Week 5

Hello!

This last week was so fun!

On Monday we went to a million early christian churches again. We also went to Aventine Hill, which was a gorgeous view, though!

Tuesday was amazing. We went to the Vatican and Vatican museums. We saw a bunch of Raphael paintings (like School of Athens!!!) and the Sistine Chapel!

Wednesday, some of us went to Ostia Antica with Professor Swenson, and it was literally so fun I'm still laughing from that day. There were a couple times we were in parts we were definitely not supposed to be, or standing on mosaics that had not been stood on for a very long time. It was kind of like an ancient playground for me. It was so cool to see it and learn about the area, though. I also maybe definitely had McDonald's for lunch that day.

Thursday we went to Orvieto for like literally 5 seconds I was screaming I could have spent at least an extra hour there. We then went to Florence and went around Florence that whole afternoon and evening.

Friday we went to Uffizi Gallery and climbed the dome, plus some other museum-y things. We went to the science museum for like 30 minutes before it closed to see Galileo's fingers.

Saturday, my life pretty much ended I have peaked. We went to the Borgello, WHERE DONATELLO'S DAVID IS. Like, I'm sorry, Michelangelo's David is cool, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN DONATELLO'S. That is one of the most important pieces in art history, it truly shook the whole world, and let me tell you, I was equally as shook seeing it in person. Ya girl cried.

After we went to a church that I think had some significance like maybe someone was buried there but I'm not sure. We then went to finish the Florence 1500, then waited in line for sandwiches that we never got. We then went to another church (there is a theme here, we go to churches a lot) and then high tailed it to a pizza place, but they only had outdoor seating so we froze while we ate. We also found a cute little lounge/cafe place and did homework there for a little while. I fell asleep, and another girl in our group fell asleep, and apparently some rando was taking pictures of us with her professional camera???

Anyway, we then drove back to Rome that night and I think we were all just dead.

Sunday was actually the coolest day ever though. We went to sacrament meeting like normal, and then some of us went to go to mass at St. Peter's Basilica. Like, mass there is cool anyways, but for some reason our luck was high. There was like a huge crowd to get into the Vatican, which was kind of weird because there hasn't been a huge crowd the last few times we've been over there. We were pushing our way to get to security, and there were some other Americans there pushing as well, so we talked to them for a bit. They look at us and say something along the lines of "Are you excited to see the pope?" The level of shook I was was way high. The pope was giving his little speech and blessing thing, it was amazing! I understood zero of what he said, but I know he blessed us so that's great.
Mass was also super cool! I, again, understood none of it, but it was in the apse of the basilica, which was the coolest thing ever I was shook.

We also got Pasta Imperiale which is the best pasta in Rome, I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

This is our last week in Rome, so hopefully it's fun and we don't die with how much homework we have!

~Emily