Art & Architecture

Rome has been quite an adventure thus far...

Friday night the group wanted to go out. I wasn't really in the mood because I was so tired, and I had class the next morning (yea, on a Saturday since we did not have class on Monday or Tuesday due to the holiday). But I went anyways since I did not go out the first time and I wascurious about Roman nightlife. I figured that since on the first night everyone went to the American bars, they had gotten that out of their system and we'd go to some cool Italian spot. We met at Piazza di Spagna and pre-gamed outside, attracting a lot of attention taking pictures and since we are a group of 33, it's hard not to get noticed lol.

We were there for about an hour or so waiting for everyone to arrive, but little did I know this would be the best part of the night...So, we start heading to Campo di Fiori (American bar area). The drunken "leaders" of the group said would be a 15min walk but actually ended up being 45min...it wouldn't have been a bad walk if I hadn't been wearing heels (ladies beware: there area cobblestones everywhere). We end up at The Drunken Ship and turned the entrance into a dance floor, dancing to Britney Spears all night (and by all night, i mean until they kicked us out about an hour later because they were closing).

Afterwards, everyone wanted to go to another place called Scholars, but it was around 2am and a couple of us wanted to get some sleep before class, so we decide to head home.

Warning: don't hold your breath for the night bus.

As we walked to the bus station, we see both busses we need (one behind the other) drive past us. We are screaming and running, but driver just shrugs and continues. One girl, not wearing heels, books it and catches up with one of the busses and he finally stops. He takes us to the main bus station, where we get off and wait for our connection. Oh, btw, on our walk to the bus station, a car full of italian men pulls up next to us (6 girls) and ask if we want a ride...tempting, but no.

So we are waiting at the bus station, and again, another car full of italian men pulls up and ask if we want a ride...but in retrospect, it might have been the same guys lol. When we are just about to give up and catch a cab, our bus pulls up (around 3:30am).

The next morning....

I wake up 20min before my class starts. It takes me about 3minutes to realize I will be late. Thank goodness I live close to the metro station and it is a quick ride to the school. I arrive to my first Art & Architecture class about 5min late.

I LOVE this class. It's basically an in-depth tour of Rome. On our first day, we saw where the Romans used to have their chariot races. Any person casually walking through the area would not have ever known this because it's basically a beautiful green field now with gorgeous ruins overlooking it. We saw Hercules' Temple, which was once a port for import/export, but due to changed landscape is now a street (the temple has been preserved, and is actually the oldest standing temple in Rome). The interesting thing about this class is that many of the things we'll see existed in ancient Rome, but now either do not exist or have been used to build other things.

Modern Rome is a city that has a constantly rising ground level. It has been built on top of other structures, so underneath a church, for example, could be another church. My professor, who is an archeologist, says that if we were to dig, we would find the entire ancient roman city underneath modern Rome. This is also why Rome only has two metro lines (the A and B lines), because if they were to add more, they would destroy the buildings underneath. Throughout the city one can find several major excavation projects and the ruins coming back to life. Very interesting.

Later that night we all went out again. However, because we are such a large group decisions could not be made and we spent most of the night walking around aimlessly again. But it was kind of nice because we went through several neighborhoods and piazze (plural for piazza), getting a feeling for the Italian nightlife. There were young italians all over the place chilling with friends outside of the pubs and restaurants, which make the streets very vibrant. I do not feel unsafe at all walking around at night. I usually go home alone, and I feel comfortable asking for directions. The Italians are very helpful, although they love to make directions up when they don't really know the answer. I found a bus that would take me to the metro, and on there I met a group of Bolivian students. I told them I was Dominican, and they told me to sit with them. We chatted for a little bit (group of 5 guys) and I found out they are 17 years old, in Rome for two more days, having a study tour through Europe. Very cool!

They happened to be getting off at my stop, so they walked me to the metro. When I told them I was going to the fùtbol match on Sunday, they got very jealous lol. At this point it was 1:20 am, which meant I only had 10min before the metro stopped running. So i RAN to the station, and apparantly I wasn't the only one-- I felt like I was in the running of the bulls, italian style lol. That was fun...I felt so Italian lol.

So last night...

Sunday, we went to the game (Roma vs. Milan). The stadium was packed! It was a gorgeous stadium though. Fun time, except for when I got lost trying to find my group on my way back from the bathroom...lost an earring lol (thank goodness that was the only thing). I drank a little too much wine, but overall it was a successful night.