7.3.09 Rome

Day two was jam-packed due to the fact we had to make up some ground we lost the day before. We started out at the Borghese Villa, now a fantastic museum filled with famous paintings and sculptures.

The Borghese Museum

Not only were the works of art impressive and gorgeous but also the villa itself was incredible. Its crazy to think these wealthy families lived in such monstrosities! After the Borghese we headed back to the Colosseum for our tour of the inside. The line to get in so huge; but thanks our little study abroad expensive (not so little) we got to waltz past everyone else. Thank you USU. It takes a good imaginative eye, and previously seeing Gladiator to grasp what the inside used to look like. Them Romans were some smart cookies. It could hold 50,000 people and could be filled or emptied in 10 minutes.
It was so strange walking in because of how familiar it felt to walking into regular sports arenas today. You don’t realize how much of our architecture and structures today stemmed from the ancient roman world, until you visit it.

We spent about a half hour outside sketching them met up with our tour guide Antonella, a Brit who now lives in Rome and teaches architecture at the University. We went to four churches seeing amazing frescoed ceilings, Michelangelo’s Moses sculpture, work and burial place of Joannes Bernini, The famous sculpture from the movie by Bernini

a famous Italian sculpture and the last church from Angels and Demons, the Ecstasy of St. Maria. We also caught the changing of the guards in front of the Presidente of Italia’s Palace, which was great. Our tour ended at Fontana Di Trevi (Trevi fountain) a tourist hot spot. There were tons of people there but we managed to toss our coins in, gets some pics,

We felt so clever

...filled our water bottles with some killer Trevi water and not get pick-pocketed.

This looks staged, but I really was mid-throw. My coin is in the middle of the right pillar. One coin + over the left shoulder+ tossed with the right hand= me returning to Rome.

We found a great little pizza place for dinner, had my favorite dessert (Tirimisu) then ended the day beautifully, with my first gelato here in Italia.

Gelato numero 1
The one that started it all...

Perfecto.