Today was our final day in Italy (besides leaving day). We started our day out by going to a church with many layers of history underneath it: St. Clemente Church. The complex is of great importance because it is located on top of ancient underground buildings going two levels deep, the oldest of which dates back to the first century AD.

We then went to Museo dell’Ara Pacis, which houses the Ara Pacis of Augustus, an altar dedicated to peace, as well as temporary exhibitions on modern and contemporary art. It was really cool to see the building in which it was housed due to the fact that a girl’s mom in our group had designed that building (Lauren Tulley)!

After looking at the awesome architecture and altar piece of Augustus, we headed to a museum that housed many sculptures and busts. The Capitoline Museums were a set of mirroring museums that focussed a lot on Roman sculpture. It was really awe provoking to see the level of detail in which these artists worked. 

We ended our day with of course another traditional, yummy, home style Italian restaurant, followed by walking to the famous Trevi Fountain. Some of us decided to get some final gelato on the way back to the hotel and now we are all just about asleep and excited but sad to come back home.

Today we ate a delicious breakfast and took a bus to the Borghese Gallery.

Here is what Jonathan Ennis said about the experience:

“The Borghese gallery was the fun-sized version of the Vatican. With all the fun-sized, multimillion dollar classical art pieces that mimicked its king sized counterpart to the best of its ability. We saw many 2nd most famous art pieces at the old renaissance villa turned museum. The 2nd most famous statue of David, the 2nd most famous rendition of “the last supper”, etc. Though there were a few notable statues such as “Apollo and Daphne”, and “The Rape of Persephone”, the works that stood out to me were made by the master of shadows and father of tenebrism himself, Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio. The works that this painter made were on everything from baskets of fruit to young women graphically beheading people. All of them displayed Caravaggio’s talent at painting shadows, and the range of things which interested him.”

After the gallery we visited the Column of Trajan and took a tour of the ruins of some buildings near it. Once our tour was finished, we headed over to a Sacred Heart School at the top of the Spanish Steps. Then we explored the bougie and luxurious shopping area for two hours before going to dinner.

Today we visited the Vatican City, which is its own tiny country!

Here is what Jonathan Ennis has to say:

“Have you ever watched the reality tv show ‘hoarders’? Well that was what walking through the first art gallery in the Vatican reminded me of, but instead of the hoarders accumulating large piles of things in their houses, the religious rulers had accumulated more wealth in art than many small countries did. I saw incredible works of art, paintings, statues, and frescoes. Many of them were priceless and had been created by famous artists such as Michelangelo, and Raphael. As a group we moved through many galleries and saw art the church has picked from many different eras, we saw everything from statues made in Roman times, to modern sculptures from the 1990’s. Everything about the 44 hectares of land called the Vatican that we saw was the embodiment of beauty. The art, the architecture, the stunning view from the top of St. Peters Basilica. It was incredible, it was beautiful beyond words, and it was decadent beyond anything I have ever seen.”

Ari Nagle says:

“Today was probably the busiest and biggest day because we visited the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. At the Vatican museum, we saw the gradual shift from medieval to renaissance art in the huge galleries. The most amazing gallery in my opinion was the Raphael room. There, we got to see the School of Athens up close. Afterwards, we visited the Sistine chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo. The immensity was overwhelming because the whole chapel is painted on every side in such great detail. After that, we moved on to St. Peter’s Basilica. This was very exciting because we climbed up to the top of the dome and walked around the side of it. The letters around the dome are six feet tall! We heard some interesting stories from our guide Megan in the Vatican. Then we went to dinner and had some free time to walk around. Today was very busy, but we got to see lots of famous things in detail.”

We ended the day eating delicious gelato and traditional Italian cuisines.

Some little blurbs from Kate and Leet about our day:

Leet: Palatine Hill

According to the creation story of Rome, two brothers, Romulus and Remus, fought about where to build a city. Romulus wanted to build it on Palatine Hill, and Remus preferred Aventine Hill. After Romulus killed his brother, he built the city on Palatine Hill and called it Rome. Currently, Palatine Hill consists of the Forum, temple ruins, and ruins of mansions built by emperors. We walked through the ruins on a path that ended at a points overlooking Rome. 

Kate: Colosseum

At the Colosseum today we walked around the perimeter and second stories. The group saw the underground passageways that flooded during naval battles, where the gladiators were kept, and the animals were transported too.