columns creating an oversized entryway.

Across the street from the church is an apse that is still standing, even though the rest of its original building is not. Like St. Mary's and the apse inside St. John's, this apse is made entirely of mosaic, and depicts the handing of the keys.

Inside the church is the Papal Throne as well as several Popes' tombs.

Last, St. Paul's Outside the Walls

It has to be specified that this is St. Paul's Basilica Outside the Walls (of Rome) because there is another, lesser, St. Paul's inside the walls of Rome.

This basilica was founded by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, and is built over the burial site of Saint Paul (relatively recently, they did testing on a tomb found beneath the church and found that the body dated back to the 1st or 2nd century).  Other emperors worked to improve it, and by the 5th century it was monumental because it was larger than Old St. Peter's Basilica at the time, and is still the second largest of the four great basilicas in Rome.

It has been rebuilt after the earthquake in 1348 and a fire in 1823, and was reopened in the 1800s. During the second rebuilding, all different countries contributed--Egypt sent alabaster, Russia sent lapis lazuli. 

This basilica is unique, surrounded by a large colonnade and eclectic, with pieces from all different countries and time periods. The interior is unique because of the simple rectangular layout with no chairs or decorations, which gives it a very open and clean feel. It contains ancient mosaics, a Medieval tabernacle, and even some 20th century additions.

It's interesting to note the similarities and differences between the four basilicas. St. John's, St. Mary's, and St. Peter's all have similar facades with statues across the top. St. John's and St. Paul's both have statues of all the disciples along the walls. St. Peter's and St. Paul's have similar uses of ornamental gold in the ceilings and mosaics. However, they also all have their unique meanings and stories which makes them each fascinating and beautiful.

Sometimes Italians Listen to Their Own Music!

I have some excellent Italian music videos for you:

Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu (Volare)

"In the blue painted blue,

Happy to be up there"

by Domenico Modugno

24000 Baci

"24000 Kisses"

by Adriano Celentano

"Insieme a Te Non Ci Sto Piú"

"With you there is more"

by Caterina Caselli

"Bella"

"Like a beautiful morning

Crystal clear water

Like a window that illuminates the pillow.."

by Jovanotti