Day 38: Churches, Statues and Paintings Galore

You know those nights you fall asleep and when your alarm goes off you feel like you just went to bed? Ok, that's how I felt this morning. Only to make waking up even more unpleasant, we thought we had to be ready at 7:45 -- instead, we find out at 7:04 that we have to be ready at 7:15. Joooyyy!! So the girls in the shower scramble out and towel dry their hair, the girls still laying down in their pajamas (including me) jump out of bed and into their clothes (luckily, since I was packing last night, I laid out what I was going to wear) and the girls who weren't even awake rolled out of their sheets and frantically got ready in a flash. To say the least, we were a bit frazzled by the time we got to the bus -- but it makes for a good story! So we make it out of Ariccia by 7:20 and we start our trek to Rome in the big blue bus.

For the morning we visited multiple Roman Churches containing Baroque Art, so our professor Francesco was our tour guide for these stops. We picked him up from his apartment in Rome, which is literally in spitting distance of the Colosseum and other famous Roman landmarks, and he joined us on our bus ride.

Our bus dropped us off at our first church and we walked on foot from there until he picked us back up at 12:30. We saw probably 7 churches and they were all astounding in architecture and ceiling paintings! The first church was my favorite one I've visited thus far this summer (and sadly I didn't even take one picture... here are some from Google though so you can see it!)

The other churches were amazing, and Francesco knew so much! He has published at least 5 books -- I don't think we realize how much this man knows about art. And the best part is he loves to share it - he loves talking about it! So we sit there and listen to him in amazement. Here are some pictures from the churches we saw:

{Obviously this isn't a church -- it is an elephant statue in the middle of a square! I liked it}

{It's true love when someone is willing to share their pashmina with you}

{Curl getting artsy with the Nikon}

{Church with Gothic architecture -- notice the pointy ceilings!}

{Baroque art even influenced some of the architecture around Rome -- the concave shape of these buildings is a defining Baroque characteristic}

{And a little pit stop on a stoop is necessary when you're walking around all day}

{Francesco speaking about Baroque architecture -- have I already said this man is so precious? I just want to put him in my pocket and carry him with me forever. He is never not smiling -- I love it!!}

{This dome is an optical allusion -- it is a flat surfaced, painted to look 3D. The artist did a pretty good job because he had me fooled!}

{This statue is entirely made of marble -- unbelievable. The draping of the curtain looks so real}

{Francesco and Marilyn Bradbard (one of our supervisors) bonding}

{This is the original level of ancient Rome roads -- it was at least 10 feet deep}

{Francesco interviewing Meg}

After walking all around Rome and seeing every church imaginable, Enrico picked us up in the bus and we were off to our lunch break and afternoon activity -- The Borghese Gallery in Borghese Park. When we got off the bus we started walking in the direction we thought would lead us to food -- wronggggg. We walked and walked and walked until we finally found the 1 restaurant in the area -- Gaudi Pizzeria. We stepped in and got a table for 8. Ya'll.... this was the coolest restaurant we've been to! I was obsessed with it. It was so modern and so cool -- nothing like the Italian restaurants we have eaten at before. The table tops were made of tiles different shades of blue and I immediately pictured it sitting on my patio perfectly. I loved it. And it had these retro looking suspended lights and if you needed the waitress, you flipped a switch and a red light came on so she would know to come over. How cool?! So now that I have obsessed over the interior design aspects of the restaurant let me get to the important stuff -- the food. Not only was this the absolute neatest place we've eaten at thus far, it was also the most delicious (for lunch..). I had the best calzone ever (trying to switch it up from pizza.... I realize the 2 dishes are practically the same thing)! It had mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese and baked ham, and I got a dish of marinara sauce on the side. Yumm....! So I think it is safe to say I enjoyed this lunch stop we just stumbled upon!

{The table -- notice the cute theatre seating benches! And the tables! I promise it was adorable}

{The retro-looking light with the red light switch on top! So handy}

{The best calzone}

Our last stop of the day was a tour of the Borghese Gallery. This is a lavish mansion with rooms filled with famous paintings and marble statues. We have learned about this stuff before, so I was excited to see it in real life. Sadly, we couldn't take pictures (and these people were serious -- they made us check our bags before we went in) -- but some of my favorites were Bernini's Apollo and Daphne statue and his Pluto and Persephone statue. Google it -- its worth seeing!

{The Borghese Gallery}

The tour took us a total of 100 minutes, but we saw some really interesting stuff -- our tour guide knew what she was talking about! After this we got back on the bus and headed back to Ariccia. Our night was mainly consumed by packing and getting everything ready to leave for Mid-Term Break because our taxi is coming to get us at 4:50 a.m.!!!! We fly to Barcelona tomorrow and have our day planned already (cough shopping cough cough). I'll keep you posted on our where-abouts :) Wish us luck with our travels -- being on our own always scares me, but it is also the most empowering feeling as well when (if) we succeed.

Thank you everyone for reading this Blog -- I enjoy posting and I hope you find it remotely interesting! Have a good week of summer and enjoy America for me :)

Adios (I love that I can use Spanish now since we are going to Spain)!