Week 14: Ciao, Roma!

I can’t even describe how awesome this week was! From having a packed birthday on Monday (one last celebration :)) to traveling to Rome as somewhat of a birthday present to myself on the weekend, and everything in between, I’ve hardly had a chance to breathe – in the best way possible!

Monday morning started out bright and early at 8:30am with my last midterm exam, in my French writing class. It was actually one of the shorter exams that I’ve had; it was only two hours, when I’ve sometimes had three- or even four-hour exams! After the exam, I went straight to another class that had already started (Teaching French as a Foreign Language), and then thankfully that was over at 12:30.

I had nothing planned for the majority of the afternoon, and so I decided to go to the movie theater to see a French film called Samba, which ended up being a great decision. After that, I met up with Manon, Fatima, Grace, and Corrinne, and we got manicures at a salon right around the corner from my residence (note to self: manicures in France, or at least at this salon, do NOT automatically come with color – mine was just clear polish). Then we made our way to the Christmas Market, which was spectacular as always (if a little too small), and then we decided to make a girls’ night out of it and headed to Flunch.

Girls' night at the Christmas Market!

At some point in the evening, I was invited to go to the movies with some friends to see Interstellar, and even though I had already been to the movies earlier the same day, I decided to go again, because yes I like the movies that much. This decision turned out to be excellent – the movie was so good, it was at a mind-blowing level! Apparently it’s already been rumored to be a favorite in the Oscars selection, and I wouldn’t doubt that at all. For not having planned anything besides manicures, I think it turned out to be an excellent way to spend the first day of my 21^st year :)

Tuesday was a transition back into the normal swing of things, as I had 19^th Century French Literature class right at 8am, and then instead of the normal History of French Literary and Artistic Movements lecture at 10am, I got to go on a field trip to an art museum! Some of the art was of the caliber that makes most people skeptical about art in general (i.e. the more modern/contemporary section), but other pieces were really interesting, and it was cool having the professor there to explain everything. It made for at least a little less monotony toward the middle of the week :)

It’s cool how interesting my 17^th Century French Literature class is most of the time. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the class is always interesting to me, if only for the fact that it’s French literature, but also because the tangents the professor goes off onto are fascinating to me. So that’s usually at least a pretty decent start to my Wednesdays. Then there’s my French writing class…which is somewhat in the same line of interesting, except not really, because the tangents are a bit more wordy and lot less relevant to anything I’m interested in (which is saying a lot, because I’m interested in a lot of things…). Then I got to hang out with Amandine, which is always a good thing! J and homework, as always, was inevitable. It was a pretty normal Wednesday.

Thursday once again brought a fair amount of classes, but thankfully one of them (French-English translation) had been cancelled, so I only had three instead of four in a row. One of the highlights of the week happened this night: FRIENDSGIVING! Between the couple days before and the night of, we all got organized over a Facebook message and a Google doc with who would be bringing what, and we all got together and had our own special Thanksgiving dinner! We were even able to obtain an actual, whole, real turkey bird to put in the oven! We had the works: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, salad, and some cranberry juice to make up for the lack of cranberry sauce (we couldn’t find either the berries themselves or the canned stuff anywhere!).

Happy Thanksgiving - Lille style!

It ended up being a pretty late night – we started eating at around 10pm and enjoyed the food, conversation, and laughs until well past midnight. I even got to Skype my family and talk to them on the phone for a little bit! It was an incredible night, and I appreciated it so much because Thanksgiving has always been near and dear to my heart simply due to its proximity to my birthday. Walking home with a big group of people at such a late hour that the metro was closed was even a pretty fun experience :) It was a little different to be celebrating with all these awesome people that I had met in the past few months rather than my family, but the celebration was certainly the best I could have asked for to make me feel like I was home from an ocean away. What an amazing night!

