"We once were lost, but now we're found"

On Friday, Kristen and I woke up and took the metro to the Spanish steps. Piazza Spagna was full of people and men trying to sell roses. One of them gave me a rose after I said I didn't want it. He then came back a minute later asking me for money for the rose so I gave it back to him immediately! Kristen and I were looking for a place to get food so we could have a picnic on the steps. All we could find were a bunch of really expensive shops and things we couldn't afford. Finally, we came across a cafe where you could get food to go. I got a sandwich and 1/4 pineapple. The pineapple was delicious and I wasn't even charged for it!  

Spanish Steps

After the picnic, we went back to the metro to go to Vatican City. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It has its own police, firemen, grocery stores, currency with the Pope's face on it, etc. They are totally self-sufficient. The currency is very valuable. $5 worth of Pope money is worth about $700 (don't quote me on that one). The only way to get into the actual country is to have a visa and the only way to get a visa is basically if you know someone.  The population is only around 1,000 people but on average 14,000 people come to visit every day. I was one of the 14,000 on Friday and we decided to take a tour. That was probably one of the smartest decisions of the trip. Our tour guide has been giving tours for 9 years and knows so much. If we went through it alone, we would have not have appreciated the art and not have understood the importance of everything. The Vatican Museum is full of artwork. If you spent one minute looking at every piece, it would take 11 years to go through the entire museum. Our tour started off in the courtyard. Where we saw the same piece of artwork that was in Trinity College in Dublin. It is called a sphere within a sphere. The courtyard was surrounded by buildings that held the museum. Here our tour guide explained the Sistine Chapel because you aren't allowed to talk once you get inside. The ceiling took Michelangelo four years to complete. It is a fresco which means fresh paint and he would  therefore have to paint on wet plaster. Michelangelo suffered a lot of back pain and neck pain throughout the process. He was reluctant to paint the ceiling but really had no choice because the Pope wanted him and only him to do it. Down the middle of the ceiling depicts biblical scenes in chronological order. The Sistine Chapel is also home to the Last Judgment by Michelangelo. This painting depicts hell on the right lower corner and Jesus with Mary in the upper center. Around Jesus are martyrs and in their hands are how they were killed. The Last Judgment is probably my all time favorite painting. I couldn't stop looking at it when I was in the Sistine Chapel. 

Sphere within a Sphere 

The Courtyard

We then went into the museum. The first room was full of hundreds of busts. Next, we looked at a bunch of statutes. The statute of Apollo was outside and that was the inspiration for Michelangelo. 

busts

Apollo 

 There were rooms full of painted ceilings, mosaic floors that were over 1,000 years old, drapes that were used when deciding who would be the Pope (they would keep noise in), more statutes, Nero's bathtub made of a precious stone that is all accounted for around the world (the same that was used in the Roman forum), a room full of painted maps from 500 years ago that were extremely accurate, a true Greek statute that inspired Michelangelo's bodies in the Sistine Chapel. 

First statute of the Vatican Museums

Greek original- Michelangelo's inspiration

Nero's "bathtub"

Room full of draperies

After going through the art gallery, we went through the living quarters of old popes.We saw 3 rooms of Raphael originals or Raphael inspired. The first room was created by his students and the colors were much more dull. The second room was entirely Raphael with his famous School of Athens painting. The final room was a mixture of Raphael and his students. The difference between the second and third room was that when Raphael was working on the third room, he saw Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel and therefore he started making his people's bodies look like those of Michelangelo (more manly and muscular). Raphael didn't like Michelangelo but after he saw the Sistine Chapel, he respected him as an artist. 

Raphael's School of Athens

We finally got to the Sistine Chapel! It was amazing. Words cannot describe being there. We saw the most famous paintings in the world and they were all in one room. Not only that, but this is also where the Pope is elected! There were tons of people in the Chapel and police kept on yelling "No foto, SHHHH". The Chapel was recently restored because it is the Pope's personal chapel where he would hold masses. All the smoke from the candles would put sot on the ceiling. We were only suppose to be in the Chapel for 15 minutes before our tour continued. However, Kristen and I lost track of time and our group left us. We tried putting our headphones back on to hear the group but couldn't hear a thing. We had no idea where our group went to. We left the Chapel and went the wrong direction through the museum. Instead of going to St. Peter's Basilica we went through more art galleries. We then decided to go back through the Chapel and out another door that was guarded by a guard. He luckily let us to through and get to the Basilica. We couldn't find our group anywhere so we just decided to enjoy ourselves and spend time in the Church. It was also incredible. 

