After realizing that my core class was cancelled for the day and the Palazzo Venezia library that I need to access is on reduced holiday hours for this week I just had to go out and seize the afternoon. I thought about visiting the Vatican Museum, but we have one last lecture on the Last Judgement this Thursday so I want to save my ticket until I've absorbed all of Paolo's overflowing knowledge and instead decided to take a walk through some new neighborhoods.

I had heard people talking about a cool mural in that area, so I did some quick Google searching to find a ton of pictures of a corner building on Via del Porto Fluviale and that's exactly where I headed. I crossed under a bridge where I saw some cool Diamond "Slaves of Nobody" prints up, and crossed over Ponte dell'Industria to be immediately greeted by the divide between the industrial districts of Ostiense and Testaccio. I could see some rainbow colors bobbing up and down in the distance as I hurried my pace across the sidewalk to avoid traffic, and took a straight shot down the road until colorful faces loomed out from behind the bend. The mural by Blu capitalizes on the building's windows to provide eyes for the various creatures, ranging from a head made of purple zippers to my favorite banana man (painted entirely as a stack of bananas). Even the dead space between heads was filled with random little whimsical doodles which was super cool.

I also walked past a man swimming above the pescheria and a beautiful portrait of the back of a woman's head. Ducking under some train tracks, the entire concrete structure was covered with awesome artwork including some crossed fingers, portraits of men, geometric designs, and a space scene. I almost jumped out into the street because I was casually strolling along the sidewalk and peeked over at the store window to see a huge crying baby etched in Borondo's telltale black and white on glass.

I not only looked around at street art but also visited Basilica di San Clemente (in accordance with my see at least one famous thing a day quota which I hadn't reached yet today), which is a real life timewarp zone because there are three buildings stacked on top of each other. Going down into the archaeological sites from the beautifully mosaic-tiled ground level church built in the middle ages I entered into the 4th century basilica with portions of its original fresco work remaining, and further descended into the Mithraeum and a labyrinth of damp cave-like rooms formed out of brick from what is thought to be the republican era (between 509-57 BC) that may have fallen victim to the Great Fire of 64. Seeing as yesterday was Rome's 2767th birthday, I guess this was my way of celebrating its history and coming in direct contact with the remnants of peoples' lives from thousands of years ago (Pazzo!). Unfortunately no photos were allowed, but dark brick probably wouldn't have made very cool pictures anyway. It was an experience that had to be felt! I also took a super detour home by stopping by San Pietro in Vincoli (Church of St. Peter in Chains) where I feasted my eyes upon Michelangelo's Moses that adorns the Tomb of Julius II because we learned about it in art class a few weeks ago and our Italian professor mentioned it again today. The human figure is beautifully crafted and the softness of the skin and smoothness of the veins, as well as the tumbling curls of his beard make it impossible to imagine that Moses was crafted out of an enormous block of solid marble. Looking around the church, it made me think about how decorating public space has always been a top priority, especially for Romans. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, and while there is classic beauty like fine art and sculpture, street art can also be beautiful like the mural of rainbow creatures on the side of a building in the middle of a bustling city. Rome has always been a canvas for people from Michelangelo to Blu and Borondo... The city just continues to inspire for generations!

 Anywho, back to the mishmash of photos, on my way down Via Cavour out from San Pietro I found this crumbly man curiously looking out from the side of a postal box, courtesy of C215, and also hopped off the tram a little early to go seek out Hogre's stencil in Trastevere (because I have decided that Hogre is probably my favorite Roman street artist) before buying my groceries to feed me for the week. While class isn't in session, there's still so much to learn in and about Rome -- I'm glad I finally checked some more things off my Rome bucket list, as I've just realized that we have 6 more days of real class left before finals and saying goodbye to our semester abroad.