In the taxi from the airport to my apartment I rented for the weekend, I listened to pop music in Italian and even though I did not understand what they were singing about, I could tell it was something happy because the songs had upbeat rhythms. This was an interesting experience for me because when I think of Italian music, operas and classical music tend to come to mind; but the Italian music I listened to in the taxi was the equivalent of the current hit music in the United States such as Drake and Selena Gomez.
The activity I enjoyed the most this week was going up to the top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. From the top of the dome, I had a 360 degree view of the Vatican City and Rome, including a bird's eye view of St. Peter's Square, in the heart of the Vatican City. When I was at the top of St. Peter's Basilica, it was perfectly clear skies and I was able to see for miles all around Rome.
This week, I had a lot of practice with reading maps. Since I was in Italy, my Spanish phone did not work, so I had to get around the old-fashioned way, meaning with paper maps! The difficult part about reading paper maps is figuring out how to look at them correctly, so that you walk in the right direction. This is unlike using maps on a smart phone where the techonology points you in the right direction. If I am being honest, I did get lost a couple of times but eventually made it to where I was trying to go; and if I really did not know where I was, the locals in Rome were happy to help me out!
