My Defining Decade: "Do You See God's Beauty?"

First stop on the Italian adventure -Rome! (after a flight delay for two hours; nothing starts a nine hour plane ride off right like adding a couple extra hours!) There was a "minor maintenance issue" which seemed less and less minor as the time went on, but when they finally announced we were cleared for take-off, I was stoked! I barely slept for various reasons - the excitement, the fact that I was sitting straight up, and because my body thought it was 6pm (not exactly my normal bedtime). Nonetheless, we made it to Rome, even if a couple hours behind schedule. Luckily we still had enough time to check into Hotel Repubblica on the Piazza del Repubblica and wash off the "I-slept-on-a-plane" smell before venturing out into the beautiful city of Rome.

We had a wonderful walking tour guide named Roberto who took us all over Rome with an emphasis on the Baroque period. This took place in the 17th century as art and literature became more detail and emotion oriented and is when the famous Raphael and Michelangelo thrived! Our first stop was a beautiful Roman Catholic church called Chiesa di Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, where we saw our first gold plated ceiling of many! Roberto said "Do you see God's beauty?" as we were standing in the middle of the church taking every possible picture. I loved that he so casually mentioned it to bring me back to the reason the architects and designers intricately decorated the ceiling and walls - to show God's glory and beauty! What an honor it was to stand in His gorgeous house.

Next, we headed to the famous Trevi Fountain! We actually got to walk down to the edge of the fountain base and make a wish by throwing a coin over your shoulder. Don't ask what my wish was...I still want it to come true. Also on our walking tour, we got to see the Pantheon, a temple to the ancient Roman gods that was (and still is) an engineering marvel. The entire dome on top of the structure was carved out of ONE piece of marble. That's right, the ceiling was made of just one huge piece of marble! While this in itself is pretty remarkable, let's not forget that the Pantheon was built over 2000 years ago - without cranes, heavy machinery, or really much structural engineering knowledge at all. The fact is, no one knows how those ancient geniuses actually got the dome on top of the Pantheon. One theory suggests that the builders rose the dome by basically shoving sand underneath it to make it rise higher and higher. I think the 0 A.D. Romans could teach our class a thing or two about engineering creativity and building something to last. Finally, we went to the Piazza Novena to see another beautiful church and fountain on the spot where Romans would play the Olympic games!

To cap the night off, we went to a cute little Italian restaurant to get our long awaited pasta fix! I ordered Fettucine alla Bolognese and WOAH. First, the pasta was clearly homemade so each noodle was tender but not mushy, cooked perfectly al dente, and clearly hadn't been sitting around long in the kitchen. It was perfectly complemented with a homemade bolognese sauce - each flavor was present but not overbearing and there was the perfect sauce to noodle ratio. I may actually fall asleep tonight dreaming of eating it forever, it was that good. We're wrapping the night up somewhat early because we haven't slept in a long time! And I'm too tired to figure out exactly how long it's been. I've posted some pictures below from my day, so hopefully you get a taste of what I've been up to during my twelve hours in Rome so far!