After leaving the Basilica, we were standing in the square and our tour guide walked passed us on her way to the car. Hence, "we were once lost, but now we're found" in the Vatican of course. Our tour guide told us about the Swiss guard protecting the city and showed us where the Pope comes out after being elected on the balcony. She also showed us where the Pope lives. I am pretty sure he was there because his lights were on and I bet the Pope wouldn't waste electricity like that. Vatican City was amazing and it made me even more proud to be a Christian! 

St. Peter's Basilica 

Pope's apartment is the top right three windows

St. Peter's Basilica

Afterwards, we got gelato and looked for a place to get food. Kristen and I split a pizza, pasta and fries. We then got more gelato. We finally learned from my uncle that it you need to get desert first! 


Saturday was a travel day. We got up at 5:00am, took a train to Pisa, flew from Pisa to Edinburgh, then took a bus to Aberdeen. We finally made it home at 8:00 pm. 


Cin Cin! 

Finally in Rome!

On Thursday, Kristen and I woke up early to catch our train to Rome. When I boarded the train, I started crying because I was leaving my parents (how typical I always cry). Kristen and I got in to Rome at 10:55 and were extremely excited but rally nervous to be on our own in such a big city especially one that is known for pick pocketing. Once we arrived, we got our metro tickets that we used to get around the city. We then found our hotel fairly easily. We almost had to ask for directions but we got there by ourselves! It was a good thing my mom got us a map of the city or we might still be there right now. We wanted to check in but we arrived prior to the check in time so we had to leave our luggage in the main hallway of the hotel. We took all of our valuables with us but left some cash still in our suitcases. Of course this would happen to us. We were so worried about getting our stuff stolen and now we were forsed to carry our passport and everything with us in our purses. We caught the metro at the Rome Termini Station and headed towards the Colosseum. When we got off, we walked up a couple of stairs and the Colosseum was right in front of us! It was incredible. We were seeing some of the oldest and most famous monuments of all time. We grew up learning about the Roman empire and now we were here! It was so surreal. Right was we walked into the piazza a tour guide stopped us and asked us if we wanted to go on a tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palentine HIll. What sold us on it was the opportunity to skip the line at the Colosseum. I don't know if he was lying to us but he said it could take up to an hour and a half to get through the line. The guy that sold us the tour then became our personal photographer and took our pictures outside the Colosseum! For about 45 minutes to an hour, a lady talked to us about the history of the everything and showed us pictures of before the places got ruined and then what they looked like now. You really have to use your imagination because most everything is in ruins. The Colosseum held up the best but everything else just looked like a bunch of rocks. We then went into the Colosseum where they used to have gladiator fights. The stadium is just like present day football stadiums and used to hold up to 70-80,000 people. In its day, it was called the Flavian Amphitheatre because the Flavian family commissioned the huge stadium. Once Christianity took off, gladiators stopped fighting and hte stations of the cross were held there instead. Half the side is now gone because of an earthquake and the sun wearing it down. The marble is also gone because people looted the stadium and took the marble to use on their homes after Constantine banded the games. The floor which was originally wood and sand is gone and now you can see the basement where they kept the animals that were taken from Africa. The stadium was a place for the death of gladiators but also 100,000s slaves died while building the stadium. It stands about 50 m high and 70 m wide. It is three floors with the first floor being for nobles, the second for middle class and the top flor for lower class.The games were free therefore everyone could afford to go. The upper class would sit on marble seats and could carve their names into the seats to show wealth. Around the stadium are Roman numerals for people to see where their tickets were and where they would be seated. They were very organized and operated like present day football games.

