Envoi

Well, it certainly has been a wonderful two weeks in beautiful Roma. We did so much and saw so many things; I think I'm going to need a real vacation after this due to exhaustion. But it was so completely worth it. I found myself beginning to establish a routine in Italy; I began to imagine myself living there. Wake up, get ready, stroll across the street for a cornetto and a cappuccino per portare via ... oh yes, I could definitely get used to this lifestyle.

I think this course has been an eye-opening experience overall, both on campus and off. I had never taken any sort of classics course before, so this definitely opened my eyes to the whole wealth of knowledge that could be available to me about the ancient world. While the on-campus section of the course may not have exactly been my cup of tea, I was definitely able to take away some knowledge from it that allowed my Rome experience to be even richer than it would have been. I've traveled to Rome a handful of times before but was never able to see it through the lens through which I saw it this time. The last time I went to Rome, if I had gotten to visit the necropolis under the Vatican I would probably have thought of it as some creepy, musky tomb and would be wondering when the tour would be over within the first 15 minutes. Because of Reading Rome, I found the tour of the necropolis to be one of the most enthralling things I got to do in Rome. Knowing about the different layers of the Basilica and then actually getting to experience them in person was so mind-blowing. I thought, this is one of the moments that everyone told me I would have in Rome; when I realize that all of the work I did on campus was totally worth it.

I think another one of my favorite places we visited in Rome was the Basilica of Santa Sabina and the Aventine Hill. In the 4th century Basilica I experienced another one of those spiritual moments I talked about in my previous posts; where I felt like if I were going to kneel down and pray anywhere, it would be right there in that church. The fact that I was standing in a place that was built in the 4th century and that much of the original materials actually remained was so amazing. It's one thing to read about a place that was built so long ago, but to actually stand there in the basilica and feel the history in the room... it's one of those things that you simply have to experience yourself in order to understand the feeling of it. The visit to the Basilica was then followed by an absolutely perfect afternoon at the park on the Aventine. Our time there could have lasted twenty minutes or an hour and a half, honestly I was so lost in time at that park I can't even tell you how long we were there. It was a truly beautiful day.

I will certainly miss the European lifestyle when I get home. Everything is much slower here and people seem to really know how to enjoy life. This is why I knew I needed to come back here after I came home from studying abroad. Adjusting back to life at Skidmore was actually really rough, and I never expected that to happen. I love Skidmore and consider it to be home, sometimes more so than my actual home. But after establishing a home in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, pueblo de mi corazón, it was even hard to come back to Skidmore. There is just something about the European lifestyle, something that I can't quite put my finger on, or perhaps it's a combination of factors, that makes me never want to leave. I could absolutely lose myself in those two weeks we spent in Roma and never come back. I already miss my daily trips to the gelateria, the meals we spent together as a group and all the laughs we had... mamma mia, I even miss our touristy flock completely clogging the entrance of the metro and angering all the Italians. I will be nostalgic for the bus rides, the cool voice on the metro saying "uscita al lato destro," the nice man with the ponytail and kind smile that works at Vero, joking around with my favorite St. John's security man... I really feel as though I had begun to establish my little routine in Rome and then, in a flash, it was over - just as I knew it would be. However, I do have complete faith that one day I will return to Rome, and when I do I will have to visit all of the familiar sites. Well, maybe not all of them; I don't think any future visit to Rome could ever be as much of a whirlwind as ours was, but I will certainly get another good sweep of the city in there. A più tardi, Roma!