On September 6 we visited several churches to see more of
Bernini’s work including his statue The
Ecstasy of St. Teresa, one that has long been on my bucket list to see. It
was so beautiful! Bernini hid a window right above the statue so that the light
always falls on the sculpture just right and looks as if it literally comes
from heaven. Love it!
We also visited the National Museum of Rome (you didn’t know
there were this many museums in one city right? Me either!) which had some
beautiful frescoes and mosaics from villas in Ancient Rome. They put quite the
effort into interior decorating!
After dinner we hit up another of our favorite gelato shops,
Old Bridge. The gelato is very good, cheap, and the workers are cute! (You can
see why this was one of our favorites yes?) We took our gelato to sit outside
of St. Peter’s Basilica. This is one of my absolute favorite views of Rome at
night. The square is quiet and much less crowded than the other sites and there
are no street vendors to hassle you. Not to mention that St. Peter’s lit up is quite
the view! By far one of my favorite little sanctuaries here in Rome.
For September 7, the group headed to Testevere, a
neighborhood of Rome with “a different flavor”.
After visiting some churches and talking about humanities topics that I
won’t bore you with, we had some free time to explore. I enjoyed a lunch of
fresh plums from the street market while sitting near the fountain in the main
square and could have died happy. One of Rome’s greatest aspects is the
abundance of fountains. They provide picturesque little lunch spots and free
cold water! We also discovered a delicious little pastry shop where I enjoyed a
chocolate canolo. (We tend to have a knack for scoping out the pastry and gelato
shops WHEREVER we go) ;)
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| Testevere |
That night we had a special little treat. The YSA group here
in Rome held a dance especially for us at the church. We showed up to the
church decorated and a table set with endless plates of food. We began the
night just visiting with the other “young single adults” and getting to know
them a little bit. Music was playing in the background but there wasn’t any
dancing yet. Suddenly out of the blue, “Call Me Maybe” came on and as if on
cue, all of us BYU girls couldn’t contain ourselves anymore and let loose. I
don’t think the Italians knew what hit them! And from that song on, there was
no stopping us! From what we understood through the music and heavy accents, the
Italians didn’t dance like this ever and thought we were hilarious. Luckily we
convinced most of them to join in and had a grand time. It was a wonderful
release of energy and expression for us, and let’s just say we gave those
Italians a night to remember ;)
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| So for parties the Italians stack their plates in a special way that looks really cool and makes it easier to grab. They tried to teach us how to do it and...we epically failed. Exhibit A |
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