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| Roma! |
(Click on the Colosseum to see the rest of my pictures!)
March 31 - We flew to Rome, landing in the evening and then took the train to the city. As we walked to the hostel, we were pleasantly surprised by how warm it was! Scotland had been super cold, as usual, so we were very happy! After dropping our stuff off, we went out and had an amazing dinner of pizza! Oh yes, yum yum yum!
April 1 - Got up super early and went to the Colosseum. Arrived at 8:30am, before it even opened! We wandered around and listened to the audio guide, the best part of which was "And then the jaws of the whale opened and fifty bears poured out!" Once we were done there, we walked up the street to visit the ruins at Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The forums were really cool, the best ruins. Unfortunately, the sky made good on its threat and opened up a torrential downpour! We ran up the hill to take shelter and found ourselves at the Piazza Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo. We also, quite coincidentally, ran into the statue of the suckling lady-wolf, which we had wanted to see but couldn't figure out where it was in the guidebook. We walked down the steps of the Campidoglio and then down to the church where the Bocca Della Verita resides. We took cover in the church, since it was still raining. After while, we started one of the walking tours in the Rome City Guide, and walked through some back streets. The tour took us to a church with an orangery in the courtyard, which smelled amazing. It also had amazing views of the city. We walked a little further to a plaza dedicated to the cavalry of Malta, where we looked through a keyhole and saw the dome of St Peter's Basilica perfectly framed in some hedges. It was magical. We walked back and had a yummy lunch across from the Colosseum and then changed our damp clothes at the hostel. We headed out again to do another walking tour, this one starting with the Trevi fountain! We continued to the Pantheon, but we were so tired and there was a McDonald's... it was actually the only time we ate at Mac Do the whole trip! Then we collapsed from EXHAUSTION.
April 2 - We got up and finished the walking tour that we had started the day before, beginning with the Trevi Fountain again, and then the Pantheon. We had gelato down the road from the Campo dei Fiori, YUM. We started another walking tour around Trastevere, walking over the oldest standing bridge in Rome through Isola Tiberina, the smallest inhabited island in the world. We crossed to the other side of the Tiber to the neighborhood of the Trastevere. We chilled out in the courtyard of the church of St Cecilia, walked along a bit and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. The weather was fabulous and we both really enjoyed the laid back, not-as-touristy feel of the neighborhood. At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Botanic Gardens to relax a bit. It was a really nice garden, up on a hill. Once that walking tour was done, we walked over to the Spanish Steps which were absolutely swarming with tourists enjoying the spring sun. Seriously, Swarming. We walked up to the top of the steps, and then started yet another walking tour, this one of the Villa Borghese Park. We enjoyed our stroll through the park in the early evening, we marvelled at the museums but did not go in. The weather was so nice, it was very sunny and warm with lots of fluffy clouds. We headed home and had a delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hostel, and then we slept the sleep of the truly tired.
April 3 - Woke up hella early again, to beat the crowds at the Vatican, at which we were very successful. We walked almost 3 miles to the Vatican at 8 o'clock in the morning, which was very silly. We did see about 3,000 priests and nuns on our walk to Vatican City, so that really got us into the spirit! We wandered around St Peter's Basilica for a while, it's huge! Everything is gigantic and over-designed, imposing statues wagging their fingers at you and opulent everything! We climbed up the cupola (320 steps!) and took in the view. We bought stuff at the gift shop (Rosaries 'R' Us!) and Emily mailed her postcards - they have their own postal system. When we were done at the Basilica, we strolled over to the museum and we only had to wait in line for 20 minutes. Awesome. We couldn't find the things we wanted to see, so after seeing a bunch of stuff we didn't really care about, we gave up and walked toward the Sistine Chapel, only to discover that we were swept along in a sea of humanity through about 30 rooms, some of which had the stuff we had wanted to see! The Sistine Chapel was much shorter than I expected, and it was packed with people, guards "Shh"-ed us every few minutes. It was really neat though! After that, we headed across the street and had a yummy lunch at a family establishment. All the Italians were yelling at each other and rushing around. After lunch, we walked back to the hostel and took naps. We had a super delicious Chinese dinner with Jasmine tea and everything! Yay!
April 4 - Today we got wise and took the Metro to the Castel Sant'Angelo. The castle terrace had the best view! After seeing all the buildings by foot, I really appreciated the view now that I knew what most of the stuff was. We lunched on some paninis off of Piazza Cavour and had gelato on Via Cola Renzetti. We took the Metro and a bus out to the catacombs and started doing the walking tour, but we got there so late that pretty much everything was closed. We ended up just having a nature walk ... of several miles. It was very beautiful and enjoyable, as the weather was mild.
April 5 - We decided to take it easy, after killing ourselves for four days. We headed to Piazza Barberini to see the bone church, Santa Maria della Concezione. The monks at the church made decorations out of the bones of the brothers who died. It's a little creepy but very creative and cool. After we had gawked at the bones, we walked across the street and had delicious croissants and tea al fresco. We rewarded ourselves for our hard driving sightseeing earlier in the week by taking a day out to shop and gorge on gelato. We caught the City Sightseeing tourist bus as a nice little coda to our time in Rome and then we cheated and had dinner at an Irish pub off of Via Nazionale, and half-watched an Italian football game.
Random thoughts on Rome:
-Tons of scooters! Everywhere!
-The men were actually very nice, they always moved out of the way on the sidewalk and held doors open for us
-Blood orange juice is very yummy!
-All the Italian food is really delicious!
-Saw so so so many priests and nuns
-Rome is mostly tiny little streets, with very few big boulevards. It's annoying when you're trying to get across the city
-Rome is too overwhelming. There are too many museums, palazzos and piazzas. Too much stuff to do! Too many people, too many tourists, too much noise.
-I would definitely go back, but not any time soon.
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