APRIL 11 - 14, 2011
With two wonderful cities under our belts, we had high expectations on the train to Rome! And we weren't disappointed - Rome was huge, with tons of stuff to see and amazing sights everywhere you looked. Just walking through the streets had you passing pieces of history stretching back hundreds, or even thousands of years, culminating in such timeless artifacts as the Colosseum and Roman Forum, among other things. Whereas Venice and Florence were about the arts, Rome was about the history - and it was everywhere.
We had a lot of fun in Rome, but it wouldn't have been such a good time without Mary's cousins helping us around and taking us out. Right off the bat, Val (short for Valerio) and Susanna took us around to the places with the best food, the best sights, and the fun times. And they were hilarious themselves - I hope I'll find a way of getting some of their comments into this post!
Anyway, we did a TON of stuff over our 3.5-day trip there, so I'll try to do as much explaining as I can in between all the pictures!
Termini Station, our gateway to Rome!
After Val picked us up from the station, we went to have a drink at a cafe with this view of the Colosseum. Amazing structure, but I'll get to that later!
Val went on to give us the run down of Rome and the Roman lifestyle: according to him, most of the stuff in Rome is likely a couple hundred, if not thousand years old, and even the 'new' stuff is probably older than my grandparents. He jokingly commented that since this stuff's been around so long, the Italians really haven't had to do much! One possible (albeit a bit farcical) Roman day (though this would of course not be everyday), would consist of sleeping in a bit before breakfast. Than a cocktail or coffee before lunch (aperitif, I think this was called..?), THEN they'd probably go to work. Shortly, they'd have a mid-afternoon snack and work until the evening, when they'd head home. Eventually, they'd have another aperitif before having dinner around a normal time of 10pm!! Crazy..
Of course, this is probably an exaggeration, and sort of plays to the Italian stereotype of "Eh, we'll get to it eventually"-ism, but I have to say, you rarely see a packed restaurant of Italians before 9pm..
Pretty
Roman Forum ruins in the distance
After that, Yuliya and I checked into our hostel (Mary was staying with her cousins). The hostel was.. nice. Decent for the price (better ones were expensive), though we had to go with a 3-bed mixed suite, which meant we'd get a random roommate. I had my fingers crossed for a Swedish model.. but instead we got guy with a snore like an earthquake. Unbelievable. The second night, we came home to a bunk above Yuliya's bed and a 4th roommate! We of course got our money back since we only payed for 3 and 4 was cheaper. At least they didn't snore though. Third night, we were just heading out when an elderly Italian man came in and explained he was going to be our roommate halted English. But he was nice, quiet, and we had no problems! So all-in-all, not too bad for the price, and we all ended up OK so no reason to complain!
Oh, and I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was another nondescript door like the Florence hostel, though not with as fantastic a location - near the station, which was nice, but since the city is so big, walking to something like the Colosseum took about a half hour. But I didn't mind! I love walking and exploring
A garden outside the remains of an old Roman bath house
The bath house - used to be a HUGE place, apparently able to hold around 5,000 people!
Republicca Square. Love the fountain
Churches are EVERYWHERE here. Even ones that aren't as famous, like this one, are still huge and beautiful.
Gold statue on a rooftop off in the distance
The colosseum and Palatine Hill (I'll get to it later) in the distance
A quick look into the Roman Forum.. before finding out it, and the Colosseum, were closed for the day! Mondays are like Sundays in the states, where a lot of things are closed or close early, so we didn't get to go into an attractions that day.
Constantine's Arch
I'll be back!
Maps (there were 4 total, whoops), showing the expansion of the Roman empire
Another look at the ruins of the Forum. Amazing how old some of this stuff is, and that they're still excavating more!
Trajan's Column
Pretty neat, with all its carvings on the sides
Monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II
Just an awesome building, sort of functioning as a cultural museum on the inside
Woo!
A football exhibit inside. Cool old uniform!
View from up near the top (the column level)
Colosseum in the distance. Amazing
I think the remains of Trajan's Forum..?
Love those columns
At some point, we made our way to the famous Trevi Fountain!
Pretty neat
Beautiful, though tended to get packed with tourists..
Another column
Just stumbling into a random church gets you amazing art like this..
Piazza del Popolo - The People's Square!
Twin churches
Stumbling into another neat church, Santa Maria del Popolo (which I later found out was the 'Earth' place in Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons'!)
Then we crosses the river to check out stuff on the other side
Like this awesome structure: the Tribunal, I think..
Castel Saint Angelo, also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian. One of the only actual 'castles' in Italy
Nice evening on the river in Rome
St. Pater's in the distance!
Another look at the castle. A quick aside - it also appeared in 'Angels & Demons' as having a secret tunnel to the Vatican!
Then we headed to the Trastevere neighborhood - a neat area with lots of restaurants and living complexes in strips with cobbled roads - for a 'true Italian pizzaria' for dinner. It was pretty awesome! Delicious, and with SO much food and fun times. And we finally figured out how the Italians do dinner: over several hours! There are so many courses, and so much downtime for hanging out and talking, we must have been 'eating dinner' from 8-12!
The next day, we went back to the are around the Colosseum, now that it was opened. We checked out the beautiful Palatine Hill first. That's when we finally found out about the whole 'Cutlure Week' thing and took part in every free activity we could!
Palatine Hill was the site of the palaces of Augustus, Domitian, and Tiberius and is also said to be the 'origin of the Romans', with excavations showing people living there since 1000 BC!
So cool!!!
