ATTENZIONE!!!: An Essay On Why Rome Hates Kris (And The Feeling Is Getting More And More Mutual)

Where did I leave you all? Monday? Monday was uneventful. I had politics and then we went to drawing, which is normally not on Mondays, but we had to have class Monday since we are not going to be here on Friday. We went to Piazza Navona on Monday to draw and I made a mockery of statue carvings. Hooray!

Piazza Navona = Cardinal #4, the man who would be Pope.

We tried to go see a Caravaggio after drawing, but it was closed for restoration. Hopefully it will be open before we leave because it is one that I studied a lot in art history and it would be enjoyable to see in person.

Tuesday we went to the Vatican for AA, which was mostly good times. I shot a roll of film that I think will be gorgeous! But I do tend to think that about all of my film... Anyway. Good times.

Really awesome carving. I think it's a sarcophagus. Or maybe a pedastal. It's hard to pay attention in that class.
Releif showing the goddess Roma. Didn't know there was one of those, did you?

The Laocoon! I totally didn't know that this was at the Vatican until Tuesday. They originally thought it was carved from a single piece of marble, which made all these other people carve giant things from single blocks of marble after it was discovered. Pretty impressive, no? Yes.

The Egyptian Room! I think these are all Roman copies, though. Which is kind of weird.

Pharoah, Pharoah....

Naked Venus statue. When you're the goddess of love, apparently you're naked a lot. Or so the statues would lead one to believe.

Relief of a former slave. Terrible hair back in the Flavian period.

More awful hair. They did bad things back in the day.

So good times at the Vaticano until we left. As we were walking to the Ottaviano Metro stop, a woman comes up and grabbes the back of my shirt yelling "ATTENZIONE!" and then proceeds to tell me (in Italian, but I totally understood every word, which is the impressive part of this experience) that there was a gypsy halfway into my purse. And sure enough, I look down and my little travel purse is completely unzipped and my wallet is halfway out and I didn't feel a single flipping thing. So I quickly check to make sure that all of my stuff is there while Terrance stares him down and threatens to run after him unless all of my stuff is accounted for and the gypsy shrugges and glares at me and walks off. Bastard. But, the good note of this is, that even though the Italians are mean, apparently they got your back when you need it. My wallet would have been SO gone if she hadn't been there. After I tucked everything back into my purse, this whole stream of Italians walked by me, all cautioning me "attenzione". That means pay attention, which I'm sure you figured out by now. Rome hates me. I have averaged one bad incident per week since being here. Just saying.

Tuesday was also Lindsey's birthday, so after Italian we went back to the apartment and made her a cake and brinner. Breakfast burritos and pancakes. Sometimes breakfast just makes everything better.

This was our bowl of eggs from two different cartons- amazing the different colors. Anyway, I thought it was pretty, so you get a picture of eggs. (Eggs cracked open courtesy of Alex, by the way)

Lindsey and her birthday cake. The lights were totally off, which is a testament to how awesome my flash is.

Anyway, Wednesday we went to this weird archealogical museum thing for drawing, but it was flipping freezing, so we didn't draw too long and called off class early. But we did take a field trip to go see Santa Maria della Vittoria and Bernini's Ecstacy of St. Teresa (Cardinal #3, by the way). I took pictures of that too, but I'll have to show you those next time.

Today we went to a series of different churches, including San Pietro in Vincoli which has the tomb of Julius II, also very impressive. You get to wait until I get back to see those pictures, though. We also saw frescoes at the Piazza Faranese which contained a very interesting horse and someone who looks suspiciously like Peter Pan. Interesting day. Then we had Italian and ran to the GS to get last minute supplies for Sicily and came home.

Oh yes, I'm going to Sicily tomorrow. I don't know if I mentioned that one. We're leaving in the morning at the ungodly hour of 5 am and we land in Sicily at 8. Then we get to go find our hostel and run around and try to find interesting things to do. Elda (Italian teacher) said that Sicily is gorgeous, but that you should hold on tight to your belongings there. Awesome. Anyway, I'll write on Sunday night or Monday and tell you all about it. Cross your fingers for me and my belongings!