Advertisement
Published: June 22nd 2009
We're writing this blog on one of our laziest days of our trip. We slept in til 10am, and will probably be in this internet cafe for about 4 hours or so. But at least it's raining outside, all the museums are closed and there is nothing better for us to do. Florence is kind of dull.
We'll now continue where we left off, starting with our arrival in the ancient city of Rome.
Our flight to Rome was our first experience with a European discount airline, called Ryanair. It was rush seating, the flight attendants doubled as sales people and the seats were terribly uncomfortable. But somehow, as always, Lynz managed to sleep on the plane.
We landed in Rome at around 1pm and quickly made our way to the baggage carousel. We were all really excited to get out and explore Rome, but Ryanair had to make things a little difficult again. Not only did we have to wait for over an hour to get our bags, but we were also surrounded by an obnoxious group of 13 year olds on a school trip. By the time we finally left the airport it had been over
St. Peter's Basilica
Again, you can't appreciate its size from the picturetwo hours since we had landed.
We headed outside to find our bus connection and were finally greeted by some much needed warm weather. (Somehow we managed to miss almost all the hot days in Spain by only a day or two.) The only downside was that I (Sarah) was still carrying some Belgian chocolates that I had bought for my parents and was worried that they would melt. So, Rob, loaded up with his oversized backpack and day pack, ventured off into the scorching heat to find our bus while I stayed safely in the air conditioned airport. He waved Lynz and I over and we ran for the bus. If you're wondering why this is the first time you are hearing about these chocolates, it's because they were a surprise gift to my parents that I had planned on sending home with Lynz when she went back home. But, trust me, this was not the first time we had to stress over these chocolates. So, Mom and Dad, you had better enjoy them!
Later that day we arrived at our hostel, got settled in and went out in search for our first Italian pizza. We were
La Pieta
This is probably Michelangelo's greatest sculpture pleasantly surprised to find out that the best and cheapest pizza in Rome (or so we believe) was just across the street from our hostel. For only €3 we got the most delicious margherita pizza any of us had ever had! Italy successfully lived up to one of our high expectations.
The rest of the day we just wandered around the heart of Rome, getting a feel for the area (but in reality we were all looking around for tasty gelato and pizza/pasta places). Rome, unlike most other massive cities, like Paris, doesn't feel that large or intimidating when exploring on foot. Despite its size, it had a nice quiet charm to it. That night, we went out for some real Italian pasta followed by some homemade gelato, and again, both lived up to our expectations. As a result of the amazing food. beautiful cobblestone streets, and extensive history, we all fell in love with it.
The next morning we woke up at 5:30am to go to St. Peter's Basilica to be there at 7am when it opened. We were lucky enough to be some of the first few people inside this jaw dropping work of art, designed
St. Peter's Basilica
View of Vatican City from the top of the dome by none other than Michelangelo. It's impossible to grasp the sheer size of this building through pictures, but we can tell you that it holds up to 60, 000 worshipers. The church also houses Michelangelo's masterpiece, La Pieta, which we believe to be the most beautiful sculpture in the world.
While at the basilica we also decided we would climb the dome, which happens to be the tallest dome in the world. It's as tall as a football field is long, and also the highest point in Rome. There is an option to take an elevator to the base of the dome, but since Rob and I are getting short on cash (this reminds me, please send money) we opted for the cheaper option: walking. Now, this could be our Everest.
There are two stopping points when climbing the dome. The first is at the base of the actual dome, which is still inside the church. Here, you get a closeup view of the stunning mosaics on the walls and a birds-eye view into the church. We decided that in order to be some of the first at the top of the dome we would skip this part
St. Peter's Basilica
Completely exhausted from walking up the dome. . . twice and come back to it after, on the way back down.
From here we climbed up more stairs (551 steps in total) to the tip of the dome, for some spectacular views of Rome and Vatican City. After we caught our breath and wiped the beads of sweat from our brows, we took some beautiful pictures.
After a few minutes we then decided to make our way back down to the half way point to take some pictures and head on our way. To our surprise, there was a separate stairwell going down and it didn't seem to lead us back into the dome. When we finally were on ground level again, with no pictures of the beautiful mosaics, we hesitantly decided to climb the dome again. . . now this really is our Everest. We barely made it back up, took some pictures, and then to our unpleasant surprise found out that there actually was a way to see the inside of the dome on the way down. We just didn't look hard enough. Oh well, we just earned more pasta, pizza and gelato.
