I've heard from people that Rome is like any other major Metropolitan city...it has it's dirty parts, it's ritzy parts, etc... I can definitely agree with that assessment...a lot of it reminded me of New York City. The major difference, though, was in Rome you could walk down a street, turn a corner, and be looking at a building that has been there for 2,000 years. Rome may not have been the cleanest or prettiest city I've ever been too, but the historical part of it was absolutely stunning.
I had no delays or problems on the flight to Rome, and got in around 7pm. After collecting my bags, I hopped on the train, and rode for 30 minutes into the city. While sitting I ended up talking with the couple next to me who were visiting from England. Apparently there was a tennis match going on and they were in town visiting. Finally we pulled into Roma Termini, the main train station in Rome.
That night was relatively uneventful...it had been a long day travelling and Jenny, Chris, and Heather didn't arrive until the next morning. I found my hotel, checked in, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed.
The next morning at 8am I met the group in their hotel lobby. It was only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, so I had breakfast first, then walked over. They were all pretty beat since they had taken an overnight train from Venice, but since check in wasn't until 2pm, they dropped their luggage off and we hit the town.
First up was visiting the Tourist Information office in the train terminal. They have something called a "Roma Pass". It got you entrance into two museums or ruins of your choice, discounts on all the rest, and unlimited use of the Metro for 3 days. The metro alone was worth the €24 we paid for it. With that purchased, we headed to the Colosseum.
Even realizing that the Colosseum was smaller now then in it's heyday, it was still an impressive sight. We initially walked around to see it from outside, then headed inside. It was incredible to think of all the stories & movies I've seen that took place here, and now I was in the actual Colosseum. I didn't realize that underneath where the main arena part was there was an intricate system of rooms and pathways where the gladiators prepped before their fight.
After the Colosseum we took out the guide book to see what was close by. Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps were both close to each other, and only 1 metro stop up, so we headed there next. I'd never heard of either one, so I had no idea what to expect. We first got to the Spanish Steps, and I have to say...they were a little disappointing. All it was was a set of...steps. It's been there for a long time, but I didn't get what the hype was. At this point we were hungry, so we stopped & got lunch. I got an awesome 4 Formaggi pizza and we ordered a liter of the house wine to share. It was pretty warm at that point, so the cold white wine tasted great. Next up was Trevi Fountain. Now THIS was impressive. It was also crowded, so I couldn't get a real close shot, but what I got captured the size & scope of this fountain.
At this point it was around 2 o'clock, and Jenny, Chris, & Heather were really started to drag, so we headed back to their hotel so they could take a nap. I was fine, and not much of a napper anyway, so I headed to a local cafe and had some Italian beer and people watched for 2 hours while they slept.
It wasn't the most complex or interesting beer I'd ever had, but after walking around for hours on a hot day, it sure hit the spot. I even got to play translator for a group of Germans sitting next to me. They were older, and didn't speak much English or any (as far as I could tell) Italian. They ordered a beer, and when the bartender said "On tap"? they just stared at him. He repeated it, and they still didn't get it, so I asked them "vom Fass"?, which they understood, and said yes. They then tried to speak to me in German, and while I was able to speak a little with them, the conversation didn't last long.
Later on I headed back to their hotel, and they were ready to go out. That night was a relatively quiet night. We had dinner, sat & drank wine, then found a beer hall I had read about that had over 500 beers on tap. They had some delicious beers there that I'd never heard of, including some strong ales from Denmark that were fantastic.
Wednesday we got up early because that was the day we were visiting the Vatican. We got really lucky with the timing. The Pope was doing Mass at St. Peter's, so we went to the Vatican Museum first. With everyone at the Mass, there was no line for the museum and we got right in. They had a large section of Egyptian treasure that I wasn't expecting, but made sense when you think of how closely intertwined Rome & Egypt were 2,000 years ago. They even had the Sarcophagus of Imhotep. The artwork and architecture on display was stunning to say the least. It took us approximately 2 hours to walk through it and that's with only stopping occasionally to read the inscriptions. If we'd read everything, we'd have been there all day. At the end of the museum was the thing that everyone comes for...the Sistine Chapel, with the famous ceiling painting by Michaelangelo. I have to admit it surprised me...I didn't know much about the painting, but had always seen the famous part of Man reaching out with this finger and there being a cloud with God on it, also reaching out with a finger. I had thought that image was the entire ceiling, but it's actually just a really small part of a much larger painting. Pictures weren't allowed in there, so I had to be discreet with this picture...that's why it's a little blurry.
After the museum, we headed over to Vatican City and St. Peter's Square. I went to Catholic school from 2nd grade until 6th grade, and we were raised Catholic, so I've seen images of St. Peter's Square and the Basilica a million times, but I never imagined I'd actually be there. Pictures don't do it justice, it's awe inspiring when you walk in to the square.
