One Busy Weekend in Rome...

This morning, I woke up at 6:15 AM to go to the train station with my friend, Steffen, who is on his way back to Konstanz, Germany. We had met back in June through our Humanity in Action Fellowship in Berlin (picture below taken in July), and we made plans to meet up in Rome for the weekend. He'd never been here before either, so it was perfect timing that he could come down and hang out with us for a few days.

And what a weekend it was. Where to start...

To be honest, my first week in Rome was a bit rough. Not only did I end up with a bunch of bug bites (or hives?), but I also had two blisters on my left foot, pulled my right hamstring, and had all sorts of trouble with my laundry. The weather was a bit too warm for my liking (and allergies), the city wasn't quite as accessible as Berlin, and the Italian culture is different from the German culture.

BUT, I love it nonetheless.

If you think I'm taking my time in Italy for granted, you're wrong. If you think I would rather be someplace else right now, you're crazy. Rome is an absolute marvel. I mean, look at these pictures! Wow, what an incredible city! I think the first few days were just a little bump in the road, so I'm going to enjoy the rest of my time here.

So back to what I got to do this weekend...which actually started on Thursday evening because we don't have class on Fridays and no class was scheduled for today (woo! Four day weekend!).

On Thursday morning, we visited the International Developmental Law Organization in Rome, where we heard from an American who had immigrated to Italy six to eight years ago. She explained the horrendously confusing and time-wasting immigration process for Italy and the endless difficulties thrown at potential Italian citizens. Workers will "accidentally lose" your papers or tell you that the form you need is not available today so come back again another time--all, apparently, in an attempt to discourage would-be Italian citizen applicants.

In hearing what Jami had to say (it took her seven visits to the immigration office before she finally pulled some strings to get things done), I have to admit that it did not actually shock me to hear it, mostly because I had heard similar stories in Berlin and was aware of these issues surrounding immigration. However, for me, it helps refresh my own identity by learning about others. What I mean is that by hearing the challenges others face that I might not face in my own country makes me more appreciative about the freedoms and liberties that I have.

We left our visit with Jami to go to Piazza Vittorio where most of the city's immigrant populations have congregated to start businesses and stalls in the fresh markets. Our task: talk with random non-native Italians and learn their immigration story. This exercise was tricky on multiple levels:

(1) most of the folks didn't speak English,
(2) most, and pretty much all, of us students didn't speak Italian
(3) some of us could not connect on any common level with the people to even have these conversations
(4) my Mandarin Chinese was a bit rusty but I did manage two interviews with Chinese store owners

(Side note: I've realized this before, but honestly, growing up as a PK in a Chinese church has its benefits. You learn good phrases to communicate respectfully with others in Chinese by watching your parents. Comes in handy when you interview random Chinese store owners in Rome. =P)

'Twas a fun exercise, and Brukab got to see me fidget as I talked in straight Mandarin Chinese for about 5 minutes each with the two owners.

On Thursday night, Steffen arrived. Then on Friday, we woke up early in the morning and together we (Brukab, Steffen, and me) headed out for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Once there, we walked around the Colosseum, trekked over Palatine Hill, down through the Forum, and up onto Capitoline Hill to the Capitol Hill Museum.


It was quite a long journey, and our legs felt like rubber after walking for 8 hours that day. But the pictures of the Forum and the visit to the Capitoline Hill Museum was definitely worth it. We saw, among other famous art pieces, the She-Wolf statue with Romulus and Remus underneath, the original equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and Spinario's Boy Removing a Thorn from his Foot. Absolutely incredible.

We were extremely tired from all our walking, so we headed back to our apartment, made pasta, and had dinner with two of our classmates, Trina and Marissa. Nice little party at our apartment and then gelato!

On Saturday, we woke up early again and headed to the Vatican. Brukab's friends from UW came along too as they'd been doing their own traveling recently. We headed straight for St. Peter's Square, and honestly, it wasn't as packed as I had expected it to be. Seems like that's happened for everyone who's visited St. Peter's this week.

We entered St. Peter's Basilica and read some of its history from Rick Steves's wonderful blue guide. The Basilica is huge! We ended up climbing the 551 steps to the top, where I got to take some of the best panoramic shots I've gotten during the entire trip. Oh, I've really gotten into taking panoramic shots ever since I downloaded Windows Live Photo Gallery to help me stitch my pictures together. =]

After our morning at the Basilica, we headed next door (or rather, down a few blocks) to the entrance of the Vatican Museum, where we saw a bunch of art pieces that I had studied in school before, like the Laocoon Group below. This sculpture was one of my absolute favorites in school, so this was very exciting!

The most impressive exhibit, though, was the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's ceiling paintings are quite simply amazing; it makes you wonder how he got up there. Although the chapel itself was smaller than I thought, it's still quite a sight. Among my other AP Art History favorites was Raphael's School of Athens--so much so, I took three or four pictures from the same spot!

It was a loooong day at the Vatican as we didn't head home until around 6:15 PM. We bought some more fresh bread and goodies from the supermarket and made it home around 7:30 PM for dinner and relaxation. I was completely exhausted after a whole day of walking. On another positive note though, I managed to find two small flags to add to my collection of flags from countries I've visited--the Italian flag and the Vatican flag.

Yesterday, we decided to take things a bit easier, but just a bit. We had tried to get tickets for the Borghese Gallery, but it was too packed this weekend. I'll have to reserve tickets for another day.

We walked from Campo di Fiori...

...to the Pantheon...

...to the Trevi Fountain...

...to the Spanish Steps.


By the time we finished our walk across Rome, it was around 11 AM. So we headed to St. Peter-in-Chains Church, which was built around 400 A.D. and houses what were supposedly the chains of St. Peter.

The best part of the church, though, was Michelangelo's statue of Moses after coming down from talking to God on Mt. Sinai. I remember studying this in AP Art History too and learning about Moses's "horns."

Although it wasn't the most impressive building on the outside, the inside of the church was amazing. The rest of the day we stayed indoors at the National Museum of Rome and around the Baths of Diocletian. Then after our three hour break at home for some bread and butter, we headed out into Rome's evening life for a bit of gelato in Campo di Fiori.

All in all, the weekend was extremely busy but very productive, lots of walking but plenty of great sight-seeing too. It was awesome to hang out with Steffen again, just like our HIA days in Berlin.

No class today, so it's time to catch up on reading for the class, revising my HIA final paper, and finishing up the remaining components for the fellowship. I just realized that today is September 1st, which means school and Dream Project start in about three weeks, so lots to gear up for that too. Hope today's as productive as this weekend was!

Until next time,

Sam