To Roma!

Apologies for the delay since my last post, I've been in the middle of midterms this week and it's been keeping me mighty busy. But anywho, I went on two class trips this past weekend and my first one was on Friday, and I finally went to Rome! I went with my Etruscans class. The Etruscans are one of the oldest civilizations in Italy, they were here even before the Romans. The class itself has been pretty boring (as any history lecture in a dark room at 3 in the afternoon will be). But being around all of the monuments and artifacts we've been studying made it so worth the long Monday afternoons of learning.

In the morning we took the train to Rome and went to the Villa Giulia, a museum way off the beaten path that houses a shit ton of artifacts from Southern Etruria. It was totally deserted because, believe it or not, there is not a bad rush to see old urns and pots from Ancient Italy. So, my class had the run of the place.We spent the morning there and had a final lecture before our midterm on Monday in the museum, and then headed into the main part of Rome.

The Spanish steps

We had free time for lunch and we wandered around and found this little pizza bistro, and we all got a slice to go and went and sat in a big square to eat. After lunch we wandered around and eventually found the Spanish steps, but we had to book it right away to go meet up with the rest of our group so we didn't get a chance to climb them. Then we took a walking tour with my professor all around Ancient Rome and saw all the major sights.

Professor Ewell!

the Trevi Fountain

street performers

a completely, legitimate Roman

the Pantheon

there were a million cats in these ruins!

one of the hills of Rome

the Roman Forum

The Coliseum!

The day was such a fantastic first experience in Rome. I loved walking around with my professor all day because he was so knowledgeable about everything! I kept waiting for a student's question to stump him but it never came. I was sad it ended so early and that I could stay Saturday too, but I had to go back to Florence Friday night so that I could go to Genoa (or Genova) on Saturday with another class. I hope I get a chance to go back!

New thing: Being honestly enthralled at a museum