September 14, 2023
Day Nine
September 9, 2023
Tiramusu – Adrian, Gabriella, Nathan Q
Morning – Adrian
I woke up early in the morning, thinking we had to walk to the UW Rome Center. Turns out I had a lot of extra time – one of my roommates let me know that we were meeting at the dorms today! We made our way east, crossing the Tiber, and ended up at the beautiful Piazza del Popolo. All this was to my surprise, as I had made this exact same journey a few days earlier when I decided to go on a solo adventure. This time, I was able to get a much more educated look at the area from our two wonderful presenters.
Piazza del Popolo
At the Piazza, Gabby gave her presentation about the square. Once a forested area, the Piazza del Popolo eventually became the resting place of Emperor Nero. Centuries later, out of fear of the location being haunted, Nero’s remains were removed.
Madeline Glaser’s presentation about the nearby Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo also mentioned the story of Nero. On the steps outside of the basilica, I noticed a lot of vendors selling toy flying machines that looked like a da Vinci invention. After that story, we went into the basilica, which houses some famous works by Caravaggio.
I was much more focused on the end of the church. I sat down and made a pen sketch of the apse and altar of the church in my journal (pictured above). I find myself focusing more and more on the architecture of the city than the people – if for no reason other than that a building won’t walk away halfway through a sketch.
Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo, interior. Fun fact: the dome at the far end of the picture is the oldest church dome in the eternal city.
After exploring the basilica, we met out on the steps, where Professor Wong told us all to meet up later that night at the Galleria Borghese, and until then we went our separate ways.
While I was going with a few friends to go check out Rome’s LEGO store, I remembered the one thing I had agreed to buy myself in Rome – European cologne. I tracked down a nearby shop and, after allowing myself to sample a bottle of Gucci, bought a much more down-to-earth French fragrance. From here, I made my way back to the dorms, where I got some much-needed rest.
Afternoon – Gabby
In the states, I’m not a big shopper. When I’m abroad, I am. So, of course I HAD to begin my afternoon by shopping. A friend and I walked along Via Del Corso, the street directly by the identical churches in Piazza del Popolo. We walked into a variety of stores, mainly admiring them all. I loved walking into the art stores and looking at all the different paint colors. I even debated buying myself a nice (and expensive) watercolor set, but I sadly didn’t end up doing so. Surprisingly, I didn’t end up buying anything but my friend did. We continued along the streets, eventually arriving in the Trevi Fountain area.
Despite the crowds, I still love admiring the fountain and its beauty. As my stomach growled, I turned around to see Antico Forno rosioli, a bakery that I had been wanting to go to for their cornettos. Initially, we went into the line before realizing that they also had a store with the very same items. So, we ventured out of the line and into the store where we went to town on buying pastries. Although I couldn’t get the cornettos as they all had nuts in them, and I’m sadly allergic, I still found plenty of other things.
I went home with focaccia, a layered cornetto, and a cookie. At this point, we were pretty tired, so my friend and I ended up going back to our houses. When I finally got there, hot and sweaty, I enjoyed my leftover carbonara from osteria de Fortunata along with my leftover tiramisu, which if you come to Rome I HIGHLY recommend their tiramisu (it’s the best. I finished off my afternoon with doing some online calculus work for my college calc class, along with doing my calc unit test. Then I headed off to the gallery!
The Tiramisu at the restaurant before I dug in
Night – Nathan Quiroga
After a nice nap in the afternoon, it was time to head over to the Borghese Gallery and Museum. I didn’t have the most fantastic luck getting there. Apart from waking up on the later side, I didn’t have an ESIM or any data on my phone, so trying to go somewhere alone was almost impossible since I couldn’t view any maps due to no data. I put in the address in Google Maps and prayed the directions would stay working regardless of Wi-Fi or not. Luckily, I was able to figure out what train to take, and made it over to the correct stop, with only about 15 minutes left before I was officially “late”, I made a run for it. Somehow Google Maps did not fail me and continued to give me directions without any Wi-Fi. I ran towards the gallery and luckily made it just in time. We all got our tickets to enter the museum as well as a quick rundown of what to expect and what to do.
Outside picture of the Borghese Gallery and Museum
Once we got inside, we made our way through first, the paintings in the museum. I personally really enjoyed it and was able to recognize a few paintings myself, the one on my entry ticket, as well as another piece that I have seen before but can’t entirely remember from what. There were so many different things to see at this gallery, but we had to take it slow and go through each and every room to enjoy and appreciate the art within them.
A painting by Carravagio titled “Saint Jerome Writing”
This is one of those paintings that looked familiar too me but also one that I really like, the skull simply sitting there almost looking at Saint Jerome’s writing is interesting to me but also makes me question a few aspects about this piece such as who’s skull is it? Why does he have it there? And what is its purpose? As we continued walking throughout the gallery there were so many different paintings to just look at and appreciate. Once we got through with the paintings we went down towards the sculptures, which was my personal favorite part of the museum.
The Rape of Prosperina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
This was one of the many sculptures in the gallery, it fascinates me how an artist can carve out so much detail into a large block of stone or other forms of material to create such a masterpiece with more detail than modern-day paintings and artworks. As we continued walking through we saw dozens of amazing sculptures like the one above, from a large range of sizes, to many different depictions of individuals, gods, and more. After finishing up at the gallery, we decided to call it a night and head back over to the dorms to rest and get ready for our free day the next day!