Cool statue at an intersection
We wanted to take full advantage of our last day in Rome, so we decided to go to some churches in the morning and then hit the catacombs of Priscilla. We saw the Ecstasy of St. Teresa in one of the churches; it is an interesting and kind of funny story, since her account of her meeting with the 'angel' sounds exactly like an orgasm. However, once again Bernini's artistic genius didn't disappoint.
Ecstasy of St. Teresa
The catacombs were closed for lunch by the time we got there, so we ate lunch and lay in the park for a couple of hours and watched small Italian children throw water at each other. It was funny to see a boy open another boy's pants and pour water down his butt. Everyone had either a cup or a bottle that they would fill with water, except for one fat black boy that had a super soaker.
Happy doggy
The catacombs were incredible. None of the bones are still there (except for a few), but the places were they were are all there, and the catacombs are home to some of the oldest religious frescoes in the world, including the oldest Virgin Mary (done in the 3rd century AD) and the oldest phoenix (also 3rd century). It was absolutely beautiful, and a little creepy too, as we were walking through mazes of graves.
After that, we wanted to go back to the apartment to change, shower and pack before our last dinner, but we got lost. We had to take the train because the buses weren't running due to a gay pride parade, and we ended up (somehow) way east of where we were supposed to be. We finally hailed a cab, and though we were headed in the right direction when we gave up, we were still really far away.
Gay pride parade
We thought we were going to eat at a really nice restaurant in Trastevere for our last dinner, but Jacob realized that the place his professor recommended to him was actually a much more casual and cheap pizza place next door to the nice restaurant. That was great, because we looked nice but ate great food for cheap, and also talked to a couple who had just graduated from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn (!!). After dinner we got amazing gelato for the last time, watched a guy juggle knives on a ladder supported by four other guys holding ropes, and made our way back home.
Last gelato
Travel day: we woke up at 6:15 Rome time (11:15 the night before Dallas time), to get to the Termini train station, where we would catch a train to the airport. After finally getting to the airport, we went into the wrong terminal, which was full of airlines that operated in Eastern Europe. Everything was laid back and little kids were running around everywhere.
We get to the right terminal, which is home to most of the American airlines. You could tell it was an American terminal because there were guys with automatic weapons looking down on the terminal, there were tons of security checks, and there were tons of impatient Americans everywhere ("What's taking so long? What's the holdup? Etc...).
Jacob's (quite accurate) impression of me in the airport
The flight was incredibly long: ten hours during the daytime. Jacob and I spent the time drawing tattoos and laughing over an issue of Cosmopolitan. I spent $10 on a package of chocolate (reasoning that the whole 'eating healthy' thing starts tomorrow). Our flight was delayed taking off, delayed in the air because of weather at O Hare, and delayed further on the tarmac because of debris.
Jacob's artistic genius: Ollie and a bunny
The Chicago airport was a nightmare because of the four DFW flights taking off that evening, one was cancelled and two were delayed. I was on the only undelayed flight; Jacob was on a later one. I felt guilty as I left him in the airport with no more than $20, but he ended up getting home that night--late, but home.
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