"What you are now, we used to be, what we are now, you soon will be"
That was the poem that ushered us into a series of small crypts below the Cappucin church this afternoon. Inside we stepped into the most amazing chapels i have ever seen. All of the decorations, the designs on the ceilings, the altars, everthing was made out of the bones of over four thousand monks. It seems like a very strange and rather morbid concept, but the designs were quite beautiful, and this order of monks beleive that this type of decoration makes us remember that we are mortal and that we all share a common fate (as the lines at the begining indicated). I thought it was so cool, and I bought postcards so when I get home remind me to show you what they looked like!

Venezia

This weekend we went to Venice! Venice is a beautiful city that is much touristier than Rome, but it was fun anyways. We flew in at eight in the morning and then bussed into the city. The weather was really reminiscent of Seattle, a solid gray overcast but it wasn’t too cold. We headed to our hotel first, which Laura had reserved for us online, but when we got there she realized that instead of reserving rooms for February 24th she had reserved rooms for the 24th of March! So we all laughed and set off looking for a new hotel and breakfast. It didn’t take us very long to find a three star hotel that cost about as much as our last hotel that had openings, so we settled in and went out for un cornetto e té! (Everyone else had caffe, but it was Twinings Earls Grey for me :) After breakfast we wandered down the streets near our apartments, looking at all of the amazing glass and mask shops that lined the streets. We had just missed Carnival, but many shops were still renting costumes and beautifully ornate masks. After sticking our noses in every single shop for two straight blocks we stopped for lunch and then it was on with shopping! The next morning we started off on a bus ride through the city- by boat! We took a bus boat down the Grand Canal from the Piazza Roma to the Piazza San Marco- the land of a thousand pigeons. Ewww! This piazza is huge and is home to thousands of pigeons, which you can buy corn to feed if you so choose (Laura did and got swarmed). It is also home to the huge Chiesa San Marco, an old ornate and absolutely enormous church that is encrusted in gold mosaics. Only Veneta and I went inside, the other four girls were boycotting churches for the weekend, but it was definitely worth it. It was gorgeous. And gold. Very very gold. After that we wandered back towards our hotel, where we had stashed our bags. We walked across the Rialto, a famous bridge covered in shops, and then it was about time to head back to Roma. We flew out at six and waved goodbye to a wonderful weekend!