Pasqua

Holidays are always hard away from home.

They're even harder when you're almost 5000 miles from home.

Contemplative. Though I suppose that's a good word choice for this Easter. Or any Easter, but this one has a decidedly different feel to it than any other I've celebrated.

Mass at the Vatican was an incredible experience. Indulgence aside, it was something I knew I had to do. How can one not be in Rome for Easter and not go? The rest of my program is off on spring break (I leave for lovely Londontown on Tuesday) but I wanted to stay in town, even if that means going slightly stir crazy in my apartment. I've gotten a lot of writing done, which has been nice, but it's been weird being alone all the time. A J.D. Salinger I am not.

But back to Mass. We arrived at Saint Peters around 7 am, grabbed a cappuccino to go and stood until they let us into the square at 8:30. After a mildly mad dash to the front of the square we found ourselves in the 9th row, near the center asile. The front steps were covered with flowers and though the sky was dismally grey, we all watched what seemed like an endless stream of priests and Swiss Guard set up. Benedict himself arrived after a large marching band around 10:30.

It's odd, maybe because I attended Catholic School for so long, but I have a hard time seeing the Pope as a prominent figure in modern politics. I think I've been desensitized to him, PJPII's picture was always hanging in every classroom at JIS, less so at De, but still, I think of him as this weird spiritual leader, a very abstract concept.

So when he rode in on his little cart/car thingy and the entire square thundered with applause I was, I suppose confused isn't the right word. It was unsettling. I guess the Protestants were right when they talk about Catholics paying allegiance to a foreign prince. But if I dwell on it too much I get uncomfortable. So I won't.

Mass itself was mostly in Latin so at least we were all pretty confused together. And my confused I mean I was in my element, spitting off that Agnus Dei in a way that would have made even Brother David proud. It was beautiful.

After Mass Benedict went up to the balcony at the front of Saint Peters to address the crowd. He began in Italian and then went through pretty much every language know to man (which, admittedly, was really cool) giving his Easter blessing. AND THEN HE ADDRESSED THE CROWD IN ESPERANTO. It was a wtf/this is so cool moment. Because there are like 2000 native Esperanto speakers WORLD-WIDE people. It's basically pointless now but they included it. Which is weird because Catholics aren't that inclusive as a bunch.

 7 am (crooked) flowered main stairs

 The crowd

Benedict giving his blessing

It was well worth everything that was involved. Even for the guilt inducing 25 year old nuns (who you just cannot say no to) who actually hand you the tickets at the office you pick them up at. My mother finds that whole story funny enough to tell I think the entire state of Minnesota, so I'm sure when I return to to the great white north in less than a month (eek!) I will often have to laugh when people point to the nearest closet and say "Why don't you go in there and have a nice good confession with a preist from home, then come back when you're done and I'll give you the tickets."

Anyway, I got an indulgence out of the whole thing. I didn't even have to pay for it. I guess that whole counter-reformation thing actually did some good.

Sicilia - Mafia intensive weekend

Sicily was amazing. I still can't even wrap my head around what we got to do on this trip, sorry in advanced if this post is a little scattered but so many things happened in a very short amount of time it all runs together.

The focus of the trip was studying the effects of the Mafia in Sicily. Only a tab broad. We met with community leaders who are fighting against the mafia extortion tax in Palermo, people who work on mafia confiscated lands who are using the land for good now, we went to Corleone (of Godfather fame) to visit a museum dedicated to honoring those public officials and citizens who were killed in the mafia wars of the 80s and 90s. We had a delicious lunch at a farm house outside of Corleone, ate amazing cannoli and gelato.

Sicily is also just so beautiful. It's so hard to think about all the evil that comes out of such a beautiful place. The land is pristine and picturesque and there are these horrible people living and making decisions about smuggling drugs or making people pay extortion fees or killing other people in the same place.

I can't even really write about it. So much happened and we learned so much that I can't even fully write about how I felt there. It was too much all at once of important information and all this stimulation and my brain is fried.

Run it run it

I'm currently lying in bed, which is where I spend most of my time in my apartment, after opening all of my apartment's windows and listening to an accordion on Marconi play Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Life is pretty prefect.

Time here, I swear, goes faster than anywhere else. Gravity feels the same, but it must be lighter (woooo physics!) because I literally do not know where the past few weeks have gone.

The fam was in lovely Italy for 9 day two weeks ago. It was amazing. Daniel and I ran all over Rome and he translated everything for me and we all ate amazing food. Then we headed down to Sorrento/Napoli to see Pompeii.

I'm pretty fond of history, studying it has always felt very similar to how I love to study Literature, the analytics, though concrete as opposed to pure abstraction, can be viewed in similar ways and I've always liked it well enough. Tedious at time, but I can't complain.

Seeing Pompeii, completely frozen in time was something I could never have even imagined. I've seen pictures, read about the city but nothing compares to actually seeing this bustling town. I somehow don't think of Rome as ever being like Pompeii, even being down in the Forum you can't escape the noise from cars; there is still a vibrant city just across the road. Pompeii is this tiny little microcosm of what life was once life. Preserved in perfect detail, down to the frescos on the walls and the fish bones in the ground.

When I walk around Rome I don't think, and perhaps this is ignorance on my part, "Wow, someone actually was living in the structure 2000 years ago." Though I am constantly surrounded by Ancient Rome it's still abstract somehow, I can push that fact from my mind and just see the living Rome of today.

Pompeii is the polar opposite. It's life, interrupted.

This past weekend I went adventuring in Belgium where I ate far too many Frites and Wafels and in general had a lovely time. Next up is Sicily with my program before London for the Royal Wedding. Anddddddd I have some pretty fabulous people coming to visit the next two weeks. Kelsey arrives tomorrow, Sarah is in town next week, Matt was here all last week and into this one, it's all, in general, pretty rad.

Ecce! In pictura est puella, nomine Cornelia.

Delayed postings because Italy is just too beautiful. And Franzen's "Freedom" is taking up way to much of my time (He messed up molto facts about both St. Paul and DC, next time you're writing a novel, Mr. Franzen, please do more research than just reading the Wiki page for STP. The Star Tribune delivered to a STP address? Come on.)

Life in Roma only becomes crazier with this lovely weather we're having. Mid 60s and sunny all week. Winning.

Last Thursday was (in addition to being Saint Patrick's day) the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification. It, unfortunately, poured all day on Wednesday; the fireworks that we're supposed to go off at midnight weren't lit off but there were Italian flags hanging outside of most businesses on Marconi and little kids had their faces painted with Red, White and Green. Most billboards and flyers up around Rome somehow mentioned the unification and even though it is still a slightly touchy subject for many Italians it was very cool to be here for their cinquecentennial.

Midterms finished last week and I'm not failing anything yet (even finance! But only with the insane curve he had to tack onto all of our abysmal grades) but I'm still exhausted after cramming half a semester's worth of business definitions into my head. I'm also just exhausted. It comes and goes it waves, sometimes life here is the most amazing thing in the world and other days I just come home from class ready to crawl into bed and sleep for the next two days. Walking to class today with Alice I took off my sunglasses and let the warm Mediterranean sun wash over me. There is something about the sum here that is different from anywhere else; it's warmed, yellower, casts it's light in a more pleasing way that makes all colors brighter and everything taste better.

More importantly, the Morizio family will be landing in Roma on Saturday! I'm excited to see them all and have Daniel translate all of the Latin I can't quite seem to translate with my less than perfect knowledge I received from Brother David. We head down to Sorrento next weekend to see Pompeii  and Herculaneum and to make sure there are NO roman carriages stuck in any ditches. If we find any we will rescue all members of the Cornelii family from the million or so chapters they spent stuck in ditches.

When I went down to Pong tonight after dinner they gave me a super large cup for the usual 1.50 Euro small price and from what I understood of the conversation that took place between the woman scooping my Gelato and the owner behind the cash register they were worried because they hadn't seen me in a week or so. Crema and pinoli. So many noms.

"a great frenchy-french time"

Paris was pretty rad.

I ventured outside of the bubble of Italia for the weekend to go see some of my favorite people ever up in France.

Highlights included:

Kelsey and I got carded (is that even a thing in Europe? Apparently.)
I got to see so much Dante related art! Which I was not expecting - this was supposed to be a Dante free weekend but, alas, I can't seem to escape him. Not that I mind. We're basically dating.
We got into the Louvre for free which was terribly exciting.
Bread. Italy has amazing bread but, God, it's so good in Paris. Along with foie gras and champagne on a park next to Notre Dame. This category includes croissants (side note, always book a hostel next to a bakery)

Paris is so different from Rome. Besides the physical differences, the foremost being that Paris is just so damn beautiful, your eyes almost hurt from all the beauty, it's a totally different city. But the green - everything is so wonderful and green. I couldn't believe how green it was, parks everywhere. Rome has it's fair share of Piazzas but Paris is almost more green than brick. It's just such a different place. Plus it's metro is efficient and actually goes places.

