On the 20th my parents arrived in Rome. It was nice to see some new faces that I could actually communicate with here in Rome! While they were here, I gave them a basic tour of the city and showed them the tourist spots. The plan for the week was for them to tour the city on their own during the day while I attended class; at night time we would meet up for dinner. It worked out well for them to basically discover Rome on their own since I had my art history final to study for and a critique for my studio project in the middle of the week.
On Tuesday night, I surprised my dad by taking him and my mom to a soccer game (AS Roma vs. Munich Bayern)! The process to obtain these tickets wasn't like in the US. I had to go to a small office a week before to purchase them and convince them to sell me them even though my whole party wasn't present. Then, on each ticket they write down the ticketholder's birthday and male tickets cost more than female tickets. We ended up getting seats in the AS Roma fan section. My friend, who also went with her boyfriend, and I thought that the office had given us bad seats because they were higher up in the bowl of the stadium, but little did we know, they were actually fantastic seats!
It was relativaly easy to make our way to our section and seats. Once we were in our seats, there was no room to move because of the amount of people packed into the area. The AS Roma's fan section is unlike any other that I have seen before. They consistently cheered loudly throughout the whole match, jumping from one chant to the next with AS Roma scarves and flags swaying in the air. I was a little worried about how my mom would react to the crazy European scene, but she handled it quite well. Her one question she had for me was "Kelly, is marijuana legal here?" Yep, it sure is, and you could smell it everywhere. We were lucky enough to see AS Roma score a goal and the crowd's reaction to it. They go ballistic-- everyone screams and jumps on top of each other for an extended amount of time. Some people in the stands like of fireworks and different flares; there are also some smokebombs with the AS Roma colors. After being down 2-0 at halftime, AS Roma came back to win the game 3-2 with a penalty kick in the last 5 minutes. It was a fantastic atmosphere to be a part of and is unparallel to any sporting event in the United States. (Thanks Katie for the photos!)
On Thursday, for Thanksgiving, we went to see the necropolis underneath St. Peter's Basilica. I had booked tickets for us a few months ago to give us something special to do on Thanksgiving. Only about 200 people can go through the necropolis a day and is very hard to book during high tourist season. Down there we were able to see the excavations done below the church. Before St. Peter's existed the area was a giant cementary. We could see the different family tombs enriched with decorations of carvings, frescos, and mosaics. At the end of the tour, we were shown where St. Peter was buried, which is directly 3 layers below the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica. His bones have been moved throughout time and are currently placed in the same spot where the were found in the excavations, in a wall. Overall, it was a cool experience, but at this point, seeing one saint's bones seems just about the same as the next and crypts are all about the same, too. Don't get me wrong; it is very honorable and humbling seeing the bodies of various saints but to me, they are all equal and one isn't any more significant than the next.
Instead of participating in Black Friday shopping (since it doesn't exist in Europe, obviously), my mother and I went shopping after seeing the necropolis. I found 2 dresses and a skirt. It was the one time I've splurged this whole time in Europe, and I plan to do it again before I leave! :-) We ended our Thanksgiving day with a homecooked meal that I prepared. I made Italian chicken and dumplings. Sounds close to a typical Thanksgiving meal, right? Okay, so maybe it wasn't a normal Thanksgiving meal but it was very good! My parents were quite shocked to see me cooking and cleaning up after myself. I guess I'm not a kid anymore. Ha.
No comments:
Post a Comment