The blessing of being lost.

So after that long post the other day about needing peaceful, quiet surroundings as opposed to the bustling business of Florence and Rome, God sent me a little present on Thursday morning.
We had a busy day planned with a lot of places to visit all over Rome, and we left on the bus at 8:15am. The first place we were scheduled to stop at was the home of the Borghese, which has now been turned into an art gallery. The one small problem was that our bus driver spoke very little English, and Dr. G spoke very little Italian. The bus driver dropped us off in the middle of the vast front lawns of the Villa Borghese.

I never thought walking through soft mud and wet leaves could feel so calming. As it had just rained the night before, all the trees and grass glowed with life as the sun rose higher in the sky. We had a good 10 minute walk through the immense lawns until we reached the mansion at the top of the hill, but I would have been perfectly fine with getting lost in the park all day long.
During the rest of the day we visited several churches, the ruins of the Roman Forum, and my personal favorite, the Colosseum.

Just to see such a historic place simply takes your breath away. Just seeing glimpses of it from a distance on the bus made people gasp with excitement. So much of it is still intact, that you can imagine exactly what it would have been like. A plaque somewhere within these walls said that there was no historical account of any Christians being martyred here, but it was just crazy being in a place where it could have happened. I don't have many words for how great it was to just be there and soak it all up, and I wish I could take all my readers back with me, for you to experience it yourself.
After the Colosseum we visited some catacombs outside the city. We weren't allowed to take pictures there, so I don't have any, but I will try to describe it as colorfully as I can. You enter through a garden shed looking thing that is just basically a storm shelter into the ground. Once you are down about a level under the ground your tour guide prepares you for what is about to come next. 35 minutes walking through tight spaces about 2 to 3 stories below ground with open tombs on either side of you (as all the bodies had been removed and placed in a mass grave a few hundred years ago that is at the same site as the catacombs) with almost very little light. Something that probably wouldn't come to mind is its about 50 degrees down there, with about 90% humidity. It feels like you just walked about side after a very cold rain, and its still dark outside. The catacombs weren't stone, but a special kind of dirt that is supple, but as soon as air hits it, it turns hard into stone. The whole experience was really neat, seeing different tombs there. I got kinda creeped out every time we would walk by a big opening that was so dark you couldn't see into it, but then I remembered something. The tomb is empty. Not just the tombs of the hundreds of people in the catacombs around Rome, but Jesus' tomb specifically. Real tombs only have shells of people in them, because their souls and spirits are with God. I pondered these things as I walked through the catacombs and it definitely made my time there richer.
Our last stop in Rome was St John's Basilica where the Pope is a Bishop. He rarely makes an appearance there, but if he was to say Mass at any point, he would do it there. I have stopped taking a lot of pictures in the churches, because to be honest, they all look the same. They are all big, gaudy and full of statues and paintings. Most of the places we have visited have been full of paintings and statues and after about the first 6, you really don't know what to take pictures of. With all of this said, when we visited Vatican city we were able to walk through the Sistine Chapel and see the famous painting of Adam and God touching fingers. Standing there is a mass of people with the guards yelling at people the keep silence and stop using their cameras, you begin to feel something special. Its not the intense pain in your neck from craning it back too long, although that does become an issue, its standing under the same ceiling that Michael Angelo spent so many hours laying under and creating his view of the world. Its almost like you walk into a part of history that has stood still all these years. I got the same feeling when I walked into the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Becoming a part of these small pieces of history has made me come to recognize why people like to travel internationally. You experience the magnitude, the difference, the language, the significance.. and that my friends is definitely worth the adventure.

Things I have learned about myself.

People always told me that when I traveled overseas I would learn more about myself than I ever had before. I believed them, but not to the extent that I do now.
This morning we boarded the 8:05 train to Rome, Italy and for the first time in a week, I was forced to sit and watch the world pass by as I had time to think about life.

As I sat, I watched the country scenery slowly rise with the sun and begin its morning routine. Children went to school, roads became busy, and fog slowly drifted to the top of the mountains. First of all I have to say that traveling by European train is the way to go. It was so smooth, not to mention that the seats were better than flying first class on an overseas flight. But back to all my deep thoughts about life and European travel. All my life I have wanted to travel all over the world, just to be able to pick up and go wherever the wind carried me. Well after a week of doing almost that exact thing, I've realized that its really not for me. Don't get me wrong, it has been really neat and I have loved every adventure that we have gotten ourselves into, but this is not what my heart longs for anymore. The cities are crowded, the buses are crammed, and the rush to get nowhere is exhausting. Now I realize this sounds negative, but its really not. I have just come to the realization that my heart desires the peace and quiet of the woods or an old monastery. Its one of the moments when you think about how you thought you were and it makes you laugh because you are so different than you originally thought. I have told people for years, especially since I've been to Harding, that I am a city girl and I really don't like small towns. But when it comes down to it, I don't mind small towns and I am probably most happy in the wilderness.

With all that said, I am loving this trip and I am learning so much! Today we visited the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, as well as several churches. It was bright and sunny for the first half of the day, and it poured for the second half, but we have been laid out to drip dry in our rooms for most of the evening and we are ready to tackle the day tomorrow!
Something else I've realized is that I'm not homesick, but I am tired of running around and being so busy all the time. On our next "free day" I am staying in Scandicci ALL DAY and doing nothing but reading and just thinking. It's going to be great!

Blessings from Roma!!!!