View of the Colosseum
Such neat trees up here
View from the hill
Some gardens. And as crazy as it is, those are orange trees! And even crazier is the fact that you see orange trees lining some of the streets in the city as well!
Closer look at the remains of the forum
Pretty awesome
Gotta love the guys dressing up like gladiators to take pictures with tourists
Finally heading into the Colosseum!
Waiting in the queue for our free entry!
Really amazing stuff
Woohoo!
The original marble floor! And some guy's original butt!
It really is a sight to see..
View of Constantine's Arch and Palatine Hill from the Colosseum
Later that day, heading towards the Pantheon!
A fountain outside the Pantheon
Yet another awesome struture
Then Val took us into the Italian Parliament building, where his girlfriend worked as a Deputy in their Chamber of Deputies (one half of their government system, the other half being the Senate of the Republic). It was pretty cool, although the tour was in Italian, which meant I would just look where they were looking and nod knowingly while stroking my chin. Then we got to watch a lot of Italian deputies arguing, just like the American system!
Afterwards, we grabbed gelato at the same place Obama had gelato in Rome!
.. back to the Pantheon to check out the inside!
Such a cool dome!
The tomb of painter (/ninja turtle, of course) Raphael! (I think..? haha)
Back to wandering the streets
The Spanish Steps
.. kinda packed with tourists though. And those annoying peddlers that try to see you you roses or junk
Pretty though
View from the top
Another cool fountain. There were almost as many of these as churches!
Don't remember but this was, but it was a cool statue of Moses with a fountain
On Wednesday morning, we figured out the Underground system and headed to the Vatican! These were the walls to the City (or country..? no idea how that thing works..) and the exit to the Vatican Museum - the line in stretched halfway down the road!
First look at St. Peter's!
Then we saw the Pope!
Oh hey Pope! He was out giving his speech and prayers that I'm assuming he does every Wednesday
The end of the ceremony
THE POPEMOBILE! Totally making a graphic novel where the Pope assumes the secret identity of a crime-fighting uber-Pope and the Popemobile transforms into his Batmobile-esque ride. I'd read it.
I think this was as the Pope was shaking hands with people cooler than me. Wish the video screen wasn't so fuzzy through my camera
One of the Swiss Guards!
Impressing structure, that St. Peters..
Inside. Place is HUGE
.. and beautiful
Michelangelo's 'Pieta'
Pretty awesome place
Possibly the entrance down to St. Peter's tomb!
The main altar
The Pope's view!
Then we headed to the Vatican Museums, one of the largest and greatest museums in the world due to the huge amount of artwork built up by the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries ! Actually had to pay for this one - 'Vatican City' doesn't actually exist 'in Italy' since it's its own country, so no Italian Culture Week
'The Rape of the Sabine Women'
MORE DOMES!
Statues
So much beautiful art in this place. Everywhere!
Bet that giant bowl could hold a lot of cereal..
Big ol' box for some dead guy sometime a long time ago..
A whole hallway full of maps!! Love it.
BIG MAPS!
Raphael's 'The School of Athens'
Then we got to the section for 'Modern Art', which was so HUGELY different from the rest of the museum. It was crazy
.. but I still liked some of the pieces
Eventually made it to the Sistine Chapel, which was just as awe-inspiring as you would think. I could spend hours in there just trying to see all the detail Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Boticelli put into all the beautiful frescoes. Buttt photos aren't allowed so I had to take sneaky/blurry phone shots to prove I was there! This was part of Michelangelo's 'Last Judgement' that took up an entire wall!
Quick look at the ceiling and the famous 'Creation of Adam'!
Place was really amazing.
Looking out the window at some of the Vatican gardens
Cool spiral staircase on the way out!
Wish I would have taken more pictures of these - I probably saw about 5 different ones around the city! Apparently, it's like the trademark of some graffiti artist who goes around painting little signs incorporating old video game characters, such as this one from 'Space Invaders'!
One more church before finishing up Rome - Santa Maria della Vittoria. Yet another one glorified in 'Angels and Demons' as being the place representing "Fire"
'Ecstasy of St. Teresa' by Bernini - another claim to fame for the church
Yet another beautiful place!
On thursday morning, as we waited around for the bus to come to take us to the airport, we were all a little tired - not tired of Italy, which we all agreed was amazing, but more of traveling. Getting up every morning and doing a day's work of walking and sight-seeing for a week straight eventually catches up with you. Neck a little sunburned, legs a little sore, I looked back on the trip that was..
Italy was awesome. From Venice, with it's beautiful canals and intriguing alleyways, to Florence, with it's wonderful art and delicious food, and finally to Rome, with it's deep history and grand structures. A great trip that embodied everything I was looking for in traveling Europe - all in one country. I learned some of the language (well, enough to get by..), ate some of the local food, and did some of the local things wherever I went. If anything, it all made me want to see and do MORE! So many places to go, and so little time (and money!). But for now, my need to see the world has been temporarily quelled by all the fun we had in Italy.
Hopefully through the pictures and the silly banter you can get a good picture of what Italy was like for a couple travelers just looking to have a good time and see everything that can be seen. For me, having something like this to look back on is going to yield the same excitement as the experiences themselves, and for that I'm excited.
But for now, I'm looking to the next destination, however far down the road.
Good music for Italy:
Beirut - 'Postcards from Italy', off their album 'Gulag Orkestar'
Yeah, I know I used Beirut twice.. but I had to do it. Great song, band, and album.
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Sorry it took so long to get this post up - the family has been visiting!
Look for THAT post in the near future..
Ciao!
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