Delving Deeper

So yesterday was pretty cool. Saw the Vatican, St. Pietro's Basilica, my study center, etcetera.

Today may have been cooler yet.

I got up this morning and got ready to go to my study center again, this time for some lessons on Roman culture and things not to do while you're here, as well as some information on my classes. I'll talk about that stuff more later, since I'd rather go on about my other fun adventures.

So today we took an Italian Placement Exam that was hysterical since I knew no Italian and I just needed to be placed in the easiest class. However, living among Italians and the language is undeniably the fastest way to pick things up. I still know very little, but in less than three days I've really started to pick up steam. Example: Last night I had some Pizza e Birra, una Nastro Azzurro to be exact. In case you were wondering how Italians eat pizza, it looks a little something like a sandwich, with the cheesy-part of two slices facing together and the crust working like the bread. It's good. And it looks like the picture to the left.

And it's good. Gelato, or Italian ice cream, is buono, but it's nothing all that better than American gelato at this point, although it is literally everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean at least two stands a block. And when it's 95 degrees out, it sounds very appealing at every stand.

Anyway, on to the sight seeing, since it's a lot of fun. Basically, we started out in the center of Roma, at Banchi Nuovi, or literally 'new church,' which is, of course, still 300 years old. That's new by Italian standards and still older than our Constitution. Go figure. But we walked up and saw this beast of a structure, one of the most easily reconized in Rome, the Pantheon. It's breathtakingly old, as in approaching 2 millenia, or 2000 years. It's been updated several times since then, but the original outside has been roughly the same since 125 AD. Yeah, pretty old. And by pretty old, I mean like almost Jesus, Caesar, Augustus old. So you know it's been around a while. By the way, all these pictures get bigger when clicked, so check it out blown up, it's pretty cool.

Inside, it's circular, and has been converted to a Catholic church, just like everything else in Roma. I tried my best to video again here, and I must preface as with everything that it really doesn't do it justice, it just attempts to.
As I continued through the Pantheon, watch the video and look up top to the ceiling. That's a whole. It lets light into the dome, and with light comes water when it rains, and the water falls right on the marble floor, and has been for as long as the dome's been there. It's got little holes for drainage, but the idea that water could be allowed to fall into such a place and still look brilliant after all these years really is nothing short of awesome.

With that behind us, we left for Trevi Fountain, but we got a little sidetracked along the way with the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Catholic Saint who's church knocks the socks off any church I've ever been in anywhere other than Roma, yet it's not even the top church in a square mile, which is hard to fathom much more beautiful than that. I'll post a few pictures to give you an idea. Sculptures, like the one on the right, are just everywhere in there, and seemingly every one greater and more imposing than the last. It really is something. I have a video of this too, and I'm scared Blogger is going to revoke my posting privileges I'm posting so much media, but there's no cap so I'll just use away and post another I'm sure. One of the coolest things to note while watching the video is to see the ceiling. It's all painted with these beautiful colors and almsot seems 3-D in its' ways, it's just jaw-dropping that this is such a standard church by Roman standards yet be so breathtaking.
It was all just so much and I could talk for days, but onward we went to Trevi Fountain, aka the largest and supposedly most impressive fountain in the world, and the one that graces my blog front. It's pretty awesome and awe-inspiring in its own right, and on top of everything else I've seen today, it's a bit of sensory overload. So much effort, so much work, so much history . . . it's just mind-boggling. And for a full view of it, check the title, but I know some of you like seeing me in these pictures, though I can't imagine why. But so here I am. You're welcome.

And our day wasn't even done! We hit the Spanish Steps, aka 138 steps of pure torture to get to the top of. It was hot and humid and led to quite a view, if that's any consolation (in fact, it almost was). The steps are cool, but the picture I'm choosing to include is from the top, overlooking Roma, so I start the Blog with it today just to give you all a glimpse of the view. Just lots of fun to do and see, it was worth the hot slog of the day out to see it. But the nice part was, we got to ride the Metro home, and what would've been an hour and a half walk morphed into a 10 minute ride and a 5 minute walk culminating in a well-deserved grocery run.

Perfecto. Awesome. Just a day of much beauty and history. I know I can't possibly keep this pace of seeing amazing things, but then again . . .

Until next time, Ciao.