Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic

^ That's what we celebrated! June 2nd is the Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic (the modern Italian republic, that is), as you can see from this handy list of Italian national holidays. As Dr. Sebastian explained to us, Italy as we know it has only been a republic for about 65 years, which makes it relatively young as a country.

We got up, met, and headed over to watch the parade. While we were walking over (and noticing that the streets were unusually crowded for so early in the morning), a bunch of jets spouting the Italian national colors flew over our heads:



There was nothing in the sky...



Then all of a sudden...



I WAS SO EXCITED I GOT THE SHOT. After:



^ America, why do you not do this?

That was actually the most exciting part of the morning, but I guess sometimes the best parts of your day are the surprises. The parades weren't that interesting. I found them a little boring--am I THAT used to parades in New Orleans? I've only been at Loyola one year, but I didn't find a lot of military marching to be that awesome. However, the parade worked in an interesting manner. We were standing in front of a tall building, and they used that building for the parade. A group would come around on one side, and then there would be a wait, and then another group would come around from the other side. They alternated.

Also, the parade was running on Italian time (read: VERY VERY LATE), so there was a lot of waiting in the heat. I heard so many languages in the crowd! English, Spanish, Italian, Tagalog...

Most of the better pictures I got were from the crowd.






^ That's a helicoper, not just a random shot of a building, in case you were wondering. There were definitely some things I was glad I saw, like this guy:



And this guy:



He was being so ridiculously rude, annoyingly hovering around this poor Italian woman and asking her, "What's this? What's this that's going on here?" Like, seriously? You do not have the right to be that rude, especially since you (1) don't know the person, (2) she doesn't speak English, (3) and do you control the world or something? Chill out. It's just a crowd of people hanging out to see a parade.

What really annoyed me (he's the blue shirt guy), is that after he harasses this poor woman, he manages to elbow his way to the front. Talk about rude.

Moving on, it was super hot!!!




BUT A GUY WORE HIGHLIGHTER PANTS AND IT MADE ME SO HAPPY.



Antonia and I left the parade before it was over, partially because we knew that the Today Show was going to be taping at the Vatican and also because the parade wasn't too exciting. We turned around to find that our entire group had left. So we ran to the Vatican, not exactly knowing the fast way, so we power-walked for about forty-five minutes.

Theme of This Trip: you are constantly working out--constantly.

Anyway, we finally got there, and I'm not sure if we got on TV, though I think parts of our body would have made it on, but we found our group and got there relatively on time, and I have some pictures of the set!







Turns out one of Elizabeth's former students was a producer for the show, so she said that we could stop by and get on camera. Isn't that sweet?

Fact: Al Roker's face is much bigger in person.
Fact: Matt Lauer is much skinnier in person.
Fact: The whole crew had matching hats.
Fact: The Americans totally congregated when they found out the show was there. HOMELAND LOVE.

There was a special report that day, because, apparently, there was a statue of Pope John Paul II erected that was reminding people of Mussolini, and some people wanted it taken down. So he was reporting on that.

People get weird when there's a chance to be on TV. We had some girls pushing and shoving, some people who stood out in the sun way longer than was necessary, and a forty-or-so year-old woman flirting with a member of the technical crew. Also trying to make the girls in front of me leave.

"Hey, was that your friend that just left? Maybe you should follow her."

YOU ARE SHAMELESS AND A FAIL.

We tried to stay out of the heat a little (I have a ridiculous tan--like RIDICULOUS), and I had this mini photoshoot in the corner.









After that (and after getting gelato with Dr. Sebastian, where I realized while ordering that my Italian is getting much better...in that it actually exists), we all headed back from our tiring half-day. I took a four-hour nap in the dorms, then did a two-hour conference call for my internship, then went to bed, meaning to wake up early in the morning to do work. Classes start the next day!