The Forum was where the Romans would go to meet and learn the news of the empire. There were temples and bascilicas which were not churches but places of politics and business. It also holds the remains of the Temple of Julius Cesear who was cremated after his death by the Senate. Statues remain in the bathing area of hte vestel virgins (vestel virgins are now like present day monasteries). They were chosen at the age of 10 and spent ten years in training, tens years as a vestel virgin and ten years teaching the upcoming girls. The entire time the women must remain celebate. At 40, they could choose to leave and that is where the phrase "life begins at 40" came from. We also learned the meaning of other words as well.. Sincere comes from being made totally out of marble and not out of fake marble. Foster parents came from the Shepherd who took care of Romulus and Remus. They were sent down a river because their mother was a vestel virgin and father was the God of War.  The temples in the Forum were used for sacrafices. People of upper class would go to the temple and ask the priest a question such as "Should I go invade the other town today?" The priest would then go sacrafice an animal and look at the liver, If the liver was healthy the answer was a yes and if it was unhealth the answer was no.

We walked forever to Palentine Hill which overlooked the Forum. This is where the emperors would live. It hold the remains of the house of Augusto.

View of the Forum from Palentine Hill

View of the Colosseum from Palentine Hill

Kristen and I then walked to the Pantheon. On our way to the Pantheon we walked by the Italian capital building which would be the equivalent to our White House. Here is also the eternal Roman flame which is guarded by guards at all time. The Pantheon is huge. The columns are so thick you could probably fit 6 of me in one of the them. We got gelato and ate it by the Pantheon on the steps of a fountain. We met some students from Greece and they told us we looked like Europeans because of the way we were dressed and our big eyes. They also thought all Americans women were blondes, big boobed and blue eyes. They thought Kristen was Italian and I was Spanish. We then walked to Trevi Fountain. We threw a coin in the fountain and made a wish. We sat there until it started getting dark and we then walked back to our hotel. Luckily our bags were not stolen and everything was still where we left it. We got dinner and also gelato. Yumm. I had a really bad tan line after Thursday. I wore a low cut dress and had my lanyard around my neck. So I had a dress line and two one inch strap marks from my lanyard. Also on my back I had a line from my purse. Hey I wont complain! At least the sun gives you color in Italy unlike in Scotland!

Capital Building

Pantheon

You never see a picture of the Pantheon from the side so here you go.

Trevi Fountain

Vatican City in a distance

Cin Cin

Michelangelo's Overlook

This is a famous look out over the entire city. You can see the Duomo, River, Ponte Veccio, etc. The best time to see it is at sunset and we were lucky enough to see it then!

Cin Cij

"Life is full of uncertainties so eat dessert first"

I just turned in my two papers for my Money and Financial Markets class. What a fiasco! First off, I spent the whole weekend working on papers that were due today. I would have had them done at an earlier date but since we went to London last weekend and had the Royal Wedding this weekend I had some distractions. But I got them done last night! The first paper was over financial intermediaries and the second one compared the European System of Central Banks to the Federal Reserve System. The second paper was kind of pointless because all you had to do was look at the information on the the Feds and ESCB's website and regurgitate it. Those papers are worth a 100% of my grade so I hope I did well on them. I feel like I have been working forever on them (well at least for the last two weeks straight). I am also pretty sure that my flatmates think I am a total loser because I have cooped myself up in my room but o well I needed to make sure they were good! I am not used to having my entire grade based off two 1500-2000 word essays. But anyways, Kristen, Tony and I met at Wool at 11 am and walked to the city centre library to print off our papers. There was only one computer available at the time so we tried to print off that. My first paper was sent to the color printer which cost 20p a piece of paper. Oops didnt want that to happen. Then my second paper didn't even print! Tony tried to print his but he didnt work for him either. I think it was because I ran out of money on my account to print things so it wouldnt let us. Finally another computer opened up and the person didnt sign off of it luckily. Therefore, we were able to print our papers for free... Sorry for whoevers account that was because we were in a hurry/ had nooo money. We then walked to the bus station and got on a bus (well we tried to get on the bus). Our bus passes that we bought at the beginning of the semester expired so we had to pay to get on the bus. The bus advertises that you can get a two way trip for 1.80. However, this is not the case. We had to pay either for a student day pass which is 3 pounds or a one way pass which is 2.30. I of course only had 1.80 because that is what I thought it was going to cost. The bus driver wouldnt let me on and so Kristen and Tony scrounged for money and some guy sitting in the front of the bus gave me a pound. I finally had enough and bought the one way pass for 2.30. Don't ask me why I didnt buy the day pass for 3 pounds because that is beyond me. So we got on the bus and only about 5 minutes later the bus stopped. The driver got out of his seat and told us that the bus was running low on gas and the engine could EXPLODe if we kept on going. So we got off yet again and waited for the next bus to come get us. Luckily, we didnt have to pay a second time or else I would have not been able to get to campus. We got to RGU and turned in our coursework with 30 minutes to spare. WHOO we made it! It was a weird feeling turning in 100% of your grade into a box without your name on the paper. At RGU, you aren't allowed to put your name on the paper because the teacher isn't suppose to know whose paper she is grading at the time. You put your name on this green envelop and then put your paper and the envelop into a drop box on campus. You can't email the papers either so you have to take a 20 minutes bus ride just to turn in your dang paper. BUT we did it! One class done. Two more to go!


