May 6th and 7th

So pretty sure I went to Tivoli yesterday, so fun! Such a cute little town but we got back so late that I did not blog........Trying to make up for it now. Class yesterday was good, we went to a lot of churches again. Four to be exact. It was fun, a lot of churches though. I actually saw the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. It was so incredible, Bernini amazes me, there is actually a little oval window up above the sculpture to let natural light in on her. You can not see it until you get close and actually look up for it. The clouds that she is sitting on are made of marble and look like something soft, like cotton candy almost. I was honestly so amazed that it was marble. We also saw a church by Borromini, the San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontaine and the ceiling in that building is amazing. I actually changed my mind and that is what I want my ceiling in my living room to look like. It is carved in and the images alternate, rotate and get progressively smaller. I am in love with it. Went to 2 other churches, we went to see the Moses by Michelangelo but the church was closed for lunch. So 13 of us went to Tivoli. It was about an hour train ride out of the city but well worth it. The little town was so stinking cute, it made me so excited for Florence and Venice. We leave for Florence on Sunday, I can not believe it has almost been 2 weeks already. Anyway we went to a Villa while in Tivoli and the place was amazing, so huge and the gardens were freaking amazing. Waterfalls, and fountains and flowers and such everywhere. I was in love with it. And hopefully got some good pics on my big camera. Got home around 10.

Slept peacfully until 4am, when our room got a rude awakening to pounding on the door. At first I thought it was the room above us dropping something, than my roomie Larissa woke me up and said Rachel, did you hear that pounding on the door, so my 2nd thought was oh crap fire. So I bolt up. We were sitting in our room creeped out when we realized that our bathroom door was open, so I ran to shut it because people can climb in the window. It took a good hour to fall back asleep and when I opened our door this morning there were 6 or so candies waiting for us, I was so bugged because we had to be up and ready to leave at 730 for the Vatican Museum.

Which leads to today, 730 we left to the museum. Waited in line til it opened, I think it was about 9. We went in and hauled through all sorts of art. It ranged from Egyptian art, to high Renaissance painting. I loved it, than we ate lunch. Then we got lunch. And hauled through more paintings, there is so much to see there. Seriously insane. We finally made our way to the Sistine chapel, which is huge. I can not believe that I was actually there today. I took a sneaky video of it for those of you who couldnt be there with me. I havent had time to load it up on the comp though. Then Larissa and I did some laundry, it was easy and I tried to catch up on my journal. Then I bought a sewing kit so I can attempt to fix my back pack. Dont worry I just bought it right before I came, a Lowepro camera bag for 80 dollars and the strap is ripping. Gay. Anyway just ate lunch but now I have a report to prepare for tomorrow. These are all pics from yesterday!! Ciao

Aubrey and I at Villa d este, so beautiful. I keep thinking we look like honeymooners haah.

Another pic of Aubrey and I in front of the biggest fountain, the thing was massively huge, especially for a backyard!

Saw this and documented because I probably will not make it to the factory, it is in Bologna and Steve says that is far away :(

Me in front of a fountain, kind of missed the fountain. hha oh well!!

Haynes and I getting gelatto after a long day of being the parents of 11 children. We were the ones in charge of coordinating train tickets, rides, times, etc. Stressful but so fun. So we sent the kiddies home and got some gelatti.