In Ye Olde Front Royal

     Hello, all! I know I've been extraordinarily bad about posting things of late. I will continue to be somewhat bad and not delve overmuch into Rome right now.

     However, I will say that I have been in Front Royal for a month, and the weather is weird. I wish it were warmer. Too often have I been outside in below-freezing weather unaccompanied by snow. We've had snow, yes; in fact, it's snowed a good many times. The snow doesn't last, however.

     I've also decided that the waters of Front Royal taste nasty, which is a shame, because one must needs drink.

     I will close by adding pictures of the snow in Fro' Ro' and a link with some pictures of the Confessio in St. Peter's Basilica. The Confessio is right beneath the main altar (the one with the huge baldacchino).  http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Confessio/Confessio.htm

     . . . Wow. I've just found you even more cool stuff about St. Peter's: the "grottoes" beneath it. #15 (the Lithuanian Chapel) is where we Christendom Rome students had Mass twice during the semester.  http://saintpetersbasilica.org/grottoes.htm

     Last but not least, the saints on the Colonnade. Why? Because I was thinking about it this morning. http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints-List-Colonnades.htm

 

Me hugging the Colonnade

 

The Colonnade. I took tons of pictures of it, but I'll stop here.

 

     The Colonnade is just awesome. It's big, it's white, it's shiny, it's pretty... NOTA BENE, this isn't from the official Vatican Website, so there probably aren't as many pictures, or as nice pictures, or as nice a website. It's still pretty cool, though, with the numbered maps and everything.

     Oh, look! The cool water fountain! (Yes, I miss Rome.) The water from this fountain-- like the water from all the drinking fountains-- was always sweet and cool. In the water-like sense. But it did feel weird to drink out of a fountain the first few times.

 

 

     Oh, St. Peter's...... I need to go back! :)

 

Last day in Rome. We went to Mass at St. Peter's for the last time
 of the semester... A very sad and melancholy thing. Didn't want to leave. :)

 

P.S. Florence

     And now for a post that's pretty much just more pictures from Florence.

Disney Store!

Coming back from San Miniato, the river. So pretty at night!

Dante's House

The bell tower
 

 

Managed to get a shot of the Duomo with the sun hitting the gold! :D

Saw a groovy ride whilst waiting for the bus to take us back to Candia

     And here is one of the songs that the guitar guy was playing--

Florence, Oct 18-19, 2012

     Although I wasn't really thrilled with the city at first, Florence was lovely. We had modest but nice hotel that served us mostly just bread for breakfast (like the one in Assisi) with a key system like that of the hotel in Siena.

     Thursday afternoon, after settling in, I went inside San Lorenzo. The marketplace by San Lorenzo was CRAZY. There is just SO much stuff to look at! Florentine stationery, leather gloves, leather jackets, leather EVERYTHING, pretty scarves. . . All kinds of cool stuff. At about 3, we all met on the steps of the Duomo to begin our group activities. Here's the duomo:

 



I love how these churches have Madonna and Child statues front and center
 outside. So awesome. I especially LOVE the ones at Notre Dame. More on that amazing church later. ;)
 

     Kind of looks like the Duomo in Siena and the Duomo in Orvieto, I know, (all three have this thing for alternating white and green marble, which I've not seen anywhere else) but it IS different. And lovely. :)  My friend Rachel described them as looking like "spun sugar."

     Oh, and let's not forget the Baptistry, which was a very popular subject for photography indeed. I got my picture in front of it on Friday, after waiting in line behind a number of Asian women. (I've noticed that about Asian tourists: it's always the husbands taking pictures of thier wives in front of everything, and several pictures with the same background, in different poses. Some of the most amusing poses were the ones I've seen at the Mouth of Truth. It's cute, in a funny sort of way.)

 

 



     The first of these group activities was gelato at Perche No! This place had the best lemon gelato imaginable. It was refreshing, not super strong, not pucker-inducing. It was sooooo good...  (Speaking of gelato, the best place in Rome to get gelato is Old Bridge, across from the Vatican walls and between the Vatican Museums entrance and the gate at St. Ann's. It's good gelato, you get more for your money than you do at other places, and the service is always both amusing and friendly. Well, it is if you're a young girl.) After gelato, we had a very long walk to San Miniato. On the way there, we crossed the river via Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is an age-old bridge with buildings on it; not just any buildings, but stores selling expensive gold jewelry.

 

 

     When we finally got to San Miniato, we went to Mass and saw an absolutely breathtaking view of the city at twilight.


 

 

     Friday, we went to the Uffizi Gallery. While waiting for our tickets, we saw a creepy statue-guy and listened to a really good classical guitar player.

One of the songs he played was "Con Te Partiro"; excellent rendition

     At the Uffizi, we saw a good deal of art, including some paintings that I had seen in sundry art books, and some GORGEOUS illuminated manuscripts. One of them was Dante's Inferno. How did I know this? I knew from the picture. :D It felt very awesome to be able to actually remember part of the the Divine Comedy, AND to be able to identify a centuries-old book. :)

     Upon leaving the said gallery, Andrew and I happened upon some equally important manuscripts at one of the street vendors' carts.

 

 

    And there were random other buildings in the street that I found cool.

The Lindt store.... Ohhhhhh..... The best chocolate ice cream I've ever had, and a whole store
 where you can buy pounds of Swiss chocolate. Needless to say, I didn't want to leave.

