Roma!!!

We just completed a 3 day crazy adventure in Italy. It was tiring but so amazing!!! It was pretty debatable whether or not we should have just spent 3 days in one city, but I'm so glad that we didn't. I saw so many things, and you can see a lot in a city in one day. Even Rome. Anyways, here is my Roman Holiday:

Thursday night Myles and I headed to Vienna Airport and caught an evening flight to Rome. (P.S. flying is wonderful. I'm really glad that's what we do in the U.S. Trains are awful, especially when you're poor and can't afford a sleeper car. More on this to follow.) So we zipped on down to Rome in about an hour and twenty minutes give or take. Meanwhile Anna, Laura, and Robin spent 14 hours on an overnight train. Suckers.

After paying 11 Euro for a one-way airport train we found ourselves in Roma Termini train station and walked only a couple blocks to our hostel--Chianti Hostel, very fitting. We met some really nice Americans who were just beginning their summer europe trip and gave us directions to find Trevi Fountain. We walked precisely 1/2 a block before I made Myles stop so I could buy some gelato. When in Rome...


Side Note: Its amazing just how much there is to see in Rome. Within a few blocks of our hostel, which isn't even in the main part of Rome, there were so many amazing buildings and ruin-y looking things. It is so different than Vienna, which as a historical district for sure, but you can hardly say the entire city filled with important buildings.


Anyways, after many twists, turns, and flat out wrong decisions we ended up at Trevi Fountain. It was pretty neat, especially at night even considering all of the obnoxious street vendors pushing roses in your face about every 30 seconds. We sat and bought a bottle of wine to split and nearly drank it all. Not bad. It was even a Chianti, in honor of our hostel :) We chatted, laughed at the tourists posing in front of the fountain proudly displaying their dozen roses and caricatures and slice of pizza, and before we knew it it was nearly 3 am. Good first night in Rome.





We woke up early the next morning and booked it to the train station to meet Laura, Anna, and Robin. Their train was exactly on time and we were off for our day's adventure. We started at Vatican City. IT WAS AMAZING. The museum was pretty interesting, but the best part where most of the tourists were flocking to was the Sistine Chapel. That was beautiful, but not at all like I imagined it. It was a large rectangular room with only a few doors and a flat ceiling. You had to search a little to find the famous fresco of God and David. But it was worth it. It was also fun to watch everyone milling around in this gigantic room looking straight up and bumping into each other and then filtering out the back door. Hehe. We stopped and looked and I played bodyguard while Anna and Myles snapped forbidden photos and incurred the wrath of God. After that I made everyone search the museum for the Raphael Rooms. Well worth the search though :)

Next stop was St. Peter's Square and the Basilica. The square was beautiful and lined with amazing pillars in a strange circular shape with St. Peters' on one end and another piazza directly across from it on the other. We made our way to the Basilica, double checked our dress code, and funneled our way inside. Honestly, it was one of the most incredible things I had ever seen. The scale was just out of this world. The ceilings were huge and lead into at least 3 or 4 domes. There were tombs and statues literally everywhere, and all of them gorgeous. The main alter was behind the tabernacle that rose at least 3o feet and covered the sacred ground where St. Peter is supposedly entombed. I still can't believe how amazing this place was. It took at least 20 minutes to just walk around it, not to mention actually look at anything. Just amazing.

Outside we visited the catacombs of the old Popes. Said a little hi to John Paul II and stopped to look at the room under the tabernacle where St. Peter is. Pretty amazing.

Next stop: Pantheon. We took the subway back to the city center and then took the tiniest bus imaginable towards the Pantheon. It was hysterical, especially because we had NO CLUE where we were going and no clue which stop was which. The bus ride itself was pretty funny because it was just zipping along, dodging traffic and pedestrians. The door often swung closed and smushed whoever was trying to get off the bus. It happened to a woman who then gave a particularly ugly look to the driver and slowly walked off. Our driver then slowly followed her with the bus and made some particularly Italian hand gestures to her as we drove past. A funny american (?) guy helped us, but then also got us incredibly lost. We wandered through Piazza Navona and eventually made it to the Pantheon via some ridiculous winding (and at parts confetti-filled) alley ways. But it was well worth it. The Pantheon is a circular building with clusters of Roman columns out front that formed a triangle style arch. Inside is this amazing round room that was converted into a church. The most amazing part was the ceiling which came together in a large hole, that supposedly would make the dome collapse if it was filled in. Other than the structure itself, the Pantheon wasn't particularly amazing, although it did contain the tomb of Raphael.

From there we walked toward the Roman ruins and the Colosseum and grabbed some lunch. We learned the hard way that lunch costs more if you sit inside to eat it. Oh well. We did have a nice view of the ruins. We walked to the Forum, bought a dual ticket for that and the Colosseum (thanks for the tip Rick Steves) and walked straight into the Colosseum. No line. Interestingly enough, we never really ran into any of the famed gigantic 2 hour lines. In any city. Strange.

The Colosseum was so amazing. I must sound like a broken record, but everything we saw was truly amazing. No kidding. It was a little smaller than I had thought, but it doesn't matter because the interior was the crazy part. You can hardly believe that something this amazing was built that long ago. The best part was being able to look down into the maze underneath where the original floor was and see where they kept the gladiators and the lions and stuff. Pretty cool. My favorite part was walking along the top, and waaaay over on the other side we saw this guy stand up on the stone wall and shout "IS THERE NO ONE ELSE!?!" from Gladiator. It was so funny, especially since nearly everyone in Rome seemed to be American and probably knew exactly what he was talking about. Anyways, we had a good chuckle all around. We also found an old pillar and mimicked being Roman statues. It got a little creepier when an older American man walked over and said "You know, Roman statues are usually nudes..." CREEPY!

After the Colosseum we walked over to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. We walked around for quite a bit and saw lots and lots of ruins, but we never really found the forum. We followed all of the signs, but the final path was a little blocked off. Oh well, we still think that we kinda saw them. The ruins were pretty awesome though, its incredible that they're still there. As we left we visited the Mamertine Prison where Peter the Apostle (and Paul?) where supposedly imprisoned. We went down into a little tiny room underground where there was a small depicting St. Peter baptizing the prisoners. There was even the well that miraculously sprang from the floor for the baptisms. It was a pretty moving experience...even if you don't believe it, it was pretty powerful.

After that we went out in search of St. Clementine's church. Anna's monk friend told her that it was the most beautiful church that he had seen. We had to walk back through the ruins and along the colosseum, where I purchased my souvenirs and Laura (once again) got free stuff. She bought an Italia jacket and got some boxers with depicting some rather, uhh, intimate parts of the David on them. Hehehe they're really funny. Anyways, we ended up finding the church and even hearing parts of mass in Italian. Pretty neat stuff.

Also boobies.

At about this time we were pretty much dead from all of the walking. After some rest and relaxation we grabbed some delicious delicious dinner at a cute little outdoor cafe. I had white sauce pizza with prosciutto! It was soooo goood!! After that we met Anna's friends at midnight and proceeded on a 2 MILE hike through Rome to get to Campo di Fiori for drinks. It was so ridiculous. I want to say it was worth it, but I really don't think so. Especially on the walk home. SOOO far at 3 am. But I guess the 4 shot Long Island Iced Tea helped :) Definitely took the edge off.

And that friends, was Rome.