Our next stop was the famous Colosseum. With our handy museum pass,
The Colosseum
It's absolutely massive that we had purchased that day, we managed to bypass the huge lineup and go right on in. We picked up an incredibly informative audioguide and began exploring. For us, this proved to be the most interesting site in Europe so far. The Colosseum is an ancient amphitheater, originally called the Flavian Amphitheater, where Romans once held gladiator fights and other spectacles. Think of the movie, Gladiator. These fights were very violent and the types of matches varied using different combinations of gladiators, animals, criminals, and slaves trying to win their freedom.
Other sites we saw over the 5 days while we were there included the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Arc de Constantine, Cappucin Crypt, the Pantheon, San Calisto Catacombs, and a few staple churches. The only other one we'll go into detail about is the Vatican Museum, where we saw the Sistine Chapel. This is Michelangelo's largest painting, and it definitely lived up to all the hype. They were very strict about not taking any pictures, but look it up, as we know you know what it is. We also took part in a tourist ritual, by throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain to supposedly ensure our
The Colosseum
It was 40° out and you can vaguely see that Rob has his sleeves pulled up in an attempt to get rid of his pasty farmers tan return to Rome.
Now, we know we've complained about this before, but we hate when churches rip us off. In one of the churches we visited to see a piece by Michelangelo, you actually have to pay to have the sculpture lit up in order to take a proper picture. I'm sorry, but that's absolutely ridiculous! We refused to pay and left complaining quietly to ourselves. And while I'm bitching I'm also going to mention that I don't quite understand why wearing deodorant hasn't caught on in Europe. When it's 40° out, why don't most people wear some?? It's disgusting! At times, it even causes us to gag! Also, Italians have the worst escalator manners of any European country. It's an unspoken rule that if you're standing, you stand on the right to let people pass on the left. It's much the same as drivers in Saskatchewan, if you're going slow, stay in the right lane and pass on the left. Let people pass, ok?! And one more thing, Italians are possibly scarier drivers than the Indians. Honestly, pedestrians have zero right-of-way and there are no cross walks. It's a "run when you can" situation and you just hope
Palatine Hill
Ancient ruins you don't get hit by a speeding Vespa. Alright, I'm done. Rob got to bitch about modern art, this was my turn.
Since Rome was Lyndsay's last stop in Europe, she made it a mission to eat as much gelato as possible. Unfortunately, after having too much in one day she swore it off for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, she joined us in having more the following day. We could try to figure out how many times we've eaten this Italian delicacy since being here, but we don't want to rub it in. . . also we're kind of disgusted by the amount ourselves. But hey, when in Rome!
Lyndsay had agreed to take a bunch of our stuff home with her that we were no longer using (and a few too many Italian cookbooks), so we spent a portion of our last day there trying to pack up our stuff. We then realized that we would have to buy yet another suitcase. In our defense they weren't souvenirs this time, but clothes we just didn't need. We ventured out to one of the market stands to find the best suitcase we could find
for under €20. We found a small stand run by a nice Indian man who was telling us all the wonderful things about his suitcases. Ah, this brings back memories. . . Maybe too strong of memories, as when I was asking the price I accidentally asked, "how many rupees?" Whoops.
After packing, we spent Lyndsay's last night here having the worst Italian meal so far, followed by wonderful gelato. Despite the horrid meal, we were at least entertained by a pathetic old man calling himself a magician. He failed to dazzle us, but did manage to make us laugh with his childish "magic" and obvious toupée, which for us, earned him a couple euros.
In the morning, we grabbed Lyndsay's bags and headed for the airport. After some tearful goodbyes, Rob and I headed back to the hostel to grab our now much lighter bags. We had a train booked shortly and were going to be on our way to Naples.
It would appear that we were now back to our old ways because, again, we didn't leave enough time to go back to the hostel and then to the train station. It would now be
another mad rush to try to make our train on time. We hopped off the bus at the train station with only 4 minutes before our scheduled departure. Once again we were running through the train station trying to figure out what platform our train was at. With about one minute to spare we found our train and managed to get on. We agreed that we would, from this point on, stop doing this to ourselves and start leaving much earlier.
We'll leave it at that for now. Our next blog will contain stories from more of Italy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.252s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0661s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kathleen
non-member comment
eep! Are you in Florence now?! If only we were able to time things better....I was in and around Tuscany and Umbria over Easter with a couple friends, some of whom were locals. The best Italian tour guides EVER! It seems so strange to imagine you there when I was just walking those streets not so long ago. If you're planning on going to Pisa, don't waste too much time there - the only thing to see really is the tower. :) And Rob, please pleeeeeeeeeease puh leeeeeeeeeeease!!!!!!!!!! If you go in and around the Uffizi where all those statues are, take a picture in front of David posing like him. PLEASE!!! :):):) If you get this in time. :)