The 8 Pack.

Day 16.

So far I have talked about the culture, the city, the food and of course the fountains. But I haven't mentioned a huge part of my life here. I am living in an 8 person apartment, which our professor named the 8 pack on the first night when we couldnt seem to find our way anywhere. From the left, Emily, Me, Trilbey, Maggie, Dana and Britt. Not in this picture are Sara and Renee, I think they were on photo duty. We all went out to Trastevere for the night for Danas 21st birthday which was a ton of fun. We are all very different, with different expectations of our abroad experience and for the most part in different groups at school. It has been so much fun getting to know all of them and has made this experience interesting to say the least! All I can say is that there have been a lot of laughs in this group and we all are here for a great time. Living with 7 other girls in one apartment is definitely different but we have tons of fun together. Mostly its just a lot of giggling about everything that goes on, but as many of you know, laughing is one of my favorite things, and this group really is great. 

Sassy Statue

Day 15.

Today was a day to relax, gather my thoughts and go for a walk by myself and  take some pcitures. After walking for a  bit I found myself back at Ponte Sant'Angelo, which is one of my favorite spots. It was late afternoon, the sun was beginning to set and there was this golden light settling over the bridge. I captured this image, because I love the statues but after looking through them on my camera I fell in love with this one, because either she is giving someone the finger, or is just really sassy. Its like she is saying "Talk to the hand" when she is in reality some beautiful statue that I just caught at a bad angle. Either way, it made me giggle and she is definitely my kind of statue. 

Piazza Cavour

Day 14.

Every day, we head off to school either on foot or on the bus and we pass this beautiful park. For the first two weeks of our trip it has been guarded with fences, caution tape and looked completely off limits. Today as I rode the 280 to school I wondered if we would be able to enjoy it, or if it would still be closed when we left. Well, on the way home from school the park was ready. It seemed that it had been put up, or renovated almost overnight, and I thought to myself, "...well that was quick". Nothing in Massachusetts, or even really on the HWS campus goes up that quickly! The piazza is gorgeous, there is a big center statue, but lots of lush green grass (that apparently grows overnight?) and benches. I settled myself on steps looking out at the piazza and sketched the big statue while eating some delicious fragole gelato. It was a lovely afternoon, and I was very glad that the renovations were over and that we will have plenty of time to enjoy it in our 3 months here. 

Mimi e Coco

Day 13.

Our area around school is teeming with little places to eat, drink, grab a gelato or an espresso. It is so nice to walk around and pick somewhere to eat after class if we dont feel like going home and cooking. One of my favorite places, that I have already been to a couple of times is Mimi e Coco, a little restaurant with FANTASTIC pizza. I love the pizza parma, which has proscuitto on it, but fell in love with the mushroom pizza the other girls got. Although we all live together it is really nice to go out and relax and laugh about class, how horrible our italian is, and eat together without actually having to cook for ourselves. 

Piazza Navona

Day 12.

After class half of our group headed to our professor's apartment for wine and snacks to get to know the 2 HWS professors we are here with. It was really nice to be able to get to know Professors Makker and Bulson while not in class or at a site, but to relax and just chat. After our apertivos I headed towards Piazza Navona, which is a beautiful piazza near our Italian school with 3 gorgeous fountains. I love this piazza because unlike a lot of fountains, this one is only lit from underwater, which is pretty cool at night. I snapped this photo because, there are so many things in the fountain besides the large statues at the top. I loved this fish, because it looks like it has the biggest smile on its face as its splashing around. Quite different from other fountains with just statues or forms, this one actually captures what could be going on in the waters below. 

Capitoline Museum

Day 11.

Today we ventured to the Capitoline Museum near Piazza Venezia. The museum is famous for  its beautiful statuary, rooms full of ornate decorations and the Romulus and Remulus wolf statue, among other things. We were able to walk through most the museum, see beautiful views of the Roman Forum as well as the rest of the city. The best part of the museum for me was the exhibit on Michelangelo and Da Vinci. We were able to look at actual sketches, their notes and original copies from their sketchbooks, such as Da Vincis sketches on flying machines. It was very surreal being only inches away from actual pages in each of Michelangelo's and Da Vinci's notes and sketches. Very, very cool. There were no cameras allowed in that specific exhibit, for obvious reasons but I was able snap some photos in the other parts of the museum. I particularly liked this shot of the light coming into either side of windows, illuminating the gilded decorations on one of the walls. 

Carousel

Day 10.

Having Italian every day for 3 hours a day doesn't seem like much, especially compared to our hectic schedules at HWS. But, sitting in the same small room can get tiring and I have come to enjoy walking home. Not the quickest walk, (about 2 miles) but it is nice to clear my head after a long class. I pass this carousel every time I walk to school and tonight it caught my eye. When I was younger I loved carousels, and one of my favorite pictures of me when I was about 4 is me on one. I stopped for a moment to take a few photos and the lights, combined with really beautiful gilded embellishments made for a really beautiful scene. It was just what I needed to clear my head of all of the conjugations and prepositions of Italian class.