There's no place like Rome...: School's Out

Not that I've felt like I was in school too awful much, but the last couple of weeks got pretty intense in Latin, and in the Triumph class with my impending presentation (which was last week). But today was my last final, and it just ended. I have no more class, one more day in the Rome Center, two more nights here, and about ten days to travel wherever I want across bella Italia. I don't know how often I'll be able to post while I'm out and about, because I'm not positive how available internet is and my ability to find it/willingness to pay for it. But I'll try to put something up whenever I can...if I'm paying for internet time, pictures will have to wait as those take a while to upload, arrange, and caption. I think my finals all went fairly well, especially for being abroad and constantly distracted by things considerably more interesting, or at the very least newer than anything out my window at UW. Tonight there is a small unofficial after-party for everyone, and then it's a good night's rest because we don't have to wake up at all tomorrow. No morning walking class, no morning language class, no afternoon topography or triumph seminar. It's summer, and I'm in Rome. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday, and tonight as well, I think, but it's not so bad. It's always really warm when it rains here. Tomorrow night is a final dinner with Professor Stroup; we're going to some fancy place right around the corner from where we live (living in the middle of the historic district, most things are actually right around the corner from us). I saw Indiana Jones a couple of weeks ago, and it was alright. It had an intermission. I don't know if Italians have small bladders, short attention spans, or chronic muscle pain, but none of them I think excuse shutting off an Indiana Jones movie right in the middle.

Monday night I went to a concert that Mario's dad got me a free ticket to see his old trumpet teacher, Nello Salza, who is the first trumpet player for Ennio Moriconne (famous Italian composer/conductor). The concert was really good, and I was glad to have a break like that during studying for finals, instead of just watching videos on Youtube or something brainless. The concert started with a Mozart, then M. Salza came out and played the Hummel trumpet concerto, intermission, he came back and played the Haydn trumpet concerto (which sounded pretty familiar, but probably just because I spend too much time with Mario), and they finished with a Haydn symphony. I think the best non-musical part of the concert was hearing real Italians yell "Bravo!" This post is probably a little random, but I got about two hours of sleep (this morning, not last night) studying for today's final. Most people actually went to bed right after, but I have trouble sleeping during the day, so I'm just going to wait it out until tonight. My plans for after the program involve me leaving the Pio sometime Friday morning for Venice, hopefully early, and spending the weekend there. Monday I have a date to go up to the small town of Maniago to visit Fulvio Del Tin and his shop, where he and his father have made some of the best historically accurate old world weaponry. Several of my favorite swords that I spent my childhood oogling in magazines and on the internet will be at his shop, so I'm really excited to get to see the actual swords, let alone to meet the man who makes them. After that I'll probably head back to Venice for the night, and then start out across north Italy, attempting to hit Padua, Verona, Mantua, Florence, Milan, and maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting. Once I get to the Cinque Terra, I think I'll spend a day or two there, depending on time just to slow down a bit and enjoy the beach, and then I'll head back to Rome to have my birthday dinner with one my TAs and a roommate that will both still be in Rome. My friend Jake, who is currently studying in Germany, might fly down for that weekend as well. The rest of that week I may go down to Salerno and visit papa Marino, spend a little time in Naples/the Amalfi Coast, and then it's back to Rome again for my flight out on Thursday. And now for something completely different:

This is a contingent of the topography class at the Appian Way...classicists work hard. Really hard. I didn't feel like rotating the photo, either, it's awkward angle anyway and would take a long time to figure out. Again. Classicists--we work hard.