The rest of our Rome Weekend

Friday was yet another busy day. We began with a quick look into the Church of Sant’Maria della Vittoria. A few of the people in our group said it is one of the churches from the book ‘Angels and Demons.’ It also houses one of Bernini’s famous sculptures… Ecstasy of St Theresa. Afterwards we headed for Termini (the main metro station) to take the train to the Coliseum. It was interesting to see the different brick and stone patterns throughout the structure and how our design patterns have not changed much. We used our Roma passes for the train and then to get into the Coliseum and then we headed to the Roman Forum. Our professors had books that showed before pictures of what the town looked like, it was interesting to compare what was left for us to see today, what has survived and what has fallen to the ground. We went to the Capitoline museum next. The art students took some time to sketch some of the statuary. We ended our busy day with a walk through the city to the Four Rivers fountain (another sculpture by Bernini) and the Pantheon. Oh and did I mention we stopped for some gelato along the way…I am working my way through trying every flavor!

Friday night we had more leisurely night, walked around, did a little shopping and ate at a Trattoria (nicer than a pizzeria, but not as expensive as a restaurant) which was on the interesting side… we have decided a place a little off the main road with cheaper prices is not the way to go… Lesson learned! Food was not awful but we had definitely had better during our trip.

Saturday we had an appointment to go to the Borghese Museum. They have a strict policy entering and leaving the museum according to the times on your ticket but they give you plenty of time. Again the art students had time to sketch some of the statuary within the museum and outside the museum in the gardens. I was very surprised by this museum, I did not know exactly what I was going to see and felt I had already seen every masterpiece Rome had to offer. We saw several pieces by Bernini (yes… he was very talented and has artwork ALL over Rome) and more paintings by Caravaggio.

From the Borghese we walked through park surrounding the museum in search of a train station to head towards the Vatican and St Peters Basilica. Several students in our group had paid extra to go to the top of the Dome of St Peters and we were headed back to do the same thing. After stopping for a delicious lunch at a pizzeria we found a very, very long line and decided we did not want to use our day standing in line. Another student had gone to the Castle Sant’Angelo the day before and said the view from the top was beautiful! We decided to give it a try. We made the right decision because the view from Castle Sant’Angelo included St Peters Basilica and a panoramic view of Rome. It began to rain when we were leaving the Castle so we decided to jump on a bus and head home to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner. Well our bus ride turned out to be a bit longer than intended because we ended up at a bus stop where the drivers changed shifts, delaying our ride a bit but keeping us dry!

We spent our last night hanging out as one big group for dinner and then splitting ways for the rest of the evening. Our group met up with Lorenzo (a guy who was our server in Montepulciano for the first two weeks of our stay) and a few of his friends and he took us to the old part of Rome, where nightlife was much more laid back and inexpensive. Lorenzo explained that trains were not a good option at night and that buses did not run nearly as frequently so we walked home – a 40 minute walk, but we broke it up into several small trips. We walked across the river, back past the Four Rivers fountain, the Pantheon, and to the Spanish Steps. I enjoyed taking some night photos of the city!!!

Sunday we had a few hours before catching a bus back to Montepulciano. Kristin and I did some last minute walking around the city to make sure we did not miss anything, while souvenir shopping at the same time. We grabbed a sandwich and some gelato for the bus ride home!