Less is More.

The day we started out in Rome. St. Peter's through the railing on one of the bridges.

Us standing for way too long in one spot, listening to Alexander, the professor giving us the tour. Lots of great interesting info, but sometimes we stopped and stood in one place for an hour! We were standing right by the river, down below the level of the street- there was a riverwalk, with steps down to it.

Later, in Campo dei Fiori (a small but vibrant market full of merchants during the day). Lots of limoncello and other such liquers.

Thanks Britta. I found the restaurant where my friend Dina left me a message in 2002 when she was studying abroad in Rome and I knew I'd be there that following summer. The little message she scrawled on the building was gone :) But the restaurant was still there.

Another place we were listening to stories for awhile- not sure what church this was though...

After our daily tour garbage it was time to go on our own little tour. That included a pastry shop, so I could get the largest egg-white puff I'd ever seen, and Britta got a...something. Dunno why Jessica is making that tarty face.

Lots of goodies.

We went to Piazza Navona afterwards. Britta's camera liked all the toys and candy.

Went in this store that was like one of those Imports stores that sells lots of swords and like sno-globes...this one had a second floor full of stuffed animals. BIG ones. Expensive ones. With "no photos" signs on them. And security cameras. Geez!

Us outside the shop. It was right on the piazza.

If you read my other posts, you'll remember I mentioned flocking swallows of some sort. Incredible phenomenon. Here are pictures of the clouds of them flying in the trees. And they were hauling ass, the cloud constantly changing shape, disintegrating, condensing. Amazing.

Morning class meeting at uh, some ruins :)

The "steps" up to Campidoglio, the piazza/buildings designed by Michaelangelo. It was basically a slightly stepped super-steep ramp.

Us having our homemade lunch in Campidoglio. Nate, me, John, Dave. For anyone who cares about architecture, they gave out the Pritzker Prize here last year, you could see that building/stairs in the background.

This was the street on which our professor was staying, with his aunt and uncle on the top floor. And we got to go see their apartment!!

The oculus of the Pantheon.

Nate doing some weird pose, almost falling into the ruins, John and Dave taking pictures of him.

The Colosseum.

The elevator lobby of our hotel building, with super old service elevator.

Not sure what this is. Who cares. Cool picture.

A long cobblestone road leading from The Forum to the Colosseum.

Dave and I off the train at Pompeii!

There was a well with a big metal cover on it. I'm curious about things. What's down there? Not much, we found out by taking flash pictures down there. Still, I hadta know.

Group shot at one of the amphitheaters.

This was the brothel in Pompeii. Hilarious.

Dave giving a little thumb-suck to the water fountain's mouth.

The big stadium thing. Lots of grass used to be mostly/stands.

Us having lunch in the sun. Britta's shadow. The sun felt amazing. The weather was decent. We were in Italy. In Pompeii. And realized during lunch that our classmates in the US had their final studio presentation in two days and were likely wanting to die, while we were enjoying this sublime moment. That realization made it more sublime.

This was originally the cistern at the edge of the town, at its highest point at the end of the street, that held water straight from the mountain. They could open it to basically wash the entire city's streets. We climbed inside. It looks a lot bigger because of Britta's crazy lens.

To the left of me was an opening that went who knows where, back towards the mountain. It was short enough to squat down in, but so narrow that you'd hafta shuffle your feet side by side and couldn't turn around when you got to the end. And there were spiderwebs down there. So I didn't end up exploring the tunnel :/

Some courtyard in some house.

The bath house with skylight. The niches on the walls were for people to undress and put their clothes and things. Coooooooool.

This was the Naples train station. Our Jeffing train got delayed, and it was an open-air train station, and it was getting cold at night. So we went in the half-renovated McDonalds in the station (see exposed drywall on the left wall) and had some cheap food. Cept I think I didn't eat anything cause I was trying to not eat American things :)

A great photo of three of my favorite buildings, thanks to Shauna showing me. Can't wait to give someone else a tour of Rome some day! I'd be good at it.

The model of the church of churches from around the world, in Shauna's favorite church.

Milan has a similar arcade like this- glassed-in courtyard-ish space between buildings. Really cool area. One of my favorite interesting things in Rome. Lots of shopping.

Ara Pacis, another cool thing, one of the few notable newer buildings in the city.

Cool ascension of steps.

Piazza del Popolo with the identical churches.

The Dutch (I think, if I remember right, or was it Danish?) building in the school complex of buildings where each was for a different country and their international students. Better picture than any of mine.

MINI-HORSE!!!!

Me posing. There was less rain under the sign.

Tiffany posing.

The armadillo theatres with amphitheatre in the middle. A cool idea. Sorta odd looking. But cool.

