>>ROMA

view from St. Peter's Basilica
Richard Meir Museum
Colliseum at night

Ciao! I am finaly back from the long 11 day journey through some major spots in Italy. Roma or Rome was our first stop. The hotel was not so great and pretty far from the city center but bus rides were easy enough to access. Rome was a great, a very vibrant and beautiful city. We arrived on the 25th and immediatley hoped on a bus to see the colliseum, and visit St. Peter's Basilica. Later that night, we saw the spanish steps and ate a delicious dinner near the steps. The next morning was another marathon tour day, from 8am till 6pm we saw every major site in Rome. We saw the changing of the guard, obelisks, churches, art and we finished exhausted. That night we saw the Richard Meir designed museum which was wonderful at night. The next morning on the 27th, we had a free day before checkout. We took the oppurtunity to wake up early and line up for the Vatican museum and climb the dome of St.Peter's since we only saw the church the first visit. The line was so long but moved quickly. The museum was so vast it was overwhelming. One of my favorite sculptures was the Laocoone of the serpent with the man and 2 boys. The view from St.Peter's (above) was amazing-you can see a peace rally in between the arms. After The climb, I sketched the facade of St. Peter's while listening to the catchy peace rally rock fest! Then we met up with our professors and journeyed to an exhibit on Maximiliano Fuksas, a contemporary architect we studied last year. He is also the architect who designed the pavilion in Milano were our projects will be displayed. After the exhibit we were late for our train so we ran from our hotel to make it in time!! We made it luckily and we were headed to Siena.