Day 24 & Day 25

Day 24 consisted of homework homework homework. We ate in the cafe for dinner. Nothing exciting happened at all.

Quick passing shot of the Trevi Fountain

Day 25: Today I had to go on a second field assignment for my Italian II class. I ended up doing well on the midterm last week by the way. Each of us had to go in pairs, so I went with a girl from my class who also wanted to go today. She brought her room mate and I brought Ashley and we went downtown together. Before we went on our field assignment, her and her room mate stopped near the Trevi Fountain to buy a jacket that they wanted.  This was the first time Ashley and I saw it, and it was to crowded to get up close to it. We have been planing to go see it early in the morning anyways.

BLOCKBUSTER!

Our field assignment consisted of going to several places and writing a composition in Italian. Along the way we saw a BLOCKBUSTER that was STILL IN BUSINESS! I had no idea they were an overseas chain! Our field assignment ended with visiting ruins near a church. When we passed the church we found out that the ruins were actually another part of the Roman aqueducts.  It was really exciting to touch them and see them up close.

 

After we completed our field assignment we went back to G. Fassi, the oldest gelateria in Italy which we had to visit for our first field assignment. It was delicious as always! When we got there, there was an unleashed dog that was sitting outside waiting for its owner to come out.

The cute dog waiting outside

GELATO!

It's going to be hard to get used to the ice cream back home in the States. It's so different from gelato.  Because we had the gelato so late, and we had such large portions, we were not hungry until 11 o'clock at night. Since nothing was really open, Ashley and I ordered two cheap personal pizzas from Pizza Flash.  They were pretty tasty. We have since been working on papers in the library.

Late night pizza!

Day 23: Homework

Today we've just been doing homework all day.  We were both so tired from yesterday and Ashley is still suffering from a cold, that we decided to take it easy today. We ate at a new Chinese food restaurant for lunch, and it was very delicious. For dessert I got fried chocolate gelato which was only OK and Ashley got a fried caramelized candy apple.  She really enjoyed it. Now its back to writing my final paper for my history class!

Day 22: Church Crawl

If you haven't ever heard of a bar crawl, basically its the act of traveling from bar to bar buying a drink from each one visited. Ashley and I went on a church crawl today.  Along with three others and the Campus Ministry priest, Father Al, we went to four different churches. However before we went on this church crawl, we had laundry to do. 

Doing laundry

We also grabbed a bite to eat at a local pizzeria and bought some fresh green apples from a nearby farmer's market.  It was a pretty tasty and cheap lunch! We then met up around 2pm in the lobby with our small group.  Just about everyone is away traveling this weekend except for a few of us so it has been nice a quiet here one campus.  Last night as we came back to campus Father Al was exiting as we were entering the door.  He told us that him and a couple other students were going to see a couple of a churches the following afternoon and he invited us to join him.  So we did. We took the 913 bus to the Chipro metro station.  Along the way, Father Al asked me where I went to high school in DC. I told him Bishop Ireton.  He told me he knew Bishop Ireton very well.  He said he taught for several years at DeMatha high school and he always watched their basketball teams beat Ireton.  Father Al is originally from Baltimore, Maryland.

St. John Lateran

The first church we stopped at was The Basilica of St. John Lateran. While many think that the Vatican is the official church of Rome, it is actually St. John's. It is also the oldest church in Rome. The church was huge and extremely beautiful. It had an extremely ornate ceiling. There were six popes buried throughout the church including Martin V and Innocent III. There were many side chapels as well. In the middle of the altar was a decorated tower that contained relics of St. Peter and St. Paul.  What was really interesting was across the street from the church was another part of the church.  It had been disconnected over the years. Inside the were the Holy Steps or the Scala Sancta.  They are the steps that once led up to praetorium of Pontius Pilate. Jesus Christ stood on these stairs while he was on trial before his Passion. They were brought to Rome by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine in the early 300s. St. Helena went to the Holy Land in 326 A.D. to search for relics of Christ. When she returned, she found the True Cross, the nails, Jesus' tunic, among other important artifacts including the steps. We as a group did not go up the steps because you have to go up them on your knees to show how humble you are.  There was already a large crowd anyways.

The tomb of Innocent III, the most powerful pope in the history of the papacy

The ornate ceiling and reliquary of Saints Paul and Peter

The Holy Stairs

The next church we went to was the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. It too was a very beautiful church.  According to tradition, during the humid month of August, the Virgin Mary appeared to a couple in a dream and told them to build a church where it snowed. The next day it snowed on a nearby hill, and the church was eventually built on the site. 

Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major

The church is known for two important relics. One is it contains the oldest known image of Mary in Rome.  It has been carbon dated to 2000 years ago.  The second important relic is the supposed actual crib that Jesus Christ was placed in in Bethlehem. It too has been carbon dated to the same time period.  It was carried to Rome in the 7th century by Christian refugees from the Holy Land during Muslim conquest. The crib is contained in a golden reliquary in a chapel beneath the main altar.  Unfortunately, the area beneath the altar was closed because mass was starting.  We plan on going back later this week to see it.

Below the front altar was the reliquary containing the crib

The next church we went to was The Basilica of Saint Praxedes. It was built in 780 A.D and built in commemoration of Saint Praxedes, whose tomb we saw underneath the altar. Her and her sisters and brothers were early martyrs of the Church.

The entrance

The ceiling above the altar

What was really amazing was to see another relic of Christ brought to Rome by St. Helena. It is part of the Pillar of the Flogging, part of which was where Jesus was flogged and whipped before being led to his crucifixion. Regardless of whether one believes these relics are authentic or not it is quite an amazing experience to see them! You just have to have faith.

The pillar of the flogging

The next church we walked to was San Pietro in Vincoli or Saint Peter in Chains. It was for the most part a very simple church. It is known for housing a statue of Moses by Michelangelo which was originally intended to be Pope Julius II's tomb.

Moses

 The central part of the church underneath the altar houses a reliquary containing the chains that held Saint Peter in Jerusalem. As seen in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, Peter was put into prison by King Herod.  However, the night before his trial an angel came to him an freed him from his chains. These were the chains that were in the church. They were given by an Empress from Jerusalem to Pope Leo I in the early 400s, and this church was built to house them.  According to tradition, when Pope Leo was comparing them to the chains that bound Saint Peter in Rome before his death, the two miraculously fused together.

The chains of St. Peter

After leaving the church, we were on our way to eat at a restaurant by the Vatican. It was quite a long trek to get there.  On our way we passed THE COLOSSEUM and some other Roman ruins that Ashley and I still haven't fully toured yet, but plan to go back later this week.

THE COLOSEUM!

Roman ruins

From there we were all tired of walking and took the bus to the Vatican. We took a group shot in front of it on the bridge.

Our group

The restaurant we ate was not too bad. Ashley and I both got lasagna. We have officially decided to not get here in Rome anymore because it's always a disappointment.  Olive Garden officially makes the best!

lasagna

We were both extremely full but we still all got some Old Bridge gelato before we went home.  It was an extremely tiring day.

Day 21: Low Key Day

Today was a very relaxing day. We were supposed to go on the scheduled Orvietto trip, but Ashley and I were too exhausted and not up for getting up at 7am to walk an extremely mountainous city.  So instead we both slept in.  Ashley and I decided to go to the local clinic called Villa Stuart to get some antibiotics for the sinus infection I've been fighting for the last week. The area surrounding the clinic was surrounded by trees and grassy fields.  It would be an awesome hospital to be layed up in for awhile.  The waiting room even had a real live tree growing in the middle of it from the ground! The English speaking doctor prescribed me an antibiotic, a nasal spray, and some other decongestants.  After leaving the clinic, Ashley and I spent a while trying to find a pharmacy that was open because everyone was on ciesta.  When we found one, I ended up paying almost 60 Euros for the medicines which was a bummer.  We left the pharmacy and ate at the Chinese food restaurant again for lunch.  We were extremely tired from the hot sun when we were finished and took a nap for two hours when we got back home.  We later went out to eat at Pizza Maggi's for dinner.  When we returned, we found a gecko/lizzard crawling in Ashley's hallway.  It was scared and ran under the opening under her door.  After several attempts of trying to catch it, we finally did and were able to bring it outside.  The rest of the night we've spent in the library.

Saving the gecko

THE GEKO

Day 20: Birthday

Leftover cookies that my Italian II teacher got us

Today was my birthday and the day of our midterms. My Italian II teacher drove into campus today because he stopped at a bakery to buy some pastries for the class in honor of my birthday.  It was very nice of him to do that.  He also made the whole class sing “Happy Birthday” or “Buon Compleanno A Te” to me in Italian.  My exam went well for the most part and Ashley said she rocked hers.

Blackie II wished me a happy birthday

After that we took a bus downtown to Piazza Cavour and then a taxi to the Savoy Cinema.  We were on our way to see the new Harry Potter movie before anyone else in the United States did. The Savoy Cinema was built in the 1960s in what was previously a garage. We missed the 5:00pm showing because we didn’t have enough cash and had to go to an ATM.   

