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Rome--Installment 2
When in Rome, Farmer Boy (FB) and I went to two different catacombs, both of which had very unique and strange smells to them. A catacomb is a place where Romans buried dead people several layers deep. One of the catacombs we went to, Catacombs de San Sebastiano, had tunnels seven miles long, 3 layers down, with sub-levels within the levels. This particular catacomb housed over 30,000 bodies at one point. We only viewed one of the levels of the catacombs. This tour was very large and there were a ton of people.
The other catacomb we went to, Catacombs de Priscilla, was a very small, intimate tour. There were four of us on the tour and the only lighting was a flashlight. There were beautiful fresco paintings in these catacombs, as well as large rooms that we were able to see. In this catacomb, some of the sarcophogi (plural of sarcophogus) were kept sealed. It was really very interesting to see these places and how so many people were fit in such a small place. When we were in this catacomb, I thought what a great place it would be to play hide-and-seek. And then I thought, "that would probably be kind of creepy". I also thought that it would be a great place to hide and jump out and scare people.
On to the next burial places--mausoleums, burial places for the richer. The mausoleums had very decorated sarcophogi and were much fancier than the catacombs. This mausoleum was under St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican city. These were built with bricks, unlike the catacombs which were dug out of dirt that hardened into rock when it was oxygenated. While there, we also got to see the bones of St. Peter, though I have my doubts whether they were his bones or not.
The next place we saw on our tour of the dead, I found gross and disturbing though FB found it fascinating. It was the Capuchin Crypt. It was several rooms that were decorated to look like a cathedral with human bones. There were thousands of peoples bones in there. There were specific rooms--like the femur room and the scapula room. They made chandeliers and sconces out of bones, as well as wall decorations. You can read more about it here and see pictures. I didn't take pictures because they told me not to, and who wants a picture like that to blow up and put on their wall. I keep thinking that I'm going to have dreams about the bones coming to life and reassembling themselves, so they can chase me. Yes, it did creep me out just a bit.
So there you have it, my tour of the dead or at least where the dead used to be. Sweet
dreams!
Well, I'm back from Rome and am now well-rested and clean, so I can now post to my blog. While in Rome, one of my favorite games to play was, "Italian, Other European, or American". This was easily played in Rome as it was full of locals and tourists. The following items were helpful in playing this game.
1. Shoes. Europeans wear much better shoes than Americans--they wear stylish leather shoes. Also, if they were wearing athletic shoes, they looked more like soccer shoes than basketball shoes. Boots were popular among the women--European boots had more gold on them than American boots.
2. Hair and eye color. Most of the Italians in Rome had jet black hair and brown eyes. If there was a person with good shoes and hair color other than naturally black, it was a safe bet that they were other European, or even other Italian (as opposed to Roman).
3. Facial expression. I found that most Romans and Europeans did not smile very often. Sheesh. Did you just come from a funeral--was work that bad for all of you--I mean you get 2 hours off for lunch, how bad can it be?
4. Clothes--Apparently color is not popular in Italy. I had FarmerBoy take "Where's Megan" pictures at the Vatican and Colosseum. They would have been much harder if I weren't the only one in a blue coat. Black and white are very popular colors in Europe. Come on people, let's show a little life. Obviously they must wear colors sometime as they sold colored clothes in the stores.
5. Jewelry--Europeans wear a lot more jewelry than your average American--even to work. I realize that dressing up for work for me means not wearing a sweatshirt, but I can't imagine wearing that much jewelry to work everyday. It would just distract me.
There you have some of my observations of the difference between chic Italians and Europeans and slobby Americans. If any of my readers out there have noticed any other differences, please feel free to let me know.
I spent many hours shopping with Loo, Roo, and Mom on Saturday. Roo found many great things on sale, of course. I found many things on sale, but I didn't care for them, so instead I bought the expensive things that I like. I am going to Rome in two days and have decided that I can't look like a slob in a European city (in the Delta sense of the word). Perhaps you will get to see some of my new clothes if I post pictures from my trip. Anyway, it was lots of fun and we stopped for See's chocolates in the end. Happiness. I would marry the bordeaux if it was a man.
Also this week, I got a fabulous mp3 player. As my friend Strongpants can attest to I have been trying for a couple of months to decide whether or not to buy one and which one to buy if I did buy one. Well, I finally decided last Monday night to order a refurbished one online. It was a great deal; however, I, of course, wanted to have it before my trip and needed time to load songs on it. Lucky for me it came on Thursday. Hooray for fast service! Anyway, I went to load some music onto it, but I cannot find my CD case. Ugh. I have looked many places and cleaned many parts of the house looking. What is a girl to do? Find all of the random ones in other CD cases containing only a few, pull the ones out of my car, bring the ones home from work, and "borrow" a few from the family. I also put on some Italian Language CDs, so that I can talk to myself on the airplane and the other passengers will look at me funny and my brother will refuse to sit in the same section of the plane with me.
No, I am not packed yet, but I have done some packing. It's hard to pack clothes when they are still wet. I've tried to think of sneaky places to hide my money, so that the pickpockets have to work hard to find it, but don't worry, I'll be ready by tomorrow night. Until I write again--Ciao!
I've been tagged by Strongpants, so I'll be happy to respond, as the rest of my life is quite boring and I can't thing of anything to post on the blog at this moment.
5 Things on my to-do list today (let's make that tomorrow, as it is after 10 p.m.)
1. Shower
2. Wash my Hair
3. Get dressed
4. Go to Work
5. Eat food
5 snacks I enjoy
1. Peanut M&Ms
2. Pistachios
3. Cinnamon Toast
4. Eclairs
5. Chocolate milk & potato chips
5 places I have lived
1. Lynndyl, UT
2. Rexburg, ID
3. Lynndyl, UT
4. Provo, UT
5. Lynndyl, UT
I'd give you some others, but there are no others.
5 jobs I have had
1. Water Secretary
2. Paralegal
3. Intern at the Board of Pardons & Parole
4. Secretary to religion teachers at Ricks
5. Data entry person
I'd give you different ones of these, but these are the only five that I've had.
5 things people don't know about me
1. I used to wash silverware in the following order: 7 spoons, 7 forks, 7 knives & repeat until finished.
2. I never set my alarm clock to a number ending in "0" e.g. 8:00, 8:20, 8:50
3. If I've been somewhere once, I can usually find it again fairly easily
4. I lost a thumbnail as a result of T-ball practice when I was a child
5. I hold my breath in the wind.
So there you have it, a few mundane things about my life. I survived work today, as well as all of the annual meetings at the Water Office. Huzzah! I now tag the following people/blogs:
onemilenorth, barelycoherent, prarierosen. You're it. Please answer these questions sometime in the next two years
