Advertisement
The Spanish Steps
Us on the tourist-packed Spanish Steps, somehow we managed to get a picture with no tourists in it. amazing. Okay, I have no idea what the title has to do with this entry but whatever. Also, we aren't actually in Rome anymore but I guess I should go ahead and catch that up.
Our first full day in Rome was long. Our hotel sucked. Horrible. Trust me, Hotel Texas was nothing like home, but thats a story we are hoping to soon forget so time to move on. After getting that situation taken care of we went to the Spanish Steps. The monument part at the top of the steps was under scaffolding, so that kind of sucked. There were a TON of tourists all over the place. It was out of control. Its a really nice area though. We walked and sweated down the steps and then checked out the water in the fountain at the bottom.
After that we went to Trevi Fountain. Again, tourists everywhere. At Trevi you are supposed to turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your shoulder. Supposedly, the next time you return to the fountain it will be with your true love or something like that. Jennifer was here 6 years ago and I guess that makes
Make A Wish
JLeist getting ready to throw her coin into the fountain. me her true love. haha. :-). We sat with our feet in the water just like every other tourist there. (We got in trouble for doing it when we went back that night - oops. we just keep adding to our list of things we get in trouble for.)
Next was the Pantheon. There were a bazillion people in there too. We saw some girl climb out of a fountain that was as high as my shoulder wearing a little skirt and tube top. Boy, I love American high schoolers. Rafael is entombed in the Pantheon so we got to see that. There was a choir singing inside. That place has pretty good acoustics. There is a hole in the top of the roof that lets in enough light to keep it well lit.
After that we managed to make our way to the Colosseum. We managed to get a tour which was a very smart thing to do turns out because we got to learn a little bit about the place, but we also didn't have to wait in the super long line to buy tickets! The tour guide was telling us about some of the gladiators
Trevi Fountain
Its too big. I couldn't get it all in the picture! and the animals they used to fight. There are a bunch of tunnels that are now exposed because the floor is gone. They would flood the tunnels and put crocodiles in there and then dump a guy in there. Basically, it sucked for that dude.
We had dinner and managed to meet up with Tommy and his friend. Went to dinner with them and back to Trevi.
Sunday afternoon, we went with Tommy to the Forum. Saw where Julius Caeser was killed. Also got to see where Peter and Paul were inprisioned. For dinner Tommy found us some Chinese food. I realize that I'm in Italy, but it was good. I am happy to report that I have had lots of good pasta and pizza in Italy and have not been dragged to a fast food restaurant once!
Monday morning, on virtually no sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed and to the Vatican so we could get a tour and not have to wait in line for too long. We had to wait in line and it was long, but it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Vatican but that
really wasn't it. That place is huge. Has lots of pagan statutes, paintings, etc. The coolest thing by far is the Sistine Chapel. Obviously. Our tour guide told us that Michelangelo was about 30 at the time he painted the ceiling. He had to design the scaffolding to be able to work up there and because of the angle that he had to work, he had severe back pain for the rest of his life. The crazy part is that he had never painted before this. He was a sculptor and was kind of forced by the Pope of the time to paint the ceiling even though he didn't want to. It took him four years to complete it. About 30 years later he painted The Final Judgement on one wall.
The most famous part is obviously the scene depicting God and Adam, with their hands stretched towards each other but not quite touching. It was done that way to create an element of suspense. Its amazing. The whole thing is pretty amazing.
St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world. Its huge. The Statute of Liberty would comfortably fit inside the building under the dome.
There are three levels of statutes in the wall. The ones closest to the ground are 6 feet tall, the next are 12 feet and the highest up are 20 feet tall. They all look about the same size though, its so strange. There are letters up at the top which are also 6 feet tall. It is hard to comprehend. We didn't climb the stairs to the cupola. I would have liked to but the line was so long and we were both hungry and a bit tired so we didn't feel like standing in a long that could have taken 4 hours or whatever.
Monday night we saw The Lake House, the new Sandra Bullock movie, but it was dubbed in Italian. It was fun, but we aren't quite sure we got everything that was going on. I think we followed fairly well considering that neither one of us know any Italian.
Tuesday morning we packed up our stuff and hauled our backpacks and 40 lb suitcases on the Metro and to the train station to catch our train to Venice. The train was definitely the way to go. We got to see a lot of
the countryside on our way. It was so awesome. We went through Florence, Bologna and a couple of other places on the way to Venice.
I will save Venice for another entry because this one is already super long and i'm tired. Ciao for now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.245s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0389s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb