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Published: December 29th 2008
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After a nightmarish situation of being stuck in Chicago for two days, I finally reached the comforts and loveliness that is home...only to fall horribly ill. Went straight to bed upon getting home and didn't wake up until Christmas morning except every four or so hours to vomit. Absolutely ridiculous, but the optimistic side of me can't help but to thank the heavens that this great fun didn't happen until after my grand European adventure. I can't imagine how awful it would have been to have thrown up all over GaudÃ's fabulous creations in Barcelona, the Roman ruins at the Coliseum, or into Venice's Grand Canal. It was actually sort of nice (in a twisted way) to be pampered at home in my own bed.
It is very weird, waking up to negative-degree weather with piles and piles of snow on the ground, to think that just a few days ago I was traipsing around Italy. Because I was asleep for so long, it really does seem like all of it really was some sort of fantastic dream. Let me go back and tell you about Roma e Venezia....
Jo and I met Ellyn, who toured Paris while we
were in Barcelona, in Rome early last Tuesday morning. It was nice to arrive in a city during the day so that we could actually see it while driving from the airport to the hostel where we were enthusiastically greeted by the staff, which did a lot to put us all in good moods right off the bat. We were even given a free bottle of wine! All of the hostels were fantastic, which added to the already amazing cities we saw.
We quickly dropped off our stuff and eagerly set out to explore Rome by foot. We visited the gigantic area of
Il Colosseo first. I really wished that I had read up on Roman history before coming to Rome because, regretfully, the city was basically a huge collection of really impressive structures that I knew nothing about. Therefore, I'm really sorry that this blog is not going to be a very informative one, and the pictures are mostly just cool things I saw that mostly cannot be named.
Despite being really overwhelmed at the immensity of everything, I absolutely loved every minute of Rome. We started at the Roman Forum, including
Foro Traiano,
Foro di Augusto,
Foro di Cesare, and
Foro di Nerva and then spent a lot of time touring
Arco di Tito and
Palatino. I'm not really sure which picture corresponds to which site...it all looked like piles and piles of rocks to me, albeit very impressive piles of rocks. We wandered to
Il Colosseo and doubled back to tour
Palatino. Our tickets granted access to the entire area until the next day, so we decided to save
Il Colosseo for the next morning.
We wandered around for the remainder of the evening, stopping at shops to check out Italian fashion, enjoying our first gelatos, and finally found a nice restaurant to have dinner at
Magnolia, located in
Palazzo Margherita. We ate outside under heat lamps and people-watched as Roman citizens and tourists alike walked through the giant square courtyard lined with pasta houses, gelato shops, and clothes sold in open garages (sort of like high-end garage sales). We had a leisurely dinner and then walked back to our hostel where we toasted to our first day in Italy.
In sixth grade history class, the Roman Empire unit fascinated me...mostly because of the gladiator stories. It took over ten minutes just to
walk around the outside circumference of the Coliseum. Inside, the dark stairs led up, up, up three flights, and then we emerged out of the uppermost level, originally designated to the poor citizens of Rome. The entire structure was completely awe-inspiring, and it was fun to look down into the arena and imagine gladiatorial shows, battles, and animal hunts. I remembered looking at pictures of the Coliseum and learning about Rome and thinking in sixth grade how cool it would be to see it all in real life, yet wonder if I would ever get the chance to do it. It felt so surreal to be in a place that I only ever got to see and experience through textbooks.
Saving the Coliseum for that morning was a good decision because we were able to take our time and revel in the complete amazement of the architecture. Afterward, the three of us had gigantic pizzas at a nearby pizzeria, and then we bussed to the Vatican City. We entered at
Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter's Square). The massive elliptical area was vastly overwhelming due to the overpowering presence of the colonnades. Its center boasted an Egyptian obelisk, the only
obelisk still standing in Rome. We then spent a couple of hours at
Basilica San Pietro, marveling in its exquisite architecture and the intricate details of the interior. The colors were absolutely amazing inside.
The Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel took us the entire afternoon and evening. It was so exhausting, yet so wonderfully spectacular. Like...watching a whole DVD collection of
Friends episodes back-to-back all weekend. Or eating a whole chocolate fudge cake on your birthday...with loads of cookie dough ice cream. Or...okay, I think you get what I mean. Except, obviously, none of these things could ever even begin to compare to the experience of the Vatican Museum. The artwork. I can't even begin to talk about the immensity! The ceilings, the floors, the walls - every flippin' square inch was jammed with beautiful things. I saw - in real life - some of the world's most famous pieces of art. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel just radiated magnificence in a way I can't explain. Apparently, Michelangelo resented working on the ceiling, but it is seriously the best piece of hated work I have ever seen. Setting eyes on
The Creation of Adam hardly felt real.
I had seen posters and pictures of the painting multiple times, but to see it on the actual ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Ahh, so cool. I caught myself forgetting to breathe multiple times during my visit, which probably explained my exhaustion and light headedness by the end of the evening.
After a long day full of amazing artwork, the three of us were too exhausted to do anything other than sit down at a nice coffee shop called Cafe Peru where the cute Italian owners turned the tops of our cappuccinos into heart shapes. We sipped our multiple cappuccinos in almost-silence, reveling upon the glorious sights of the day. We went back to
Palazzo Margherita and enjoyed live music with our dinner. The next day, we wrapped up our trip to Rome with a visit to one of the city's famous fountains and souvenir shopping in the area before hopping on our next plane. Rome was an amazing start to our trip to Italy, and we were excited to see what Venice had in store for us.
Viva Italia!
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