Coming Full Circle: Day 110

Well it’s my last day in Rome… I took my last exam, donated extra clothes and the coat I bought in Sicily at school, cleaned the apartment, and went out to one last dinner with my roommates. 

As I stand victorious at the top of the stairs I wheezed up every day... until I found a larger set of stairs with a shorter route!

My delicious last meal in Rome: Armatriciana - although I wasn't a huge fan of the pig jowl...

Mmmm raspberry and lemon sorbet/gelato!

We walked to the Trevi Fountain after dinner, but I didn’t throw a coin in because it’s still under construction and I feel like that’s cheating – so next time I’m in Rome… 

Then I wandered over to the Colosesum and sat for a while just appreciating and reflecting on the past semester. 

I decided to trace the steps I took my first night in Rome, so I walked from the Colosseum to the Roman Forum, 

The white speckles are birds - they may drive me crazy during the day, but they were pretty at night!

then to the Wedding Cake Building that I will never learn the actual name of and Piazza Venezia,

 then the HUGE obelisk right off of Via del Corso, 

then the Pantheon, 

then the elephant statue in front of the Santa Maria Minerva church, 

and then finally the Cat Sanctuary at Largo Argentina.  

I think its only half hit me that I’m actually going to wake up in Rome and go to sleep in the States tomorrow.

I’m not saying I’m excited to leave, but I think I would be a whole lot more sad about it if I wasn’t going straight to Minnesota to see my parents and all of my relatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin on my way back to Michigan. And then I get to see my best friend, and I cannot tell you how excited I am - I miss her! I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing all of my other friends, but I move into my apartment on May 26^th and start work shortly after, so it will definitely have to be after that!

This semester has been absolutely mind opening – I can’t tell you how much I’ve even learned because it’s hard to remember what I didn’t know before. All I can say is I have come to appreciate other cultures more than I did before, and I have learned a lot about myself! I did not by any means get to do everything I wanted to do (the one thing I really wanted to do when I came here was travel to France), but I have zero regrets. I’ve seen so many amazing places I’ve never dreamed of seeing or even thought of visiting. I have met people from all over the world, and eaten food from all over the world too! This was also my first semester living in my own apartment and not the dorms, so I even learned a lot about that. Like how different people consider dishes to be “clean.”

I’ll post a little bit more about my final thoughts on my semester abroad once I return home and have a really good chance to reflect on my experience. Reverse culture shock, here we come.

Observation of the Day: We go through so many changes in our lives, and have to say goodbye to so many things, just so the next opportunity can open itself up to us. This year alone I have said goodbye to the house I grew up in when my parents moved to Minnesota, then Ciao to Roma when I moved here in January, and now it’s time to say Arrivederci to Roma for everything that’s coming next. I have a lot of things to be looking forward to for both the summer and next fall, including my favorite leadership camp in the world, a position on Central Premiere Productions Eboard, and the International Breaks Chair for the Alternative Breaks Advisory Board! This trip actually inspired me to apply for that position as one of my choices, and I am so grateful I was offered the opportunity!

Tivoli, This is what some dreams are made of: Day 108

My last-weekend-adventures continue on out of Rome with my friend Jackie for a day in the beautiful Villa D’Este in Tivoli. Now if any of you have seen the Lizzie McGuire movie where she goes to Rome (and has a concert in “the Colosseum”), then you will remember part of this Villa.

Tivoli itself was a very cute town, but the Villa D’Este was phenomenal! It was up on a hill, so there was an amazing view of the town below it and the mountains in the distance. When we first entered, we walked through many rooms of all different frescoes, that were of course, beautiful.

Then we made it outside and climbed down the many sets of stairs appreciating all the fountains along the way. These fountains are all designed out of the natural waterfalls in the gardens, and the result is really quite interesting.

We sat on the side of one of the pools for a while just soaking in the sun and the noise of the fountains/waterfalls. When we got too hot and hungry, we left the Villa and found a nice little Trattoria to have lunch, then made our way back to the train station and got back home around 4 in the afternoon.

Again, I cooled off in the apartment for the rest of the late afternoon, then headed out to meet some friends from my Italian class to have one last dinner together. We walked out by Piazza Navona intending to have my favorite pizza from Da Baffetto, but instead ate at a little place nearby and had some delicious Gnocchi 4 formaggi.

We were all stuffed, so we decided to walk it off before we got gelato, and walked over to Piazza Navona for a while. Rome is really a magical place at night – the right parts of Rome of course. We headed towards the Pantheon and did some tourist gift shopping, and finally got gelato at a place called Grom.

Observation of the Day: I know I already said it, but Rome is a really magical place at night. The fountains are lit up, the temperature is perfect, and the crowds aren’t so large and sweaty that you get annoyed.

Chances Are I'll Come Back Someday: Day 107

So I finally made it to the Baths of Diocletian Museum. I have been wanting to go there for a long time and finally had a good time to do it! The museum was huge, and there was so much to see! I had a wonderful morning in the museum and the part of the Baths that are open, and then I walked around the corner and visited the Santa Maria Maggiore again! This is definitely one of the most beautiful churches in Rome in my opinion.

There's Hercules in the middle on the left!

Another panel of the inspiration for my final painting

Afterwards, I decided to walk home from the Baths, which are right by Termini train station, which is about two and a half miles from where I live. At this point in the day, it was sunny and humid and hot, so I definitely worked up a sweat! I stopped in some leather shops along the way and bought a few gifts for friends back home. Then I went to the market at Campo Dei Fiori and bought the purse I had my eye on the last time I looked there, and also some delicious fruit from the fruit stand.

While carrying an “I <3 Shopping” bag looking like a fool without even knowing it, I got some sorbet at my favorite gelato place right on the Tiber River, and some pizza at a pasticceria/pizzeria (pasta means pastry) along Viale Trastevere and had it for lunch when I got home.

I cooled off in my apartment in the afternoon, made dinner, and then was off to the Vatican again to meet some friends from my Italian class and see the Vatican Museums at night! It was more crowded than I was expecting, but it was really nice to go back and see everything again. The museums were one of the first things I did in Rome, and now they are one my last.

Michelangelo painted by Raphael

We sat in the Sistine chapel for a long time and just appreciated how lucky we were to have that opportunity in the first place. Plus we let our feet rest, because we had all walked a lot during the day!

Observation of the Day: I don't think I could ever run out of things to do in this city. One of my roommates was telling me about their teacher who has lived here his whole life and said he still gets lost going places... makes me feel a little better about confusing my directions all the time!