Savoy Cinema

While we waited to catch the 7:40pm showing, Ashley and I got some gelato at a local gelateria.  I got chocolate and COOKIES gelato, which was quite delicious.  Ashley got strawberry and banana flavor gelato which tasted like she was eating the actual fruits themselves.

After getting gelato and wandering around that new part of Rome, we ate at a Napoli restaurant.  She got spaghetti and I got a very large pizza.  It was pretty good.

Huge personal pan pizza

Birthday dinner

After rushing to eat our dinner to make in time for the movie, we made it about five minutes into Harry Potter.  Apparently they don't show previews here in Rome and start right on time with the feature presentation.  It was such a great movie and we both really enjoyed it!  After it was over we took the taxi and the bus back home and went to bed.

Ashley really excited after seeing the movie!

Day 19

Not feeling so well

Ashley wasn't feeling so great today.  She had a sore throat and was feeling pretty exhausted.  We spent most of the day studying for our midterms for tomorrow.  I went out by myself to the supermarket to get some chicken broth for Ashley which one of the chefs in the bar downstairs was able to heat up for her.  She felt a lot better after eating it.  I had Pizza Maggi's again.  The rest of the day consisted of studying.

Days 18

Elevator company van

Today was pretty uneventful.  We were awoken by the sweet sounds of construction.  Apparently they are installing an elevator shaft.  I don’t know why they work on it while people are still sleeping.  The Mensa cafeteria wasn’t so good today, so Ashley and I went downtown to get a bite to eat.   

The Menu

We decided to go back to the T-Bone Station restaurant.  However, when we got there we had to wait until it opened until 6:00pm.  We both got cheeseburgers.  After that we went home and did homework in the library the rest of the night.

A rare Citroen Safari we saw along the bus route

Day 17 Back to classes

Today we were back to classes as usual.  Ashley did not have her Italian culture class but I had both my classes.  For my Italian II class I had an Oral Exam.  I had to recite somewhat from memory a passage I wrote about myself in Italian.  Apparently my teacher and the class really liked the way I presented it. Ashley and I went to eat Chinese food again tonight.  We got there an hour before it opened so we ate some gelato from a local bakery nearby.  She got a raspberry type gelato and I got my traditional chocolate. It was pretty good. We then finally got into the Chinese restaurant and had the place to ourselves.  We have been studying and doing homework in the library since.

Studying of course!

My Oral Exam speech:

Ciao! Mi chiamo Christopher. Sono Americano di Washington D.C. Ho venti anni. Il mio compleanno è il quatordici Luglio millenovecentonovanta alle quattro del pomeriggio. Abbiamo vissuto anche coni miei nonni e mia madre a Burke in Virginia.  Mia madre lavora alla Casa Bianca de venti anni dal Presidente George H.W. Bush. Mio nonno è Ceco. Mia nonna è Portughese. Hanno ottanta anni.

Abito a Chicago in Illinois. Io vivo in una camera singola in un appartmento. Il mio indirizzo è dieci-dodici West Loyola Avenue. Nelle mia camera c’è il letto, il cuscino, il tavolo, il termosifone, la sedia, la televisone, e molti libri. Nel tempo libero leggo. Mi piace leggere! Nel mio tempo libero mi piace cucinare con la mia ragazza.  Il suo nome è Ashley. Ci piace guadare Lost, Arrested Development, e Flavor of Love alla televisione. Mi piacciono la musica in paticolare quella degli anni 50. Mi piacciono le musicisti Elvis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, e Chuck Berry. Al miei amici non.

Studio storia, inglese, e giornalismo a Loyola University Chicago. Questo è il mio ultimo anno. Vorrei essere un archivista. Lavoro presso gli archivi della Loyola University.  Mi piace molto. Il mio nubero di telefono è sette-zero-tre-sei-sette-quattro-sei-due-otto-zero. Ho Verizon. Mi telefoni per un divertirci!

Day 16 Return from Paris to Rome

We woke up at 5:00am in order to catch our plane back to Rome from Beauvais airport. We checked out of the hotel at 5:30 after eating some bananas for a quick breakfast. We took the Metro to our transfer station and found out that the transfer Metro we needed to take to get to the shuttle didn't open until 10am. We walked out onto the street and hailed a Taxi.  The driver was very nice and took us exactly where we needed to get to promptly.  The cab fare was cheap.  We missed the 6:15 bus but caught the 6:25 bus with plenty of time to spare. We both fell asleep during the 90 minute drive.  When we got to the airport we got a quick bite to eat at Paul. Our meal consisted of a Parisian ham and butter sandwich, hot chocolate, and two chocolate croissants.  We then boarded our plane for Rome and fell asleep again for the two hour flight.We woke about 30 minutes before landing.  Boy, the Ryan Air pilots sure make rough landings!

