Last Days in Rome

Yesterday was a national holiday in Rome, honoring St. Peter and St. Paul, so we didn't have classes. Thus, I visited the Borghese Galley, which houses many Bernini statues and Caravaggio paintings that were part of the personal collection of Cardinal Borghese of the 16th century. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed, although I tried to sneak some anyway with varying degrees of success. The paintings were wonderful, but I, being a fan of Bernini, was more impressed with his statues. The major ones were those of Hades rape of Persephone, Apollo transforming a nymph into a tree, David about to slingshot Goliath, and Aeneas escaping Troy with his father on his back. Afterwards, I strolled through the beautiful Borghese Gardens until I reached the National Etruscan Museum. I really wasn't impressed with this museum at all. It wasn't because of its collection but because of its employees. They were all rude and very irritable. First, there are no signs that say picture taking wasn't allowed. All of the exhibits were in glass cases anyway, which boggles my mind why I couldn't take pictures. Secondly, the security guard couldn't had been more rude. Actually, to be quite honest, Romans in general are a mean and irritable lot. The Athenians are much nicer and appreciative of Americans. The Italians apparently must have forgot about the Marshall Plan and the U.S.'s involvement in helping them out after their economy's destruction in World War II. Anyway, the museum housed many of the finest pieces of Etruscan art found throughout Italy besides the Vatican Museum. My two favorite objects are the Sarcophagus of a couple and the painted vase of Diomedes, which recently has been returned to Italy from the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Afterwards, I took a taxi about 15 minutes north to the Catacombs of Priscilla. These catacombs housed about 10,000 early christian graves many meters underground. My guide showed me the way via a lamp, because it was so dark, which made picture taking almost an impossibility. Afterwards, I made my way back to my apartment to finish packing and prepare for the final exam, which we took the next morning. After the exam, we headed to the airport. Another reason why I am displeased with the Romans took place in their airport. I was the only one, the bag attendant made a big deal about, because my luggage was overweight. He even tried to charge me 150 euros because he thought he'd get away with it, because I'm a "stupid American". Luckily, one of our program directors was there, and I ended up paying nothing. He shut up quickly when she went off on him in Italian. Anyway, we flew into the city of Catania on the east coast of Sicily and then boarded taxis for the 45 minute drive south to Siracusa. The guys' taxi driver, Christian, was a straight up G. He's the only person I have ever seen with an Ipad as a GPS unit. After we arrived, I easily could tell I was going to like the Sicilian people much better than the Romans. They're all so nice and helpful much like the Greeks, which probably stems back to the fact that eastern Sicily was originally founded by the Greeks, not the Romans. Afterwards, I met our two new roommates, a guy from Texas and another from southern California, and then I got settled into my new apartment. Then, the group went out to dinner at a local restaurant, and I had some amazing tortellini.