Under the Tuscan Sun

It's only been about a week and a half since my last post, but so much has happened! Rome is extremely hot these days, with temperatures on par with Atlanta. I've come to realize how much the Italians are benefitting from no air condition. Not only do they save energy from not using the reverse engine known as AC, they also keep the lights off for most of the day to minimize the heat. They also end up eating less because of the heat, and keep their petite figures. And when they do eat, they have cold pasta salads or rice salads, which minimizes the burning of gas for the stove. Speaking of the stove, I'm always afraid I'm going to burn my fingers every time I light one. Other money/energy savers? No dryers or 24/7 wireless routers.

Last weekend was very boring, mainly because it was very HOTTT. I really did not want to go outside. At one point I convinced myself to see St. Paul (Outside of the Walls) because it is an enormous church. When I got there, I was disheartened by the discovery that I had forgotten to put the battery back into my camera after recharging. I decided to walk around a little bit, and noticed that there were hundreds of police (both Polizia and Carabineri) EVERYWHERE. I walked a little bit more, and notice a Swiss Guard. I knew something was up. I heard a tour guide say something about not being able to buy tickets that day, and then followed the tourists running toward the entrance gate. There was a helicopter hovering above as well. When I got to the gates, I just managed to catch a glimpse of Ratzinger exiting his black car, surrounded by several cardinals. I couldn't believe that I had just seen the Papa! Wow.

This past week I went to Siena to join the Emory chemistry people for the Palio horse race. The bus ride took three hours, but I slept through most of it. When I got there Katherine and Saranya met me at the bus station, and we walked to their dorms. I had been to Siena before, but I was really caught by just how small this city was. The streets were pretty small too, so they provided a lot of shade. The last time I was in Siena, it was colder and we were all complaining about the lack of sun. This time it was actually a plus. Before the race, Saranya and I went to walk around. I got to see the head of St. Catherine! No matter how much I see it, the practice of splitting up and displaying saints' body parts as relics is still a little eerie and macabre.

The race took about...2 minutes max, but there was a lot of parade and procession before the race. I bought a flag for the Unicorn contrada, but they didn't win despite their promising horse in the preliminary races. It took a really really long time to line up the horses in the "correct" way before the race, especially since two enemy neighborhoods are next to each other.

The parading had probably been going on for a few days before I arrived, but they were everywhere on the day of the Palio. Each contrada has many flag bearers, but two of them do a performance with the flag. As they parade, they stop every so often to do their skit. Some were more elaborate than others, but in the end they throw their flags very high and manage to catch it, sometimes more gracefully than others, and everyone claps. For the contrada that won the Palio, this continued onto the next day.

The above picture is of the Palio after the race. As you can see, the Porcupine contrada won.

On Friday I got to perform more surgeries as one of the girls in the lab is finished with her experiments. These went better than the one before, and thankfully my rats are still alive!

On Saturday the Siena kids came back, so I met up with Saranya at Tiburtina Station and brought her home with me. That afternoon we went to walk around, which was great fun. That night I went to a party again with my professor, and again he prepared delicious foods. One dish was of half figs wrapped up in prosciutto! I have never had fresh fig before in my life, but I hear they are in season, so I'm going to load up in these couple of weeks before I leave. They are really delicious, with crunchy seeds. Kind of like very soft and sweet kiwis.

On Sunday Saranya and I took a tour of Villa Medici in the morning. It was gorgeous and the house had a great view of Rome. However in the afternoon we took a bus to Tivoli and saw Villa d'Este. The bus ride was kind of long and took place along the road Via Tiburtina, which was an ancient road to get from Rome to Tivoli-abouts. Tivoli is a small city that is built on the side of a mountain, so the view from below makes it very stratified. The view from above is of the beautiful Lazio countryside.

Villa d'Este was built by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who was the son of the Duke of Ferrera and Lucrezia Borgia, which makes him the grandson of a Pope (yes the papacy was especially corrupt those days). The house was very beautiful inside, with every inch of every room painted according to a theme, but the gardens in the back were particularly magnificent. They diverted a stream which eventually flows into the Tiber to provide all the water for the fountains in the gardens. The fountains were really beautiful and everywhere, along with fish ponds and walkways.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to see Villa Adriana and Villa Gregoriana with the really tall waterfall, so hopefully I can manage to go there before I leave.

On Monday I sent Saranya off to see Ostia Antica with the guidebook I had purchased, but unfortunately there was a public transportation strike, and she decided not to take the 2 hour walk to get to the necessary train station. In the lab I got to do another surgery! This time it was all by myself, from the administration of the anesthetic and preparing the instruments to sacrificing the animal in the end. It went pretty well even though I had minimal guidance.

Today a guest lecturer from Washington State was here to talk about emotions and where they come from mostly in relation to opiate receptors. I didn't really agree with some of his beliefs, but I really liked his ideas of emotions being primal and able to be attributed to animals. Well, Daniele has showed up so I will go do another surgery now. I don't absolutely need him but just in case something happens...

Until next time, ci vediamo!