Musica, Arte, e Storia

Yesterday, I went to see the opera "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville"). I've been to a few operas at CUA that I've really enjoyed, so I was very excited to see an Italian opera in Italy! It ended up being a really good test of my Italian language skills. Since the opera is already sung in Italian, there were no sub- or supertitles at all, Italian or English, as I was used to seeing in the U.S. I'm actually pretty impressed by how much I picked up on, between the performance of the cast and the scattered Italian vocabulary I recognized.

Last week we had a tour of the Vatican Museum--well, about a third of it, maybe. It's so big! Like everything else we've been to, I was so much more impressed by what I saw this time versus on my first high school trip to Italy. It really amazes me how stupid I was just 4 years ago and how much I've learned in such a short time.

Spiral Stairs to Exit the Vatican Museum

For history on Monday morning, we went to San Clemente, a Christian church that rests on 3 layers of historic structures that were originally filled in to be built upon and have since been excavated. It was so cool--we got to go underground and walk through the various layers of building types below the church. I thought it was particularly neat to walk through the ancient Roman insulae (apartment buildings) and the Roman public building that were down there, especially since I still remember learning about these building types from Latin class in high school. It was really cool to explore and actually experience them.

I can't believe we are going to Turkey in only a week and a half! It feels like we just got back to Roma! However, the best thing about traveling outside of Roma is how much more I love the city when we get back. Roma is really starting to feel kind of home-y and familiar, and, while I'm incredibly excited for the completely new experience going to Turkey followed by traveling through Europe for Spring Break, I'm also really sad to leave Roma so soon after getting back from Northern Italy. And it still baffles me that we're already more than half-way through February! Time is just flying by so fast...