Wednesday

Hello everyone!

Yesterday we spent two and a half hours at the vatican museum and I couldnt have predicted how much amazing stuff is in there. i was just in awe the whole time, which I'm sure I've said about a few dozen experiences by now. But they had lots of Egyptian relics which was my favorite since I am always interested in ancient Egypt. They had more statues than I could count and I actually recognized some, and others I knew the stories behind the figures, for example A statue of Antonius (that's a male by the way)made me extremely happy because he was Hadrians lover. While hadrian had a wife, they weren't close and his real love was Antonius, most say anyway. When antonius drowned during a cruise on the Nile, Hadrian pretty much went mad with grief and erected all these staues and temples dedicated to Antonius. It's such a tragic story. But a lot of the background stories weren't provided, so you had to know who the person was on your own mostly. I also recognized Hercules without needing to be told, and a river god just by his lying down position, and guy who is laying down is usually a river god. So it was real neat to know some of the background when i went to the museum!

And of course the Sistine chapel was breath-taking. You cannot imagine the amount of detail in these scenes in this huge chapel. I dont know how it was done by one man!!!

After the Sistine chapel we left the museum and did a walking tour that took us up the Janiculum hill. We rain into the most beautiful wedding at one of our sites. The view atop the hill was breath-taking and the bride was having her wedding pictures done in the small tempietto by the church and right then I just wanted to be married in Italy, in Rome. The bride of course looked like a model and coming out of this picturesque church I was so jealous.

Anyway, after that I actually did meet up with my friend Chris who had taken the spring course at the institute and talking to him was really helpful as he spent much more time in Rome than I have. He's here for two months and trying to get a job here actually, since his Italian is beyond beginner.

Today we took the metro out to Ostia, a city outside of Rome that was originally a Roman colony. It was first a military base guarding the beginning of the Tiber, but also became an extremely important port because of it's location and Rome's grain was often brough from Ostia to Rome after it came from Egypt.

The site was rather we preserved in comparison to Roman ruins because it was not part of a city, so there were no modern buildings or roads and you really got the feel of what it was like living in ancient times since there was little sign of civilization once you go into the site.

We began our walk in the city of the dead, which was made up of buildings where cremation ashes were kept. You could still see all the little niches where each jar went. This was technically outside the city since they never buried their dead inside the city walls.

We saw warehouses filled withrows of jars which are now actually mostly emabedded in the ground, you just see the tops peeking up and one of the best preserved examples of insulae, the term for apartments, called Diana's house. We also saw a latrine! Yes, a bathroom, with the marble toilettes still in tact!! Really it was a long bench with holes cut in it, but under the "bench" would be running water to take the waste away.

We saw a theater and sat in the seats, since it has been restored and saw all the little shops. We also saw the public baths, where there was an area for exercise and hot, warm, and cold rooms so you could bathe at different temperatures, though I think there was a certain order you were meant to go from one to another in but it's debated exactly how it was done.

It was probably one of my favorite sites. We even went into an inn where people stoped and got food and drink as they traveled. You could still see the counter and shelves!!!!! It was so cool to be in the little town/city!

Unfortunately we got back at 1:40 instead of noon and so for Italian the gelato trip has been rescheduled yet again!!! Tomorrow hopefully nothing will happen! Well off to do a few other things now!