"This is [Rome]"

Jumping in:
Although trying not to get into the bittersweet aspect of study abroad because it’s not that time yet, I have learned a tremendous amount about myself and life in general. I’ve learned that I’m too sweet sometimes allowing less than honest people to walk over me, not ok.-I’m “fixing” that.- And many other little things such as that.
I crave carbs now. Seriously, one would think to come from America-a country in which people eat pasta 2-3 times a week in general-would make me get sick of the food quickly, but nope. I crave it. If I don’t get at least one serving of pasta a day my body literally tells me it wants it -and bread has to be eaten with that pasta. At dinner with my host family, I eat 3 or more slices of bread. I’ve come to love the food. I’ve never liked bread that much. I’m actually a little surprised I’m not gaining weight….it’s that U.S. “carbs are bad” brain washing though…I currently am living proof of that not being true.
Dinner with my host family is my favorite time of day. They are so sweet and I am reminded in little ways everyday how blessed I am to have such a family. My host mom loves to cook and stays home all day allowing her time to make a delicious meal with love and care. I have yet to eat the exact same pasta twice. It’s wonderful. Most everything is seasonal which helps with that fact. It’s a norm for me to hand my dirty plate from one course to Maria Luisa so she can hand me a clean plate for the next. I do it without thinking. As I mentioned in an earlier post, as I talk with my friends, I realize more and more how blessed I am to have Maria Luisa cook for us. Many of the other host families have students for the money aspect, so they don’t truly care. It is very evident, especially with Bruno, that mine is not that way. They are great! Maria Luisa does everything for us. She takes our laundry, and we see it return in a couple days. I have yet to discover where it goes, but it comes back clean. She cleans our room for us, changes our sheets, etc. We are so spoiled and blessed to have gotten such a caring family.