After taking some pictures, we got in line for the Basilica. This had a bit of a line, but wasn't too bad. Our timing couldn't have been better...after being in line for 5 minutes or so we looked behind us and the line stretched forever. Once inside the Basilica, it was beautiful. I didn't know that St. Peter was actually buried there. His tomb was found long after he died, and they built the Basilica around it. The sculptures and paintings inside were incredible.
Once we left the Basilica we walked around the square for a bit, then got lunch. At this point it was 3pm and we'd been on our feet walking around since 9am and we were all beat. We took a two hour break at our hotels, and met back up for dinner. That night I decided to try something different and got the Gnocchi...it was DELICIOUS.
After dinner we started walking. Remember how I said earlier that in Rome you can pick a direction, walk and stumble upon a building that was thousands of years old? Well that happened to us here. We left the place we had dinner at, walked in a random direction, and stumbled upon a huge building. I looked at my tour guide on the phone and it said it was St. Mary's Basilica. In 420 AD construction started on it, and legend says the location was picked after someone (the current Emperor I think) had a vision where Mary appeared to him and told him to build where ever he found snow the next day. He went for a walk, found snow on this particular hill, and had the Basilica constructed. We kept walking after taking pictures, and just picked random streets to walk down. I had my GPS, so we weren't concerned about getting lost. We eventually came to another huge building. I went to the front of the building to read the inscription, and it said it was the Basilica of St. Mary...now I was really confused. Later on, though, when walking back to our hotel, we figured out that we had first come to the back of the Basilica, then we discovered the front of it. Due to it's massive size and the fact that we had walked down random streets after seeing the back, we hadn't realized that we had back tracked to the front of the building. We also came upon something we called the "cat ruins". It was a fenced off section of some sort of ruins with a park surrounding it. We sat in the park to take a break and eventually noticed a cat walking around the ruins, behind the fence. Then we noticed another cat...and another...and another. Just sitting there we counted 5 cats. We decided to walk the perimeter of the ruins, and counted over 20 cats walking through the ruins.
When it started to get dark, we headed back to their hotel and found a wine bar to sit at. It was our last night in Rome, so we decided to just relax, kick back, and drink wine.
The next day we had some time to sight see. I had to catch the 3pm train to the airport, so we had plenty of time. We all agreed we were beat from walking around, and decided to sleep in instead of starting early like we had been. At 10am I met them in the train station and we headed to the Pantheon. The Pantheon wasn't near any metro stops, so we got off at the closest one then walked the rest of the way. Once there, it was an impressive sight.
It's the largest unreinforced dome in the world. It has a hole at the top that provides the only lighting inside, so you'd think it'd be really dark, yet amazingly it was very well lit. It also had a big surprise...the tomb of Rafael. I had no idea he was buried there.
We had time for one more place. We all wanted to visit the Catacombs, but they were open until noon, then closed down until 2pm. It was a bit out of the city, so there was no way I was going to be able to see the Catacombs and be back in time for my train, so we decided to visit the Roman Baths instead. The Baths were, unfortunately, a major disappointment. I'm sure it was an impressive accomplishment 2,000 years ago, but over the years it had been largely stripped for materials to be used for other things. The result was just a shell of its former self. It cost €6 to get in, but thankfully we were able to use the Roma Pass to get in without paying.
After that we headed back to the train station and said our goodbyes. My trip home was uneventful, but I do want to point out the temperature shock I had in Amsterdam. The entire time we were in Rome it was in the low 80's, so when I flew out I was in shorts and a t-shirt. I had a layover in Amsterdam before heading to Stuttgart, and the plane that took us to Stuttgart was a small one, and we had to be bussed out to the plane. In Amsterdam, at 9pm, it was 50 degrees out. I couldn't get on that plane fast enough. And yes, for those thinking about it, it was definitely ridiculous that to get to Stuttgart from Rome, the flight went through Amsterdam. I went the same route on the way to Rome. If you're not familiar with the geography, it's like being in D.C. and wanting to fly to Miami, Florida, but your layover is in Boston, MA.
Overall I had a great time, and after hearing how much Jenny, Chris, & Heather loved Venice & Florence, I can't wait to visit there. The next trip is coming up next weekend for Memorial Day weekend when Shanna & I visit Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia. For the 4th of July weekend we are doing a blind booking with some friends. The way that works is you pick a group of cities that you could potentially visit, you pay for it, then it tells you where you are going. The prices are dirt cheap, and it's exactly the kind of spontaneous traveling we like to do. The cities are narrowed down to Zagreb, Croatia, Budapest, Hungary, Barcelona, Spain, Istanbul, Turkey, or London, England.
Clicking here or the pictures above to go to the page with all the pictures. Jenny & Chris took more pictures with me in it, so when I get it from them I'll post them.
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