La Citta Eterna

Where to start....I've been sitting here for at least a couple minutes just trying to think of how to start the story of this weekend, a four-day adventure in Rome. And I'm coming up blank. There's just no good place to start, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

I'm sure many of you know that it has been a life-long dream of mine to travel to Italy - not necessarily Rome even, although that was very high on the list of places I had to go once I finally made it to Italy. So when a couple of my fellow interns suggested an excursion to Rome about a month ago, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I had purchased a train ticket that was good for ten rides pretty much anywhere in Europe, and I was planning to use that to go somewhere in northern Italy, the only part of Italy to which it was reasonable to take a train. It is not practical to take a train to Rome, so this was the point I decided not to use this ticket and to return it for a refund once I returned to the States. (You can only return the ticket if it has not been used at all)

Ok, enough background. Now to the good stuff! Thursday night I was somewhat busy (with what, I don't really remember since my short-term memory isn't the best), so that resulted in me finally finishing my packing and getting into bed somewhere around 12:30am. Three hours of sleep is enough, right? My alarm went off not-so-bright and early at 3:20am sharp, but I was surprisingly awake. We had had to make a taxi reservation the night before for 4am since our flight was at 6:20 and there were no trams or buses that ran early enough to get us to the airport in time. We arrived at the airport around 4:15am, headed to security...and it wasn't open. What?! We were at the airport so early that security wasn't open?? So we had to wait 15 minutes while they finished cleaning the floors, and I found myself thinking what a miserable job that would be. We waited in the airport until our flight, and then we were off to Rome!

I was a little apprehensive about Friday's activities (not a lot, just a little), because I knew everyone would be dead tired from the early flight and traveling, and Friday was a VERY full day. We arrived at Rome's airport around 7:30 and went to find the train that would take us into the city. We ended up asking the tourist counter, and they told us that there was a shuttle bus that could take us directly to our hostel for slightly cheaper. Eh, why not? We'd get to see more of Rome since we'd actually be driving through the streets, and we'd each save 2 euros. Good deal, right? Well, sort of. It ended up taking longer than the train would have (even including the walking we would have had to do), and this driver was crazy. I think his hands were off the wheel more than they were on it, and Italian drivers are even more aggressive than French and Swiss ones are. So I just closed my eyes and tried to nap a little. The most exciting part of the ride was when we finally got into Rome and were driving right next to the Vatican wall and the enormous line of people waiting to get in the museums. I was immediately glad that we had bought tickets in advance and would be able to skip that line the next day. It was so surreal though! I found myself in disbelief the whole day that I was actually in Rome. It had to be a dream!

We arrived at our hostel, checked in, and immediately went on our way to the Colosseum area to get started on tackling our eventful day. To give you an idea of where we were in Rome, the hostel was about a ten minute walk south of the main train station, and a 15-20 minute walk northwest of the Colosseum. Along the way, we stopped at a small shop for breakfast and water, and ate while we were walking. I think that was one of the most delicious chocolate chip scones I have ever had, and only partly because I was starving. We reached a huge intersection, looked left...and there it was. The Colosseum. Possibly one of the most iconic and impressive structures man had ever built, and it was right down the street. Unbelievable. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) Rome is full of tourists, so we didn't look out of place at all as we immediately pulled out cameras and began snapping pictures. However, that wasn't our first stop for the day.

Me and the Colosseum!

The Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum are all within a two-minute walk from each other and make up the majority of the "ancient" part of Rome. Conveniently, they sell a combined ticket for all three, and you can get this ticket any any of the three venues. We knew the line at the Colosseum would be the longest by far, so we decided to hit the Roman Forum first and skip the line at the Colosseum later. At the last minute, we also signed up for an English guided tour that was happening in less than 10 minutes for only 5 euros more (the next English tour wasn't until 4:30). It couldn't have been more perfect! I was happy because I didn't know much of the history of the Roman Forum and it all would have simply been piles of rubble to me. Really cool piles of rubble, yes, but I got MUCH more out of the experience by signing up for that tour. Our guide was very knowledgable and told us all about how we were standing in the center of ancient Rome, and that those stumps of pillars to our left had once belonged to an ancient basilica or how only stumps remained because later civilzations had dismantled these enormous buildings and used the stone to build their own structures.

