Momentary Blindness

     As I close my eyes, the birds around the orange garden sing in perfect harmony and the breeze tickles the hair on the back of my neck. I can feel and hear the wind whistling through my hair and clothes; but it also picks up pieces of the dust on the ground. As I'm still recovering from being sick, there is a constant tickle in my throat and I can't help but cough every know and then as I sit on the bench in otherwise silence. I can't smell anything - though I long to smell the oranges and blackberries that I saw around me before I closed my eyes - nothing permeates through my dulled by sickness olfactory senses.

Romics (Voyeur)

     He will only wear brown: brown cloak, brown socks, and brown shoes. He hangs on every word of Pope Francis and every word of his German Cardinal. As he listens, one of the men by his side pats his shoulder. There is a circle of six tourists surrounding him, all of them speaking German. They each wear matching colors and their hats contain images of the Pope - he escorted them here from their hometown in order to have the pleasure of being blessed by His Holiness after the service. He is a brother of the Franciscan order so he does not wear one of the tourist hats. But, he also came to Rome for a reason other than the Papal audience. His black sunglasses glimmer in the sunlight as he thinks fondly of earlier in the morning when he was on the Via Portuense.

Cornettos and Castels

     I started off the morning right - a made to order croissant (cornetto in Italian) injected with Nutella. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do when I no longer have Italian breakfast. Maybe have chocolate withdrawal problems. Anyway, I walked with Anna to a little bench spot about a block away from the pastry shop and we sat to eat our breakfast. I don't care that we freaked out multiple people with our aggressive chocolate eating. It was more than worth it.

Yellow Isn't Happy

     There were multiple signs telling us not to go into the Palazzo Massimo. First, we couldn't find the entrance and had to walk the entire perimeter of the building. Second, the Boxer statue was on display in another museum (so the reason we were visiting was moot). Third, Anna's ticket decided not to scan to let her inside. Despite all these attempts to dissuade us from entering, we proceeded as if nothing hindered us.

Mother of All Churches

     Today Anna and I got to walk around St. John Lateran for a while, and then sit in the back of the church for a bit longer. The church took my breath away. It was so amazing, so beautiful and so overwhelming. I mean overwhelming in a good way, though - the kind of way in which you need to just stand there for a good ten minutes because it's too magnificent to comprehend. Even just sitting down and looking at the ceiling I was blown away by how gorgeous the entire building was, and how much talent and skill went into creating it. I was able to see the tombs of various popes, walk through the aisle flanked by important saints including Peter and Paul, and bask in the beauty of the golden altar. I think the combination of pure beauty and the fact that the church is the seat of the diocese of Rome really hit me full force as I sat in the back with Anna. I'm not ashamed to say I shed a few tears as I stared at all the gold, marble and wood in front of me. There were so many people, but I didn't even notice them I was so captivated by everything in the church. It was definitely a big moment, one that I won't forget for quite a long time. To be honest I'm wary, after my reaction to St. John's, about how I'm going to react inside the Sistine Chapel. Fingers crossed that I don't break down in tears before I can at least find a little corner out of sight.

Pantheon of Roses

     This morning was a struggle. When I woke up I realized it was about 8:30, much later than I had planned. Since Anna and I had decided to go to the Pentecost mass at the Pantheon, we knew we needed to leave by 9:00 at the latest. Somehow I managed, after almost convincing myself that I could sleep in, to shower and get ready in record time.

Ekphrasis

     Her lightly tanned skin, uncovered under the glowing rays of the sun peaking through the clouds, is hugged by the white swan's wing. The soft feathers envelope her hips as she reaches her hands across the bird's neck. Half of the swan appears in shadows, but its unfurled second wing and its curving neck glisten in the sunlight. The woman embraces the swan and her body angles towards the bird, but she does not try to hide her body in the wings. Rather, she angles her hips away from the bird while her arm crosses over her body to cling to the neck of the swan.

Someone Called British

     So many things happened today, it's hard to pinpoint any one thing that was the best or most memorable of them all. We went to the capitoline museum for most of the time, and then visited the Ara Pacis where Anna proceeded to get super emotional about her monument. It was expected - and I made sure there was photo evidence afterwards. Possibly the best part of the day wasn't remotely connected to historical Rome, however, since it happened at the little tented shop next to S. Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline.

Palatine Palazzi

     I walked inside and was immediately faced with three choices: left, right, or center. I decided to chose center, just because of the symmetry, and was slightly disappointed. The center didn't go back very much and so I had to chose again: left or right. Right became the next direction since it seemed as if the path was more defined on that side. Everything I saw at first was rustic and covered with life - clovers, flowers, grass, and ivy surrounded all the ruins.

Ecstasy on the Round

     Almost the first restaurant we came across, dello Studente, was the one where we ended up eating. I say ended up since we merely ambled over after filling our water bottles because everyone was saying how the professors liked it. After we were seated, of course, we noticed that Curley and Spinner were sitting at the table just a few down from us. There were ten of us at the table: myself, Anna, Mariana, Sarah D., Chris, Kristen, Sarah B., Mark, Ally, and Elyssa.

On Heaven's Altar

Today was probably the most stressful out of all the days I'll have here in Rome. It wasn't because I was left to find my way multiple times without the professors, or because I had to take the metro, or even because of the almost 20,000 steps I took today. No, it was because I finally got to step foot in the church I had been researching about for the whole semester: Santa Maria in Aracoeli, or Saint Mary on the Altar of Heaven.

BananaRoma

PING. Looking up and to my left, I noticed a window with bars on it - someone must have thrown something against one of the bars on the window. Next thing I know there's a banana flying through the air at me. It came through the bars in the window and flew right past Anna's face towards me.
To this moment I still don't know how I managed to dodge it, but I was so stunned. Between being nearly delirious from jet lag and having a banana thrown at me, I couldn't stop laughing for a good few minutes. Then, of course, Kristen pointed out that it was probably some strange mating ritual so in a few years when I try to get married I'll be stopped by a complete stranger who secretly married me on my first night in Rome.