John Mark’s Study Abroad

Rome Video

Rome, Italy – Day 1

We arrived in Rome mid afternoon, and had a meeting with all the professors and students about our time in Rome, and Thesis.

Since that meeting we had the night free, and the whole next day.  That night we walked around the city, it was fun watching a few street vendors trying to make a living.

We also watched the Trevi Fountain as the sun was going down and the fountain was light up.

The next morning some of the group went to St. Peters Cathedral for Catholic Mass. 

The church was absolutely breath taking with its enormous size and elaborate decoration.  Everywhere you looked was a beautiful sculpture of Christ, the disciples, Mary, ect.

After Mass we just walked around the city and saw all the sights.  

Coliseum

Pantheon

Spanish Steps

And on and on.  We did not do much detailed exploring because most of the places we will go back to with a tour guide to tell us more.

The late afternoon I spent working on my paper, and getting some other work organized.  Tonight we watched the Germany vs. Poland Euro Cup Soccer match.

Rome – Day 2

The next day we went to Palazetto delo Sport. Jay Martin is writing about this building, it is very unique because the structure of the dome, and they only used about 2 inch thick concrete all the way through.  Its structure was modeled after an egg-shell.

After we left we saw some younger Italians playing some basketball, so we asked if we could join in and dominated them.

That afternoon we meet at Vatican City Tommy Stowell gave a tour about the Piazza of St. Peter’s, and then got a four-hour tour through the Vatican and then St. Peters.  It really was some cool stuff, but our tour guide did not speak great English, and I was already really tired so it kind of drug out.  We did get to spend a lot of time in the Sistine Chapel.  It was really amazing, the guards kept everyone quiet so even with hundreds of people it was a very solitude and peaceful environment.

But after the tour we got to do one of the coolest things in Rome, climb up the dome of St. Peters.  It was about 300 steps to the top and is the highest point in Rome.  The views from the top of the dome were unbelievable, both inside the church, and of the city.

That night I called Ashley York, and we meet up with her and about 8 other Auburn girls that were studying abroad about and hour south of Rome.  It was fun getting to hang out with some Auburn Girls instead of 14 building science guys.  We sent to a sports bar with about 100 other people packed in watching Italy play in the Euro Cup.  Afterwards we went to Campo De’ Fiori a square with a bunch places to hang out and a lot of Americans go there.

Rome – Day 3

The next day we had a construction field trip with Salini Construction. 

They are digging out a new line for the metro about 100 feet underground.  They have two $20 million dollar machines to do the excavating and it is about a $600 Million dollar project.  We got to walk thru the tunnel, and watch as the machine excavated through rock and soil.

We had a short afternoon break, then meet at the Pantheon were Lauren gave us a tour.  At the Pantheon they are filming “Angels and Demons” the sequel to the Divinci Code.  They had white sheets covering the sky so they could control the lighting, and tons of cameras and controls set up in the square. 

We saw Tom Hanks getting into his car, but they were very persistent that you could not use your camera near the set, but after zooming all the way in you can see him getting in his car.

Afterwards we went to the Colosseum, Jep gave us a full tour of the stadium.  It was so impressive and made me want to watch Gladiator.  It was built out of concrete, brick, and marble, in 50 AD. 

As we were sitting outside the Colosseum I say Amy Young and Lindsey Westbrook walk by.  It was so crazy being half way across the world, and randomly seeing some high school friends.

Again that night we watched futbol.  I have become a huge fan of the Euro Cup, and hope to catch a game while in Switzerland.  Today is a free day to work on our paper and just catch up, we head to Florence tomorrow.