Yeah, I think we call those birds.

I realize that I have a great chunk of time to catch up on in the blog. However, this means that I felt guilty and posted tons of pictures! It really works out well for everyone. Tuesday I did nothing exciting. Which is going to sound bad when I tell you all what I did. We were supposed to go to a museum for AA, however the museum was closed due to a random Union Meeting, so we went on a walking field trip through Rome. We went to the museum of the Ara Pacis and saw it for a while, then we walked to see the giant sundial thing that I posted pictures of before and then we went to the Pantheon. Yes, I know. And I'm saying I did nothing exciting on Tuesday. No, I don't think I'm jaded. Leave me alone. Then we had Italian and our teacher got mad at us for being almost asleep so she kicked us out of class to go get caffeine before she would continue the lesson. Do you know how you can tell a non-Italian from an Italian? Non-Italians order cappuccino all day long, whereas the real Italians do not touch cappuccinos after noon. To prove that we were not Italian, Danielle and I went across the street from school and ordered Cappuccinos at 4 in the afternoon. To prove that they knew we were not Italian, they put them in giant plastic cups and decorated them with chocolate sauce and brightly colored bendy straws. At least we found some Italians with a sense of humor.
Wednesday we had drawing class where we met at the Wine Academy. We were all excited about this, because we know where the Wine Academy is. Alas, our teacher showed up 40 minutes late because the train system here is a bit ridiculous so we were all freaking out and thinking we were at the wrong place anyway. We were not. We went outside to draw the fountain at the Spanish Steps when Paulina arrived and as soon as we sat down it started to rain and a few seconds later, it started to snow.

This was the fountain that we didn't get a chance to draw.

We went inside and drew from xeroxes. We attempted to draw the faces of statues. When I say we attempted, I mean everyone else in the class drew them just fine. I did not. Paulina told me I gave Augustus little girl lips. Sigh.

At break we went and warmed up with more cappuccinos, further proving that we are not Italian by the fact that I took pictures of them.

Mine

Danielle's

We were wondering why they were looking at us so weird as we started to leave and then realized that we didn't pay for them. We had to go back inside and do that. The place is just starting to feel too comfortable.
I called Poodle on Wednesday night after we got back from drawing. He got married on Thursday, so I called to wish him the best since I was about 7,000 miles away from his wedding.

Thursday we went to a series of churches for R&B, the first one being at like... the highest point in Rome. We left an hour before class started and we were still 45 minutes late by the time we got there. Ugly climbing day. Not to mention, we were all freezing. It's been a very cold week here. We went to several different buildings around Rome to study the architecture of different places and then almost collapsed. Long morning. We all went and caffeinated ourselves up before Italian so as not to repeat the angry experience.

I had an epic moment while getting lunch- the people across the street gave me a free suppli!!! This was pretty amazing, because as Alex put it "Kris, you've come a long way. Because, seriously.... they HATED you". No, really, they did.

That night, several of us went to a wine tasting. A real one, with 8 samples of wine instead of 3.

We learned about a certain type of grape that I can't pronounce and I fell in love with a new wine that's only 10 Euro!
We thought we were doing well to blend in, or at least not stick out so badly and then a few of us said that we liked a wine that everyone else booed. Someone said that they should throw popcorn at us. Apparently we are not blending in as well as we thought. We went back to the Residence after that and most of the group went out to a bar. Danielle stayed home and listened to me complain about Poodle. Good times.
Friday was supposed to be another transportation strike so we all planned sort of a low key day. I went on a field trip to Castroni, planning on walking, but I discovered that the metros and buses were both working, so I took a bus to and a metro from Castroni. I felt the urge to cook, as I often do when upset, so I made brownies for Valentine's day for the group.

Ah, Valentine's Day. To celebrate the blessed San Valentino, we got on a bus with one seat fewer than the number that we needed at 6:45 in the morning. Then we rode like 2 and half hours to Pompeii, all the while hearing about how the gypsys drug their children and the Mafia in Naples was going to kill us. Feel the love. Anyway, we arrived at Pompeii and walked around for about 5 or 6 ish hours. I feel like my description would not be as helpful as pictures, so let us show pictures instead:

Alex eating the Italian version of Chex Mix before we went into Pompeii



View along the city walls of Pompeii where you could look over and see the city. Much bigger than I ever thought it was.

The Villa of Mysteries. Totally strange to see this in person after seeing it in books for so many art history semesters. The funny thing is, most of the important stuff was taken out of Pompeii and put into a museum that we went to see afterwards, but the Villa of Mysteries remains untouched. And in Pompeii.