But it's good to be back in Roma. This week is midterms week so that's hellish but the four I've had so far, with the exception of Finance, have been fine.

Thursday is Unification Day which is this contested issue in Italy. There is still this huge divide here about what it means to be Italian and there is still tension that stems from the Savoy invasion 150 years ago. I was walking to class on Monday and I was struck by all these Italian flag, freshly opened from bags and most still with deep creases, that were suddenly flying all up and down Marconi. It's not quite as festive as early July at home but you can tell something is happening. On Wednesday night there are several large celebrations planned in the bigger piazzas and up in old Rome with fireworks and such so that should be fun.

It feels like spring has finally arrived, it was almost 70 out today and the sun was shining. This is, of course, a tease as it is supposed to pour for the next two weeks. I took extra time walking along the Tiber today on my way to my exam, some of the trees on my block are in full bloom and the pink blossoms are beautiful against the concrete and graffiti.

The title of this post comes from my Mother via Mad TV (which is scary, I know). It was, indeed, a lovely frenchy-french time.

"And then away to Venice"

We've traded Beyonce for Shakespeare.

Venice is insane. The only way I can really describe it is this weird adult version of Disney World because there simply aren't words that I can use to describe this place. It's so strange. Nothing about the city makes sense. Nothing. You take boats instead of busses. Buildings literally are built up against the sea, foundations sink into the water, houses are connected by bridges. It's beautiful, incredibly beautiful and unlike any other place I've ever seen or will see.

Being there for carnival was amazing. Saint Marks square was a sea (hahaha, see what I did there?) of people, Dad and I weren't masquerading and that drew strange looks, not the other way around. People in full renaissance dress and elaborate masks were seated at tables next to us in restaurants, men had powered faces and women hid behind fans. There was music blaring in the streets/canals, dancing in the campos, it was unlike anything I've ever seen. I can't even describe it with words. It's insane. Absolutely insane.

So Dad and I ate and drank and ate some more. I introduced him to frappe but sadly it will be all gone come Wednesday. We went to Harry's Bar and drank Belini and people watched and ate such good food. It was lovely. And my train ride back to Roma today was quite; an almost nice change from the insanity of Carnival. It was amazing though. It was insane and crazy and so different from anything else in the world. And it was beautiful.

Be With You

Even in the pouring rain, this city is so amazingly beautiful. It's been grey and we haven't seen a glimpse of the sun for what feels like weeks (that downpour that keep us from Assisi just keeps on sitting over Rome) but somehow even in the most dire of weather conditions Rome is still so captivating (even the thunderstorms here are beautiful, watching lightning illuminate the gas meters out my window is amazing). Romans just keep on doing what they've done for centuries, living in a place that doesn't seem to want them. This place would be much better off if ancient people's hadn't settled here, the river floods, the land shifts and changes, the winds are constantly blowing shutters off buildings. But it's so beautiful. Even what shouldn't be breathtaking captures your mind.

The old man who runs the trattoria in my building told me yesterday, after I had ordered my cornetto literally "for the road" (literally. That's how you say "to go" here),  that I was a real Roman now. For whatever reason they've accepted that I'm here to stay and will continue to eat their delicious pastries and sauteed artichokes for the next few months. It scares me how much I love this place, how much it feels like home. When they refer to Rome as The Eternal City I see why. This place never leaves you. You are eternally Rome's.

Papa Morizio is in Italy this week for business in Milan so he and I are going up to Venice this weekend, coincidentally, for Carnival. The rain should be letting up staring Friday afternoon and hopefully everything won't be flooded. We're staying right on the ocean (though I suppose everything is on the ocean in Venice) and it should be amazing. From the pictures I've seen of people who were up their last weekend, it looked packed and festive so I'm hoping this weekend will be amazing as well, if only for people watching.

Of course logistically this will make the trip more colorful, but that's part of the charm of Italy. Dads never been to Venice either, so he and I will both be exploring together. I'm excited to see Dad (my Dad is awesome. Seriously.) but also the draw of a long hot shower where the water doesn't pool at your feet because of drain issues sounds lovely. I'm just going to stuff myself with frappe before they lock up all the pastries for Lent and drink bellini and smell the ocean.