Florence

Florence

Top of the Dome

Florence

Papal Mass at the Vatican

Today my class was meeting at the Vatican so that we could see the interior of the basilica. As we entered the Vatican City we could hear a drum line and trumpets. As it turns out there was a celebratory mass in honor of St. Bernadette and the 18th world day of the sick. The progression was lead in by the colorguard, which consists of men in traditional outfits (tights included) twirling flags. We then were able to sit through a very lovely mass lead by Pope Benedict. The mass was done in multiple languages with very traditional music.

Carnavale

Carnavale is a celebration right before lent where people dress up and complain about/ make fun of political issues. The parade we went to was quite small 3 large floats and lots of people dressed up to correspond with the float they were on. There was confetti everywhere. They were throwing it off of the floats and one float even had a confetti canon. The carnavale season is about a month long so we have seen little kids dressed up every weekend and confetti and silly string on the streets, the parades and adult celebrations are more limited. The one into Bracciano is two Sundays right before lent.

Bracciano

This is the little town of Bracciano, it's a 45 minute train ride outside of Rome. It is a medieval town built on a hill with a castle in the center and a large volcanic lake at the base. My Italian teacher Emanuela brought us here Sunday for the carnavale. We spent a while wandering the town then got lunch at La Fontanina. We ordered all the local anti-pasta and 3 different kinds of pasta, plus some delicious cake for dessert. Lots of food and all very tasty. After lunch we went to watch the carnavale parade.

Urban studies class

The Pantheon is the most incredible building I have ever been in. There is no description to do it justice, it is just absolutely amazing. It started raining at while we were here at the beginning of class so we spent a little extra time drawing, mostly from under the giant porch area that is the entrance to the building.

































The stock exchange building















A beautiful end to our class