Sorry for the lack of posts in a while. School has restarted, so things are getting going again. Our new professor is much more keen on having scheudled meetings, so all of us meet her in groups based on our school year once a week and in one of four mixed groups bi-weekly. We went to Bologna on Friday to see the Bologna Art Show, which to be honest didn't have much in the way of work that suited my taste. There was some cool stuff, but the majority of it was far to obtuse or bizarre to really connect with me.

The weekend before, we went to Rome. We arrived early in the morning on the thursday and immediatly went to our hotel to drop off our bags an then went off again. We checked out the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. We stopped in a number of churches and saw some beautiful Caravaggio's. We went to a resturant that night called 'Africa' for some delicious Ethiopian food.

Friday, we went to the Vatican. We arrived early and quickly slid past customs and into the small country. We saw some neat Rapheals before slowly meandering through a maze of hallways and rooms to the Sistine Chapel. By the time we got to the chapel, I was getting really tired of looking at art and was starving. Thankfully, there is a cafe and restaurant right nearby. After gorging ourselves full of food, we continued onto St. Peters. We managed to sneak into a secret door in the Sistine Chapel, which is reserved for tour groups. We scuttled down a hallway, past some Swiss Guards going about their business and then popped out next to St. Peters. The largest catholic church in the world. We stepping inside, saw some dead popes and basked in the glory of this magnificent building. We then went for beers in a building which used to be Raphael's house. The rest of the day was spent slowly making it back to our hotel, but we stopped at an alehouse on the way back for dinner. Good beer, but terrible food.

Saturday, was our last day. We however didn't leave until quite late in the afternoon. We saw more churches and some more paintings by well renowned artists, but we were given full reign to wander around Rome on our own for most of the day. Went back to the Colosseum and some of the other ancient wonders (but didn't bother trying to go inside). Saw a lot of ruins and more churches. Ended up being a very good day, but it was nice to finally get back to Florence in the end.

I took an amazing amount of pictures, too much to post here. However, you can see them on my Facebook here.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2262084086441.88861.1678620007&type=1