Remnants of pillars of an ancient basilica

More ruins in the Roman Forum

I've never been much of a history nut, but when it comes to Rome I could not learn enough. We went through the entirety of the Forum (not a big place, but not exactly small either), with our hour-long tour ending nearly at the entrance to Palatine Hill and thus we decided to end our three venue tour with a bang by hitting the Colosseum last.

On top of Palatine Hill were more beautiful ruins of ancient Rome, along with some breathtaking views of the surrounding city. Since we no longer had our tour guide, it all was sort of just piles of rubble, but it was amazing to think that this stone had been there for thousands of years, and was still there! I very highly doubt that anything we build today will be around two thousand years from now, and that's what makes ancient Rome so impressive. We explored the Hill for about an hour, walking around inside the museum there, which had been built on top of some of the ruins. That's right, there were ancient walls running right through the museum! There were also tons of statues and reconstructed vases that were very cool to see.

However, we all decided that it was time to eat, and headed down the Hill to find the only planned restaurant of the trip, Pizza Forum. Almost every website I had been to had listed this pizzeria as a place we had to eat, so we did. To get there, though, we had to walk around the Colosseum and thus got to take some nice pictures of it and the Arch of Constantine, located directly between the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. We finally made it to the pizzeria and ordered our cheap, woodfire-oven-grilled pizzas. A whole pizza for each of us. (Is your mouth watering yet?) I was fully expecting a long wait for our food, because that's just how they do it in Italy. I had been to an authentic Italian restaurant in Florida once before and so I knew what to expect. I knew there would be at least half an hour for us to sit and chat before our food would come. However, even my patience began to run thin, but thankfully the food came out shortly. And let me tell you, it was delicious! I've never had such good mozzarella cheese. I have also never had such good espresso...I'm not sure how I will be able to go back to the States after this weekend. We spent longer than expected in the restaurant, but came out full and ready to take on the Colosseum.

This post is already long, and I've hardly said anything! Hmm...well anyway, we were able to walk past a long line of people into the Colosseum. We walked through the high-ceilinged hallway around the structure to a staircase that would take us to a balcony overlooking the inside of the Colosseum. I'm still wondering how in the world the Romans were able to build such an impressive building. Below me were the elaborate underground passageways that used to be underneath the arena. At one end, there was a platform covering part of these passageways (I think to show what the arena had looked like all that time ago) and we noticed people walking around on it, but now we think it was just a tour group that was able to go out there, because we weren't able to find the entrance. We walked around for quite a while, poking around the small gift shop and just taking it all in before heading out to Palazza Venezia and the Monument of Vittorio Emmanuele II, a monument to the first king of unified Italy.

The Colosseum from Palatine Hill

Me inside the Colosseum!

We originally planned only to pass through this palazza because we thought we would have to pay to get inside the monument, a huge white building visible from atop any other decently sized building in Rome (more on this later). But it turned out to be free, so of course we had to check it out. We followed the signs to a terrace that overlooked Rome, and in the distance we could see St. Peter's Basilica, not to mention dozens of other domed basilicas. We wandered around the terrace and found ourselves inside a beautiful basilica hall, with some of the most elaborate artwork I have ever seen. Gold tendrils snaked across the ceilings and walls, and every inch that wasn't covered by gold was painted over with various religious depictions. However, the glass chandeliers were what caught my eye the most. There were at least a hundred of them hanging throughout the basilica, and they were beautiful.