Field. So, because everything in Pompeii was preserved, they have actually been able use seeds preserved from plants that were covered under the ash when Pompeii was covered and regrow the same species.

I think these were rooms in a house. I don't entirely remember. I also didn't take these pictures, by the way. All pictures of Pompeii and Naples are shot by Terrance who forgot his camera and therefore had to use one of mine for the day since I had my Rebel (Annie) and also my little go-anywhere digtal camera (Kyle). So Terrance got to use Kyle all day.

Pottery shed. Also with a plaster cast of what the person looked like who was found there. Pompeii is kind of sad.

Side of house where you can see frescoes and political writings on the wall.

Pompeii's version of the Colosseum. Much smaller, but still where crazy gladiator fights were held.

Pretty picture overlooking the city.

Entrance to the Pompeii-oseum. Spectators got to walk up the stairs and then into the stands.

More plaster castings of people. This was in the area known as the House of Fugitives.

Gladiator enterance to the Pompeii-oseum. I'm aware that the pictures are crazy out of order. Sorry.

This was part of a wine-making contraption in the Villa of Mysteries. Really big house, that Villa. More like a farm, in fact.

Again, pretty view of Pompeii. There was Rosemary growing everywhere and it smelled really good.

Yes, more Pompeii.

Olive press! I think it was to make oil.

This was the first thing we saw, it's a whole row of tombs by the front entrance.

The House of the Faun. So named because of the green statue of the Faun directly in front (not the real statue that was found). This house is gigantic and takes up like half of a city block. And it's gorgeous even when it's in ruins form.

Frescoes on a wall.

Pompeiian Forum

More House of the Faun. I already said things were out of order.

Little packed together houses.

Ancient McDonald's! Food was kept in the bowls that you can see up front and you would come in and get some food and then go stand in the back and eat. It was where fast food was invented.

More people plasters.

Broken columns of the Pompeiian basillica.

Better view of the Pompeiian basillica.

So, after Pompeii, we jumped back on the bus and went to Naples where we did not get attacked by the Mafia! We went to a museum and saw all the good stuff that they took out of Pompeii. Not all of it was from Pompeii, though.

Statue of Hercules that did not come from Pompeii.

Portrait of someone that did not come from Pompeii
Fresco that totally came from Pompeii.

So, after the museum we went to dinner at this place an hour away from the museum that was on the top of a hill where you could overlook the city. I don't know which city we were overlooking; it was dark. We had an amazing 5 course meal that totally blew our plans to come home and eat pancakes and watch Lord of the Rings, but it was worth it. We started out with a bread plate that had regular bread and these little dough balls that were deep fried and absolutely amazing. I must figure out how to make them. Then we had an antipasto platter that had procuitto, ricotta, mozzarella, a little square of lasagne, and a spinach thing. Crazy good. Then we had stuffed shells that were filled with meat and then had a tomato sauce and cheese. Then we had pork stuffed with procuitto and mozzarella and breaded and covered with a sauce on top of mashed potatoes. And then we finished with a brownie in the shape of a heart with a scoop of gelato that tasted like egg nog. It was amazing. None of us could walk afterward and Alex threatened to throw up on me the entire bus ride home. Then we got back to the residence and Paul couldn't find his car, so we still don't know if it was stolen or towed. And then we all passed out. Today has been a completely low key day of blowing off homework, doing laundry and watching Lord of the Rings. Good times.

Why I Don't Believe In Public Transportation

So today, I went to Politics class. And then I went back to Castroni and found Dr. Pepper. Yes! Dr. Pepper. Not that I don't totally adore the Fanta Italiana. But sometimes you need the DP. Yes you do. Anyway, went back to class and quickly made myself look cute for the wine tasting that we had tonight and packed lunch for art class and the left to go meet Paulina at La Boca della Verita. Not that we drew it. We didn't. And Kris totally got groped by a SKEEZY guy on the bus. Flat-out groped. At this moment, I genuinely despise Italian Men. I wish bad things upon every single one of them. Awful things. I glared death-glares at him and then lunged for the next open seat. I genuinely regret the lack of the use of profanity and slapping. I missed out on a genuine Drama Queen moment. Next time. I have already been "eyed" and genuinely groped in Rome. I am over the disgusting Italian men. But anyway, back to drawing. We drew the Temple of Hercules. Badly, from my perspective anyway. And then we drew a statue that we don't even want to talk about. After that, we went to the International Wine Academy to get ready for our wine tasting, which didn't get cancelled! We walked around for a bit and sat on the Spanish Steps for the first time, which is weird because we walk by it almost everyday, but we had yet to do the tourist thing and sit on it and take pictures. So we did. And then we got a crepe before wine tasting. The guy who did our wine tasting was completely insane in the best of possible ways. Within our hour of wine tasting, he told us he was abducted by Aliens to learn English and started talking about Cowpox. It was awesome. We tried three kinds of white wine and learned how to smell, swirl and sniff. We also learned the difference between a good and a bad corkscrew, we learned what makes red wine red and white wine white and we learned about why some wine is bitter and why how the wine is fermented makes a difference. A very informative and weird hour. I am going to know so much about wine when I get home. Just wait. Anyway, now we are back at the apartments, trying to motivate ourselves to study for class tomorrow which is at another museum. Yay! Oh, pictures from today:

