Ogni bel gioco dura poco.
Trip Start
May 22, 2011
1
17
Trip End
Jun 24, 2011
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Friday, June 24, 2011
On Monday I went to Santa Maria della Vittoria and saw one of my favorite sculptures of all time, Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avila. Bernini was commissioned for this sculpture because he was rumored to show the best emotion on sculptures out of all the Italian sculptors. The sculpture shows an episode of religious ecstasy from St. Teresa's autobiography. I also went to Quirinal Hill, and saw Sant'Andrea al Quirinale and Palazzo Quirinale, which is the official residence of Italy's president. On the way back to school for my next class, I stopped at Piazza Barberini. I went inside Palazzo Barberini, which is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. My favorite painting in there was Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holfernes. Tuesday for class was places I'd already been to, but it was nice to go back for one last visit. We went to Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps, with stops in a few churches along the way. We were learning about the transition to modern architecture so it made sense we went to these places because they're no more than 300 years old, which is like a baby in Roman time.
I skipped my Italian class on Tuesday (the only class I missed the entire time I was here) to go to the Borghese Gallery, which is really far north in the city. This is one of the most famous art galleries in the world, and since it only has 20 rooms (but more Bernini per square inch I've ever seen!) you have to make reservations for a two-hour time slot way ahead of time for crowd control purposes. I made reservations with three other friends, and I decided that it was worth seeing these amazing pieces of art instead of going to class. And, I was right. I've never seen anything like it. I've also never been in a museum that's so strict. You aren't allowed to bring ANYTHING in, no water bottles, cameras, small purses, nothing. But I'm so glad I went, and that was the last thing to cross off my list. I'm so proud of myself because the whole time abroad, I crossed everything off of my list except for one museum. I guess that's why I have 5000 pictures uploaded on my computer right now.
Wednesday was the last full day of class. Before our review, our art history professor took us really far south on the metro to the EUR, which I'd never heard of before. Before she told us about it, I got pretty excited looking at it because it looked exactly like home. The EUR group of buildings is located in the suburbs of "downtown" Rome (the historic center) and it was so nice to see a different part of the city. It was like I wasn't even in Rome anymore. I learned that the EUR...
Thursday was just a depressing day. I spent the majority of my day studying for and taking my two finals and then packing up and cleaning my apartment. I did take a lot of pictures of the area around my apartment so I wouldn't forget it (like I'm ever going to). It was so depressing. I kept thinking that this was the last time I was doing riding the bus back from school, the last time I would pick up fresh fruit from this market, etc. I can't believe how fast these past five weeks have gone. Italy is absolutely completely entrancing. It's so hard to explain. I stayed up all night with my friends, literally. We separated only for about an hour and a half so we could grab our suitcases before heading to the airport together. We were talking about how grateful we were to have gotten this experience, and it's going to be so hard at home telling others about it because there is no way they'll ever be able to explain how we feel about Italy now. We stopped by the Trevi Fountain to throw another coin in. Let's hope that coin brings me back to Rome sooner rather than later, because I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stay away.
