May 23-25

I am off school on fridays, so I headed down to Piazza Venezia, where the Victor Emmanuel monument is, as well as a lot of other sights. I went to the Galleria Doria Pamphilji, which houses the familys private late-Renaissance art collection. (also i cant find the apostrophe on this italian key board, so sorry!) The family still lives in part of the building, which i imagine is equally as nice! It was a gorgeous gallery, but you cant take pictures... also i dont have my camera cord with me (i brought the wrong one) so i cant show you any pictures! Anyway, there were some cool paintings, notably a famous picture of Pope Innocent X by Velaquez. Innocent X was a member of the Pamphilji family, thus moving it to one of the most important and powerful families in Rome in the 17th century, which explains all the art.. anyway, I really liked the Gallery. I also saw two saints bodies in glass cases in the Chapel. One member of the Pamphijli family supposedly took the body of Saint Justin around with her wherever she went - creepy if you ask me. Also on Friday I went to the Pantheon again and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Romes only Gothic church. Saturday, I headed off to the beach with my roommate and a few other girls. The beach was really super crowded, but was only a 30 minute train ride outside of Rome, so it was easy and convenient. We didnt stay too long though, as it got cloudy and kind of cold. Yesterday, I did some running around and then spent most of the day reading for school and working on a presentation I had due today in class. It went well, and I was glad to get it out of the way so early in the semester. So all in all, I had a pretty good weekend. Im excited about Florence, this weekend, with my friend Lauren from AU (shes studying in Nice). Ive been running down along the Tiber river, which is about a block from my apartment, which is going really well - gotta get in shape for the Marine Corp Marathon! Its a pretty nice place to run, away from traffic, and most people tend to leave me alone! I hope everyone is well in Georgia, or wherever you may be! (im sure i have devout blog followers all over the world). I miss and love you all!

Trastevere and John Cabot University

John Cabot University is located Trastevere, which is right across the Tiber from the rest of Rome. In ancient Rome, it was the artisan district, but now it's just home to many restaurants, bars, shops, etc. It's a pretty cute section of the city though, very typical Italian in my opinion, the cobblestone streets are tiny and the buildings are all super close together. JCU is just one building, but there are several courtyards, so it seems a lot larger. There's a cafe (Cafe Sentimmiano) right across from the school, which is nice. Also we get a 15 minute coffee break during my class, so we all head over there to get a cappuccino - a concept I'm really fond of. I really like my class -The Innocents Abroad: Perspectives of Italy in Literature. My Professor is Canadian, she went to Oxford, but has lived in Rome for about six years. Apparently her husband is a writer, and this is where he finds his inspiration! Anyway, the class is cool - we are reading several accounts of travel to Italy, we have already read Goethe's Italian Journey. Its actually really cool to read about his experiences as I visit the same sights. We also read the letters home of this British guy. It was kind of funny because he had similar things to say about Italy as my roommate, such as the Pantheon is an "ugly, old building." Ill say I was equally annoyed when they both said it. It is fascinating to me that she has the same stereotypes and expectations as a British guy did in the eighteenth century... anyway, I think its really interesting to think about my experiences in relation to these authors. There are only 8 people in my class and we also take field trips! We went to Capitoline Hill to go to the museum and see some paintings we are reading about. There we saw the statue of Romulus and Remus under the wolf (like we have in Rome, GA) and a gigantic statue of Marcus Aurelius. Also, we saw Domenchinis Sibyl, which the book Corrine, or Italy by Madame de Stael, which we are reading now, was based on. Later we are visiting Palazzo Barberini and the Keats-Shelley house. Things to look forward to!

ROME

I hope everyone appreciates the B-52's inspired title... (brian's idea, by the way)! I will post soon!