View from the Spanish Steps!


Another view from the Spanish Steps! The sun was going down and it was really pretty

Danielle and Terrance having a fight over who was going to wear the hat from the crepe container for my picture.
Terrance lost the fight.

And then BAM... Pope

Thursday we went to the Vatican again for R&B. We got to go see the Raphael rooms and we were supposed to get to see another area that is normally off limits to tourists. However, the Vatican thought we were going to be there at 9:30 and we thought we were going to be there at 11, so we didn't actually get to go into that area. Dr. Touchette said she's going to call her contact at the museums and see if he can make him feel exceedingly guilty for changing the times she told him and get us in again though. Hopefully that works out. We went and stared at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for a while. There were angrier guards today so we actually did have to watch how much we talked and had to be more candid about our picture taking. Oh, there was still plenty of picture taking, don't you worry. However, it was on another camera. So... basically, no picture taking. After the Vatican we all went to Italian and spent an hour or so getting food and cramming last minute homework. We're working on how to conjugate verbs, which is nice because they're fairly identical to the Latin system of naming verbs and I have totally taken two semesters of Latin! Not that I remember it, of course. Terrance got Thursday's screw-up award in Italian because he said that the thing he missed most about home was his dog-friends. Hmm...

I had planned an early night for Thursday because I had to wake up at 8:15 to get up to the laundry room and beat the partying Temple-ers to do laundry. They take over the laundry room at night. This, however did not not work out. The boys went bar hopping and decided to come to our apartment after they were done. Needless to say, I didn't sleep through them ringing the doorbell 7 times or them breaking stuff and then loudly denying that they did. We got a delightful running dialogue of the fantastic things that they said and don't remember. I had to walk them over to their apartment because both of them lost their keys and Alex thought he lost his credit card, so I googled the bar that they were at and got them the address and the phone number to try and locate the card. He found it by the time I got back to my apartment. It was in his wallet. We don't talk about it.

Friday morning I beat the laundry line and had clean AND dry clothes for art! Hooray! We were supposed to meet at Bernini's turtle fountain (or so we thought) but we waited there for about 40 minutes and we couldn't contact Paulina on account of her cell phone being stolen so we left because it started to rain.

Turtle fountain! Apparently, only the Turtles were Bernini, the rest of it was designed by... someone else.


Graffiti that I liked near the Turtle Fountain. I think I like it because I recognized the painting from a previous art history class. I enjoy that. It makes me feel like I've learned something.

We ducked for cover inside of an Italian Borders-like place which I have decided is going to be one of my new favorite places. There's a caffe where you can get good coffee and they let you read the English books without buying them. What more could you ask for, really? Half the group went home by bus but I took a walking adventure with Terrance and Danielle. It was good times. We had a Tiber moment. Then we went home and I made dinner- Pesto with Salsicce and mushrooms. Mmmm. Danielle and I had another marathon talk that night while people went out running around Rome (we've decided that that is sketch at night and makes us not comfortable).

Saturday I woke up not feeling good so I spent the entire day sleeping and drinking copious amounts of Orange Juice in an effort to not get sick again. I think it worked! (Knock on wood) Last night, I booked travel for the rest of February and March. On Valentine's Day we're going to see Pompeii and Naples with the group and then the next weekend we're going to Sicily for Lindsey's birthday. The weekend after that, Danielle and I decided that we wanted to be warm, so we're going to Portugal for the weekend to go to the beach. We are excited. In March for Spring Break, I'm going to Copenhagen with Lindsey. Four members of the group are going to Cairo, Danielle has family coming here to visit and Haley has plans with her sister, I think. So Lindsey and I decided to go on an epic adventure of our own. It's going to be amazing. I hope. I then had an almost heart attack when I realized that my credit card was being rejected because my bank didn't believe that it was me booking travel around Europe. Yay for Moo and her sorting all of that out yesterday!!!


