Project Obelisk is a go...

Today has thus far been quite an exciting day. We all received a schedule yesterday of each days' plans and today was completely devoted to "Project Obelisk"... mysterious, I know. So we were all on the edge of our seats wondering what we were possibly going to do... maybe a scavener hunt of sorts? We received a clue yesterday- this project would help us to get to know the bus system and the city better. Exciting! Despite not being able to fall back to sleep after waking up at 4 this morning I was still pretty stoked. After breakfast we were filled in on the project. We were divided into groups of three and assigned two obelisks around the city. There are 13 in total. We had our trusty maps and broken Italian to rely on to get us there. I was happy with the two guys I was grouped with and we headed off. It took us two buses, the train, and then another bus before we got to the first obelisk. Once we arrived our assignment was to write down the inscription, take pictures, and begin to study what it's placement meant in regards to what it was around. Our first obelisk was located in Piazza dell Esquilino behind the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica. I knew I had heard of this church before but thanks to a Rick Steves' guidebook we were able to find out more about this church. We read up on it before going in. I should mention that once we had translated the Latin inscriptions it seemed to us that the placement of the obelisk was rather arbitrary and had no real connection to the church. The basilica dates to 432 AD, one of the oldest churches in Rome... amazing! It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is actually a bit controversial. During the time that it was built Mary's role as mother of God was disputed among theologians. Aside from this the church is remarkable for many other reasons. 1) it has a gilded gold ceiling which is possibly the gold that Columbus brought back from the Americas- mind blowing; 2) the apse of the church holds what are believed to be remains from baby Jesus' manger, pieces of wood bound by iron! 3) amazing mosaics! 4) Bernini's tomb- one of the greatest artists of the Baroque style.... the list goes on, but these were the things that I found simply awesome :). We also went into the museum beneath the church for only 2 euro... bargain, really I recommend this museum! There were tons of relics... how believable they are, who knows. Nonetheless it was very cool. Some of the relics included pieces of the cross Peter was crucified on as well as pieces of Christ's cross. Mary's veil was also on display. What can be legitimately verified are the pieces that belonged to the popes and the original foundation of the church that was visible. So after spending several hours there we made our way to the Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon. I had been here before, but the immensity of the Pantheon still amazes me. It is so much larger than pictures depict. We ate lunch there and looked around. After this we headed back this time taking one bus. There was a bit of an incident on the bus... So the guys I was with were able to get seats near the front, but I had to go a little farther back. While I was sitting there a guy approached me asking what I believed was directions... I think it could have been a ploy. He said he was from New Guinea I think and had really bad broken English and Italian. I told him I didn't understand what he was saying but he kept trying to engage me in conversation. He proceeded to ask what I was doing and if I wanted to go sight seeing with him. I declined and then he asked if I was alone. At this point I knew he was a creep but figured that staying on the bus was fine because I was surrounded by people. He asked me for my number but I told him I had no phone. Then he wanted to go to my school and I continued to say no. He prodded some more and asked if I would like to travel with him as he was planning to leave the country.... crazy, I know! Although he was blocking me in my seat I pushed him out of the way and told him my stop was coming up. I told the guys what happened and we got off at the next stop and caught the next bus. Creepy, but everything was fine. Things like that are bound to happen in this city and I felt that I had control of the situation... makes for an interesting story nonetheless. I have about 20 minutes until the "debriefing" on Project Obelisk so ciao for now!
-XOXO