Outside the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II

Inside the basilica

Our next stop was the famous Trevi Fountain, a ten minute or so walk away. The little square it was in was teeming with people, all sitting or standing around the fountain. Apparently one of the traditions when one goes to this fountain is to throw a coin backwards over the shoulder - it mean that you will return to Rome. So, of course, I threw in a coin! And all the coins people throw in are gathered up and used to fund a supermarket that supports the poor of Rome. After throwing our coins in the fountain, we were sucked into a tourist trap (sort of) for dinner. All the restaurants have their waiters outside, flagging people down and trying to make you eat there (well, with so many restaurants all in the same place, who can blame them?). One waiter was making a pretty good case, and it wasn't too expensive so we decided just to eat there. We were all starving anyway. However, our food came out and they weren't the biggest portions I'd ever seen. But everything was very good, and we left content. Another rumor we had heard was that the gelato by the Trevi Fountain was the best in the world, so of course we bought some! (We actually had gelato every day...I am not ashamed one bit). After that, it was on to see the outside of the Pantheon (it had closed by this point) before heading back to the Trevi Fountain to see it lit up.

Trevi Fountain!

Throwing a coin into the fountain

Trevi Fountain lit up at night

The Pantheon was very cool, and again I found myself wondering how it was still standing after all these years. Soon, though, we headed back to the Trevi Fountain for a few minutes, but then began our 40 minute walk back to our hostel to prepare for an early day on Saturday.

Whew, ok so that was Day 1. If you're still with me, I'm impressed. Three more days to go! I'll make them shorter, I promise - Day 1 was by far the most eventful and the day that we saw the most. Ok, Saturday morning we woke up around 7 and everyone was alotted about ten minutes in the bathroom since there were six of us and one of it. It kinda sounds like we were ganging up on it, which we kinda were...that poor bathroom...anyway, we went down for our complementary breakfast at 8 sharp, and were there exactly long enough to eat a croissant and drink a coffee but then we were out the door to get to the Vatican museums. Our tickets were for 10am and we did NOT want to be late! You must be there half an hour before your tickets say or your reservation is cancelled. We got there around 9 and were able to laugh at all the people who would be waiting in line for hours while we walked right past them. Ok, we didn't actually laugh, but I honestly don't understand why everyone doesn't get the tickets beforehand. Why would you wait for five hours when you could wait for five minutes?...Maybe there's some drawback I don't know about, but we got right into the museum. And the best part was we didn't even have to wait until ten to get our "real" tickets!

First glimpse of the Vatican walls

We decided to head straight to the Sistine Chapel at the beginning to beat the crowds that would surely come later in the day. We set a fast pace through the museum and made a mental note to go back through those rooms again since we were going too fast to see any of them. We finally reached the Chapel and I was absolutely in awe. I know what makes the Chapel so famous is that every inch is covered in artwork and that the majority of it was painted by Michelangelo, but to hear about it and see it are two totally different things. How could one person paint so much?! And that wasn't even close to the only thing he did. Honestly, the whole Chapel made me feel a little insignificant because it was so marvelous and beautiful and I couldn't hope to ever do anything like that. We stayed in that room for at least half an hour, while the guards shushed everyone periodically and yelled, "No photos!" But finally we had had our fill of the artwork and moved on to the next part of the museum.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

 - creation of man

Judgment Day

I won't bore you by describing every piece of art and every room we went through, but we did spend six hours wandering through the museum. And we didn't even see all of it. I can't believe how big the place is! We stopped for lunch in the cafeteria at one point, where I had gnocchi with pesto, and we ended up back in the Sistine Chapel once more after we revisited the rooms we rushed through. However, the second time we went there made me very sad because the guards were either different or they had stopped caring - everyone was taking pictures with flash, and you could hardly hear yourself think. I was disgusted with how people were blantantly ruining the art (don't you know that flashes ruin paintings?! That's why they just say no photos, period!) and how much noise there was. Now it seemed like a tourist spot, not a sacred chapel. Needless to say, we were only in there long enough to reach the door.

The next stop was St. Peter's Basilica, the thing I was most looking forward to that day. There was a pretty long line for the security check, but it moved surprisingly fast and before long we were walking into the basilica. There are no words that can come close to describing the emotions I felt as I walked in. There are simply no words. It was the biggest, most sacred building I had ever been in, and the artwork cannot be compared to anything else. It was simply amazing, beautiful, incredible...we spent a long while walking around, trying to take everything in but knowing there was no way we would be able to. At the back of the church was the altar area, and in front of that was perhaps the most incredible thing about the basilica. There was a four-posted canopy-looking structure (I'm not sure of the official name for it) standing over a white coffin with crosses on it - the symbol marking the spot directly above what is said to be St. Peter's tomb. Ok, I'm not Catholic, but St. Peter holds meaning for every Christian out there and it was incredible to see this.

