Beware the Ides of March!!

Springtime has descended quickly upon Rome within the past week, making it almost unbearably pleasant in a city which I did not know could get any better! It all started last Thursday when I was on my way to school, I was listening to music, distracted by my own thoughts and I looked up and BAMB- I noticed that the trees were blooming! Here is a lovely picture of a tree on my way to school for your enjoyment!

Unfortunately, interspersed between these beautiful spring days have been lots and lots and lots of spring showers- good for the flowers, bad for those who walk everywhere (and also those who are headed for spring break!). In the middle of this nice weather and thunderstorms I managed to go on two day trips, a school field trip and two days of exploring “un-chartered” territory here in Rome!

Last Friday, I woke up bright and early at 4:30 and headed to Florence on a school organized day trip! We were actually only in Florence from about 11:00 to 4:30, so in that time we were able to go on a walking tour of the city, visit San Croce (where Dante, and other were buried!), ate a nice lunch and then hit up the awesome leather markets!

San Croce

somebody important's tomb

David replica in the square it was originally put in

Shaily and I

bridge over the river

the dome

Saturday, I was invited to a little town about two hours north of Rome, called Viterbo by a girl from one of my classes. I didn’t know much about it but decided it would be fun to check out anyways; luckily I did because it turned out to be a little town which was home to the Popes for a while in the Middle Ages and is known for having a city center which almost entirely preserves the Medieval architecture- I also happened to have one of my best meals so far here (I finally ordered meat).

medieval palace/cathedral complex in viterbo

heart mementos in the church museum, given to the church after a prayer to do with love was answered- how cute!

the "romanesque church"

The hidden Baroque apse of the Cathedral! It's a good thing that we paid to take a tour of the grounds becuase behind a door in the apse in the picture above, is this wonder! the church was damaged in WWII and the silly restorers decided to "restore it" to its medieval origins, cutting off later additions with these beautiful frescoes!

where they cut off the baroque cathedral when resotring the romanesue structure

Prima Piatto

Pancetta!!! Segundo Piatti

Sunday, is spent most of the walking around the city, seeing sites and trying to find new and better ways to cut through the winding streets between them. Some highlights of my wanderings were:

A random church I came upon while wandering

McDonalds! Robyn, my supervisor at Ashkelon told me there was an Mcdonald's built into the ruins, I found two Mcdonald's and dont think I found it, but this one had an ancient inscription next to a sign in its basement.

The church at the top of the spanish steps

The view from the top Pincio Hill in Villa Borghese

The view of Piazza de Popolo from Pincio

Trevi Fountain! I met my roommates here before heading with them to the Capucian crypt, too bad it was raining otherwise, I would've snapped a picture of myself there.

The Capucian crypt! The Capucian monks began exhuming bodies in the medieval time period in ored to make room for more buriels and istead of disposing of the bodies irreverently they decided top make cool designs out of them! It was an expirience that was equal parts cool, beautiful, creepy and just plain wierd.

Yesterday, however, the Ides of March, was probably my favorite day here in Rome thus far! Both of my classes were scheduled to head to Ostia Antica, the port city of Rome during the Empire (about 4o minutes outside of the city by commuter train), so not only did I get to spend the entire day learning about this interesting city, I had almost two hours between the classes to enjoy exploring the ancient city with my friend Rebecca, who is in both classes with me! The day was absolutely gorgeous, almost 70 degrees, and since Rebecca is as much of an archaeology nerd as I am we spent almost our entire lunch break exploring the site, climbing on top of the ruins, identifying things, and taking pictures (plus, we stopped a couple minutes early to grab Gelato because it was so beautiful out!) Unfortunately, because of my class adventures I missed most of the Hooplah over at Largo Argentina for the Ides of March (they reinact Caesar’s death!) but I was able to head over towards the end of the celebration, see the decorations and just enjoy the fact that it was ridiculously beautiful out, I was in Rome, AND looking down at the spot of Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March- what a life!

Our meeting point for the day was at, no big, a pyramid!

The romans bring a whole new meaning to "Public Restroom"

Well, I better head because IVE GOT A SPRING BREAK TO GO TO! YAY! You won’t be hearing from me for at least ten days because I will be enjoying myself (and if wheather.com is correct, lots of rain will be joining me L) on the Almalfi coast and Sicily, where I will see lots of beautiful sites, hike on two volcanoes, and see some pretty ridiculous greek ruins!