One Last Hurrah!

As I write this, my hours are ticking away at my time here in Italy.  I'll pack up and head to the airport early Saturday morning and finally get back to Minnesota late Saturday night.  Everything is of course bittersweet.  I could easily spend another semester traveling around and seeing new places.  On the other hand I'm excited to come home to see my family and friends for Christmas.

I'm thinking this might be my last blog post.  I might try to do some kind of overall debriefing when I get home but we'll have to see.  Obviously I haven't posted everything from my travels on this blog, so if you're interested in hearing stories or seeing more pictures and videos, let me know.  I'd be happy to share them with anybody.  And once again, thanks for taking the time for reading the blog.  I started it with the idea of keeping a personal journal.  However, it's been clear that I've had a lot of regular readers which has been awesome!

Anyways, here's the usual recap of events:

Monday, Tuesday (December 3/4)
-Some of us got up early Monday morning to go to the Vatican to meet Father Nicholas from SJU for morning mass.  About twenty of us celebrated mass on an altar underneath St. Peter's Basilica.
-Jan our history prof took us on a detailed trip to the Roman Forum.  We tried to keep up with him for four hours on a very cold morning.
-We climbed St. Peter's dome on Tuesday morning.  Lots of stairs, but the view was worth it.
-Our whole group went to the opera "Simon Boccanegra" at the National Opera House.  It was fun to dress up and head to the theater, where we had our own opera box.  Unfortunately we didn't have a great view of the stage and couldn't understand the singing, but is was fun nevertheless.

Wednesday, Thursday
-Spent a lot of time studying for Paolo's art final on Thursday.  We ended up having to memorize over a hundred Renaissance images.  Not the easiest task.
-Our group got tickets to a papal audience on Wednesday morning.  The audience took place in a large auditorium, and the pope took the time to greet the different groups there and spoke a homily in many different languages.  We were in about the tenth row, so we got to see the pope up close and personal for the second time on this trip.
-For our second high class culture event of the week, the whole group went to "The Nutcracker" ballet.  I've never been to a ballet, but I actually kind of enjoyed the production.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday
-We took a field trip with Jan to the ancient ruins of Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman port city.  We again braved the cold, but we learned a lot about Roman life.
-Our group put on our own Christmas party, complete with a potluck, secret santa gifts, and group mock awards.  Our group has really gotten along well, and it was nice to celebrate together one of the last times before we all go home.
-Saturday was Soccer night.  We went to the Olympic Stadium to see Roma play Florence in a crucial league match.  It was probably one of my favorite experiences of the trip.  Roma won 4-2 in an exciting game.  We had great seats next to a sea of wild fans.  If soccer was this intense and competitive back in the States, it would be the most popular sport.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
-The last three days have been packed with studying for finals.  In our spare time we've been trying to eat as much pizza as possible.  We also had farewell dinners with our group on Wednesday and with the entire school on Thursday.

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing some last minute shopping before packing up and heading home.  I can't wait to see everybody when I get back!

Here's some pics from the week,

Ciao, Dan

Climbing St. Peter's Dome

View of the square from the dome.

On top of the roof.

A night at the opera.

The pope taking the stage.

Roma vs. Fiorentina

Aaron and I at the match

Miles, Aaron, Adam, Sean, Erik, and I at the match

Fitting Every Little Thing In

Hello all, I thought I'd do a quick post for the last week before I get too busy with finals coming up.  As of tonight, I have 11 days left in Europe.  I'm excited to see people at home, but I definitely am not ready to leave just yet.  Since we have limited time, the last few days have been full of last minute sight seeing.  Here's a recap:

Monday, Tuesday (November 26/27)
-For our last Art History class, we traveled to the Galleria Borghese.  I had already been there with my parents, but it was nice to have Paolo as our guide to explain the significance of the art.
-After class on Tuesday, a few of us traveled to the church of St. Paul outside the Walls.  This is where the body of Paul is buried.  It was a truly massive church.

Wednesday, Thursday
-For Theology we traveled to multiple holy sites.  We started at the Scala Sancta, or holy steps.  We climbed a large staircase that was taken from the Praetorium in Jerusalem, where Jesus supposedly climbed on his way to Pilate.  We then went to Santa Croce, home to many sacred relics.  We saw a few thorns from the crown of thorns, a nail from the crucifixion, and a copy of the shroud of Turin.  Finally we finished at the grand church of Saint John in Lateran.

Friday
-A few of us continued our church tour by visiting Saint Maria Maggiore, another one of Rome's monumental churches.  Afterwards we headed to St. Peter's to catch a free tour of the basilica.
-The whole group gathered for a potluck to eat and play some games.

Saturday
-We left early in the morning for a day trip to Subiaco.  Subiaco lies in the mountains, only about an hour and a half from Rome.  In the 5th Century, St. Benedict lived in a cave near the town.  Later, the monasteries of St. Scholastica and St. Benedict were set up.  Both monasteries were extremely beautiful.  The monks even fed us a great meal in between.  We returned later Saturday night.

Sunday
-Kayla, Mark, and I headed to the MAXXI, an art museum dedicated to art of the 21st Century.  Kayla and Mark are both art majors and minors, so it was good to have them around to explain some of the pieces.  It was a bit of fresh air after studying renaissance art for so long.

I'll probably have just one more post for this trip, which is a little sad.  Thanks for all who have stuck with it.  I'm always amazed at how many view the posts continue to get.  Here's a few pics from the last few days:

Ciao, Dan

Monastery of St. Scholastica

View of Subiaco

Monastery of St. Benedict

Kayla and I at St. Benedict's