Sometimes I just have to take a second and stop and remember that I am living somewhere that people dream of going to and often never get the chance.

As we were driving into Rome yesterday for our fieldtrip I was sitting and listening to music and looking out the window and realizing once again that I was in Rome. Rome. One of the most important cities in the world, with some of the richest histories, in one of the most artistically influential countries civilization has known, both ancient and modern.

We went to the Capitoline museums and got to see works like The Dying Gaul and Cupid and Psyche and the so-called Brutus and the Capitoline wolf, etc. Google them if you’re unfamiliar…it’s just strange to go somewhere and see what you’ve always studied in your art books and they’re just there, hanging out on a pedestal and a in a slit of light is coming from the window and outside that window is Piazza Venezia and on the other side of the museum is the ruins of the Roman forum…

We encountered a rude, probably bitteraboutherlife guard…she accused me of taking a photo con flash (“Mi dispiace, ma non ho fatto con flash…”) and kicked a girl out of a room because she had a water bottle and then watched us the whole time we were looking at the rest of the works.

Then the forum. Yes, I’ve been there. But that was a few years ago and it was a bit hotter then and a bit more crowded and I think I appreciated it less, maybe. Maybe not, but in any case it was still stunning to take a break and sit on ancient rocks while our guide explained that this was not the senate where Caesar was murdered but that was somewhere else and this senate held 300 senators and then was later turned into a church (so much for the separation, eh? I guess they don’t have that here…)

I love that on the arch of Titus there is an old engraving, someone who had sold donuts years and years before and “Ciambele” is written, just barely visible, about 10 feet below the depiction of the procession with the spoils from Jerusalem…

Ploy and I ventured to find my cellphone charger, which I had left in Rome the previous week. We ate gelato and took a bus, not in that order…home around 6ish and dinner, etc. and I realize again that I am living in Italy and it’s not a dream and it’s almost over.