After arriving safely at Ciampino, we grabbed some lunch in the airport.  We had two ham and cheese sandwiches, a Coke, and a Kinder egg.  Instead of taking a taxi back to the Rome Center we paid a total of 8 Euros for a comfy bus ride to the Rome train Terminal.  From there we took the Metro and then the 913 bus back to campus.  Upon reaching our rooms, we immediately missed the air conditioning we had in the hotel in Paris.

We ate at Pizza Maggio for dinner.  Afterwards, we studied in the library for the rest of the night.  After a lack of Internet for three days I found out that they have started demolition on Alumni Gym back at Loyola.  I was extremely sad and have put the word out for some of my friends to grab me some bricks from it.  If you watch the video you can see my old apartment, The Morgan, to the right of Alumni.

 I had a long Italian composition to write reflecting on the Velletri trip and I also had to prepare for an Oral Exam.  We both slept like rocks that night.

Studying after a long day!

Day 15 Second Day in Paris!

The Louvre

More on this later...

Day 14: PARIS

We were up at 3AM to catch our 6:45 flight from the Ciampino airport.  We took a taxi from the Rome Center straight to the airport.  There were very few cars on the road which allowed us to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

MORE ON THIS LATER IN THE UPCOMING DAYS...

Day 13: Velletri

Velletri train stop

Today, I went to Velletri with my Italian II class. Seven of my classmates met up in the lobby of the Rome Center before 8am, which was when we were supposed to leave.  However a couple were late in coming downstairs and we ended up running extremely late to catch the train at the Rome Terminal.  Our teacher had cautioned us that we had to be on time because he had our whole trip set up according to certain times. Nevertheless, we still managed to be late.  We caught the 913 bus around 8:15 and took it to the Cipro Metro station.  When we got to the station the same students who were late did not have Metro tickets so we had to wait for them to get Euros from an ATM and buy tickets.  We had twenty five minutes before our train left the Terminal for Velletri and we still had to take a twenty minute Metro ride to get there.  Our metro arrived that the Terminal at 8:56.  We ran allllll the way up at least four different flights of stairs and through the terminal and boarded the train just as the doors were closing.  We were pretty lucky to make it!  We were all out of shape and I slept for the hour long train ride.

The train we took after arriving into Velletri

We arrived around 10:15 in Velletri.  Our Italian teacher met us there because Velletri is where he lives.  I can't believe he makes the train commute to the Rome Center everyday.  After buying our return trip tickets we walked with our teacher around the town.  We stopped in front of the Porta Napoletana, which was built in 1511 as the gate into the city.  It was one of the few buildings to survive virtually unscathed during World War II.  Velletri was bombed NINE times by the Allies during the war.

Porta Napoletana

 From there we stopped at a local cafe called Al Bar 2000.  Our teacher bought coffees for whoever wanted them.  We then went to the Saint Clement Cathedral built in the 1660s. It was an old church that was undergoing restoration.  Our teacher told us that before Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI, he was the Bishop of Velletri for about 20 years!  The Pope returned in September 2007 to celebrate Mass in which a Bronze memorial commemorates the visit in front of the Church. Next our teacher abandoned us making us ask directions in Italian from the locals.  We had to find a bakery called the Forno.  When we got there the owner, Senor Lopez showed us how bread was made and we got a whole bunch of tasty sugar cookies at the end.

Delicious Cookies!

We then had to find the market, which we did.  They sold raw rabbit meat.  It was a sad sight. Next we searched for the Trivium Bell Tower.  It was built in 1353! It was the coolest thing by far in Velletri.  It was built 300 years before the neighboring Santa Maria Church was.

Trivium Bell Tower

After searching for various piazzas and touring the courthouse, we finally were able to eat. We all had a delicious meal at a local Mom and Pop restaurant called Medioevo.  We had a three course meal that consisted of spaghetti, veal and beef, and an assortment of mini desserts.  It was quite delicious.

The Restaurant

After eating, we boarded the train for home. We all had a pretty good time! We all slept on the way home.  I woke up just in time to see the remnants of the famous Roman Aqueducts from the train window.  The aqueducts are one of the greatest achievements and most important engineering marvels of the ancient world.  It was quite a site to see! The pictures do not do them justice.

the aqueducts!

We all finally got home around 5:00pm. Ashley had quite a miserable day, especially since I wasn't around all day. We ate pizza at Pizza Maggio and got some milk and snacks from the nearby grocery store.  We both tried to get some sleep that night but we slept very little because we were up at 3:00AM to get to the airport for Paris!!

My Italian II class