Of Excavations and Exploring

Unfortunately I haven't (and probably won't) had that much time to write lately, the dig is time consuming and exhausting!!!

The first day I woke up at 3:30 and didn't get back to sleep so the dig was exhausting. It was hot to the point of completely unbearable and our water went warm and we still had to drink it. 8 hours of backbreaking pick-axing the ground, shovelling it into wheel-barrows, and carting them up a hill to deposit the earth and then repeat. Did I mention it was for 8 hours in the sweltering sun?? 

Although I didn't enjoy it at all, the next day was better. However I will first detail that evening as we went for a good wander. 

One of my roomies Amelia knows Rome a bit as she has been there before, so she took us to an awesome gelato place, I got hazelnut cream and coffee, both were fantastic and went well together as the coffee was almost bitter whereas hazelnut with cream was extremely rich. We then wandered into the rich part of Trastevere (the neighborhood we are staying in).

We then wandered for a while taking in the sites of the cobbled streets, fountains, restaurants and hanging terraces. The solemn tolling of the clock tower and joyful shouts of youths in Italian completed the brilliant atmosphere. We then decided to explore a church.

One of the girls we went exploring with is doing an architecture degree so she gave us an awesome explanation of many of the features of the church-why they were unusual or even why they existed at all. It was a very impressive church, but my favorite part was without a doubt the roof.