So back to my trip to Italy...


Wednesday was our last day in Florence before leaving for Rome. It was bittersweet because we were going to go to Rome but I was also going to have to leave my family in FLorence. I won't see my parents again until I get back to the States. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them again in Italy. Instead of staying in Florence, we went to Siena which is another town in Tuscany. We took an hour and half bus to Siena and I slept the entire way therefore I don't know what the scenery looked like or anything. I am sure it looked similar to that of San Gigminano. We arrived in Siena around 11:15 am and the town was full of tourist and school tours. I had no idea that Siena was so touristy. We walked to IL Campo Plaza where the city hall was. There was a medieval tower connected to the hall and the plaza was full of people enjoying the sun. Restaurants were full of people eating and people watching, one of my favorite past times. The plaza is home to famous horse races in the summer where surrounding towns compete ande everyone in the crowd standin the plaza while the horses race around them. We ate at a cafe in the plaza and I had spagetti bolognese but it was kind of cold by the time I got it.

Town Hall

Fountain

IL Campo

After lunch we walked to the Duomo, Baptistry and surrounding museums. The museum had a paneramic view of the city so of course Kristen and I went up. The skyline was Tuscany countryside combined with Sina City. The tops of buildings were rustic orange (hints the name Siena). I asked an English lady to take our picture and she was NOT happy with me. Gave me a lot of attitude but took our picture anyways.

IL Campo from above

At first I didnt really like Siena that much. It was really crowded and had narrow streets (kind of like Florence but not as pretty). However, the city grew on me once I saw the Duomo. The Duomo was absolutely the most beautiful Church I have ever seen. There was so much detail work on the outside and the inside (it's hard to describe how grand it was so I will just show you pictures).

Library in the Duomo

This Duomo was built before Florence's Duomo. Florence made their bigger because they wanted to be better than Siena. Siena was going to add on but got struck by a plauge and was unable to build more. We then visited the cryps underground and the baptistry which was also under the Duomo. The city was built on a hill so everything was built on top of each other. This baptistry was also gorgeous. The detail work on the ceiling was incredible. They gave you mirrors to reflect the ceiling to look at.

Mirror on the floor reflecting the ceiling

Baptistry

We went to St. Catherine of Siena's home which is now turned into a little chapel and church. St. Catherine helped convince the Pope to return back to Rome instead of staying in France. After her death, many people came to her home in Siena to worship and bring her gifts. Her once simple home turned into a beautiful chapel with paintings and other gifts. We then went to San Dominico which is a church that houses the head of St. Catherine (also her finger which they lend to other churches on occassion). THe skeleton was surrounded by paintings and has been at that church since the late 1300s! Both the skeleton and the finger looked so small.We got on the bus at 5:40 and again I slept the whole way home!  My aunt and uncle picked us up and we went to Michelanglo's look out over the city. I will make another blog just for this because it was breathe taking! We went to a really good pizzeria for dinner and I got a hot dog, salami, ham and hamburger pizza. Omgsh it was delicious and it had hot dogs on it! Yummm The entire trip my Uncle Rich has been talking about this gelato place near his apartmnet that we had go get ice cream from. We didn't eat gelato all day because we were waiting for that night to get it. We got to the gelateria and it was closed. WE HAD NOOOO GELATO AGHH! However, Uncle Rich taught us a life lesson...
"Life is full of uncertainties so eat dessert first". From that moment on I have been trying to live faithfully to that lesson.


Cin Cin