What you are, we once were; what we are now, you will be.

If anyone knows (without looking it up!) what this is referencing, you are seriously disturbed. Just throwing that out there.

Today (Friday) has been an eventful day: I had a make-up Art in Rome class because on Wednesday, we went to the Papal Audience. First off, every night before this class I wonder why the heck I'm taking it: it's tons of reading, I have to get up early, museum fees are already adding up, and it takes at least an hour to get anywhere on public transportation. That being said, today rocked.

We met at the Pantheon (NOT the the Parthenon, which I learned is completely different) and toured it. I know I've said this before, but my prof knows everything about everything. This class I actually took notes, which was a big step for me, because I usually just tell myself I'm just absorbing everything he's saying w/o writing anything down. We learned about the sentence on top of the Pantheon, the columns, the dome, the recesses, the history of Caesar, Hadrian, Marcus Agrippa and everyone else who lived or breathed at that time in history.

Then we walked about 10 minutes to the Ara Pacis, which is the Altar of Augustan Peace. It was constructed when Augustus Caesar was returning home from a 3 year-long battle and was created as a symbol of the peace he had restored to Rome.

Class was technically over, but my friend Julia and I went and grabbed lunch at a Tabacchi, and then got the best gelato yet. Seriously, this place must have had over 60 different flavors. It had pastries, cakes, cannoli, tiramisu, candy, and, my personal favorite, huge suckers with the pope's face on them. After picking out our gelato (8 flavors, 2 girls, no regrets), we walked around for a bit and met up with some people and went to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, aka the Really Creepy Cappuccin Monk Skull Church.

I have never been scared by a church. Actually I normally find them very comforting, but this place was just trippy. We asked the woman working there and she said there was over 3000 skeletons there. Google image it, and do it during the day. I'm not sure if it was the actual skulls and bones that freaked me out or the fact that I will one day be one. That's what the title is, by the way. At the very end, there's a sign that says, "What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you will be."

We took the long way back to the bus line we needed so we could stop at the Spanish Steps. The views there are amazing! I got a bunch of great pictures I'll try to put up soon!

Highlights/ Random Tidbits:
* The Pantheon is the best preserved ancient Roman building because it was handed over to the church in the 7th century.
* The famous phrase "M. Agrippa, son of Lucius, on the counsel for the third time built this" is a total lie. Agrippa originally built it, but it was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian.
* When the crazy woman who works in the creepy monk church says no pictures, she means it.
* Jumping out and saying "boo!" to your friends in the creepy monk church is frowned upon.
* There's a store off of Via del Corso that sells boxers that have pictures of the David's, um, manhood.
* The art historians at the Ara Pacis are crazy strict. They yelled when my friend put down her folder on a 2-year old model of the Ara Pacis. I swear it's because they don't want to have to clean it...

Ciao, famiglia e amici!