Today we went to mass at St. Peter's. Well... kind of. There's a mass going on in the front of the church that pretty much goes on all the time so we sat in on that for a while and we were going to go to a service in one of the smaller side chapels, but we didn't want to miss the Pope at noon and it's not like you can get up in the middle of mass and leave. The Catholics frown upon that. So Terrance and I had a prayer moment and met up with the rest of the group. We went out to the Square to wait for the Pope. There's a protest going on in Rome about the Pope and his lift of the excommunication of the bishop who doesn't believe that the Holocaust happened, so there were all these Pro-Pope people in the square waving huge banners and yelling things. There was a church with a huge banner that sat there and sang and wiggled tambourines until the Pope came out.


Guys hanging the Pope banner at 11:45

The Pope! As zoomed in as I could get him where you could see that it was the Pope and not like... a rabbit or something.

This is what he looked like to us.

... More of the Pope. He's called Papa here in Italy, btw.

The sun came out for the Pope! And disappeared as soon as he went inside. No, really.

The Pope (no, really, he's still there) with awesome St. Peter's statues included in shot.

Pope wave!

Lindsey, Stacey, me, Alex and Christina in St. Peter's Square.

After coming home from church, I made pancakes and bacon for Danielle and me and then totally took a nap. Tonight I decided it was totally time to update the blog and after this, I have to go draw for a while so that Paulina doesn't kill me tomorrow when we have art to make up for missing Friday. We're also supposed to have a Wine Tasting tomorrow, which has already been rescheduled about 5 times, so we'll see if it actually goes through this time.

Basilica San Pietro

Totally didn't take a picture of something new on Tuesday. At least not with my little easy-to-plug-into-the-computer digital camera. But we saw lots of nifty things. We got to go into the House of the Griffins and the House of... someone else that are usually restricted access. We got to go see crazy old frescoes and an awesome stone cut floor and Roman lead pipes that ran through the house. When we walked off the Palatine Hill (you just weren't important if you didn't live on one of the 7 hills) and walked around down into the Forum we got to see the place where Julius Caesar was cremated and we got to see several triumphal archways and we saw the house of the Senate from back in the day, but it wasn't open so we didn't get to go in. Class actually let out early for once, which was especially shocking since we were like 10 minutes late. We celebrated by getting Suppli at our favorite place across from school. I forgot to mention that after three and a half weeks, last week the people at the restaurant across the street finally started to like us! They recognize us now and put up with our awful Italian and give us free samples of gelato! Hooray! That only took a month of my life that I'll never get back. But better late than never! Tuesday and Thursday nights are always unexciting because we're too exhausted to do anything. So we came home and had dinner. And then something momentous happened in the time I was killing time so as not to go on my field trip with Danielle too early. I washed dishes. Not just a few, either! Literally every dish in our apartment with the exception of like 4. I know, I was shocked too. Good thing you are most likely sitting down as you read this, I'd hate to be the cause of any sort of a serious injury. And then I took Danielle to the Pronto Socorso (ER) because we contaminated her and got her sick and she needed antibioticos. We couldn't figure out a direct bus route online because atac likes to ruin my life, but we got a bus that came pretty close to the hospital and then walked across Castel Sant 'Angelo and made it in. We belatedly figured out that the night staff is smaller so it still takes forever to get help. They weren't happy with us for taking up their time, either. They asked Danielle if she was a tourist and she didn't even see a doctor when all she told them was that all she wanted was drugs. We got turned in a few circles on the way back but found an all night farmacia and got her pills and then took a cab back to the Residence. I can't be sure because I don't know what the protocol is, but I'm pretty sure he charged us a crazy flat rate. Last night was hate on the Americans night. I came home and threw some things in my sketchbook for class today and went to bed.

Today, my Politics class went to see an exhibit of Etruscan art at a pretty museum that I think was one of my pictures of the day previously. Fabio bought me a cappuccino. I heart him. Anyway, amazingamazingamazing artwork. I wish I could have taken pictures, but it was not allowed. The lucky Italian school children on field trips to the museum got to, though. Prejudice! Anyway, I got out of class crazy late so I had to travel on my own to St. Peter's to meet the drawing class. So, I get on a bus that says San Pietro on it, and although it stops DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the hospital that Danielle and I adventured to last night, it stops about 7 blocks away from St. Peter's square, 5 minutes before class starts. So, I run in the general direction of the basilica and then make an entire circle of the square before I see the group. Big square. Here, take a look:
Part of the obelisk. We liked the way the sky looked after class so we took a lot of pictures around the square.

