End of Fall Semester Adventures!

During our last week of classes and in between course papers, studying, and finals, we were able to get in some sight seeing within Rome. Here are a few of the highlights:

Tuesday (12/3): We took a break in between classes to go into St. Peter's Cathedral to marvel in its beauty and opulence. The highlights of St. Peter's were Michelangelo's heart-wrenching "Pieta," and Bernini's Baldacchino. The amount of sculptures and artworks are astounding, and it's amazing to see the condition of the basilica knowing that it dates back to at least the Renaissance. 

Wednesday (12/4): We were fortunate enough to have tickets with our program to go to the Papal Audience. Arriving at what we considered to be early (about 2 and half hours before the Papal Audience supposedly would begin), we found that hundreds of people had already claimed their spot near the front or along the sides of the audience area so that they could get the best possible view of Pope Francis. While we weren't very close to the front, we managed to get seats close to one of the sides in hopes of getting a good view of the Pope as he passed by. As we sat in our seats in the chilly morning, the cardinals who were designated translators for the Pope, took turns welcoming different groups from the respective countries based on language. When the English speaking cardinal came up to speak, we were pleasantly surprised to hear our group, "The Students and Faculty from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, Rome Program," announced to the audience. It was nice to know that Pope Francis knew we were there! 

Finally, the moment of Pope Francis's entrance was imminent, and the restlessness and excitement of the crowd was overwhelming. Suddenly, a loud cheer came from the front, and from one of the TV screens we saw that the Pope had arrived in his little Pope-mobile. The sentiments of the audience were infectious, and all of us began cheering and trying to get the best view of Pope Francis. Since everyone around us was standing on their chairs, we did the same and stood on our tip-toes to look over the many heads in front of us. Babies were kissed, pictures of the Pope holding various sports jerseys were taken, and many dreams were fulfilled by witnessing Pope Francis firsthand. When he finished his rounds, Pope Francis sat down and the audience commenced. After Pope Francis spoke, each of the cardinals came forward to summarize his speech in their respective languages. We finished with the "Our Father" in Latin. While we didn't understand most of the languages spoken, it was cool to be able to pick up a few words here and there in both Italian and Spanish. It was an enjoyable and captivating experience, and we can't wait to go again next semester!

Friday (12/6) to Sunday (12/8): Our last free weekend of the semester we spent in Rome re-visiting some of the main sites and seeing some new ones. On Friday, we practiced our tour route for when our parents would come, where we stopped by our classroom building, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, as well as Via del Corso. It was amazing to see how much we had learned since our first days here not knowing where anything was! Saturday we went to the ancient section of the city, visiting the Mouth of Truth and the Capitoline Museum. In the museum we began studying for our art history and archeology finals with the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and busts of various emperors. We also took a brief break at the coffee shop on one of the upper floors of the museum, where we had a fantastic view of the city. The Capitoline Museum sits on top of Capitoline hill, one of the seven hills of Rome, and on top of the hill is a little piazza where the museum is situated around. In this piazza was a Christmas tree, and as we were leaving the museum, there was a military band playing. As we stopped to watch the band play, all of a sudden there were all of these photographers taking picture of a man standing in front of us. As people began to surround this Italian, we assumed he must be some important character. Later we learned that he was actually the mayor of Rome and he was there for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony! 

Monday (12/16): After a long last week of classes and a weekend full of finals, we took a little break after our Art History final to visit a notable work of art: Bernini's sculpture "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" in Santa Maria della Vittoria. One of our favorite qualities of Rome is how a relatively nondescript church can be so ornamental inside and house a famous work such as this. Seeing the "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" in person brought us back to our high school art history days, and it was even more captivating than we had originally imagined! Aside from Bernini's famous sculpture, the rest of the decorations in the church were exceptional.