I notice more and more shops putting up Christmas decorations. There were several Christmas trees newly put up yesterday and the Florentine symbol is hung with lights above streets near the duomo and center. As I see boutiques with new red and green Christmas items, I have to keep my excitement in check. Christmas!! (I literally say that out loud to the anyone passing by, who knows if they know what I am talking about)
I asked Maria Luisa the other day what they do for Christmas. Being Catholic, they aren’t suppose to celebrate until a couple days into January, however for the children (grandchildren), they open the gifts on December 25. Since they are from Naples (a region of Italy), one celebration included foods with mostly fish for every course. The other day includes mostly meats for every course and lots of cookies eaten all day (like holiday baking in the states).
Regions of Italy are very important to the Italians. They are very proud of where they come from because every region is known for specializing in certain items. My host family is from Naples which has the best Mozzarella and pizza. In the course of our dinner conversation, they almost always bring up something about, “we are from Naples…”. The government does not help dissolve the prejudice the people have of each region either. Although I couldn’t fully understand because it was in broken inglese, Bruno said: due to their national healthcare, it’s hard to move around within Italy, thus many people stay in one place. Bruno tried to move his mom from a nursing home in Naples to one in Florence but the people owning the facilities said no. Something about the insurance wouldn’t travel with her.
Travels:
Last weekend I went to Venice. It was fun. Not one of my favorite trips but it was good to be able to see the city with no roads. This past weekend I went to Rome with school. I loved Rome!!!! I have so much more respect for the Romans and ancient Rome in general since going. I can’t explain it but it’s so different from just learning about it and seeing pictures in a class room. The monuments are huge!! I completely understand why the slaves that arrived there said it was a city made by giants. I was there with the school so our tour guide was from SUF and was probably the best guide I have ever had. He knew so much about everything. We went to the Vatican and St. Peters Cathedral. St. Peters is so massive! It is said that people don’t understand the scale of it because the building itself does not allow human perspective. It’s true. It’s hard to explain but something I remember the most about what my guide said was the aisle is 2.5 football fields long. While standing at the very back, a pro football player could throw a football, totally thinking he could reach the end, only to see his ball land in the middle. The statues, many of them done my Michelangelo, are ginormous.
Along with the Vatican and St. Peters, we saw the Sistine Chapel. It did not have the awe factor I was expecting, that one that most everyone gets. It was super interesting learning about what they discovered in the restoration process though. Apparently after 4.5 yrs of painting on a ceiling, Michelangelo got bored and did little things to quicken the process. Making figures bigger, plaster work bigger and fewer, etc. While restoring it, they also found pig hair from his brushes, because he was painting so furiously it was destroying his brushes in the process. My favorite part of the Sistine Chapel was not Michelangelo’s ceiling, but the paintings on the walls. One sticks out in my mind the most. It depicted Moses and the Red Sea. The Egyptians are being covered in water while the Israelites are on the land. It was interesting that the artist (can’t remember who) put a rainbow in the background of this painting. I would assume to symbolize God’s promise to God’s chosen people: the Israelites. Very well done and very moving.
One Saturday, we saw the Coliseum and “Capital Hill” as I like to call it where the palaces once stood in ancient Rome. I didn’t realize until going to Rome how much of our history and the little phrases we have, what the Emperors decreed, and things such as that that have affected our lives today and carried down through the generations. Example: one of the temples (which was reconstructed and stands today) has columns that surround the building. Those columns have incisions in them in various spots. During the rise of Christianity,  the people decided the temple needed to be destroyed because it was dedicated to pagan gods. It is so massive a structure, that even the most powerful piece of equipment (oxen) could not bring down the temple (Renaissance times). So two things stand out here. First: the saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them” was started because they couldn’t remove the columns, so they left them and just built a different building behind them allowing the columns to surround this new building. Second: even hundreds of years after ancient Rome, people did not have the technology the Romans had to bring down the columns. They didn’t even have to lift and construct it, like the Romans had to do while building it. They had the easier of the tasks and still couldn’t do it. That’s how amazing the Romans were.
The coliseum was another ah inspiring visit for me, and very possibly  my favorite. Again, our guide was wonderful. He told us a lot of the culture of ancient Rome.  65% of Rome’s citizens (around 1 million in the city), were on “welfare” meaning what food stamps would be today. They didn’t have “food stamps” though. However, the empire was so wealthy that they didn’t go to the grocery store and get the cheapest stuff, they got caviar and champagne, etc. Rome was very wealthy! I have to see “Gladiator” the movie again soon. I would have a totally new perspective on it. -The Roman calendar at that time had 365 days (every year). Of those 365 days, 142 (around that number), had games in the arena. So roughly every two days there was a sporting event and holiday for the people. The coliseum held 50,000-80,000 people and could completely empty out in 20 minutes (it was that organized! That would come in handy for fire codes today). At the beginning of the day, hardly anyone came early because it was the funny stuff, dancing bears, circus material. As the day went on, more people trickled in as the games got more serious. Just before people fought, they would get animals that didn’t normally live together (from different areas of the large Roman empire), starve them, make them angry, and them put them in the arena together to ripe each other apart. -After this, people would go home and eat, relax, them come back to see the gladiators fight to the death-everyone‘s favorite. -very much like the movie, with the thumbs up/down for death and such. Today, a lot of the coliseum is destroyed from various earthquakes and such, but different parts of it have been reconstructed to see what it would have been like. The Romans were extremely smart and wealthy. So much more so than I had ever thought or learned in the classroom. It really is very amazing!! Their history is our history and REALLY effects what we do today without us even realizing it.
Architecturally, the Parthenon is one of the most intelligently made structures, ever. My guide said it is the most studied architectural  building around the world. It has always been very well recorded and documented. They know exactly how it was made and use to look like because even after its completion, people studied it. However, no one knows for sure what it was used for. (I find that’s kind of funny. Everyone was so caught up on the fact that the building itself is a genius, but they didn’t really care what people used it for.) They have no fear of the dome falling (like they do with Brunelleschi’s dome in the duomo, hehe). The Parthenon has a 142 foot circumference and exactly that for its height as well. It is a perfect sphere and was designed that way. The dome was made from what is modern day concrete (they were so smart!) and many other fibers from that time. It has no central point (it’s an open circle at the top). It’s amazing! It was pouring rain basically the whole time I was there, so we saw the rain coming down through the middle of the open circle. So pretty!! It just fell on the marble below.
There is no city like Rome. It has definitely been my favorite and the most awe inspiring. The Romans were seriously geniuses and there has never been a civilization as wealthy as it was.

Oh, Italy. It has stolen my heart and now holds it captive with a tight key that is suffocating. I absolutely love the country and the people, the food, everything…but it’s time to go home. The best way to sum up how I feel: bring everyone I love and my college to Italy, and I would be the happiest person ever! My home is where my heart is and my heart is back in the states with the people I love. Most of us students have started a count down.