Group shot! Christina, Haley and me.

Again with the clouds.

Pretty!

I really liked the obelisk today. I don't know why, I guess I thought it looked exceptionally pretty with the amazing death clouds behind it. Don't ask.

This is what I was supposed to draw today in class. Hopefully St. Peter won't hold it against me. Sad times, my drawing teacher Paulina had her purse stolen right outside of St. Peter's today. She was running around and watching us draw and had her purse in a corner and these three teenagers came up to look at what we were drawing (this literally happens everywhere we draw) and we didn't pay attention to them and like 5 minutes later she realized her purse was gone. Paulina is the nicest woman in the entire world, everyone. It was a depressing afternoon. She said that there was nothing important in it and that it was important to remember that we all had things that no one could steal from us! Doesn't it just make you want to give her a hug?

On a lighter note...Epic moment, everyone. Today I went into Basilica San Pietro for the first time! I've been in the square several times, but I've never gone in. I went in! My eyes were almost confused there was so much stuff to look at that they wanted to go everywhere. It was amazing. I over-use the word amazing, but if ever it was accurate when used in my vocabulary, this would be that moment.
This was the blocked off section of the floor in the Basilica.

This was what the view looked like from the top of the stairs right in front of the entrance. Much different from looking around the square while in the square.

The Pieta! I saw the Pieta today!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. Epic moment.
We also went down into the lower levels of the church where it is a Sacred Place and talking and photography is yet again forbidden. I saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II, which people still lay flowers and cards on and it's the only one guarded constantly. I also saw the tombs of other popes... none that I had ever heard of. They had some stone reliefs and columns and mosaics down there too. You know, that stuff that seems to be in every museum here. :) Seriously, today was almost too much to take in. St. Peter's is impossible to describe. Get on a plane already.
On the way home from class, we found the World Market store, Castroni's. I am now the proud owner of Bisquick and syrup, barbeque sauce, peanut butter and orange spice tea. We still had to go to the GS and get normal food (damn the Italians for not believing in preservatives) but it was a good day to get things done because we know we will all be dead after class tomorrow. I made an awesome dinner: chicken with mushrooms and bacon and cheese melted on it which then had barbeque on top. I didn't think I would miss American food as much as I do. It seems blasphemous to say that while in Italy, I've been to McDonald's twice. I know!
Tomorrow R&B is at the Musei Vaticani again, but this time we're studying Michelangelo so I'm going to be allowed to look at the ceiling without being yelled at! Always something to look forward to in Rome...

Superbowl! Woo!

Again, I find myself needing to catch up from a few days of not writing. I have decided to quit feeling guilty about it. Anyway, Friday we had drawing class and we all attempted to draw Il Coloseo. I know you all can figure out the Italian on that one. It was the most unproductive class I've ever had in my life. Danielle and I couldn't stop laughing about the most ridiculous stuff and ended up planning out dinner while we were supposed to be drawing. We decided on scrambled eggs with sausage and mushrooms and crepes with cinnamon apple filling. And mimosas. Paulina was not very happy with us. She kept giving us smaller and smaller things to draw. At first it was the whole Colosseum (oh, that's what the Italian means) and then it was a tier of the Colossum and then it was one archway of the Colosseum. Not a good drawing day. Yet another woman brought her child up to see my drawing. An Italian woman spoke to me in English and asked if her son could see my drawing and when I tried to explain that it wasn't very good (I am by far the worst skilled draw-er in the class) she kept reassuring me that it was great and told me I was very kind to show her son my drawing. The kid looked confused at what he was looking at, so I think that about sums up the situation. When we left drawing, we went to the GS to get dinner-for-breakfast/mimosa supplies. Danielle and I had the eggs and hashbrowns and then the rest of the girls came up for crepe time. My crepe skills are turning out to be a good/awful thing. It's nice to know how to make them and not have to spend 3 Euro everytime I want one, but everyone in the group wants them a lot... Anyway, the boys came over later and Danielle and the boys and I watched random stuff on youtube for a while and then watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". Then Haley came over with Cian, a friend of hers that flew in from England for her birthday which was Saturday. He brought her Absinthe which she wanted to try and we all ended up trying it. HIGHLY overrated is all I can say about that experience. Like swallowing very strongly licorice flavored ethanol. No amount of sugar helps it, that's just to make you feel better about drinking it. And there were no green fairies involved. Disappointing all the way around.

