- I had some tasty gelato at Giolitti's with my friend Marco who's studying at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. After enjoying my chocolate and hazelnut combo I joined him on a quest to scope out some of the beautiful churches and artwork in the area. (This walk is marked in brown on the map)
- Went across the Tiber river to the Trastevere neighborhood (marked with a black T on my map) with some friends. This was a nice break from the typical abroad student hangout at Campo dei Fiori where all the American students get ridiculously wasted - it was refreshing to be in a place with almost entirely Italians. We checked out the vendors selling cheap jewelry, shared a bottle of wine and then nutella crepes (which tasted like heaven BTW.) We had an ab fab time and will mos def return!
- I went to the open air market in Testaccio (dark blue M on the map) to buy my lunch. Its just like the (stereo)typical Italian markets you see in movies: there are butchers hacking with gusto at large hunks of questionable meat, vendors enticing customers with the low prices of their peppers, old Italian grandmas arguing for a better deal, and this incredibly rushed feeling that if you don't buy what you need right now, someone else will take it! I felt like I had to just sit back and watch how the whole process worked before I actually tried to buy anything - but I eventually got some fresh fruit, cookies, and a delish turkey sandwich for fantastic prices!
- I had this awesome conversation (in Italian!) with an elderly nun, Sister Vincenza here at the convent. For my Italian class I'm doing an independent research project on the history of women in the Christian church, so she's helping me through it - she lent me an Italian Bible and a book about early saints and martyrs. I asked her some tough questions about the Bible and its lack of emphasis on women - her responses showed both awareness of feminism and intellectualism but also the wisdom of a woman who had devoted her life to God.
- That afternoon, I took a very pleasant walk to the Villa Borghese (red route on the map), about an hour to the north. There's a museum there with an amazing collection of classical and Renaissance art, but I spent my time in the beautiful gardens doing homework, watching Italian kids play, and daydreaming. A very nice and completely free afternoon in Rome.
- Then today I went to mass at St. Peter's - everything was amazingly huge and beautiful, but kind of overwhelming after walking-filled days and late nights, so instead of touring the cathedral I got on a bus back to central Rome and picked up a kosher hot dog in the Jewish Ghetto. At the convent I took the day off and read my fun book (which I recommend to everyone in the whole wide world) Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey- its subtitled "How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church." He profiles the lives of people like a Christian doctor working with leprosy patients, MLKJ, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Gandhi and talks about how these people renewed his faith in Christianity. A very good read so far.
- And then of course I have spent many hours in outdoor cafes reading about art and watching the people go by... its a tough life.
The convent I'm staying at is the purple dot and the starting point for most of my adventures - Oh man I'm really getting into this blog thing aren't I?
Anyway, there's so much more I could tell you about, but I think I'll leave it at that for now.
I'm having a completely fantastic time - the only thing to make it any better was if you were here with me :)
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