When in Rome

And so, after our train mishap (see previous post) Rachel and I arrived in Rome. Having negotiated our way around Florence, we felt much more confident in our ability to navigate through Rome. With only one U-turn (and a bit of confusion regarding it's location on the first floor, which means second floor in Europe), we found the hostel. This one was definitely not as nice as the one in Florence, but its was not as expensive either. We definitely got what we paid for. We were staying in an 8-bed room with a shared bathroom. I didn't mind sharing the room so much, except getting ready in the dark. More annoying was the fact that our stuff was out in the open. That meant always carrying our passports and important stuff on us, since we couldn't lock them up. Also, we had to deal with some seriously loud late-night partyers. I typically sleep like a rock, but even I had a hard time. The upside was getting to meet some friends. Our roommates were all American's and Australians, some backpacking and others just on vacation like us. They were all really nice, and it was fun hanging out with people who spoke our language. We also helped each other figure out the city--what to see, when to go, where to eat.
That first night we didn't get to do much. It was already late when we arrived, so we began our search for food. It didn't take us long to find a little restaurant that wasn't too expensive. Of course, I had pasta, And we rounded out our meal with yet another bottle of wine. Then, it was early to bed since we knew we had a full day ahead.

In the morning, we mapped out our route and set off to do Rome in a day. It seemed that the best thing to do would be to take the metro across the city and work our way back on foot. So we hopped on the train and set off. First stop: The Vatican. We arrived at around 9:30 or so and already the line looked impossibly long. But you can't miss the Vatican, so to the back of the line we went. Amazingly, we wound around some four blocks in less than 40 minutes and got inside. There's much more to do there than I had thought. There's a museum that quite large, which is where we started out. We got to see all the old stamps, displays on past Popes, and even all the old Pope-mobiles (they used to have some pretty amazing carriages). There a very nice courtyard that we walked through on our way to the Sistine Chapel. I thought that we would just follow the signs, go in and stare at the ceiling, and then leave. Little did I know that to get to the actual chapel, you walk through much of a rather large building. I kid you not when I say that the entire route was breathtaking. Literally every wall and every ceiling was covered with the most ornate painting and sculpture I have ever seen. It was all so amazingly detailed and it just never seemed to end. I had no idea that there was that much to see.

Vatican bulding from the courtyard

We eventually made it into the actualy chapel. At this point, you are not allowed to take any pictures. Everywhere else, it's no flash, but here it's none at all. Of course, we totally took pictures, but they're not all that good since I had to hold the camera down by my hip and point it the ceiling. I did, however, manage to get the famous part in, with the hands reaching towards each other. I'll be honest, I thought that was the only thing on the ceiling. I had no idea there were so many other scenes, and that the walls were all painted as well. The magnitude of it is just unreal.

That's my best ceiling shot, a little crooked, but you can see

the hands in the second section from the left.

After leaving the chapel, we walked back into the Vatican from another entrance, near St Peter's Basilica. Again, the line looked unbelievably long. While we were willing to wait for the Sistine chapel, this one we just weren't up for. I mean, it was after 1:00 and we were very hungry. We did take some pictures of the outside though, which kind of makes up for it.

St. Peter's Basilca. Check out the statues along the roof (and the line of people in front).

From here, we went in search of food. Cheap food is not easy to find, but we came across a a little sandwich place where we sat down. Let me just say, Italy is the place to be if you're a vegetarian. Sure they've got their ham sandwiches, bet there's ALWAYS veggie sandwiches and pizza and pasta. It's awesome. Anyways, after my lovely egg, lettuce and tomato sandwich (might sound strange but it was really good) we crossed over a bridge to the other side of the city.

Now it was time to hit all the other places on our list. We passed the Mausoleo di Augusto on our way to the Spanish Steps. Since, Rachel's knee wasn't 100% better, we figured it was best to avoid going up the steps. To that end, we took a side street and emerged at the top of the steps, which gives a nice view of the square below. We made our way down the stairs, stopping to take pictures at each level, until we reached the fountain at the bottom. The street directly in front of the steps has all the big designer shops. So, we walked down there, past Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Armani, etc. Sorry to disappoint you, but none of our souvenirs/gifts came form that street. It was fun to see them all though. After stopping for a mandatory gelato (two scoops, chocolate and strawberry, sooooo good) we headed to the Trevi Fountain. There's a myth of something about throwing coins in, one to come back, two for getting engaged or married or something. Needless to say, Rachel and I each threw in a coin. Rachel's coin worked last time, since here she was again, so hopefully they'll work again.

Tossing my coin into the fountain

After tossing our coins, we walked to the Pantheon. I honestly didn;t know what the pantheon was, so I didn;t know what to expect. It sort of looks out of place in it's little square, surrounded by less historic buildings. Inside it's a church (I didn't know that) with some statues and an alter and other churchy stuff. Unfortunately, it was really dark, so the pictures didn't turn out so well, but it was quite pretty. From the Pantheon, we went to the Wedding Cake. It as an Italian name, but I don;t know what it is. The building is quite stunning, but of course they were doing renovations so much of the front was covered in sheets or something. I can imagine it would ahve looked really remarkable uncovered. The statues flanking the sides were cool though, so we took some pictures of them. Sadly, I can;t add more than 5 pictures to a post, and these didn't make the cut.

By this point, it was starting to get dark, but we still hadn't seen everything. Luckily, it was all fairly close by. Just behin the Wedding Cake is the Roman Forum. This is more what I expected to find in Rome--ruins of old buildings. The forum actually covered quite a large area. We walked around the perimeter, but didn't have time to explore inside. If I ever go back, I'd like to spend more time there.

Roman Forum

We then took a longish route to the Colosseum so we could go by the place where they used to have races. Now it's just an oval of grass with a dirt/gravel path around it. But it's still cool to tihnk, I'm walking where they used to race. By this time, it was dark, but we had to see the Colosseum. It's absolutely immense. I could only see inside a little bit. This is another place I would definitely return to, if given the chance. By now, we were both exhausted, so we went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. I will admit, we committed a grave sin in our choice of restaurants. We ate Chinese food in Italy. But it was good, and it was cheap, and it was close to the hostel. It doesn't matter, somewhere inside, I still know that it was very wrong.

So there you have Rome in a day. I must say, I think that if I had it do over again, other than spending more time at the Roman Forum and the pantheon, I wouldn't do much different. Since we'd managed to fit everything in, we decided to take a day trip tomorrow to Pompeii. Rachel desperately wanted to go, and I thought it sounded cool, and since you never know when you'll have another opportunity to go to Pompeii, we decided to take it. So, next up in my Reading Week blogs: A Day in Pompeii.