Love this kind of detail. It's strangely gothic... The Italians weren't big on Gothic.





 

Vatican City Tribute

     My gingerbread men this year. I'm exceedingly proud of them. :)

     It only took an hour to do the three of them; shorter than I expected. I owe the candy-cane-halberd-idea to my sister.
     I just realized how silly it was of me to have the Pope be on the right and not in the middle... Oh well.
     More chronicling is on its way! I'll try to have the Florence post out by tomorrow morning.

Flashback, Romesickness, and Random Stuff

 

     One of the things I got for Christmas this year was an iTunes giftcard. (Did I get the capitalization right? I can't tell with all these i-things. It's the new e. People just like to purposefully break the rules of spelling and capitalization so-- okay, fine. I'll shut up. Pardon the English major.) The last two Christmases, I got pretty much the same thing: a number of songs which we burned to a disk. The last two discs were named "Epic Conventions" and "Song of the Spoudaios," after things I had learned about in school during the months before Christmas that year.

     This year, I had to name it after something in Rome. During a short fit of brainstorming, I thought of the dear, crowded Roman Metro, and was ECSTATIC to find this on YouTube:

     There are more weird people out there who find it funny!!! "... Destro?" Oh, the Metro. There are weird things on the Metro. Like men with noserings; feminine noserings, like the kind Indian women wear. What's always lovely are those times when it's so packed, that you're literally PUSHED into the Metro by the people behind you, and you end up standing on the thing with a couple strangers against you. Those are the times when you most need your sense of humor. And you're hand by your money. The bus, too. Ah, those few times when five people get OFF the bus to let a sixth person off, and then the first five get back on again. Metro does that, too. And let's not forget Rubicchio, either. Our good, time-traveling buddy.

 

http://www.rubicchio.it/

 

     Oh, Rome. The buildings, the churches, the cappuccini, the cornetti, the nutella-filled pastries, the kebabs... In case I've not explained, a kebab is NOT a shish-kabob. A kebab is mystery meat (okay, so it's lamb, but it looks suspicious at first glance) drizzled with ranch-yogurt sauce and wrapped in tortilla alongside french fries and cole slaw. WHY is that not only edible, but good? It shouldn't be, but it's soooo good. Man, I really want one, now. The meat is in a huge round... block, or something, turning on a vertical spit, and they shave it off with a device that looks like a sander or a staple-gun.

     And speaking of food, I have to go get some. Signing off for now!

Capitoline Museum

     Well, this is a post that has been a draft for way too long. Without further ado, here is a messy and bare-bones version of what we did at the Capitoline museum:

     Capitoline Museum, nice area of town; weather is gross and sticky and I never knew this, but I love AC. (This was a Friday in mid-September. The Italians aren't exactly big users of Air Conditioning, and walking almost everywhere meant that you got even warmer and stickier.) The bus and the museum went on strike, so we had to be kicked out and we couldn't go down into the forum. Statues: the emperor from Gladiator (Commodus) dressed up as Hercules; "Constantine the Leper" as Prof. Lev dubbed it (pieces of a HUGE statue of Constantine); the dying Gaul, whom Andrew Hepler looks like now. This was the first public museum and it was opened by Pope Sixtus IV. Pliny’s doves, it’s a mosaic, even though it doesn’t look like one; it’s really good. The day before--- nothing happened Thursday, save that I scared Zach and Brizek by sneaking up behind them and pretending I was a tour guide. They fell for it. :D

     I apologize for the poor state of this post, but I know all too well that if I don't put it up as is, I'll just keep procrastinating. Enjoy the pictures at least!

. . . Amusing . . . This actually isn't part of Constantine the Leper

Bust of Hadrian

She-wolf with Romulus and Remus, who were added on at a much later date

Marcus Aurelius

Commodus dressed as Hercules

View of the Roman Forum from the Museum

Pliny's Doves, mosaic. Sorry I couldn't get a better shot. This is when we were getting kicked out.

Carols and Sniffles

     I have been monstrous lazy of late, I know. And am I going to remedy that now by recounting more of my adventures abroad? Nope. Of course not. I will, however, tell you that I plan to use this to speak of my adventures at school... Perhaps. Not entirely sure. I will also reccommend to you some Advent and Christmas songs (hopefully I am introducing you to some new ones) in sundry European tongues. Thought that might kind of go with the theme of the blog.

English (Best versions are by the Westminster Cathedral Choir, which I was lucky enough to have heard last month at St. Mary Major's. See my post entitled "The Rest of the Last Free Weekend.")
The Holly and the Ivy
Hob and Colin
Coventry Carol
The Sussex Carol
What Child Is This

French (Try Fribourg L'Accorche-Choeur.)
Minuit Chrétiens (O Holy Night)
Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes (Angels We Have Heard on High)

German (I like Kammerchor der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.)
Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen (Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming)
O Du Froliche (to the tune of O Sanctissima)
O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree; not a religious song, but still one that's pertinent to the season)
Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (Silent Night)

Latin (Just about any decent choir ought to do these pretty well.)
Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)
O Sanctissima

     The 101 Strings Orchestra is also fun to listen to, but it doesn't give you the full sense of the song, since it's just instrumental. They do a cool version of Greensleeves (same tune as What Child Is This). Happy Hunting and enjoy the last 5.5 hours of Gaudete Sunday!