Day 23: Saturday
Slept in until 10:30, stayed in bed doing nothing until noon, got up, made eggs for lunch/breakfast, then got ready to go out to Santa Maria Cosmedian to see the Mouth of Truth and a couple other churches. The Mouth of Truth was one of the most disappointing things about Rome so far. You wait in a line and then you have about five seconds to snap a quick picture and then you’re on your way. I don’t even know what the thing looks like besides from pictures because I never actually got to look at it.
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| Mouth of Truth |
After that we met up with Kari and David and watched them setting up for the gay pride rally at Circus Maximum for a bit, then they went home and we headed over to San Clemente, a church which exemplifies perfectly the layers upon layers of history of Rome. It’s literally a 12
th century church built on top of a 4
th century church built on top of a 1
st century Roman neighborhood. It was really cool to walk through all of it. There was even a water spring inside! After San Clemente we started walking to St Peter’s in Chains to see Michelangelo’s
Moses, but we stumbled upon the gay pride parade instead! We got really excited and forgot about going to the church, and watched the parade go by and eventually decided to join. I’ve never done anything that political at home! It was so awesome! Eventually we ran into Brad and Amanda on the side and they joined us. We walked from St Peter’s in Chains all the way down to the Forum, then around the Colosseum, and down to Circus Maximus. We stayed in until the Colosseum when we decided to go home and eat and then come back. It was amazing how well-ordered it was and there was almost no visible police. It was very peaceful and just fun and happy. All the tourists on the side of the road were taking pictures of us, and it felt so awesome to be a part of this once in a life time experience!
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| Flags in the Gay Pride Parade |
After we got home we decided to try the Chinese place by our apartment that we’d been meaning to try, but it was extremely disappointing. Our food took forever and it wasn’t even that good. By the time we were done eating the concert was already over, which was disappointing because we wanted to see Lady Gaga perform, but oh well, we got to be in the parade! We were all really tired and were planning on going to bed, but everyone else was going back out to Scholar’s and convinced us to go. When we got there almost everyone was there, and we just hung out for a bit talking to people. We met some more Italian men, and some Scots, and some Australian girls. The craziest part was that Elli ran into a guy she went to New Zealand with on study abroad two years ago! Elli and Kari left, but I stayed and hung out with Mike, Alex and Brian until it was time to leave. We were lucky enough to encounter the one tram that we saw the entire time. Elli and Kari just so happened to be on the same tram as us because they stopped for fish and chips by the river, but I went over to the guys' room to chill and talk. Finally I decided it was time to go home since I was basically asleep on their couch anyway. Tomorrow is our last day in Rome!
