Back from Spring Break

Last night I made it back "home" to Rome from my spring break excursion.  It was felt very good to be back, even just to Italy, where I can half-way understand the language and get around with out hassle.  After swift visits to Venice, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Strasbourg, Marseille, Nice, and Monaco in the past week and a half, I feel a bit traveled.  It's good to be back, but now we have to deal with school again...

Due to the enormous amounts of pictures that I took, I started a separate page on photobucket...just search my name jgRambo07 for pics.

Catch-Up

Lots of things have been happening since my last post which was a while ago, so I figured I better update things a bit before Spring Break.  I've basically been working on studio stuff for the last month on and off with some side trips to the Vatican and Florence sprinkled in.  Here are a few snipets of those experiences:

St. Peters

Papal Tombs

Michelangelo's Pieta

Palazzo Medici

Il Duomo- Florence Cathedral

View of Campanile from top of Dome

Ponte Vecchio

Leaning Tower

Michelangelo's David

Illegal Photo of Sistine Chapel

Little Crooked

South Field Trip

 Here are some of the pictures that I took from our trip...The first is a cast of a cavity in Pompeii showing how this person was buried during the eruption of vesuvius.  The Second is Capri, and the third is Naples, completing our tour of the South.

History Class and Appia Antica

 Gaul's Birthday Volcano Cake

 View from an altar (ara pacis) showing Agrippa

 Former Circus of Maxentius

Appian Way with Roman ruts

2 Weeks Down

 One of our family dinners

 Roman Forum with Arch of Septimius Severus and Senate House

 Basilica of Maxentius

 Inside of Senate with Display of Chinese Soldiers

Well, having been in Rome for just over two weeks now things are starting to get a little bit easier...Riding the tram has turned out to be very efficient, even if it's packed.  The bus stop directly in front of our building also helps alot.  Yesterday I went into the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  Pretty cool.  We also went into the Capitoline Museum which had many complete statues from antiquity.  In a week and a half we go on a fieldtrip to Naples and Pompeii.

 Roma W/ Castel Sant' Angelo

 Spot where Peter was crucified

 St. Peters

 Pyramide built Marc Anthony and Cleopatra era; supposedly 4th tallest in world

Ostiensa

 Temple of Hercules

 Mouth of Truth--my hand survived

 Skull of St. Valentine--the February 14th guy

 History Class

Roman!

Night Walk

 Timpietto

 St. Peters w/ nativity seen

 Castel Sant' Angelo

Night in Rome

Last night me and a couple of my roommates took to the town to see what was there.  It was pretty cool as we made our way through the trastevere up towards the Vatican. 

We discovered the Timpietto, a monument to St. Peter which is said to be on the spot where he was crucified upside down.  After that we made our way up to St. Peter's in Vatican City.  It was big.  Unfortunately we couldn't walk in to the piazza because it was too late. 

We also went to Castel Sant' Angelo and walked around it.  It started to rain a little bit and we were the only ones there.  It was a very cool experience.  It took about an hour to walk back home and we had early class but it was worth it.

1st Look at Rome

 1) Island in the middle of the Tiber, on the way to studio

 2) Fountain outside of our studio in the piazza delle cincque scole

 3) synagogue close to studio with Theater of Marcellus Ruins on the left

 4) Altar in Santa Maria in Portico

 5) Baroque Facade with layering of columns

 6) Roman Forum with Colloseum in background

 7) St. Peter's in the distance, 448' tall dome

8) Castel Sant'Angelo and bridge