Cian and Alex. Alex was mad at me because I was taking a picture when he was ready to try his Absinthe.

Saturday, we went on a night adventure to find the Apple store which I thought I saw a sign for the day when I ended up at the ER with the angry Italian lady. We went to a new metro stop (well, new to everyone but me) and discovered that everything on the B line of the metro is ghetto. We found the Apple store, though! Which is secretly not an Apple store, but a certified Apple resell place, but it looked like an Apple store to me. They had tons of iPods and monitors the size of half of the wall. I fell in love with a set of external computer speakers that look like giant earbud headphones. I couldn't justify buying them and having to carry them home though, so they remain at the fake Apple store. The store did have really cool blue benches outside that glowed, though.

See? We all had a fairly relaxed night after that. We made more crepes. I made blood orange sauce to go inside them and someone got the idea to combine that with Nutella. Greatest crepe ever.

Yesterday we all had a strong urge to find American food that wasn't McDonald's. Enter Hard Rock Cafe. We have all been pretty pasta-ed out for a while, so we descended on the Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a cheeseburger. I know it seems like I make everything the best ___ ever, but literally, the best cheeseburger of my life. We've decided we're going to make friends with the staff and see if they would be willing to hook us up with cheddar cheese (something very much not believed in by the Italians). And barbeque sauce.

Seriously, amazing. We even did the whole tourist thing and got souvineer glasses to take home. And I bought a t-shirt and a hoodie and spent my budget for the week. But when in Rome...

Lindsey, me and Alex showing off the glasses.

Lindsey and I made a big deal of going to the bathroom to clean out our glasses so we wouldn't have to carry them home all gross and drinky, but they give you new ones to take home, not the ones you drink out of. We then learned that the Hard Rock had a Superbowl thing going on, and being that we had been trying to find a place to watch the Superbowl since we got here, this was good news to us. We bought our tickets, 16 Euro including 2 beers (I would have been more hesitant if I knew that this was code for 2 Coronas) and stale popcorn. Hooray! We went home to get ready for long Superbowl night and then took the last metro of the evening back to the Hard Rock. Not a fun time. It was crazy crowded and everyone was going for the Steelers (except us). Half of us left at halftime, Danielle left before halftime and the boys and I waited out the game and went home disappointed. The metros still weren't running since it was about 4:30 in the morning so we decided to start walking, at least until the metros were running again (it's about a 2 hour walk from where we were to where we lived). I finally managed to hail a taxi and we took it home since I had to be up and ready for class all of 5 hours later, 4 hours by the time I got home and went to bed. Long, icky night. Not a fun Superbowl.

Today my politics class was supposed to go to a museum, but it was closed on Mondays. We ended up walking to the Roman forum instead, passing all sorts of stuff that we had walked by, but not known what it was without Fabio telling us.

This is apparently the place where the Italian president has meetings. And stuff.


Another obelisk! Several of us are trying to see all of them. I didn't think this one was Egyptian since it doesn't have the heiroglyphs on it, but apparently it is.
The Wedding Cake. I have no idea what the real name of this place is. It's a museum that was built in the early 1900s and apparently the Italians hated it because they thought it looked like a Wedding Cake, which is what they all call it now. We have decided to call it a different type of cake everytime we walk past. So far, we've used Cupcake and Bundt Cake.

A statue I liked in front of the Cake.

Trajen's Column! First time I saw it and after reading about it in Art History classes for several years it was really exciting to see it in person.

The Mamertinum. This is the place that Saints Peter and Paul were held while waiting their trial from the Roman Emperor.

This is the room where they were held. The plaque and display table were clearly not there when they were though...

Behind the iron bars is the column that they were chained to so that they wouldn't escape imprisonment.

Whole view of the room. Tiny place. Hard to stand up in at first. Interesting place to go, though. Again, without Fabio, I never would have had any idea what was in this place. That was about it for the day. I had to go shopping for paper products yet again. We were out of everything so I stocked up on tissues, toilet paper, paper towels and napkins. Maybe they will last more than a week this time. Maybe. Dinner was pasta, yet again and now we're all doing Italian homework and trying to get ready for Ancient Art tomorrow, which is also at the forum. I'll try and take a picture of something new, though.