random update!

The day before yesterday we walked around some ancient catacombs, in the rain, which for some reason reminded me of Camp McDowell.  For those of you who know what I am talking about, super strange, I know, but I think something about having to march in a pack around in the cold rain in these creepy caves with bats just reminded me of that, except Camp McDowell was not even close to being 3,000 years old.  

With that being said, the coolest thing I saw that day was in the S. Sabastiano catacombs under the church, where there was this ancient graffiti that dated back to the New Testament times, and it was graffiti on the wall in Greek to Paul and Peter asking for prayers and for help to get back to Naples.  It was really cool and apparently is the only place where Paul and Peter’s names are written together like that.  

Also, in the church, we saw works of art such as Bernini’s last sculpture.  Actually, one of our professors is the one who discovered that it was, in fact, one of Bernini’s works and that it was actually his last masterpiece.  Before he discovered this it was thought that it was just an unknown artist, but Francesco Petrucci (our professor) discovered that it was a Bernini sculpture.  We were all really proud of that haha.

Yesterday we also got to go visit an elementary school and a high school in Ariccia, and those precious little kids just melted my heart.  

Then, last night we held an apertivo, which is kind of means “drinks and appetizers”, and we held it for the people of Ariccia and friends of people involved in the Palace and the program.  Told to expect about 30-40 people, we all cooked and chipped in and bought about 20 bottles of wine, and our instructor came in and panicked, saying there was not enough food or wine.  We knew there was a problem when that happened.  She said we needed at least 40 bottles and there was not enough food.  The kitchen became a flurry of activity as 22 people threw random kinds of pasta into bowls, minced garlic, cooked tomatoes, and set out everything we had from pretzels to nutella to random cream cheese squares.  The other ones of us ran and bought more wine, which seemed ridiculous at the time, but we were glad we made provisions when the people started pouring in! The party was a hit, and it ended up being about 60ish people, some of which were our newfound high school friends from a school we visited earlier that day as a part of one of our classes.  Some of the people were professors or friends of professors, and some were random people that I have no clue where they came from.  It was an interesting time for sure.  

Today, we went to one of the coolest places I have ever been in my life, and certainly the coolest place we have been so far.  We went to the ancient ruins of Pompei.  For those of you who do not know what Pompeii is, wikipedia it.  Haha, but seriously.  The general run-down is that there was a civilization of people living in Pompei that reached it’s height, and at the peak of the civilization Mt. Vesuvius exploded, essentially killing everyone in the city.  18 billion tons of ash, rock, and other debris filled the air and people suffocated to death, then were buried along with the rest of the city.  This happened in 76 AD.  We went to Pompeii today, and it was shocking how life in the city was just frozen in all the ash and rubble.  Mosaic floors are still intact, human skeletons are left just as they were when they died, such as a pregnant woman shielding her baby, a man and woman skeleton holding each other as they hold their faces, and a child who is crouched down with his hands to his face.  It was a beautiful and shocking experience.  The town was about 20,000 people, and all but about 2,000 evacuated.  

Sorry this was super long! Tomorrow I leave to go to Barcelona with some friends, and I am so excited! I miss all of you!