Sunday, as God intended, was a day of rest. Much more so than in America, I noticed the observation of the Sabbath, whether for religious reasons or social reasons. I would guess it is more the latter, but I try to be an optimist, so I will call it observation of the Sabbath. For me, it was much needed rest. I slept well Saturday night and woke up a little early to Skype with Kristin. As I may have mentioned, the internet connection here is pretty good, but tends to get slow as many people use it. Therefore, in order to have a video chat for more than 2 minutes, I have to do so at hours when others are not eating up bandwidth. Thus the early waking.

At ten, I joined Ben and several others going to church. Ben had found a church with an English service several stops down the metro. The service wasn't until 10:30, but we managed to get lost and didn't arrive until 10:45. This time, it was Google maps that failed us, in addition to two hotel clerks that gave us erroneous directions. The good thing is, getting lost in Rome is often an adventure and only leads to more beautiful discoveries. The church is called Santa Susanna and I'm sure has quite a history to it. Again, I didn't have a camera with me (I need to have it permanently attached to my body), so I can't share the pictures wit h you yet. I'm sure I'll go back though. The service was nice, although I am still a little unfamiliar with the Catholic mass, since I typically attend Protestant churches. After the service we grabbed a snack of croissants and hopped back on the metro to return to our apartments.

I don't recall the exact order of what I did that afternoon, but I think I remember most of it. As I mentioned, it was mainly relaxing. At some point I made lunch, which consisted of fusilli pasta, sauce, and parmesan cheese. I also finished my Engineering Economics homework, which consisted of writing a half page on what we found interesting in the reading, submitting a resume online, and writing a two page analysis of a product – how it came to be and where it came from. For this exercise I chose to write about my money belt (I guess you were right, Mom – it did come in handy – although I have yet to wear it). I also watched another two episodes of Lost, and I am officially hooked. Congratulations all you Lost addicts, I had said it would never happen, but the day is here.

Most of the afternoon, however, was spent organizing my plans for sightseeing here in Rome. I decided to go through my guidebook and determine what I wanted to see, when and why. I made an Excel chart with the name of the place, where it is, whether the metro is close, the cost, existence of a tour, hours open, and some notes about each one. I spent probably close to four hours on this, but it should prove to be quite useful and I know I will use it throughout the trip. I “narrowed” the list down to about 60 places, 10 of which we have already been to. This seems like a lot, but most places are churches or squares that are free and take an hour maximum. These places can be done before or after class during the week. After finishing this, I went for another run around the Vatican, which for some reason seemed much harder this time. Mike and Eric made dinner – pasta again – but with some chicken as well. It was delicious, and essentially put me to sleep. At ten I passed out while trying to read some Engineering Economics and slept all the way through the night.

This morning I woke up at the early hour of 6:30, probably because I went to bed so early. I talked with Kristin again, and at about 8:00 I had a revelation, or at least I thought I did. Today is the Festa della Repubblica, a national holiday in Italy. There was a big parade at 9:00 over by the Coloseum, which I almost went to. Anyways, I realized that the Vatican is a separate state and probably doesn't celebrate the holiday, meaning the Vatican Museum would be open. We had been worrying about when we would visit because weekends have short hours and weekdays would be challenging with class. It doesn't help that it is quite expensive, 14 euros each time you go in. So, my revelation was that we should go today with the hope that everyone else went to the parade or took the day off. Well, Mike and I got ready and headed over at about nine, only to discover that about a million other people had the same revelation I had. The line was ridiculously long, but we decided to stick it out. We got in by 10:15 and headed straight to the Sistine Chapel. This was quite the adventure because nearly everyone in the museum goes there. On top of this, most people are part of a tour and are especially pushy in order to stay with their group. The result is just short of a miniature riot at times. Mike and I cruised through the tour groups and made our way to the chapel. It was quite amazing and actually bigger than I expected. We spent about twenty minutes in there craning our necks to the ceiling before moving on. I snuck a few pictures even though they weren't allowed (everyone else was doing it, sorry God).

After the Sistine chapel we basically went through every wing of the very confusing museum. We saw a lot of impressive sculpture work at the beginning, and some painting at the end. I recognized many of the works from my art history class, and most of the artists. Some of my favorites were Michaelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens, and Giotto. Unfortunately, there isn't much information about the artwork in English beside a small placard identifying the work, the artist, the date and maybe the donors. This made the artwork I didn't recognize a little less interesting, and I most often gravitated to what I knew. In a lot of ways, Mike and I were just going through looking for what we thought was famous and taking pictures of it. Maybe not what was intended, but oh well. It was still quite amazing to be in the presence of such history and awesome skill. We made it through most of the museum in about two hours and then we were both famished, so we decided to leave. I probably could have spent the whole time in front of just one piece, but in some ways I feel like this can be done just as well from a distance on the internet or in a book. My goal was to experience as much as I could and discover some new things I had never seen before.

I believe I forgot to mention, but today is a little rainy, and we got a little wet in line for the Vatican. It was again raining when we left and headed back home. We made a stop for lunch at a little snack shop which sold paninis, one of the few stores open on the holiday. I then came home, finished my reading for Engineering Economics, watched an episode of Lost, and otherwise have avoided working on my paper. Alas, I believe the time has come and I must get to work on it. The rest of the afternoon and night will be devoted to this, so wish me luck!

P.S. I apologize for blurry pictures. The museums do not allow flash in most locations, which makes it quite hard to get a clear shot. I did my best, but unfortunately failed occasionally.