First day of field trips :)

I've always had a special place in my heart for museums and Rome, as one big giant museum, is no exception. We had our first field trip to various museums in Rome today. Ruggero and Claudio took us to the Capitoline museums. We had a guided tour of two of the three museums and the statues and art inside were absolutely gorgeous. I took AP Art History in high school and it is so cool seeing the stuff in person that I learned about then. Look for pictures on Facebook. I got a little obsessed with taking pictures of the art today. I love looking at the statues that are Roman copies of Greek statues of Greek Gods. It's fun trying to figure out who each one is based on what they're wearing, holding, etc. After the tour they told us we could go do whatever we wanted for 2 hours until class starts so Irma and I decided to walk around the museums some more. We ended up walking into the 3rd museum which turned out to be a museum of Italian heritage and culture in the memorial of Vittorio Emmanuelle (also known as the "wedding cake building"). There were tons of really cool old Italian flags and this building also is home to Italy's "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" which was very beautiful. After that Irma and I wandered on back to the Campo de Fiori for class.
Class today was super interesting. In Culture we learned about the Lateran Treaty between the city of Rome and Vatican City. Prior to this treaty the Pope and the Vatican did not recognize Rome as the capital of Italy or even Italy as an independent nation. This treaty established the Vatican City as it's own sovereign state, and the Pope in return recognized Rome as capital of Italy and Italy as a country. It was really interesting to learn how that all came about! I'm totally a history addict. After that class we had our first class of History of Ancient Rome. Ruggero lectured about il Foro Romano, il Palatino, e il Colosseo which we're going to visit tomorrow. He knows so much about Roman history. It's fun to listen to him lecture.
So tomorrow we go the Coliseum, the Palatine Hills and the Roman Forum. After that we're walking to the train station. Ruggero believes our train to Florence won't be cancelled, and at worst will just be delayed. If all works out, we'll be off to Florence! I'm not taking my computer because a) it's heavy and b) I don't trust it at a youth hostel so don't expect any more updates until Sunday. Until then, Ciao i miei amici!