Back to Business: My Last Week in Rome

Here I am folks -- my laptop is up and running again and now I can post some pictures! Woo!

This post chronicles my last week in Rome before I embarked on my magnificent Behind the Iron Curtain tour. Here we go....

At this point in my semester I began to scramble to get things done. First I went to the Castel Sant Angelo, a castle that the Pope hides in at times of war. There is an underground passage that connects the Vatican with the castle. It was a pretty cool place and here is a picture of the outside:


A few days later my friends and I decided to explore the Jewish quarter of Rome, a part that used to be the Jewish ghetto during World War 2. It was actually a beautiful area.



The Theatre of Marcella can be found here as well:


And a cool fountain that we dubbed "Falling Turtles"


Eventually we got tired and decided to bunker down in a pigeon-filled park:


These are my friends Alicia and Dani:


And these are a bunch of goofy German tourists who we watched for awhile:


We continued to explore down to the Circus Maximus and across the road to the Baths of Caracalla. Before we got there, we stumbled upon a field and track day at a track. We were shocked cause we didn't think Italians exercised at all!

We also couldn't get over how ridiculous some of them were dressed, especially Blue Pants down below.





And then on to the Baths of Caracalla, an elaborate set of public baths built by the Emperor Caracalla.


There actually weren't that many ruins, so instead we spent our time relaxing in the meadows. It was crazy how the sounds of the city around us were just silenced by the walls and ruins around us and how picturesque it was in the middle of Rome. Also, there was a cat, so that made it so much more awesome.





That was a good day! The next day on Sunday I went exploring a bit by myself (after buying some cool shades at an open-air market) and I ended up in a small piazza where I bunkered down and people watched. In the piazza there was a neat fountain:


And here's me:


On Monday of my last week living in Rome (I left for Romania on that Saturday) I went to a church called St. Giovanni in Laterno. It was immense and beautiful! I loved it! The main hall was ringed with 12 of the most important saints, including Matthew, Peter, and Paul. Here is the statue of St. Peter:



Right across the street from St. Giovanni is another church that houses an important religious relic: the actual stairs that Jesus Christ is said to have walked up on his way to receive his sentence at his trial. They actually took the stairs from Israel (or the land that is now Israel) over 400 years ago and reassembled them here. Millions of people come every year just to see and "walk" up these steps. Only they don't walk -- they kneel up each step praying as they go. And a lot of people come here. When I was there for all of 15 minutes at least 4 German tour groups came in, all of 20 or more people. It was chaos, but I managed to snag a blurry picture:



And on my way to school after that I decided to take a picture of the Roman metro system:



Beautiful, eh?

The next day (Tuesday the 14th) I wanted to check off one of the most important Roman sites: the world-renowned Vatican museums. AND THEY WERE AMAZING! Here are some highlights:

Sculptures, sculptures everywhere!




One of the most famous ancient statues -- Emperor Caesar Augustus!






And Raphael's School of Athens:


There were also a bunch of pieces of modern art, one of my favorites was a Salvador Dali painting:


Details:





And...here we go! You're not allowed to take pictures of this. But, well, I snuck a few!






Yeah, that's the Sistine Chapel!

And here's the Laocoon, the statue detailing a scene when Laocoon tried to warn the Trojans about the Trojan horse and the Greeks inside it. Poseidon sent a sea serpent to kill him and his two sons before he could warn the ill-fated Trojans.


The courtyard of the Vatican Museums:



The museums were amazing. That Friday I decided to embark on a little last adventure to the Via Appia Antica or, the Appian Way, a lifeline of ancient Rome. It was unexpectedly congested and not beautiful, save certain parts of it that were amazingly cobblestoned and quiet. Here's a picture of one:



Well, that's my last week living in Rome. There was a farewell pizza party that Friday night where I had to say good-bye to all of my friends. The next morning I woke up really early, said bye to my roommates, a friend who decided to wake up hella early to see me out, and I said bye to the Residence Medaglie d'Oro where I had lived for the last 3.5 months. It was a beautiful morning and I was on my way to a completely different country: Romania.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad - or scared!