Roma

The long-awaited blog post of my Roma adventures is finally here. Don't get too excited folks, it's a pretty brief (meant to be brief, this totally _isn't_ brief)recap. This week's practicing schedule has been heavy and energy levels are running at an all-time low here in Spoleto. I see few students venturing out for walks (maybe that's because I'm not outside either). We've mostly been practicing and wishing we had more to eat than the cheap pizza that we can afford(needless to say, I spent a lot of euros in Florence, but they were euros well spent! :). There are six concerts this week as well as the usual masterclasses, rehearsals, and lessons. Anyway, I digress....

Back to Roma. My adventures began at 5 am, as the group of 5 met outside our hotels and walked down to the train station, which is located at the bottom of Spoleto. The very bottom of Spoleto. One doesn't realize how far down Spoleto goes until you have to return up to your hotel from the train station after a looong day of tourism! :) We don't use north or south here as much as we use up and down. I went to Roma with my new singer friends, Elly and Sam, and my new viola friends, Zachary and Abby. We made good travelling group, since we were all interested in traversing the entire city on foot AND were were all interested in being as thrifty (yet thorough) as possible. We stumbled off the train in Roma and perked up after a delicious cup of coffee at a little stop in near the train station. That restaurant didn't look like much, but I find that those not-so-notable places are the ones with the BEST coffee. We continued on to a church called S Maria Maggiore, whose front facade was designed by Michaelangelo himself! This church was the first massive church that I had been in at that point, and I was completely overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place. Our little country-bumpkin group from Spoleto was so awed by the church that we all took a seat to take in all of the beauty. (Little did we know what was waiting for us at St Peter's Basilica). This was the first church that inspired my thought on the grandeur of a church acting as a reminder to the people of their littleness in relation to God. Not only do the churches make you feel insignificant, but they always cause you to look upward (literally). We tarried here for while, until we realized that we had much more in store for the day. Crossing the traffic circle infront of this church was an adventure in itself, and it probably took a few years off of my life. All you need to know is that there was a lot of indecision, screaming, and sprinting involved.

I wish I had taken a picture as we rounded the corner towards the Colosseum. Certainly, I got plenty of pictures of the building itself. But the real moment of Kodak quality was the look on each of our faces as we saw it for the first time. There were several moments during our Roma tour when you could hear a collective gasp. I don't think I've ever been so surprised by glimpse of a building, but Roma had many surprises in store. The Colosseum was our first stop, and it was a mad house. There were people EVERYwhere. If I had any fear for pick-pocketing, it was at the Colosseum. There were street-vendors, beggars, tour guides, little men dressed up in plastic gladiator uniforms (you'd think they could've made leather ones...), and of course, tourists. We decided not to pay the fee to see inside the Colosseum and the forum, and honestly, I don't think we missed much. We saw almost everything from different vantage points along the road, and we snapped several photos from a nearby bridge. When we walked right up next to the Colosseum, the group grew serious as we saw a mini graveyard realized that the very structure we were awed by was originally used as a human slaughter house. I spent some time thinking about all of the persecution that the Christians were subjected to under Roman government, and as much as the Romans contributed to society, there were certainly major major drawbacks to such a strong European power in the ancient world.

We were heckled by SO many of the little plastic gladiators. They mocked our bad Italian accents and growled awkwardly. I think they were enjoying their machoman personas. I even heard them volunteer to slaughter someone's whiny kid. Ha! We continued our tour of Roma past the forum. The ruins were really truly fascinating. Imagining what had been their before was fun. We walked past several sculptures in the museum's courtyard. I even walked past Peter's prison cell. I decided not to pay for it this time. I wonder what Peter would think about people paying 15-20 euro to see his prison cell. Ha!

Only two sights in Roma cued music in my head, and they were the enormous twin statues guarding the entrance to the museum plazza, and the state building. The state building was so.......white. And amazing. It makes the white house look like off-white ivory. I was seriously blinded by how white the building was. And it was SO gigantic. There were beautiful beautiful statues. I really have a thing about statues. I love sculptures. There were stairs and people everywhere. Just a note to future tourists...if you so much as allow a square centimeter of your rear end to settle on of the stairs, a police man will blow a whistle and ask you to leave. Standing only. Only standing. No sitting. Capito??

After the state building, we all headed to the infamous Trevi fountain to send in a coin and a wish. I'd tell you my wish, but then I'd have to kill you all. But suffice it to say that it was one of the most grownup wishes I've ever had. I always feel so much pressure when I'm blowing out birthday candles, so my mind blurts some stupid wish out and I realize later how silly they all are. Well, wishing in general is silly, but the Trevi fountain certainly is full of wishes. And euros. The Trevi fountain was beautiful but it was so crowded. To get to the fountain, you were either stepping on someone's dog or someone's child. I was happy to get out of there! :)

Blah blah blah. I seriously need to learn to consolidate. After lots of other sights, we finally arrived in Vatican city, which, heads up, you do NOT need your passport to enter, ha! We were smart to arrive at the Vatican in the afternoon, as the lines were really manageable, and we didn't end up waiting long at all to enter. Luckily, we were all dressed for entrance into a holy place, because I saw some girls turned away because their shoulders were covered, or their kneecaps were showing, etc, etc. St. Peter's Basilica. Where do I even begin? It was gorgeous. It was huge. It was overwhelming. I was tired. It was in St. Peter's Basilica where I began to understand why, back in the Christianity's history, the little man (aka the everyday worker) felt so far away from God. All of the statues are above eye level, looking down on you. The artwork is HUGE. The front of the church is SO far away from the benches for seating. The ceiling is so high my neck was aching by the end. There are side chambers of side chambers of secondary main chambers....etc. The building is too grand. Just too much. I really was overwhelmed by it. Maybe I was just tired. I just couldn't see everything, there was so much! I enjoyed seeing it, but it really was just like sensory overload. I really can't describe it. Ya'll should just go there! :)

Anyway, I also went down into the crypt where a lot of the Popes are buried. There's plenty of room for more down there...they have a HUGE crypt. One of the biggest I've seen. They also have a completely separate, gated-off chamber where the body of Saint Peter is supposedly buried. I think I need to research my Peter history. I'm a little confused at how he had a Roman prison cell and then ended up buried in the heart of Roma's main, top-notch religious center.

Well, to end this ramble, I just have to say that on the way back to the train station, we witnessed a shop-lifter just a few meters in front of us. One got away and one was pinned to the wall by a police officer. We watched the man run away through the traffic and down an alley way. We're pretty sure we saw him later as we made our way down to the metro. I also got kicked out of the McDonalds in Roma because I took a picture of the menu. Don't worry, I wasn't planning on eating there. On the way back to Spoleto, our tickets were checked by the train serviceman, and apparently, we'd printed the wrong tickets for our trip. We tried to explain that we didn't realize that student tickets were only for EU students, but he didn't seem to care, so we had to pay the price of the ticket (again) AND a fee for being caught on the train with the wrong ticket). That was a super disappointing circumstance, but we still managed to see Roma for under 30 euro.

Firenze will be up next!! :)