B&B Desiderio Di Roma Rome

... records of the burials lost. It was common during the centuries, as it is today, to unearth spectacular intact Greek and Roman artifacts, like the Laocoon sculpture, commissioned and transported to Rome from Rhodes in the 1st century BC, but lost for centuries under Nero’s Golden House. Its discovery in 1506 became a sensation involving Pope Julius II ("Il Papa Terrible" for his bad temperament), Michaelangelo, Raphael ...

... I LOVE SPARKELING WATER so i was pretty jazzed about that situation. we finished dinner at 11 pm! so we all just headed back to the hotel where Beth and I mingled with some of our friends on the same floor and then we headed off to bed.
I am so blessed to be here and I want to thank everyone for allowing me to come on this amazing trip. I will figure out the phones soon and call home when i do figure it out. i love yall all! xoxoxoxo

ciao!

... big pile. After 900 years of throwing crushed pots on the pile, it grew into a mountain and is now Monte Testacchio. It is grown over with grass but you can still see remains of the pots in some parts. After hearing this story, and on our way to a big big meal, we walked into a cemetary and saw the graves of John Keats and Percy Shelley, the famous English poets of the Romantic movement. At the restaurant we tried some "real, old" Italian food ...

... I have been to Rome before and taken hundreds of pictures, so my pictures here do not reflect the big sights that Rome is known for. In fact, I have not even been to the forum as this visit has been more about relaxing and just immersing myself in the everyday. Walks around the city, trips to the market and reading in the park. Hmm...I think I could live here!! Next is Venice for New Year's! Happy New Year's to all and wishes for a happy 2008! Alison

... walk, aka a passigiato, and I was overwhelmed by the immensity of Rome after 2 weeks in Firenze. We saw the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, several churches, and, most importantly, went to the best gelateria in Rome. Good stuff. However, I'm dying of some sort of plague. I come home in a week! We're all exhausted and run down, so I'm getting kind of ready to return, even though I will miss Italy and everyone in our class so much love, Lara

... the Italian rail system a bit taxing before and I didn't want to take any chances. So, I took a taxi to the Termini after breakfast. Once I had secured my reservation card, I headed off to find Bernini's Triton fountain and stroll the famous Via Veneto (a very fancy street indeed). After a lunch of pizza funghi and beer (Rome ain't got nothin' on Pat's Pizza as far as I could tell) I had intended to visit the Medici Villa, but when I got there it appeared to be closed. I was ...

... the bed sheets and if you did so, you were entitled to free (albeit aweful!) wine for the first hour. The party was rather crazy and for some reason we thought it would be a great idea to buy a bottle of vodka and down it before the free wine.... I haven't really been drinking since Xmas so things got rather messy. I was trying to 'get' free drinks from the bar men for all our new friends and delighted in telling all that I gave hime $5 and ...

... is standing, with his neck craned back, which supposedly caused him life-long back-pain (my neck hurt the whole rest of the day just from having looked up at it for twenty minutes!). The far wall also depicts an image of Christ's Last Judgement, also by Michelangelo, which is incredibly complex and beautiful. The Chapel, like the David, is a little too much for me to explain in words - like a good joke, it's one of those things where you have to be there to really ...

... We finally leave the church and Piazza, heading out the east gate to find a random line. After a little questioning, we find this is the last line for entrance into the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We eventually learn that this line wraps around the block before the entrance to the museum and all thru the rooms inside before we even reach the tiny Chapel. By this point, we are a little numb to all the items on display in the museum and are just ...

... and cannons and armour etc within the 16th century rooms and lots of good views of Rome from its prime strategic vantage point. Because of the latish hour I had the whole place virtually to myself, save a handful of tourists and the usual over-abundance of 'guards'. Most of these 'guards' were middle-aged women sitting on their plastic seats chatting away on the phone and paying no attention at all to any visitors. After a good hour there I meandered my way back to the ...