Day 34 Time Crunch!

Villa Borghese (caravaggio and Berini)

this wonderful villa was located in a small park that felt very out of place in the hustle and bustle of Rome. It was a beautiful building designed specifically for the display of artworks. It houses some of the most amazing sculptures that have ever been created. Included some beautiful masterpieces by Berini. This sculptures would make you jaw drop by the shear ability of Berini to sculpt stone with such softness and tenderness to give the essence of soft skin, folds of the skin, or even exerted pressure from one figure on another. It was an amazing sight to behold.

Walk through the Park

After the Villa Borghese we walked in the park that surrounded the villa and enjoyed the essence of natural beauty. We sat around enjoyed the sunshine and the coolness of the breeze against our faces. We saw the smiles of little children and the begging of dogs to play with there masters. It was a wonderful place to relax, take in true Roman culture, and take a break from the canvases, and stones we have been running all over Europe in search of...

Via Veneto

after the walk though the park we took a stroll down this extravagant street filled with little restaurants and fancy shopping.

eat at small little bar and had good cheap 4 Euro sandwiches

at the end of the street near the taxi stand we found a small sandwich place. We all purchased sandwhiches by the weight and it was excellent and cheap.

St. Peter's Basilica and climb to the cupola

after lunch we jumped in a taxi and ran to st. Peter's Bascillica to see the church and also ty to climb the Dome. We got there and the lines were very short so we decided to climb the dome. We took the elevator up part way and then climbed the last 300 or so steps in very small passages and some that even slanted. at the top we had a beautiful view of Rome and the piazza out in front of St. Peters. After that we went back downstairs and walked through St. Peters and saw Michelangelo's Pieta. afte that we rushed back to the hotel grabbed our stuff and jumped on the train back to Florence

train back to Florence
Sloppy Joes for dinner
Church at the Villa

and now free travel prep,
homework,
class tomorrow
and an overwhelming number of things to do in not nearly enough time!

but tomorrow after lunch were leaving for Switzerland...

we spent a large portion of the night trying to book hostels, plan free travel adn pack before we had to get up and go to classes in the morning.