Wrapping Up

We have had a quiet few days since returning from Tivoli. We are really feeling our time here coming to an end, and so we have just been trying to enjoy all the little things we have grown to love about being here. Going for cappuccino, strolling down the streets eating gelato, wandering through the cobblestone streets, narrowing escaping bodily injury from tiny cars and vespas.

On Sunday we finally made it to the Pope's address to the crowd in St Peters Square - something we've been meaning to do since we arrived. It was his last Sunday address and the crowd turn out was pretty impressive. You can find pictures and video in Ozayr's post "Sunday Crowds" on the University of Minnesota blog.

Yesterday we went to the Borghese Gallery and took in some fine art and sculpture. Bernini was the star of the show once again, and it's hard to even pick a favourite. I wish we could have taken photos, but it was FORBIDDEN. And they are pretty strict about those kinds of things.

Afterwards we walked through the Borghese gardens down to Piazza del Popolo. It was a beautiful walk. The outside spaces and lush gardens are one of my favourite things about Italy.

Maymuna's guest post

The students kindly invited the girls to post on the school blog that Ozayr and his students are writing. Here is a link to Maymuna's post about our trip to the Bioparco (zoo). If you check out the home page you can see daily recaps by Ozayr, plus extra pictures of all the things we've seen, and a video of the Pope's final Sunday address today in St. Peter's Square.

Tivoli

By the time we got to Tivoli, the rain was really pouring down but I still can't imagine the gardens being any more beautiful.

Hadrian's Villa

The girls and I tagged along on one of the student field trips today - a visit to Hadrian's Villa and the Tivoli Gardens. Hadrian was one of the "5 good emperors" of Rome, and inherited the title at a time when Rome was at its greatest extent geographically speaking. Hadrian did a lot of building projects and fortifying of the empire (ie Hadrian's wall) - a dream of an emperor for architects. His villa is in ruins now but it was still pretty spectacular to see.

Time's grandeur

"In Rome, the Eternal City, history is an everlasting present, an orderly perspective of arches receding from popes to Caesars with the papacy guaranteeing permanence and framing the vista of the future - decay being but an aspect of time's grandeur."

-Mary McCarthy

Pomodoro

One thing I will miss when we leave Italy: the tomatoes. They taste like the tomatoes I remember from my childhood. A rich taste and sweet. For lunch today I ate three small tomatoes with some crusty bread and mozzarella.

Doing what we do

Hanging out in Rome again, enjoying every minute of our last ten days here. There is less of that rushed feeling to see the sights, and since we got back from Florence we have mainly just been enjoying our favourite spaces and hanging out. I snapped the picture below of my little family sketching in St Peters Square yesterday. After that, we went for gelato - some of the best yet, just around the corner from the Accent center. Maymuna had apple cinnamon and I had garden sage and raspberry. Hafsa had chocolate. :-)

Boboli Gardens

We left Florence Sunday evening, and so after checking out of our hotel around lunchtime, we had a few hours to kill. We wandered into the Boboli Gardens (well, I say, "wandered" in, but it seems you don't "wander" in to anything in Italy. You put your belongings through an x-ray machine, walk through a metal detector, and pay 7 or 8 euros for the pleasure of entering said monument/museum/garden/gallery, but it sounds much more leisurely and romantic to say we strolled through these various checkpoints).

Anyway, the Boboli Gardens were a delight - a series of delights, actually, because every time you turned a corner your breath was taken away by another amazing view, or detail. The gardens are not even in full bloom, but it was worth every penny. Most of my pictures did not turn out as well as the garden still looks in my mind, but here are a couple of my favourites.

Florence

There are far too many lovely things to be said about Florence for me to say them all here. It was unanimous amongst us Saloojees, and Ozayr's students, that it was well worth the trip, and that most of us even wished we were staying in Florence the lion's share of our time in Italy. It feels like a betrayal to Rome, but it's true.

There are great shops, great restaurants, lots and lots of art and museums, old churches and tall domes to be climbed. Here are a few pictures from our brief but lovely stay.

Firenze

Florence might just have my heart for all eternity. It is beautiful here. The city is very walkable, very friendly, less crowded and less, er, intense than Rome. It's a great little break in our stay in Italy.

il Vaticano!

Lots of fuss round these parts since Pope Benedict's resignation! Our quiet neighbourhood around the corner from St. Peter's is now much busier, with swarms of visitors and camera crews camping out. Ozayr complains about the increased volume of "tourists". I told him that he is a tourist himself. He said that if you have an underwear drawer somewhere, you are not a tourist.

He is joking of course, but we have been here for 3 weeks now, and feel a certain "ownership" over our little rituals and routes.... Passing through St. Peter's Square on our way into work/downtown every day is one of them. It is a beautiful space that we really enjoy.

We climbed to the top of the basilica again when my cousin Dani was here. Little did we know that the Pope was probably giving his resignation speech while we were snapping pictures from the top. It was a bit of a blustery day, as you'll see from the pictures...

Folds

Sistine Chapel

Well, that blog post title is misleading, because actually, you can't take pictures of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, so I have none to show you. I do, however, have photos of other ceilings in the papal apartments and I would say they are NOT TOO SHABBY. Enjoy!

Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale