Grazie Roma!
With Thanksgiving last Thursday, I had an extra long weekend here in Rome to celebrate everything the city has given me so far and explore some things I had not yet discovered. In fact, that has been the theme of every day recently as the unfortunate end of my journey draws near. Having had my first Thanksgiving away from my family has made me realize just how fortunate I am to be having this experience.
Last weekend I went to the Modern Art Gallery. This was by far my favorite museum experience in Rome! They had such a terrific collection! Unfortunately I don’t know much about Italian artists after the baroque period. I think I’ll have to do some research because I was really impressed by the dada and futurist works! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures inside or out. But the building was pretty spectacular as well. I was really tempted to go back and go through the gallery again, but money is a little tight as the semester is coming to a close. Better spend that chunk of cash on a nice meal or some souvenirs instead!
With my Art In Rome class I visited the Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel. I had just started to worry that I would not make it before I left! The Vatican has an interesting collection of art. I didn’t get to explore as much of it as I would have liked since we were led by our professor restricted by time, but the general variety they had was quite intriguing! It was definitely another place that I wouldn’t mind taking a second trip through (there was even a whole room of egyptian artifacts that I missed!)
Despite not being in the States, I was lucky enough to have two Thanksgiving meals! The first was on Wednesday night and it was put on by our dinning hall (or as we call it, mensa). It was so much fun because all of the staff, faculty, and administrators come as well. Since so many of them are Italian and don’t usually celebrate Thanksgiving, they bring they’re families along to partake in the American holiday! Then on Thursday a group of friends that weren’t traveling for the weekend got together for another meal downtown. The food was absolutely amazing (all roman style dishes) and the company was even better! I truly had so much to be thankful for this year.
Early on Thursday, a couple friends and I woke up early to do a turkey trot 5K around the Vatican. And by early I mean the race started at 6 am to avoid the tourist crowds! Even though I was fully prepared to crawl back in bed when my alarm woke me up, I am so glad to have gone through with the race! Not everyone can say they have run around a sovereign nation! After the race the sun was just coming up and we were able to see some silhouettes of Rome’s most famous monuments against the pink sky. It was truly beautiful and something you just can’t capture on camera! We topped off the morning with a trip to the market for some food to hold us over until mensa started up again on Sunday night. I never feel more European than when I get to shop at the market!
That afternoon, a couple friends and I went out to Cinecitta to tour Italy’s famous film studio! I just love Italian film and relished every exhibit! I especially liked the Federico Fellini room that had costumes from some of his movies and his journal of sketches. It was also interesting to hear about the construction and history of the studio. Cinecitta is a must for any film buff going to Rome!
I am not ready for my time in Italy to end! It has been such an amazing semester and I have had the most wonderful experiences, I feel quite prepared to stay quite a bit longer. Nonetheless, it will be good to see my family again and touch base with my roots. After all, to quote one of my favorite Italian movies, La Grande Bellezza, “Roots are important.”