Swiss Guard! They're so cool!

In St. Peter's Square

Over the tomb of St. Peter

We had already decided to pay the 5 euros it took to climb to the top of the dome, so once we had had our fill of the inside, we began the long hike up the numerous spiral staircases the got progressively tighter and skinnier as we ascended. At one point we had to go outside to get to the next staircase, and then we were officially inside the dome, conveniently right as Saturday Mass was starting. Soemtime between the time we had left and the time we came out on the inside of the dome, they had cleared all of the tourists out of the basilica (at least as far as I could tell) and the chorus had started singing as the priest walked to the altar. It was quite beautiful. Naturally, we stayed and watched that for a bit, but then it was time to continue to the claustrophobic part of the climb. I'm not claustrophobic myself, but I could definitely see how someone with that phobia would have some serious issues with the last part of the climb. The ceiling began to slant and we hit some really narrow halls and staircases, but finally we came out on the top of the dome. The view was absolutely incredible! St. Peter's Basilica is arguably the tallest structure in all of Rome so we could see EVERYTHING. Even the Monument of Vittorio Emmanule II!! Enjoy the following pictures - it's the only way I can of think of to describe the view.

Looking down on Saturday Mass

View from the top of the dome

St. Peter's Square

Another view from the top of the dome

Whew, almost done with Day 2, I promise. The last thing we did today (besides eat pizza at a delicious restaurant across the river) was walk around the area around Castel Sant'Angelo, a circular shaped castle just down the road from Vatican City. We walked around this structure and walked down by the river, stopping at one place to relax for an hour or so. At one point (I believe it was actually just after we had eaten dinner) we ended up in Piazza Navona without meaning to. It turned out to be a pretty cool experience! A bunch of artists had set up their work around the piazza, and there were some street performers putting on an awesome show. I am still mad at myself for not buying a picture from a spray-paint artist - seriously, though, these pictures looked they had taken him hours to paint with brushes, but in reality it took him about ten minutes using cans of spray paint. Simply amazing. Around 1am we made our way back to the hostel, again about a 40 minute walk away.

Day 3 was much more relaxing. Not less walking, but less jam-packed with things to do. We began by walking to the Capitoline Museums, located right by the Colosseum, Roman Forum, etc. Basically next to all the things we did on Friday. This museum was pretty cool because the Vatican had put some of the documents from the Vatican Archives on display there for a limited time, so I got to see all kinds of old documents from emperors, presidents, etc to the pope. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, but I did manage to snap this one before I knew that:

Proceedings of the trial of Galileo - so cool!

We spent about two hours walking around this museum. There were tons of statues and the remnants of the Temple of Jupiter that used to be there (the museum was built around these remnants, just like at Palatine Hill). There was also a terrace that you could go out on by a coffee shop that gave some nice views of Rome. We actually ended up eating paninis at this coffee shop for lunch. We went through the underground tunnel to explore the other half of the museum, but then it was time to move on to the Spanish Steps.

The Spanish Steps are actually pretty cool - it's a giant, elaborate staircase that leads up to a church (that unfortunately I couldn't go inside because my shorts were not past my knee...ah well, apparently I didn't miss too much). We hung out here for a little while, but before long we had to head to Villa Borghese for our 5pm tickets into the museum there, Galleria Borghese. By this point I was on serious art overload, having walked all through the Vatican museums the previous day and through the Capitoline museums that morning. So I was seeing all the art in Galleria Borghese but not seeing it, if you know what I mean...everything was very cool, don't get me wrong, but I had seen a LOT in the past three days. We finished with that museum about half an hour before our alotted time was up and decided to walk through the park on our way to our next site - Castel Sant'Angelo again. On this walk, we ended up on top of a building/overhang with an awesome view of Piazza del Popolo and beyond.

