Rome via Brooklyn

Word count: 420

Friday was our last day of class, and unpredictably, our last day of the trip, as we found our midway through the day that an airport strike was scheduled for the day most of us were flying out. I’m sad to say it dampened my mood, especially because we went to the Basilica of San Clemente, which I had been looking forward to. It was one of the things Dan and I did when we were here before the trip, and I was so excited the day before when I saw we’d be going again. The flight stuff made me sad and stressed, and then I felt even more sad and stressed about feeling the way I did, having guilt for not enjoying every single second of the trip.

It was still nice to finish the trip in a place I started it, and I liked watching my classmates experience the place for the first time, and I wish I had taken pictures but I was too in my head.

But all that aside, we started the day in the Forma Urbis museum, and it was really cool to stand on top of the map of the spot we were standing in…if that makes sense. It was layer upon layer of history – much like the Basilica of San Clemente! It was crazy to see the amount of the map that remained versus the amount that was filled in, as well as the huge amount that had yet to be identified what it was even of.

After the Forma Urbis, we went off on our own to get lunch and enjoy the park, but on our way we stopped at a church, the Basilica di Santo Stefano Rotondo al Celio. The church was beautiful, but also so unsettling, as the walls were all covered in various deaths of martyrs. It was creepy to be quite literally surrounded by them, as the church was a circular shape. A constant reminder of one’s own impending death, I suppose.

When we got back to the apartment, Paola and I went on a walk to clear our heads, and saw the same cats we had seen the day we arrived, sprawled across the pavement in the exact same spot as before. Almost like they were seeing us off!