To all those who wonder how us chickens have been.
The first week in Florence/Scandicci has been great, but we have been extremely busy trying to take in five weeks of Music History in four days.  Each day the schedule has been different, and we never really know what we will be doing during the day until we are well into our morning routines. I will just write down a few things that have permeated our lives until I have more time tomorrow night to write down longer stories.
1. Meeting in the middle of the street. Our professor Dr. G likes to stop in the middle of the busiest streets he can find in Florence and start telling us about some wonderful palace, that now looks like an apartment building, where someone wrote some famous piece of music, that no one has heard of, while you hear at least two people say, "Why are we standing in the middle of the street again? We are going to get run over!"This happens at least three times during every trip to Florence.
2. Getting lost. For the first five or six trips into Florence we seemed to always get on the wrong bus. There was one trip in particular when we had gotten onto about three buses before we actually found the one that would take us to our destination. Traveling in groups is never a good idea on buses either, because separation is a very real issue that you will have to deal with at some point during your stay. One of the most memorable moments was when ten of us were trying to cram onto a very full bus. As the doors closed our friend Nathan popped right off the bus while saying, "Bye Guys" with a very concerned look on his face. We all started yelling, and thankfully the bus driver stopped and opened the doors for Nathan to run and get back on the bus.
3. Naked Statues...EVERYWHERE! Today we visited the Uffizi Galleria in Florence which is famous for its paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The art was beautiful, but after about two hours of walking around the incredibly crowded rooms of artwork, we were all sick of the naked Statues and paintings that leave nothing up to the imagination. The thing about sculpture here is that they are either draped in yards of Grecian robes or they are wearing nothing at all.
Needless to say our stay here has been an adventure for sure. We leave for Rome at 6:50 tomorrow morning, and I'm sure I will have more stories tomorrow night!

                                              When all the roads look like this, it is quite

                                                                  easy to get lost!

                                       Just Kaitlin and I walkin' down the streets of Firenze.

                                 The floor in Santa Croce is made out of tombs such as these.
                              When we realize what the marble rectangles were...we walked a
                                                                 little differently.

Gypsies, Gelato & Gergorian Chants

Today we spent the afternoon and evening going into Florence and taking a walk around. The city is ancient and filled with crowds of excited travelers. We walked around a lot, went into several cathedrals, and took pictures every few seconds. As we walked around you start to notice that even though you are in Europe, people are the same everywhere. Babies still cry and hang on their parent’s legs, young couples still make out any place they feel like, and American Tourists will always carry huge cameras, struggle with over-sized bags and wear uncomfortable looking shoes. Another thing that is similar is the gypsies. Of course we don’t call them “gypsies” in America, but they are the people in big cities that stand around and try to “sell their wares”. Everything they try to sell is cheap like sunglasses, purses or toys. Usually they will have a table made out of cardboard boxes that they can pick up in a matter of seconds and run if the police see them. You see, they are not legal and their real job is stealing from people. Another type of gypsy is the kind that just walks around and asks you for money, quite forcefully in fact. After a long walk through the narrow streets we all grabbed some Gelato and settled around a fountain in a city square. As we ate, a pregnant woman came up to us begging for money. She probably asked us for about two minutes, rubbing her swollen belly and pouting. She finally gave up after we told her no about 30 times. Another time we were waiting on the steps of Santa Croce, a young man came up right in front of us, set up his little cardboard table and started talking. He made beautiful calligraphy paintings of names; each letter was made out of something beautiful like an animal or flower.  He too eventually gave up on us, because it was obvious we were not interested. We saw these people on every street corner and in every square, but these are the two that stick out in my mind. We finished off our trip by visiting San Miniato al Monte which is a beautiful Monastery at one of the highest points of Florence. Imagine walking for roughly 6 hours all around town and then climbing a huge hill that takes your breath away, only to realize you have several hundred steps left to reach your destination. Needless to say we were quite happy when we reached the cool, darkness of the Monastery with its marble walls, carved ceilings and echoing chants. The day was long, our feet hurt, and we were all slap happy by the end, but the memories will all last a lifetime.

I do believe these are the Alps that we flew over on our last flight from Paris to Florence. If they aren't, at least they looked beautiful! Also you get to enjoy my lovely view of the planes jets on the wing.

The Adventure has Begun!

For those of you who are wondering where I am currently, the mostly music kids are safely stationed at the Bible School in Scandicci, Italy. Our long journey here started yesterday morning with a flight from little rock to Atlanta, GA. Although the plane was incredibly cramped, the flight was uneventful and we arrived on time. Our second flight was our longest, and gave us the lovely gift of loosing 7 hours. Basically you get on a plane in the early afternoon, have a 4 hour "evening" and a 4 hour "night" and when you get off the plane in Paris, its morning again. This ride was in a bigger plane with movies and meals, and an interesting seat buddy. The guy who sat next to me was incredibly unfriendly..until he had four glasses of red wine. Four. The man was so sloshed, that the flight attendant had to tell him to quiet down at one point. If my friends hadn't been sitting close by it could have been much more awkward, but thankfully they told me to just ignore him and "sleep". Well I did, but not before he told all us college girls where the best place was to buy white wine in Florence. Yes, thanks dude... that will take us so far on a Harding trip. Thankfully he fell asleep for the rest of the flight and didn't bother me anymore, and we arrived on time at 5:30am in Paris-Degaulle airport. After some confusion of where our next gate was, a lot of walking, more security, and a bus-ride, we were at our next gate. I have to say that after an excruciating 8 hour flight next to someone you would rather not sit by, sitting in an airport on a 4 hour layover... is pretty terrible. After a lot a waiting, sleeping, and people-watching, we were finally on our way to Florence. Upon our arrival in Florence we only lost two suitcases, one of the professors and one of the boys, and we should be able to get them within the day. After a bus ride through the incredibly narrow streets of Florence and Scandicci, we made it to the Bible school where we all piled out for home-cooked food and soft beds. Tomorrow starts with a sight-seeing day in Florence, a lot of walking, and hopefully some gelato. I’ll keep you posted!!!