Looking up the Spanish Steps

Inside Villa Borghese

Looking down at Piazza del Popolo

Eventually, though, we made it to Castel Sant'Angelo. We had discovered the night before that the castle would be open at night until 1am for three months during this summer, and more of the castle would be open to the public during the night hours (including part of the secret passage from the papal chambers to the castle!). There was also a pretty cool jazz concert that was happening that night (wow, this was just an awesome time to go Rome!) so we watched that for an hour before exploring the castle. In addition to seeing that secret passage, we could also check out the dungeons and what was apparently a late pope's bathroom (how nice...the funny part of that was we originally thought it was his tomb. Oops!). So it was actually a good thing we hadn't had time on Saturday to explore the castle! The night exploration was way cooler - we ended up on top of the castle at one point and got to look over Rome as it was lit up at night, quite a beautiful sight. We finished our exploration around 12:30am, and made that same 40 minute walk back to the hostel (by this time, we didn't need a map anymore!).

View from Castel Sant'Angelo at night

Castel Sant'Angelo

Monday began with an exploration of the basilica that was literally visible from our hostel - it completely filled the view at the end of the street and was apparently one of the major basilicas of Rome that lots of tourists went to. It was called "Santa Maria Maggiore." Like the other basilicas we had seen, it had unimaginably beautfiul artwork and also had a similar construction as St. Peter's - it had the same four-posted canopy-looking thing (still don't know the official name of it...) and the same stairway that led to a hallway going somewhere beneath the basilica. It wasn't as big as St. Peter's, but then again nothing is as big as St. Peter's. Santa Maria Maggiore was probably in the running for the second largest basilica in Rome though. We then continued on down the street, intending just to wander but in the general direction of the Pantheon. That's when we came across a market set up in the middle of the street, selling anything you could think of for cheaper than almost anywhere else I've seen in Europe. Headphones, phone chargers, shoes, clothes, toiletries, fruit...you name it, it was probably being sold on this street. I bought some plums for breakfast and we continued on.

The next "stop" in our sort of-random wandering was the Quirinial Palace, the presidential palace of Rome. I thought I had noticed more police than usual in the area! There were guards at every entrance to the palace and several tourists snapping pictures. We stayed for a few minutes but then continued on to the Pantheon

The Pantheon is a circular building that was originally built as a temple to the ancient gods of Rome, but was taken over by the Catholic Church around the 7th century AD and since has been used as a church dedicated to St. Mary. It also happens to be topped by the largest dome in Europe, possibly in the world...and we have no idea how they built it. We would not be able to build a dome like that so large, and if we did, it wouldn't stand for two thousand years. Once again, as had happened a couple times a day for the whole trip, my mind was blown. We were able to enter for free, a nice surprise since I had thought we would have to pay. The top of the dome was open to the elements, and since it had rained that morning the middle of the floor was roped off and quite puddle-like (though it was drying). Every five minutes, an announcement would come on in four or five different languages telling everyone to "Please be quiet. Thank you." 

Me and the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

We spent a decent amount of time checking out the Pantheon, but then two of our group decided to take a trip to Frascati, Italy, a short train ride away. The rest of us spent the afternoon stopping inside souvenir stores and just generally wandering around for about 4 hours. We ended up passing through a beautiful little garden with a fountain before walking through a small square with a church on one side. We found a shop to buy our last gelato from before making our way to the train station, where we met the two that had gone to Frascati. We boarded the 6:22 train bound for the airport and said our last goodbyes to Rome.

I can't believe what a fantastic trip this was! I also can't believe how smoothly it went - it was like clockwork (well...except the very end when our plane left 40 minutes late...but I think that was because it had rained again while we waited in the airport). I always know how good my trip was by how many pictures I took...so enjoy my 1000 pictures of beautiful Roma, Italia! Ok ok, not really...I've weeded them down so you don't have to look through all of them. If you stuck with me throughout this entire novel, I am impressed. Check back sometime next week for updates from my final big adventure this weekend!