Technically writing this on Thursday night but the beauty of Blogger is that I can set it to look like I actually caught up on time. I guess you can take the lack of posts to mean I've been keeping busy off the internet (hurrah) which is partially true, mostly because school has started to pick up and I spend a lot of my time commuting, sitting in class, going on site visits, researching on JSTOR and Academic Search Complete, and trying to come up with interesting topics for my two main papers this semester. That leaves the weekdays pretty dull and the weekends are the only time I have to keep exploring like I used to do after class, and thus these posts keep being pushed further and further back.

Most of the week is a repeat of catching the tram, sitting through class, going on site visits, coming home to nap and do homework, and crash in the evening. I did manage to spend an afternoon walking around Centro Storico and up on the Giancolo (Janiculum hill) looking for renaissance art pieces to write my paper on. One of my favorites was Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola which was a beautiful church (but mainly baroque), and had a very cool Plastico di Legno del Tempio di Cristo Re which is the wooden model of the temple of Christ the King. The base circle had different countries and cities inscribed into it and each aligned with a miniature model of a famous building/church/temple there. It was very detailed and extremely fragile and beautiful. On my way up the Janiculum in attempts to find Chiesa San Pietro in Montorio I stumbled across a gorgeous view of the city and accidentally found the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola which is a 16th century fountain commissioned by Pope Sixtus V and marked the end of the acqueduct that ran through the area. Unfortunately the church was closed when I arrived but I was able to see the Tempietto, which is considered the manifestation of renaissance architecture in the small, round temple that supposedly marks the location of St. Peter's crucifixion. I wanted to badly to write my paper on this, but I found out that we're actually learning about it in one of the later lectures so I couldn't pick this one... but it's a fascinating little structure that I watched many YouTube videos about after getting home.

Friday morning my friend who lives in Prati (the neighborhood right above the Vatican) invited me to go along with her to the Trionfale open-air market. I wasn't sure what to expect from this market but I hauled myself over to that quarter of the city via public transportation and entered the magical rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat stands, fish vendors, pastry shop pop-ups, and more. We made several rounds before settling on a couple of really great stands to buy from. I got half a kilo of spinach and a kilo of oranges for €2 which really surprised me because it's so cheap for SO MUCH FOOD!! And spinach and oranges have become staples in my Italian diet. We also got a pastry to share (so yummy) and I got some fresh pumpkin ravioli and broccoli sausage in attempts to try new things. After our trip to the market we dropped our groceries off before heading across town to Termini because my friend wanted to see the Gio Pistone and Nicola Alessandrini exhibit at Acquario Romano after seeing my Instagram post about it. It was even good the second time around! And we actually caught it on one of the last days because it was to be painted over after Saturday. We then walked down a few blocks to explore the neighborhood of San Lorenzo. It's located next to one of the main Sapienza University campuses, and is sort of an alternative hipster area compared to Centro Storico (historic center) where we spend most of our time. I took her around to show her the street art I've learned about and discovered thanks to my internship and we had lunch and hot chocolate at S.A.I.D. dal 1923 cafe which has the best hot cocoa I've ever had (it's also the same place I had my initial internship interview). We headed home before dark so as not to get caught up in the rush hour traffic and to get some beauty rest before our big adventure on Saturday.

Saturday I went on a day trip to the town of Orvieto, for which I will eventually put together a separate post with photos -- basically it's a city built into the volcanic materials collected on the hill. Because the volcanic ashes are so malleable citizens carved caves into the hillside and the entire city resides above these ancient caves that you can still enter into. It was very cool and exciting to see parts of Italy outside of Rome because as much as there is to do here I really need to capitalize on my time living in Italy. I keep thinking, anyone can plan a trip to Venice and Florence, but who is ever going to come to Italy just to see these small, old towns? It's an opportunity I should really take advantage of while on my semester abroad -- and I'm really glad I get to, because Orvieto is one of my favorite and most memorable places I've visited while here.