Then, the next day, my next adventure started: Rome! I spent the morning packing and getting everything together in my nice little travel backpack, and then Walker and I headed to the station in the afternoon to catch the shuttle to Brussels Charleroi airport, a 1.5 hour ride. This was my first Ryanair flight in my life, and my first time being up in the air since arriving in France, so I was definitely very excited to be flying to a new country! The 2-hour flight went just fine (I was excited as ever at the takeoff, as I always am!), and we touched down at Rome Ciampino airport by around 8pm. I must say, I was slightly disappointed that I got no passport stamps whatsoever (what with the lovely Schengen Zone nowadays), but we got into the country with no problems, got some cash, and then hopped on a bus into the heart of the city - after getting accustomed to the lovely warm temperature, of course! We got to our hostel (Hostel Alessandro Palace), checked in, dropped our bags while trying not to disturb two sleeping guys, and then got out to walk around and explore the city.

First Ryanair flight!

The first place we got to, was the Piazza della Repubblica, an impressive plaza not too far down the street with a beautiful fountain in the middle. Then we made our way to the impressive Colonna Traiana, which is a column that has a story carved into it that swirls its way up like a comic strip wrapped around a pole, but with a lot more history involved. Ruins were laid out behind the column, which was cool to see because it reminded me even more so than just being the city itself and looking at impressive monuments that all these things existed thousands of years ago – the history was living right there, in front of my eyes. We then crossed the street to get to the Vittoriale, a stately World War I monument which is Italy’s equivalent of France’s Arc de Triomphe, complete with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and everything.

Piazza della Repubblica

The Colonna Traiana with the ruins behind it in perspective

The Vittoriale - an impressive memorial monument.

We then got to the Isola Tiberina, which is a tiny island in the middle of the Tiber River that runs through the middle of the city, and to get onto and off of the island, we crossed over the two oldest bridges in Rome, each at least 4,000 years old, the Ponte Cestio and the Ponte Fabricio. We admired the basilica that occupies the majority of the island for a bit, and then made our way to get a late dinner, which of course, was pizza! We ate right across from the oldest bridge, while watching soccer on the television and reminiscing about all the good times already gone by. After dinner, we passed by the Teatro Marcello on the top of a hill and the Tempio di Vesta with its imposing columns on the way to the Colosseum. Just before we got to the Colosseum, we stopped to walk through the Circo Massimo, the ancient amphitheater of chariot racing, and also the Pallatino ruins.

Our last stop before the Colosseum itself was the arch right in front, called the Arco di Constantino, where we ran into a few street salesmen who tried to get us to buy none other than the lovely selfie sticks (yes, as seen in the Sky Mall catalogue!). Then at last, we were there – we arrived at one of the most iconic monuments in history, il Colosseo! What an experience… it was very humbling to be standing in front of such a profoundly historically important place. There aren’t many words that can describe the feeling accurately.

Arco di Constantino

Il colosseo!

We then got some gelato (which was delicious!, but an important note here is that gelato is just the Italian word for ice cream, and so it wasn’t necessarily as special as gelato is back in the States, lol), saw our last church for the night, S. Maria Maggiore, and then decided to call it a night. We got back to the hostel and had a nice chat with a couple of friends from our residence back in France, Juan and Andres, who had been in Rome for two days already. We chatted about how our trips had been going so far, and they gave us some tips and pointers for what we should see and how to navigate the city. Finally, we said goodnight and settled into our beds to be able to do as much as possible the next day.

Saturday didn’t start too early, thank goodness, but we did start out the day with a nice (and cheap) breakfast in the restaurant next door to the hostel. We shared a nice meal (where, incidentally, I got the American option, and the guys got the English option), and then we headed our separate ways. While waiting for Rob to join us, as he couldn’t come with us the day before due to having an exam in the afternoon, Walker and I made our way toward the Pantheon, and stopped along the way at the Piazza Navona, the Chiesa Nuova, and the Castel S. Angelo. I kept getting really excited because sites like the Piazza Navona and the Castel S. Angelo are prominently featured in the Tom Hanks movie Angels & Demons, which is one of my favorites.

Fountain in the Piazza Navona

Chiesa Nuova

Castel S. Angelo - prominently featured in Angels & Demons!

