It is a good thing I am trying to blog every evening because otherwise I would never remember what happened on which days. They seriously are blending together and it is so difficult to differentiate between distinct days and events.

This morning started with a walking tour of some additional churches around Rome that we hadn't seen yesterday. James' son Jacob summed it up quite nicely when he remarked, "So...we could say that Rome has a LOT of churches, huh?" Yes, Rome has about a thousand churches just within the city limits. It is kind of like walking in Utah and finding a new Mormon church around every corner, except these are all Catholic and lavishly decorated. The artwork and the architecture is so stunning in most of these buildings (of course, the smaller churches have their own quaintness but...when in Rome you really aren't there to see the "little guys"). It was breath-taking to see how artists, architects and engineers would work together in a way that allowed so many different mediums to play off of one another (sculpture, paintings, architecture, etc.). I loved it. A couple key note items included Michelangelo's Moses and some lesser works by Caravaggio. It is so cool to see these pieces I have been studying in textbooks for years in person. Most pieces are even bigger than I imagined. It is amazing!

Afterwards we toured the Roman Forum and the Coliseum. Both were extremely impressive! I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that these structures were built without the aid of modern technology or machinery.

We had a few hours to go explore the city and get lunch. I ended up hanging out with Mehlanie, who is an older student on the program. She is actually a mother of three (the oldest being eleven-years old). I really enjoyed her company because we are similar in personality and thought-process. We decided to just have fun and take the metro and jump off at a random stop for lunch. We ended up in a less touristy part of town and soon found out that NO ONE spoke any English at all. I ha spent most of the day yesterday by major tourist sites where almost all locals had at least a slight grasp of English because they interact with the international visitors on a daily basis. This was not the case further out from the city center. The woman we ordered lunch from was extremely irritated with our lacking of Italian. I felt bad and tried to scrap up some Italian for her but she was so unpleasant that I was too intimated to do much. We got some pizza and quickly moved on since she kept shooting us dirty looks from behind the counter when we had originally sat down to eat in the restaurant. Oh well. Life goes on.

After this, the two of us strolled leisurely around the city since we still had a lot of time to kill. Eventually Mehlanie pulled out her map and we decided to visit a large building that was drawn on the map near a metro-stop we weren't too far from. When we got to the stop there was a massive downpour. It had been raining off and on all morning (Rome's weather changes ridiculously fast. It was pouring and cold, then suddenly the clouds would part and the sun would be burning really hot, then it would start sprinkling again), but that had been mostly a light yet constant rain. This was a full-on torrential dumping. So, we booked it to the church, laughing our heads off the whole way and just enjoying it all. It really felt like my romanticized version of living in Rome had come true. Running through the rain and then walking through the doors and into a jaw-dropping cathedral. San Giovanni is massive! And every inch of it is covered in decorations. Mehlanie and I both agreed it would be so hard to stay focused on your worship when surrounded by such lavishness but, man, was it stunning! I am hoping to return at least one more time before we leave, it was that beautiful.

The rest of the evening was spent visiting about a dozen different churches and seeing the major artworks associated with them: Caravaggio's, Michelangelo's, Raphael's, Bernini's, etc. The churches were all lovely but I will really struggle to keep them separate and distinct in my head. But I did have one of those over-powering "I love art!" moments when we visited Il Gesu. The interior of that church is super theatrical and dramatic and O adored it. I was particularly drawn to it because we had studied it so hard-core in South Baroque Art this past semester. It really makes a huge difference when you understand what you are looking at.

The night ended with another group dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant. Goodness, they served us a LOT of good and it was all delicious. I have opted to make sure I take the stairs whenever possible in order to prevent gaining too much weight. This food is killing me...but in a good way!

And now...I am about two seconds from collapsing from exhaustion. Good night, world!