Tiffany got tired of standing and walking. So she fell over on me. Ha.

Palazzo dello Sport! Luigi Nervi! Concrete shell supported by almost nothing!

Zaha Hadid's MAXXI- Museo Arte 21(st Century) (in Roman numerals).

Nervi again. The papal audience building.

Us waiting for "Benedicto".

Britta, Tiffany, Me looking not awake yet. I might not have been.

St. Peter's Square.

Climbing St. Peter's dome! The slanty walls!

They're standing upright, seriously. Look at the walls. So cool.

One of my coolest memories of Rome the first time was inside this dome, just cause I thought it was amazing to be between the slanted bricked walls.

The final staircase from the very top of the dome.

Those statues on St. Peter's, which don't look THAT tall, are in fact 12 feet tall.

They have a gift shop and post office up here. So that you can mail something and it will be stamped as mailed from The Vatican. Kinda awesome.

Huge. Ridiculously huge church.

That evening we did some wine-ing and card playing in the guys' room. Jessica, Dave, Tiffany, Alex, me, Nate, John. A good time. Those crazy kids.

The Baths of Caracalla. Unbelievably big.

The school where Michaelangelo designed the library and stuff.

This was our last night in Rome, the class dinner. You can see I've already had some wine, judging by my face.

Grappa after dinner. Or maybe it was champagne. Don't remember.

The courtyard of our hotel building, as we bid it farewell.

Florence. A cool courtyard in some building, part of which Michaelangelo designed. Il Duomo in the background (which actually annoys me that people call it that- sure, to Florentines, its just a nickname- but to tourists, probably half of them don't even realize it just means "THE DOME". Even more confusing is that Milan has another one referred to as Il Duomo also. Great.)

A small rotunda room off of the main library thats really old.

The library. The Lorentian Library, in fact. Built by the Medicis. Thanks Google for reminding me. Couldn't really touch anything in here.

A view of "Il Duomo" (Santa Maria del Fiore- "Saint Mary of the Flower") from the rooftop patio of our hotel. Pretty great view.

Down the walkway, still on the rooftop. We were able to stand/sit under here when it was raining, at least lightly.

Another view from our rooftop. Wow!

The "Modern" church we went to see, by Michellucci, "Chiusa del'Autostrada". Church of the highway- an attempt at recognizing the fact that roads were starting to define the face of the world, the country, the city. The church was purposefully built near the highway, on the outskirts of even the present-day center of the city.

The interior. With rolling ceiling, that is concrete. How is it hanging up there?? Look at the "trees" of concrete holding it up.

The baptismal rotunda. I took some similar pictures to these, but thats because I stitched multiple photos together :)

The ceiling. You can kinda see, its a continuous ramp that wraps around the whole thing.

The surround olive groves and hills when we were at the house on the hill outside Florence, having the best freshest Italian meal ever.

Some great pictures inside the little house they designed and built themselves (two architects, married to each other). Great pictures I couldn't get without a wide-angle lens. A small balcony upstairs, pitched roof.

Upstairs looking down. Check out the freestanding bathtub, with a nice view out the window!

Their bedroom was tiny, basically filled with a bed, sitting on the floor, under the pitched roof.

There I am down below, in the space between the house and the furnace they built the house against- the space between has a glass skylight over it. Kinda nice.

Black painted walls in the bathroom, pitched roof again...it had doors on both sides, and the shower head hanging on the wall with no curtain and just a drain in the center of the floor...thats how they do it in Europe quite often, though the guy was American, and both taught in the US...but still, a cool way to efficiently do a small bathroom. Cept the bathroom didnt have doors, so no privacy, and it'd be cold to shower!

Cozy little office downstairs.

Me cutting some fresh cheese.

Lots of people cutting cheese, meat, bread. It was a group effort. I would have rather eaten it than prepare it, though I was still able to eat while I was preparing :)

Here's some more great group photos.

Me basically about as happy as I've ever been.

Look at all the food. Wine. Water. Olive oil. Food.

Britta loving the angled photos. That wine was SO good. And it was merlot!

Inspecting some weird little individually wrapped dessert thing.

They had a grass tennis court by the house! My friends were playing some form of soccer. I was walking around enjoying the property and desperately trying to take it all in and hold onto the memory forever...

Down there to the left is Florence.

They also built this little treehouse-y hut that was rusted steel and all glass up there, with a bed in the middle. Looked amazing.

A model of the old city center.

A view from the bell tower of Il Duomo, overlooking the plaza, with the freestanding baptistry- there was a marathon through Florence that day. So lots of people around.

Il Duomo.

Inside the bell tower. Up at the top is actually the floor of another area, with a grate that you can stand on- I think that might be me up there, I forget.