Its been a crazy few weeks

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been so busy with class (yes actual real classes) and exploring more of Rome. Since we traveled to Florence, a lot has happened. That next weekend, we chose to stay around Rome and explore a bit. Thursday, I went to my first professional European soccer game!! It was AS Roma vs Parma. From what I understood, Parma is one of the worst in the league so Roma should have won.. but it ended in a 0-0 tie. The Roma fans afterward were SO mad they were yelling and screaming at the players! It was crazy!The Roma Roma Roma Anthem!  Start the video at the 1:00 mark and that is the anthem of AS Roma. The entire stadium sang it together, it was definitely an awesome experience (of course I got one of the scarves).

The next day we went exploring and walked up the Aventine hill to the gate of the Knights of Malta. The keyhole in the gate that opens into the headquarters of the Knights of Malta has a perfect view of St. Peters Basilica. (Yes, I took this picture, it's not fake!)

 Next we explored Villa Borghese. I was beyond excited to walk the ground of the Borghese Pope and his family. After learning so much about him, his family, the scandals and drama involved during his time as Pope in the 1400s in a documentary I watched before coming here, I was pretty psyched I was able to walk where he did. We weren't able to go inside the Villa, but the grounds were gorgeous and so extensive! It was a beautiful Valentine's Day and we saw a proposal and a few minutes later we saw wedding photos being taken!
That weekend we also went to one of the most popular open markets in Rome, called Porta Portese. It seemed like it went on forever! There was a mix of clothes, jewelry, furniture and everything in between. All of the vendors would yell at you as you walked by, which got a little annoying but it was a cool experience.

The next weekend, one of my classes, called Communications and Social Transformations had a field study in Milan! We left Friday morning very early and took a 3 hour train ride north to Milan. We went straight to a Public Service Studio called Rai, and we watched a taping of an episode of a show called TV Talk. We got to go behind the scenes of the studio and they explained a lot of how everything works. From there, we went straight to a Rai radio studio in the same building. There, we were able to sit in the radio studio while they were live on air! It was a very cool experience, and I found I actually understood about 75% of what they were saying! That night our professors took us out to eat, which was delicious, then we all went out to a bar and got to relax. The next day, we woke up early and we found a bagel shop!! It was heaven! I didn't realize how much I missed bagels and cream cheese haha. We then went up to the top of the Duomo, which was beautiful, even in the rain. After, we stopped by another radio studio, a local one called Radio Populare, which was more of a smaller community radio station. We got on the train home later that afternoon!  That night back in Rome, my roommates and I somehow managed to get into a fancy private club without being on any guest lists and had a blast!

It's been a crazy awesome few weeks!
Below: Duomo in Milan in the Rain