And, no, the huge cross in the middle of the Coliseum is not original. It was placed there, in the spot where the emperors used to sit while enjoying the pagan shows, by a pope well after the fall of Rome. Interestingly, most of the historical renovation or preservation projects in Rome were ordered by a pope at some point or another. I guess they like to do their part in preserving history!
We arrived in Rome on Tuesday evening and checked into our hotel. We were informed by the hotel clerk that an American had stopped by to ask if we had checked in yet. After asking the clerk for a description, we decided that it was definitely Jon Schindler who had been looking for us. It didn't take much to figure out, since we only knew of two Americans who might be looking for us in Rome at that time! We walked toward Jon and Misty's hotel and, not too far down the road, saw them walking toward us! Perfect timing. They were on their way to do a night-walk tour of Rome, a la Rick Steve, and grab dinner at a set-course restaurant recommended by said tour book. We, although hot and sticky and unshowered, tagged along with them for our first night in Rome! The dinner was amazing. It was the traditional antipasti/pasta/main course/dessert Italian-type meal, with a few extras thrown in. I'm not even sure what the second thing they brought us was - some sort of fried dough ball. Whatever it was, it was yummy. The pasta was incredible. Perfectly al dente with a light sauce containing pancetta. There was another pasta, but that one was my fave. After dinner, we wandered on to experience Rome at night. It's beautiful! We checked out a few of the more night-active piazzas, most of which were centered around beautiful fountains (the Trevi Fountain and the Fountain of Four Rivers were most notable). I believe there was a stop along the way for some beer and World Cup spectating. All in all, it was a fantastic way to start out our time in Rome.
The next day was "Ancient Rome" and included more walking tours of the Colisseum and the Forum. Both of these sites were breathtaking. They're so famous, so it's crazy to walk out of the Metro and be standing face-to-face with something so iconic. It was cool to imagine walking where Julius Caesar once walked in the Forum. The amount of history in Rome is mind-boggling. That night, we decided we should go get dinner at a place with seating on a nice piazza as well as a large television for World Cup-watching. We ended up at a cafe right in the shadow of the Pantheon. Pretty amazing. Being in Europe during the World Cup was a really awesome experience. No matter where you were in a city, you could tell when something important happened - or almost happened - because you could hear the collective voices raise in excitement. Everybody was into it!
Thursday had been designated as "Vatican Day", and trust me, you do need the entire day. It started with a scheduled tour of the Vatican Gardens (scheduled tour = reservation = no waiting in huge long line = HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which were beautiful, as expected. From there we browsed our way through the museum which contained an incredible amount of art, artifacts, and other historical and beautiful items. We didn't even see half of it, but wanted to move on to one of the main attractions: the Sistine Chapel. Amazing. Incredible. Breathtaking. Again, it was so cool to see such an iconic work of art and piece of history. We stood in there for awhile, craning our necks, and taking it all in while Rick Steve walked us through it. The audio tour was so worth having. After the Sistine Chapel we headed toward another main attraction: St. Peter's Basilica. I suppose I should use a different word - how about magnificent? It definitely was just that - magnificent. And gigantic. We spent a good amount of time in there, exploring everything. We did find the deceased popes on display to be a bit creepy, but it was still kinda cool. After that, I. needed. food. Like 30 minutes before that. I get really grumpy and shut down when that switch goes off, though I try not to. Poor Travis! We had what was quite possibly the best tasting street food in all of Italy - a margherita pizza folded in half and pressed in the Panini press. It was so good, with the crispiness of the crust and the sweetness of the tomato sauce, but maybe it's just because I really, really needed food. I think it was pretty good despite that, because Travis thought so, too. After our snack break, Jon and Misty headed back to the hotel with plans to meet up with us at 6 to head to dinner. Travis and I decided to brave the heat and hike up the 300-and-some-odd steps to the top of the dome on St. Peter's Basilica. So worth it. I'm glad I'm not all that claustrophobic, but it would have been so worth it, anyway. The views were incredible. As we were climbing we saw that they were getting ready for Daily Mass in the church, which we wanted to attend, but did not have the time! After we climbed back down (well, and after buying a shot glass from a nun at a rooftop gift store), we headed back to the hotel. We wandered around with Jon and Misty until we finally found this restaurant that supposedly had the "best lasagna in the world", according to Jon's co-worker. I must say, it was pretty darn delicious, as was the panna cotta that I promptly inhaled as soon as it was set in front of me. This place was called "Bobo's", both by Jon's co-worker and the menu, but the storefront called it Cafe de Minerva. Confusing, but we found it. After that we headed back over near the Vatican for our wine cruise, then hung around there afterwards at a street fair going on nearby. The entire day was so much fun, and a busy blur.
Sadly, our Vatican Day was Jon and Misty's last day in Rome. They headed on to Florence on Friday morning, and we were left to explore Rome a little more on our own. We slept in (the night before was a late one, and we were exhausted anyway), then went off to explore some of the smaller sights but keep it relatively laid back. This was the day that the Metro was mysteriously closed. We kept going to it, expecting that there was some emergency closure, just to find that it was still closed. So we walked. It really wasn't that bad; Rome is pretty compact. We stopped by the Circus Maximus and saw lots of little other sites along our way, like the Jewish Ghetto. We also decided to do a little souvenir shopping and managed to pick up Christmas gifts for most of our family. In the evening we went to a cafe (or trattoria, maybe) near our hotel, which had really yummy pasta. I don't think I ever had anything bad on this trip! After dinner, we went to the book store in the train station to find a guidebook on Rome, and asked the cashier about the Metro. Apparently there was a strike! That totally explained it, but shouldn't there have been signs or something letting everybody know? We weren't the only confused ones! For dessert we had some cookies we had purchased at a nearby bakery while strolling around at night (okay, we were a little lost). Then we decided to hit the sack since we had an early morning planned.
On our last day in Rome, we decided to head out to Ostia Antica. It was a little bit outside of Rome, but not too far on the train, and apparently it was on the way to the beach (judging from the attire of the other passengers). Ostia Antica was touted as being the location of some of Italy's best-preserved ruins, and also as being "never crowded". It lived up to both of those claims. If you ever go to Rome and have done the major attractions, I definitely recommend taking a trip out to Ostia Antica. It costs the same amount as any other Metro ride, despite the fact that it is further and on an actual train (not the subway). It was quite peaceful and easy to imagine ancient Romans going about their daily lives there. The baths were extremely well-preserved and included an ancient bathroom! Kinda crazy to see. There was also a bar that had been so well-preserved that the "menu" paintings were still on the walls. We stopped in the cafe for a bite to eat (and some air conditioning) before heading back to the city. We made a stop at a piazza which used to be the northern gate into Rome. That piazza was incredibly beautiful, with several fountains, an obelisk, twin churches, and three major roads convening into it. That evening we headed back over to the Vatican area to eat dinner and see Vatican City at night. I also mailed some postcards from the Vatican City mailbox. Hopefully they actually got to their destinations! We then wandered around the city for a "farewell tour", as Travis dubbed it, to all of our favorite places (mostly the places we visited the first night). Of course, gelato also had to be consumed on the last night. We picked up some of that near the Fountain of the Four Rivers and enjoyed it while gazing at Bernini's masterpiece. Exhausted, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the long day of traveling ahead of us.
We were glad to return home to the land of ice, burgers, and English. We were also glad to see our animals when we finally arrived home at the end of an extremely long day. I suppose that sums up our trip to Europe (sorry it's so long, but it's a good documentation of the trip for me, too). Now I just have one question - when can we go back???!!!
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