Then, we finally made it to the Pantheon. Another of the most famous icons in history, and also the largest uninforced concrete dome in the world. We sat there for a while, just admiring the architecture and the history. I had been messaging a friend from St. Norbert in the hopes that we could meet up, since we’re both studying abroad in different places in Europe and we both happened to be in Rome on the same weekend, and we tried to meet up at the Pantheon, but to no avail – the internet didn’t work well at all, and there were just too many people. Oh well – we will most certainly meet up when we’ve both returned Stateside. :)

The Pantheon!

Finally, we got word from Rob that he was on his way, and so we went to meet him where my favorite part of the trip started: Vatican City. One interesting thing to note here is that we made part of our way by bus, and it seems that no one in Rome – neither locals nor anyone else – pays for the bus. I think I saw one person actually flash her bus pass by the machine. Anyways, after Rob got a little confused between the Piazza del Popolo and St. Peter’s Square, we finally all met up in St. Peter’s Square, we purchased tickets online (which ended up saving us a two hour wait in line), and since we booked a certain time for the tickets which wasn’t right away, we had some more pizza in a nice place just outside the Vatican City walls. After pizza and a chat, we headed into the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani). The religion, art, history all in one place made for an incredible experience, and I am going back as soon as I can! (Especially since the one place we didn’t get to see in the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica!) So many different pieces all in one place…Egyptian, Roman, Gregorian, and even some more contemporary works (Van Gogh and Matisse)…it was unreal. The Sistine Chapel was especially inspiring for me…to be able to see a place so central to the mission of Roman Catholicism and the universality of it all…it was intense. It was an experience I will never forget, and an experience that I hope to have again soon.

First glimpse into Vatican City!

Walking into St. Peter's Square

Rob finally joined us! Here are the boys in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Inside the Vatican Museums

Absolutely gorgeous.

Le Penseur was even there!

Antiquated map of the world

Before we left Vatican City, Walker and I sent some postcards to friends and family from the one and only post office (since it is its own country), and then we went back to the Colosseum on the metro. We took a few more moments to take some pictures and take it all in, and then we headed again past the World War I monument before we made it to the Pantheon again, except now it was at night. We couldn’t go inside this time, because there was actually a Catholic mass taking place at the time! Once we finished taking everything in, we checked off a few more boxes of what one should see while in Rome: the Palazzo Chigi, where the Prime Minister lives (and therefore the Italian equivalent of the British 10 Downing Street), the Piazza Colonna where Parliament meets, and the Via del Condotti, where all the designer-name shops are. One of our last stops for the night was at the bottom of the hill where the Trinità dei Montei church is located, right in front of the Spanish steps. Our final stop for the night was the Piazza Barberini, and then we got dinner to go and ate in our hostel. After dinner and a quick chat, Rob headed to bed, since he had already woken up ridiculously early to catch the shuttle and the flight there, but Walker and I got one last gelato and then we decided to call it a night as well. What a long and intense day!

The Colosseum, one more time :)

The Pantheon at night (Mass was in progress!)

Via del Condotti - where all the $$$$$ shops are.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning to catch the bus to take us to the airport, and then we had an hour or so to wait for our flight. (I took advantage of this time to get some duty-free limoncello and freshen up.) Then before I knew it we were back on a plane, playing cards and talking, and then we touched down at Brussels Charleroi where the temperature was much colder. We hopped back on the shuttle to get back to Lille, and our trip to Rome was officially over. What a blast!

With all the excitement these past two weeks have brought, I think it will take me at least another week or two to actually recover from it all! Along with traveling, birthday and holiday celebrations, and keeping up with school, I’ve also been continuing my preparations for Spain, and I’m also getting more and more excited for next semester as well. Some exciting news that I have for you all is that I am officially staying with Amandine over Christmas break, which is so exciting!! I cannot wait!! J and in the meantime, I just have to finish out the semester strong, study for my classes, and of course enjoy the friends I have while we’re all in one place. I think that about does it for this week, and so I’ll see you next week – à bientôt!

P.S. Check out all my photos from Rome on Facebook! - Click here!