La ville éternelle

Ciao!
I'm back in Aix now, but I know if I don't update about Italy now I'll just put it off, and who wants to update about Rome and Florence when you're in Bucks County? Just kidding, I'm looking forward to getting home in two weeks, but I'm so glad I first got to go to Italy for the second week of my spring break.

Saturday morning, I met my classmate Sofie at the Aix bus station to take the bus to the Marseille train station where we would take the train to Rome (very complicated). Sofie is Swedish but has been living in Rome since she was 2. While most of us in level 4F, our class at the institute, can claim a pretty high level of French, Sofie speaks Swedish, Italian, French, English, and Spanish, all with practically no accent. In Rome we met another classmate from our school, Klaudyna, who is a Swedish citizen but half-Polish and speaks Swedish, Polish, French, and English. Oh, to grow up in Europe...or have multicultural parents (sorry, Mom and Dad, but you've failed me in that respect).

Anyway, after meeting Klaudyna at the train station, the three of us took a bus to Frescati, a village on a hill outside of Rome where the young people go on weekend nights to hang out. Sofie told us that the typical fare for a Frescati dinner is something called porchetta, roasted pork seasoned with a mix of herbs, country bread, a chunk of cheese, some olives, and a few salami, to be eaten kind of picnic style. The porchetta was excellent, though I'm more of a salami fan myself, and it was late when Sofie's dad came to take us to their house in another nearby village.

We slept in the next day and had a big breakfast before taking the metro into Rome. We had slept in a little to long to get in for free at the Musei Vaticani, so we just went into Saint Peter's instead. It was incredible, not just the size but the detail put into all of it. One of the highlights for me was Michelangelo's pieta, something I've only ever seen pictures of in history and art textbooks. We walked through the tombs under the basilica and then, feeling ambitious, opted to climb the stairs up to the cupola of the basilica. Five hundred fifty steps later we were there, with an amazing view of Rome and the Vatican City, even though it was overcast.

After we'd had our fill of St. Peter's, Sofie took us on a whirlwind walking tour of Rome, passing who knows how many Roman monuments. We ended up near the Trevi Fountain, where we went to a restaurant Sofie knew for its huge variety of pasta. The pasta with vodka sauce I ordered (you know me, I like what I know), definitely lived up to the Italian reputation for pasta. After, we went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it lit up, then went to the gelato place Sofie thinks is the best in Rome. I could have tried a few other places to see if I agreed, but really why bother if a native has already done the scoping out for you? Before heading back to Sofie's, the three of us walked around some more, moving from piazza to piazza, each one filled with street artists and self-trained opera singers.

The next day, Monday, we slept in a little less, had a slightly lighter breakfast and headed to the Vatican Museums. While waiting in line, we overheard what seemed to be an interesting, English-language tour and asked if we could join. The guide, who turned out to be German but living in Italy and actually born in the United States, said we could tag along and he'd knock off the 10€ commission, making the price 15€. And it was definitely worth it. We saw beautiful tapestries, incredible ceilings, some of them were actually trompe l'oeil, but it was so hard to tell it was so well done. And, of course, the Sistine Chapel. It was impressive, but, as our guide explained, Michelangelo's one mistake was that he painted too many details which can't actually be seen from the floor. But it really was worth seeing, and even though the signs forbid it, we managed to sneak in a few pictures before the guards suddenly decided they were going to crack down on it (I get the impression that happens a lot in Italy, you can break a rule until the guy in charge decides you can't anymore).

Having spent several hours in the Vatican Museums, we took a bus over toward the Colosseum and the Forum Romana, though both were closed by the time we got there. It was still really cool, definitely not the kind of stuff you get to see in the United States. Sofie treated Klaudyna and me to her flawless Pavarotti impression outside the Colosseum, a police car even came around at the end and applauded. It was just a very surreal experience to have three girls goofing off with an ancient Roman monument as a backdrop. Anyway, we ducked into the Metro just before it started pouring and went back to Sofie's, where her parents, Birgitta and Mats, had prepared us a wonderful Italian meal, a pasta course and a meat course and everything. It was very nice, I kind of felt guilty they were making such a fuss over us. Birgitta even convinced me to stay in Rome an extra night and helped me arrange my new plans with the hostel where I was staying in Florence.

Well, I actually have to finish some homework that I've put off for a class I have in a couple hours. I'll tell about the rest of my adventures in Italia next time.
A bientôt!
Maggie B.