Rome: July 3

Friday July 3, 2009

Started the day with a great complimentary breakfast, and then was off to take a guided tour of Rome. Catching a small shuttle with a huge group is impossible. I make it on the first shuttle and have to wait a half hour for the other half of the group. So as we are waiting, Josie and I start sketching. We sketch a church and a little sculpture of Mary. It is so relaxing and unbelievably enjoyable, that I immediately fall in love with sketching and I don’t ever want to stop.

After we get the group together, we make our way to the Borghese museum. It is a beautiful building surrounded by a nice quiet park. Inside is the sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. The myth is that Apollo was so in love with Daphne that he was chasing after her to catch her, but Daphne did not want to be caught. She was not in love with him. So as she is running from her pursuer, she prays to her father, who is a god, to change her into anything, so that she is no longer tempting. Her father transforms her into a Laurel tree. The sculpture tells this story so beautifully, the expressions are perfect and the detail of Daphne’s transformation, the leaves coming out of her hands and hair, are so remarkable. It makes me wonder why she did not want his love, so much that she would rather be a tree instead.

We go back to the Colossuem, but this time we go inside. It is so enormous, I can’t even comprehend how they were able to build it. Josie and I start taking model pictures, trying to mimic Americas Next Top Model. It is so hilarious to watch people stand and stare at us but I’ve never had so much fun, and I got amazing pictures out of it too.

After our pretend photo shoot, we start our tour of Rome with our guide, Antonella. She passes out little headsets for us to wear so that we can hear her wherever we go. She takes us to several churches, including the church of St. Clemente, the church of St Peter in chains, and the church of Maria Maggiore. We stop at the palace and watch the changing of the guard, which is just a large group of boys in uniform marching as a band plays their military songs. We continue on to the Trevi Fountain, which is absolutely beautiful. It is surrounded by people just sitting and watching the water. There is an old tale that says if you throw one coin in you’ll come back to Rome, if you throw two coins in you’ll meet a nice Italian, and three coins in and he’ll ask you to marry him. There is a couple there, the girl in a beautiful wedding dress and the guy in a red suit, having their pictures taken of them throwing in three coins. It is so cute.