I am really starting to wonder if my body can handle a month and a half of this life style...

SO MUCH HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE DAY.

It is exhausting.

But wonderful.

The morning started off with hitting two major museums: the Borghese Gallery and the Barberini Gallery.

The Borghese houses Bernini's Rape of Persephone, which I had always loved based on the images I had seen and the lectures I had heard on it. Seeing it in person was an experience I will never forget. This is the piece that fully convinced me that I was right to major in art history. Bernini is credited by his contemporaries as surpassing Michelangelo as a sculptor and I must admit that I agree. There is life in the cold hard marble that has been shaped into three distinct figures: Hades, Persephone, and Cerberus. Hades' hand grips into Persephone's side and her flesh pushes upwards between his fingers in a completely convincing way. I so desperately wanted to reach out an touch the hand to make sure it wasn't flesh because it looked so real (aside from being a shockingly near-perfect white). I must have walked around this sculpture a dozen times, trying to soak up every detail possible. It is stunning. The subject matter though is horrifying. It is the preview to a rape. Persephone is terrified, a single tear rolling down her cheek, while Hades has the must sickening smirk I have ever seen. The corners of his lips lift upwards in a look of playful glee, almost countering the violence of the scene as a whole. It is disgusting. But this emotional reaction on my part attests to the effectiveness of Bernini's artistic skill in capturing human emotions in stone. Again, this work amazed and mesmerized me. It was phenomenal. And while it may sound cliche, it was also life-changing.

On the way to the Barberini Gallery, Nate and I had a deep and insightful conversation about art and art reception. He is a studio art major (business minor). It was so nice to have someone to talk to about art (particularly the art we had just seen), who understood what I was talking about and could contribute his own personal experience to the conversation. It was an excellent discussion. Were I a professor, I would have given is both an A+.

The Barberini was also an excellent collection, but after seeing the Bernini's I found it hard to find anything quite so satisfying. There were some great Caravaggio's and even some Raphael's which were neat to see.

Lunch was followed by a quick stop to look inside the Pantheon and then an optional visit to the Capitoline Museum. I decided to go see the museum because I really am here for the art. It was a really nice collection and I particularly enjoyed seeing The Dying Gaul, which has always struck a chord with me.

Nate, Maddie (Fugate) and I then went for a leisurely stroll and got gelato. Gelato is amazing, by the way. Nate actually has an addiction and has gotten at least two gelatos (or more!) every day we have been here. Haha! He opts to take the stairs with me whenever possible make sure he doesn't come back to the states "chunky."

After that I took them to see San Giovanni. I have dubbed this my favorite church in Rome. I adore it. Maddie and Nate were appropriately impressed. We used the binoculars Maddie had brought to get a closer look at the details of the ceiling and places that were roped off. Maddie's AP Art History teacher had suggested that she bring them and I think that was one of the best art-specific travel tips I have ever heard! Granted, I don't hear many art-specific traveling tips, but still. We stayed in the church for a good forty minutes before we got kicked out because it was closing for the night. We then ate dinner at the pizzeria near our apartments. It was a lovey evening with great company.

Back at the apartment I tried washing laundry by hand for the first time. My clothes are currently still hanging up and drying but we will see how they look in the morning. Hopefully I didn't ruin them...

As I was getting ready to take a shower and call it a night, this gianormous bug came flying in through the open window. I was so terrified that I locked it in the bathroom and forced Nate to come and kill it for me. We really didn't have much to work with...so the first attempt on the monster's life was with a toilet brush. Nate still wasn't quite able to reach it due to the high ceiling and the fact that the bug hovered as high up by the light as possible. The second attempt involved a long-necked lighter and that did the trick. Nate fried the little sucker (which turned out to be two little suckers...the bug originally looked unrealistically huge because their were two of them near each other and Nate separated them when he was swinging the toilet brush around). So, Nate became my conquering hero and I realized that if I don't get married soon I will either starve to death because I can't open jars or I will die of fright due to my inability to handle large creepy-crawlers (or, in this case, fliers). Here's hoping my husband can handle killing bugs for me!