Yesterday, in the late morning we headed out to see the pope's Sunday address. When we arrived at the Vatican, the weather was gloomy, and while we were waiting, it started to rain lightly. When the pope finally arrived for his short address of the crowd, the light broke about a minute into his speech. We had been told that he would speak a minimum of three languages, but were very much impressed when he spoke a total of 8 - Latin, Italian, French, English, German, Polish, Spanish, and a Slavic language.

We walked around and worked on homework for the rest of the afternoon, before the group met back up for a final get-together at the apartment of a friend of our professor, Todd.

We spent the rest of the evening finishing sketches and doing exit interviews about the final leg of the trip, with Todd.

Today was our final day in Rome. Becky, Shandra, and I chose to go visit sights that we had not seen enough of, or at all, on our previous days in Rome. We first headed back to the Colosseum, visiting San Carlito along the way. The Colosseum was one of my favorite sights in Rome, and though it isn't as big as modern stadiums, at full capacity, it held 50,000 or more people; and the building was the tallest in the city of ancient Rome.

We then decided to walk around the city, heading underneath the remains of an ancient aqueduct, past the field that is all that is left of the Circus Maximus. We were in search of the 'Mouth of Truth', featured in the movie 'Roman Holiday', and by pure chance, I managed to spot a tiny sign for it as we walked past the church of St. Valentine. The ancient sewer lid with a river god face is said to bite of the hand of any liar that is put into its mouth. The church of St. Valentine is quite old, and holds relics of the saint, including his skull.

We walked around for a while, trying to find a keyhole view of St. Peter's, but eventually gave up. We did manage to find the Palazzo Spada, designed by architect Francesco Borromini. The palazzo has an exterior corridor that is in forced perspective - while only 18 or so feet long in actuality, it appears to be 60 feet long when you stand in front of it. The entire thing slopes inward, the front opening about 15 feet tall, while the back is only about 8 feet tall.

After we ate lunch, we walked past the Pantheon again, stopping in what looked like a small church to the side of it. The church turned out to be very large, and held many pieces of art, including a statue of the risen Christ carved by Michelangelo.

We ate an early dinner that confirmed a European restaurant rule I'd heard... never eat at a place that has pictures of its food around the door or fake cutouts in the menu, if you're looking for a decently nice meal.

Rome was amazing, and I would love to come again some day and spend more time here.