Rome-ing Around

The week of the Papal audience, I had a make-up class on Friday.  My friends and I decided to stay in Rome that weekend and explore.  We received a bucket list before we arrived in Rome, so we thought that this was the perfect time to check some things off the list.

For my Honors class, we went to Galleria Spada.  We talked about the Grand Tour and then walked around the neighborhood and to the Vittorio Emanuele monument.  It is amazing how much my professor knows.  Walking around Rome she would point out a historical event that happened in many of the buildings or piazzas.

Galleria Spada

Capitoline Hill

Friday was the day for desserts.  Colleen, Marissa, and I met Cara in Piazza Navona after our onsite and got gelato and tartufos from Ristorante Tre Scalini.  My friends and I also went to the Secret Bakery where they have delicious baked goods for really cheap!  I ended up getting a Bomba Nutella, Cannoli, and some kind of chocolate ball.  It was all so good.

Gelato and Tartufo

Dessert!

JFRC partners with Comitato Balduina, a group of people under 30 who are trying to protect and maintain the Balduina neighborhood. Italians do not care about their neighborhood as much as Americans do.  Saturday morning my friends, some of the SLAs, and about 35 others met and went to volunteer with the organization.

Maranda, Cara, Sam and me

My friends and I were raking leaves, sweeping up trash, and painting over some graffiti.  Overall it was a fun morning and the group we were with definitely made it a lot of fun!

Later that night, my friends and I went to an Ice Club.  We ended up staying for 45 minutes max, because it was so cold.  When you walk in they give you parkas to stay warm.  It was definitely a go there and check it off of your list type of thing!

Maranda, Sam, Marissa, Cara, Colleen, Sam, and me

Because you can never eat enough in Italy, we went to find some food.  We ended up at a place that served mozzarella sticks and nachos.  It was nice to have some American(ish) food again!  And because you can't have too many pastries either, we went back to the Secret Bakery for more desserts!

On Sunday morning, half of my friends went to climb St. Peter's Basilica while Marissa, Cara, and I went to check some things off our bucket list.  We found Bocca della Verità (the mouth of truth), the Keyhole view of the Vatican, and we climbed up Gianicolo Hill.  That was a hike!

Once we got to the top, the view was definitely worth it!   We saw that a large group of people had gathered, so we headed that way to see what they were watching.  We had perfect timing climbing the hill, because (I believe) everyday at noon they shoot off a cannon.  We took about a million pictures and then headed down the hill to meet our friends for burgers!

Skipping to Tuesday now, (I am almost done) I went to 4 different churches for my Roman Catholicism class.  I love how part of my classes are onsite and we get to see so much.  We went to San Giovanni in Laterno, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Santa Scala, and Santa Maria Maggiore.  

San Giovanni in Laterno

Santa Maria Maggiore

On Wednesday I went to the market with one of the SLAs and Colleen (the Student Director's wife).  There were 5 students who went with them down to Trionfale market.  The SLAs put on programs for their floors (or the whole campus).  We walked down the hill, which turned out to be about 45 minutes.  We stopped and got cappuchinos before heading over to the market.

The market was really cool.  There are so many different vendors!  Unfortunately I do not have a picture, but the place was huge.  I ended up getting some strawberries and bananas for my room.  

I am hopefully going to post about my weekend in Prague before I leave for Ireland tonight!  If not, I should finish it in the airport!

Arrivederci! 

~Christina