When in Rome!

We spent two days touring Rome. By touring, I mean the morning touring and the afternoon doing absolutely whatever we wanted to do! It was really weird, but cool being in ROME having no responsibility and doing whatever we wanted. I could definitely get used to that!

Saturday morning we toured The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. It was one of the most amazing tours I’ve been on! If you ever go, book a tour, DON’T do it on your own. By booking a tour, we got to skip all the lines and have someone telling us what everything was! It was awesome! The coolest part for me was seeing artwork I had studied in art history in person. I had forgotten that Raphael’s School of Athens was in the Vatican and literally stood in front of it with my mouth open. I don’t think I heard a word our guide said while standing there.

The Sistine Chapel was jaw dropping. Pictures weren’t allowed, but that’s just another reason you should all go see it in person. Our guide really pumped us up for it by telling us everything about it before going in (also because you’re not allowed to talk in there), and then pointing out a few things while in there. It really in one of the most incredible rooms I’ve ever been in and I would love to go back (mom and dad???).

St. Peter’s Basilica was also an amazing sight to see. It is so large and intricately decorated that it’s hard to take in all at once. The canopy was quite a site to see in the center of the room and the inside of the dome was so beautiful.

  

St. Peter’s Square was also really cool to see. We saw it at the very end so I kept thinking “where’s the big area I always see on TV?” Well, here it is! We found it! Obviously, there’s the balcony the Pope blesses the world from, but our guide also pointed out where the Pope’s living quarters are. It’s the last picture, second story, second window from the right, in case you were wondering.

After our tour, we grabbed a quick lunch and took the Subway to the Trevi Fountain. It was SO COOL! I wish there hadn’t been that many people there and I could just sit on the steps and enjoy the fountain, but I guess I can’t really control that. It is definitely a must-see when going to Rome. A must-do at the fountain is gelato, in addition to making a wish! I think we had about ten different people tell us to get gelato at the Trevi Fountain. Obviously we did and I would have to agree it’s some of the best we’ve had.

After seeing enough sites for the day, we decided to SHOP! Rome has a lot of the same stores that Florence has, so we did more walking than shopping, but it was still fun to explore the city that way. We went back to the hotel just absolutely exhausted and in pain from walking so much. We knew it would take every ounce of energy possible to go somewhere for dinner. Then, like it was a message from above, someone thought of The Hard Rock Café! We’d had enough pasta and tomatoes… we needed some American food! So we made our way to the Hard Rock where every other American in Rome had decided to go. It was great to hear other English-speaking people in a restaurant where we didn’t have to pay to sit and our water would be refilled! I’m sure the people around us were appalled at the amount of food we ate and the speed we ate it at, but it was worth it! Lily Beth put it perfectly when she said, “The Hard Rock Café is like the American embassy of wherever you are!” and it’s so true!

The next day, we woke up for our tour of Ancient Rome. Our tour guide was young and bubbly and we had a great time hearing all the information from her. We started in the Piazza Novona, which used to be an arena for chariot races, but it is now a hot spot for restaurants and street artists. We started our tour at the Fountain of Four Rivers and continued to the Pantheon, Capitoline Hill, The Forum, and ending with the Colosseum.  All of these sights were incredible to see! The Pantheon was closed for Mass, but we were still able to see inside it.  It was beautiful and I actually remembered some key facts from art history when looking at it.

The Forum was very interesting to see. Our guide studied archaeology and actually helped excavate part of The Forum. In telling us about it. She would show us a picture from the point of view where we were standing, and then show us the same picture of what they though it looked like in its prime. We also got to see where Julius Caesar was cremated. There is an altar that was built for him that people still come and put flowers at!

The Colosseum at the end was amazing. Again, because we were with a tour, we got to skip the lines and go right in! As we walked in, we went to the top level and soaked in the view from inside the top level. After that, we walked down around the bottom and got a great look at underneath the stage. Now that I’ve seen the Colosseum in person and seen where the gladiators fought, I am going to re-watch The Gladiator movie, it only seems fitting.

  

After our tour, we back tracked to this incredible building that Mussolini had built in the late 1920’s. We still aren’t sure exactly what it was used for, someone said it might have been where he lived, but I’m not sure. I’ll look it up eventually. We hiked tons of stairs to an upper level of this building where we got an awesome view of the city!

  

In front of that building is where he headquarters were and the balcony where he declared war on the other countries. Even though it wasn’t Ancient Rome, it was cool to see those things.

After that, we made our way to a small little piazza where I finally got to meet up with Ms. Springer and Mrs. Ludke, two teachers from my high school that I went to London with four years ago. It was great to catch up with them and see the Byrd kids that were on the trip. It was really weird because I didn’t know any of them, but I knew their older siblings. It made me feel kind of old! I’m so sad I didn’t get a picture with them, but it was so hot and we were all disgusting so it probably wouldn’t have turned out that great anyway!  We ended the day with a yummy dinner and Nutella crepes (finally) on the Spanish steps. Definitely not going to complain about that!

Rome was great, but it is so big that I don’t feel like I saw all of it! I guess I’ll just have to go back! Now it’s back to class and then Venice next weekend! Glad I know how to swim! I’ll try and blog a little more this week, mom! Ciao!