Roma, Italia-finals week

Oh boy. I’ve fallen quite behind in writing again. The last two weeks were so busy though, that I just couldn’t help it! I’m now safe and sound back at home in Easthampton, but I’ll write about everything based on a bulleted list I kept and the hundreds (thousands?) of pictures I took since then.
The weekend before our final review (December 6-7) many of us used as time to explore Rome and have fun before we had to really buckle down and finish up our projects. I did a lot of exploring along the Papal Way with Caitlin, despite the vast amount of rain. We window browsed, found an awesome bead store (I took tons of pictures and the owner jokingly tried to charge me!), and went into an art gallery called “African Heritage”. The woman who owned the shop was very nice and spoke English fairly well. She was very nice and took the time to explain to us what many of the items were. We saw mancala boards, woven jugs used to carry milk or blood, gigantic seed pods, jewelry, wooden carvings, bracelets with hidden blades (not used for protection, more for practical uses), batik cloths, instruments, bags, marital jewelry, and a bone with a carved handle that was used by young boys to hold open the jaws of a lion. The woman was full of fun stories and by the end of our visit gave both of us books of an exhibit she helped put together some years ago. She also told us that Fuksas, a well-known contemporary architect lived around the corner. Apparently he was a friend of hers and would often come visit her shop. She asked us if we would recognize his face and we said no, only his architecture. We could have passed him on the street and never known! She next asked us if he was really well known around the world or if he was only local, which astounded us (for those unfamiliar with contemporary architects, he’s very successful). On our way back to the Campo, the stem of my umbrella snapped off from the top part, making it totally floppy and completely useless, so I held it over my head as the rain started coming down harder and I followed Caitlin’s feet (that was all I could see) home.
That weekend I went to mass Sunday morning at Sant’ Ivo with a few other students. Some people on our trip had gone to mass nearly every weekend at a different church each time, but this was my only trip. The church had a wonderful homey feel to it; the pastor came out and said “Buongiorno” (good day/hello) to everyone before the service started, people were very friendly when spreading the “pace” (peace), and the entire service was played on guitar by two girls in the front row-no organ! I also realized that day that Italian in churches is pretty easy to translate- a lot of “father”s, “son”s, “church”s, “holy spirit”s, “God”s, etc. After the service I stuck around for a while to sketch and was pleased to see that a lot of my friends who usually sleep in on Sundays made it over to finally see the interior (after I kept reminding them how spectacular it was and how silly they were for not having gone).
Jeff, Rachel, and I worked very hard on our project and ended up having a great review on Thursday. Team slack-a-potamus (as we affectionately named ourselves) did very well! The whole review went by quickly (under 4 hours, as there were only 7 teams) and everyone (except Stokes) stayed awake. Our board sizes were restricted, so there was only so much work we could do before filling them; I got to sleep at midnight, which is unheard of for a final architecture review. That night we went out for a wonderful dinner, all 22 of us, D.Bell, Cinzia, our history professor Jeffery, and our Italian professors Paolo and Raffaella were all there. The only absence was Jan, our history professor of three classes, who couldn’t make it because he lives 60 miles outside of Rome and there was a train strike. There were many nice toasts and far too many courses of delicious food. Cinzia compared the energy of our group to the energy of the Tiber River, which came close to overflowing its embankments because of all the rain, something it hasn’t done in 138 years.
Also that Thursday, before the dinner and after the reviews, some of us went to a papal student mass at St. Peter’s! The place was jam-packed, but we got there early and had good seats. The stadium-style lighting was crazy (for the TV cameras), the choir and orchestra were lovely, and most of the service was run by a head-honcho cardinal. Also, the communion was probably one of the most awkward things I’ve ever seen. Priests (cardinals? Not sure) came down the aisle of the nave and went to each row with wafers and chalice in hand. If you wanted communion (I didn’t), you had to scoot along your row until you reached the aisle. Once communion-ified, you had to scoot past everyone else in your row to get back to your seat. Oh well. We were also given DVDs upon sitting down. I don’t know what’s on them, I haven’t gotten a chance to play mine yet. We affectionately call them “the papal DVDs” in the apartment, though. And at the end of the service, the pope went up to the altar (he hadn’t been present for the mass), read some things in Italian (I only caught so much), then walked down the aisle. People were clambering over each other and taking pictures all teeny-bopper boy-band style. It was crazy! I did, however, manage to stand maybe eight or so feet away from the pope, which is pretty sweet.
The next day was our last full day with the entire studio together (although we had the apartments until the next Friday, some people left as early as Saturday). A group of us trouped over to St. Peter’s to see the crypts. We decided to wait for a bus, since people didn’t want to get their pant legs wet in the rain, and consequently ended up standing in the rain for a while waiting. Oh well. We got to the Vatican, stood in line for a while (still raining) and finally made it inside. There was no line for the crypts, but we were all soon a bit let down. It seemed that much of the crypt areas were roped off-we went down one corridor with some sarcophagi (including the most recently deceased John Paul), could look down a few other hallways, and then climbed some stairs and entered the church under the dome. Apparently when other people went, they could see many more graves and the foundations of the original St. Peter’s Basilica. Quite let down, we went back to the apartment.
On our way back, we stopped by the Forno (bakery for bread, pastries, and foccacia pizza) and fulfilled a semester-long goal: we asked for an entire pizza, and they said to wait 5 minutes then gave it to us! Unlike pizzas in the states, these were made on narrow, long pieces of foccacia that could near 6-8 feet in length (and I’m not exaggerating!) and were about 10 inches wide. Unfortunately, they cut it into 4 pieces (I had a vision of us just putting the whole thing on our shoulders and crossing the Campo with it, no such luck and impractical in the rain) but it was still delicious and everyone in the apartment was excited when we returned with it.
After dinner, we crossed town to an ice bar near the Pantheon. Sarah and Bruce had been with Sarah’s family and said it was a ton of fun, so we incorporated it into the night’s plans of belated/early birthday parties to Rachel, Sarah, and Bruce. The interior was made entirely of ice (walls, benches, bar, and glasses) and kept at a chilly 21˚ F. The cover charge included parka-ponchos and gloves. The ponchos were great (space-blanket silver), but our fingers were soon frozen inside the fleece gloves while holding our ice glasses. The lights inside the tiny space (50 person capacity) faded from red to green to yellow to blue to purple, so combined with our ridiculous getups we took some memorable photos. The only drinks servable were vodka and grappa, because everything else would freeze! We ended up staying 2 hours, staging photos and chatting with Alessandro, the adorable bartender with an Irish accent and perfect English. Once we were all sufficiently frozen, we headed back to the apartment for more wine and birthday party-age.

PICTURES: pizza + pastries from the Forno, Viv, Rach, Jeff, and Sarah in the ice bar, and the pope!