Rooftops in Rome

(April 9 – April 12)

The Colosseum

Sitting in front of the Colosseum on the last day

The Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument

Trying to look tough from the top of the Spanish Steps

View from the Spanish Steps

Fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Matt Shaw's b-day dinner

The ladies in Paletine Hill

The Gentlemen (sans Nick)

The Roman Forum

Matt and I in front of the Colosseum

The Gentlemen in the Colosseum

Interior of the Colosseum

Gaulli's ceiling in Il Gesu

The inside of St. Peter's Basilica

Nick and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

The Vatican

Castel San'Angelo

Most of the group in front of the Trevi Fountain

Night time on the rooftop

The echoes of laughter danced through the vacant hallway and down the flight of marble stairs – I could hear them coming from two flights below. Following the heartfelt sounds of my compatriots, I strolled down the last corridor and out into the open air rooftop terrace. A significant group had gathered on the highest floor of the hotel and begun eating “family dinner.” As I dragged a plastic green patio chair around the table, the setting sun in the distance colored the sky gold and the first signs of starlight began to poke through the darkening east end. From our vantage point high in the night’s sky we could see several of the domes of Rome – lighting up as darkness passed. However, the loss of light and the chill in the air did very little to dampen our spirits. I sat there staring at the fellowship of the people around me – chatting, eating, passing food, sipping wine – and it kind of hit me all at once: this is what it’s all about.

When I walked into my first meeting for the Leuven study abroad program, I recognized two faces: Matt Cunnane, and Liam. Matt I knew from our sketch comedy group, but I didn’t really know him outside of rehearsals, and Liam I had taken one class with, but we had some mutual friends in common. In terms of people I knew before I left, that was about it. So the idea, that 8 months later, I would be sitting under the Roman stars, laughing with a group of people at “family dinner” – that is basically what this experience has meant to me in a nutshell. I came here with a group of strangers, and created a family. We spent just about every night up on that rooftop, and for me it was some of my favorite memories of Rome.

The scene above was from our time in Rome in our hotel Albergo del Sole, which was right on the edge of Campo del Fiori – a college hotspot which we learned about from our Loyola friends studying in Rome. This trip to Rome was my fourth to the center of history and art in Europe and I must say the city never fails to amaze me. With each visit back to it, I grow fonder of the pure history that just exudes out of it.

This trip was actually the second time I took the Loyola study abroad trip through Rome (As my family followed Marc around when he was there 7 years ago). This time around we did many of the same touristy things. On the first day we took a walking tour through the city stopping at a number of locations, but mainly the following: the Theater of Marcellus (where Caesar was killed), Capitoline Hill (the hill of the palaces), the old Forum, Trajan’s Market, the Colosseum, Constantine’s Arch, Circus Maximus (the old chariot raceway), Bocca della Verita, and the Forum Boarium. After the exhaustion of traveling for the day, we took it easy at night and ate dinner on the rooftop and then spent the night walking to the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon.

On the second day, we had a group tour of the Vatican Museum which ended with a tour of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Both the ceiling and his last judgment are amazing spectacles to take in – Michelangelo, while also a genius, was a perfectionist and the images on the Sistine Chapel are the largest testament to that. In the afternoon we took a walking tour of the Area Sacra di Largo, the Pantheon, and the Jesuit churches: St. Ignazio, and Il Gesu, which both are famous for Gaulli’s illusionist paintings (in one he painted a fake dome which looks real, in the other a ceiling which appears to opening up to the heavens). At night we headed out to dinner and then to the Campo to celebrate Matt Shaw’s birthday at midnight.

On the 11th, Tim, Liam and I got up early to catch mass at Il Gesu – which even though it was in Italian was worth the time spent inside the beautiful Jesuit church. Though I wasn’t able to follow the mass, I spent most of my time admiring the innate beauty of the masterfully decorated church and of Gaulli’s masterpieces. Following the Mass, we met up with the rest of the group for our tour of the interior of the Colosseum. After touring the oldest stadium in the world, we headed out to tour the Roman Forum (which they recently started charging for a tour – something that hadn’t occurred in my first 3 trips to there). Afterward it was my first time up to Paletine Hill. For the rest of the afternoon we relaxed and then went to dinner to again honor Matt Shaw’s b-day.

The day after the birthday bash, we had an early morning walk to the Vatican for our tour of St. Peter’s Scavi (the underground burial grounds which lie below the Basilica). Enroute to the scavi, we stopped at San Luigi Dei Francesci to view three Caravaggio paintings. I was captivated by Caravaggio’s “The Calling of St. Matthew,” and the use of the lighting in the artwork to make it look just like the sunlight from outside was coming in across the small side chapel in which it resided, I described it in my reflection paper as the following:

The dull yellow light glowing from the small half moon window cascaded across the side chapel, illuminating everything in its path – the altar, the candles, the communion rail, all coated in the early morning sun. As I stood staring into the Contarelli Chapel in the San Luigi dei Francesi Church in Rome – I gazed up at Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew (1599-1600), on the wall and followed the light from the window onto the painting. Glancing back and forth between the painting and the piece of paper which told its story, I began to notice something peculiar. Something was different about this painting than the other ones we’d seen and I could not quite put my finger on it. My eyes darted back and forth, from paper to painting, paper to painting – then it hit me. It was the light.

The Scavi was an amazing experience for most of the group as it is the location of the burial place of St. Peter. Following the Scavi, a large contingent of the Loyolites headed over to the Spanish steps and out to the outskirts of the city.

The following day we spent traveling to Ostia Antica (which I will describe in the next blog). Wednesday was our last day in Rome on Loyola’s tab, we headed out to the Galleria Borghese to view the masterful works of Bernini including his David and Apollo and Daphne. With the tour finished, we had finished our last group activity in Rome – and as a result our last activity as a total group abroad. The following day we were on our own and touring around Italy alone (which I will describe in the next blog final blog).