Roma

preface: after so many months of (multiple) mittens, my fingers over vacation reveled in the fact that they could use the camera controls without freezing. as such (and perhaps also because I was in a gorgeous city the likes of which I have never seen before), this blog post contains very many photographs, which I shall insert at every possible paragraph break, with only occasional attempts to correlate the textual and photographic subjects.

there are many things that I have forgotten to blog about (including the luistelutapahtuma (skatingevent) on the lake two weekends ago, which included firedancers and moon-/candlelight skating), but there's no way I could ever blog about everything interesting that happens to me, so I may as well stick to the subjects I have pictures of.

so. last week, my part of Finland had hiihtoloma (lit. skiing holiday/vacation). this is when Finns tend to either go north to ski or go south to get some sun. my host family had been thinking of doing the former (we were going to go to Lapland), but about a month ago, the decision was made to go instead to Rome. 

I have to say, with all that has been going on this last (it's March already?!) month, I almost didn't have time to be excited. almost.

we flew from the tiny Lappeenranta airport (and a layover in Riga, Latvia) on Tuesday morning, after the very last-minute realizing that my host sister Tiina's passport had expired and the miraculous achieving of a temporary one for her (it turns out the family has connections in the local police office--good to know?).

in Rome, it was beautiful. just driving from the airport (in a shuttle with an unidentifiedly Slavic couple (it was fun to discuss their possible origins with my host father in Finnish and know they didn't understand what I was talking about)) past the suburbs (?) of the city amazed me. having never been to Europe (other than Finland and Estonia), the fact that there really were ancient ruins and very lived-in terracotta-roofed houses on the hillsides impressed me.

at the apartment building we were staying in (my host parents found a room through InterHome--it was gorgeous and so infinitely much better than a hotel), we waited for about an hour for the gentleman to meet us and give us our key. my host family's punctuality despite all odds and the gentleman's almost oblivious tardiness was a study in comparison of Finnish and Italian culture. at least it seemed that way to me.

we had a lovely little balcony that looked out over a courtyard where laundry dangled on lines between windows of all shapes and sizes that had been build over the years. the first night there was a full moon (as shown above). in the morning, there was sun. I had forgotten how much I missed the sun. if someone had told me, say, thirteen months ago, that this February I would find myself on a balcony in Rome (of all places!) reading in Finnish (of all languages!) Twilight (of ALL books!), I would probably have nodded and said "that's nice" and assumed the person was a Harvard Square crazy. but (as shown below), perhaps those Harvard crazies really aren't as crazy as we write them off to be. photo credits to my host father.

I was impressed, of course, by the ancientness and yet aliveness of the city. buildings and ruins that were ancient a thousand years ago still stand, amid cars and motorcycles and people going about their normal lives.

though, I have to say, there are so many vacationers in this city that it almost seems as though the "when in Rome..." saying would advise traversing the streets speaking a language nobody else understands, wearing large sunglasses, I <3 Roma shirts, and taking photographs of everything--which is exactly what we did.

but it was still a little bit surreal to finally be in a real European city and realize that people actually do zip around on motorcycles with Italian flag helmets, say 'allora' as often as Finns say 'no niin', exclaim 'mama mia!' at regular intervals, shout 'ciao bella', and blow friendly kisses at you on the streets. and I doubt I have ever before in my life consumed so much tomato, cheese, and wheat (in one form or another) as I did during our time in Italy. but it was delicious.

I recognize that this city is touristy, but it also felt, for the most part, very real. showy, yes, but not gimicky.

also, with all the recent pope-related bustle, this was a rather historic time to visit the Vatican. in a cafe my host father ran in to (not literally) a cardinal who he likes to think will be the next pope. we shall see.

we were told that Benedict XVI might make his last papal appearance during the afternoon when we happened to be at the Vatican, but he didn't turn up. we found out later that he had been helicoptered to the hospital.

 

personally, I wouldn't doubt that he would be spending his last days as leader of the Catholic church wandering the rooftop of the Vatican (from which the below picture was taken).

if I were in his position, that's what I would do. find a little nook under a spire and settle down with my hat to watch the sun rise over the capitol of the ancient world... maybe that's why I'm not pope.

the inside-parts of the Vatican (at least the ones I saw) were some of the most majestic places I have ever been. the light was incredible, and wafted in the space like the Latin changing that could be heard--sometimes untraceable, and not quite evenly distributed, but leaving no place entirely untouched.

while there (as while in Rome), I had many moments of recognizing a statue or painting or mosaic as one of those things that I had seen pictures of and always considered to belong to that foreign, exotic land of Europe. surreal to experience such icons.

and speaking of icons, we come now (below) to Pantheon. or rather Giacomo della Portan, in the piazza in front of the Pantheon.

entering the Pantheon itself was surreal. a place I have heard of so much, seen so many pictures of... when I first saw the famous shadowcatching ceiling, I shivered to realize that it was actually real and I was actually there.

speaking of the unrealness of being in iconic Roman places, I found that while my fingers itched to take pictures of them all, I knew that they have all been photographed and drawn and painted so many times so infinitely muchly better than I could ever accomplish, that if you all want to see pictures of them (as if you haven't already), you don't need to bother with my inferior ones. thoughts such as these have lead to the series of photographs which I created with my host father and which I now release to you, to let y'all know that I really was at the places. when you're done looking at these, go look for some really good photographs of these places because they're all gorgeous. (and for your information, the raggedness of those green boots aggravated my host father and he wouldn't rest until I bought some new ones, which didn't make it into any photographs as I only got them on the last night--sorry, iskä, for the restless trip on account of this.)

afront the Colosseum 

in the Vatican museum, just outside the incredible Sistine Chapel (in which photos were prohibited)

Piazza del Popolo

the Vatican has quite the floor

the north wind and I at the sundial in front of the Vatican

atop the Vatican's cupola

Spanish steps

in the Pantheon

and our balcony, the final must-see Roman destination

on the trip back, we had a six hour layover in Riga in which we hopped in a taxi and told the driver to take us to where the restaurants are. he took us to the beautiful old town and we ate at a steak house (I ordered everything vegetarian on the menu... it was delicious). as we were eating, it started to snow furiously, transforming the already-picturesque town square into a snowglobe. it was gorgeous. the snow ended up delaying our flight about an hour. I guess I'm back in the North...