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Published: February 17th 2011
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Rome caught me a little off-guard. I had pretty high expectations, and although they certainly weren't dashed, the city was different than I imagined. Rome is very old and its age is apparent both in the Roman aqueducts and ruins that stand on every block and in the streets and maintenance of the entire city. I'm beginning to think I'm being spoiled by Barcelona - at least in comparison to Paris and Rome, Barca is very clean, has amazing public transportation, and blue skies almost every day. Rome came through with marvelous Italian charm, history that truly left my jaw gaping a few times, and the best pizza of my life thus far.
This trip was already paid for and arranged by my study abroad program here in Barcelona. It was great because it erased the stress of getting to the airport on our own, getting from the airport in Rome to the city, etc. And they arranged a tour of St. Peter's Basilica and the Colosseum for us, which was nice because we skipped a lot of the long lines. The trip began by meeting in Placa Catalunya in Barcelona at 4:30 am on Friday morning, so with a
solid three hours of sleep under our belts, our study abroad group filled up two tour buses and left for the airport. By 9 am we were at our hotel in Rome, had an hour to grab breakfast nearby and then got back on buses to head to the Vatican. It all feels like such a surreal day now. We all got radio's with earphones and an elderly Italian woman who led us through St. Peter's Square, the museum in St. Peter's Basilica, and the Basilica itself by waving her umbrella around. She rattled off a million facts that seem hard to recall now. In the museum area we saw Peter the Apostle's tomb/grave. The Basilica was one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen. The way the light shines through the windows and naturally illuminates the stained glass is unreal. Michaelangelo's Pieta statue looked real behind the bulletproof glass that now surrounds it because an unstable geologist attacked it with a hammer in the 1970's.
After the tour of the Basilica I was feeling pretty tired of the group and tour bus thing, so Connor and I left from the Vatican to wander about Rome. We had a
flimsy map we'd grabbed from the hotel and a few directions we received from a tour guide who grilled us for a full ten minutes on Alaska. He was sure we had to be either from Anchorage or Valdez. Where he had heard of Valdez, I'm not sure, but he was also preoccupied with some reality show he had watched about truck drivers on the Alcan. The Tiber River runs right near Vatican City, so we wandered down to the bridges and watched rowing teams practice. On the other side of the river we ate at a little pizza joint. All the pizza spots have sheets of pizzas out, they cut off the size you want with scissors, and then you're charged euros/kilo; this is called pizza al taglio in Italian.. The pizza there was easily the best of my life, and my favorite was the Margherita style with mozzarella, olive oil, basil, and tomatoes. Amazing.
I fell in love with the winding Italian streets. And they are truly winding; we got lost plenty, so I had time to enjoy them. During the rest of the day we found our way to Piazza Navona, a plaza that was built
in the first century AD. It's filled with painters selling their work and three fountains are in the center. From there we wound up at the Pantheon. The outside almost looks like any other Roman building or church in the city, but the inside is awesome. The ceiling is so geometric it's almost hard to look at for a long time. It's a strange feeling to be standing in the places I've only ever looked at in history and art books. The Trevi Fountain came next, which was one of my favorite places in Rome. Before we even came around the corner we could hear the rushing water. It was beautiful and huge and very crowded with people tossing a Euro over their shoulder into the fountain to be sure they'd return to Rome. By dusk we made it to the Spanish Steps with Gelato in hand and sat there for a while enjoying the sunset and all the people roaming about. The Gypsies got a little out of hand after a while though, they are so persistent about sticking their little wind up toys and roses in your face, and they mill about in front of every tourist attraction
in Europe. Dinner that night was interesting. We weren't sure if our waiter was flirting with me or Connor. The pasta was okay, but the wine was great.
The Colosseum was first in order for the next day. The same lady with the umbrella led us around and told us all sorts of interesting things. From the Colosseum you can see the Roman Forum which is chock full of ruins. On the second level there's a cross engraved into the wall; Romans like to kiss the cross because kissing it was supposed to grant 100 days of indulgences. Fun fact: the word 'fornication' comes from the Colosseum. The basement level of the Colosseum was a popular place for Roman couples to meet and do the 'hanky panky,' as the umbrella lady put it. The bottom level is called the fornicate, and thus fornication was born. As the umbrella lady put it, it was probably a good idea to visit the cross after the fornicate. My favorite place in Rome was the Forum. It has been dug out to the ground level it was at 2000 years ago; standing in the Forum the rest of the city rises up around.
The ruins are unreal, I can't imagine how they were built so long ago. I can hardly imagine any of them being built today.
A group of us hopped on a bus and went back to Vatican City with the mission of seeing the Sistine Chapel. After a few mishaps involving bad directions we ended up in the correct line to get into the Vatican Museums. Once inside we only had an hour before closing, so we had to speed through the museums to get to the Chapel. I'd love to go back and take more time there when I wasn't so tired, but it took about 20 minutes of non-stop walking to reach the Sistine. Pictures aren't aloud inside, but everyone tries to do it anyway. Guards stand up front and yell 'No Pictures!!!' every few moments. It's also supposed to be silent inside the chapel, but with the constant crowd in there that's a hard feat. Every five minutes an automated voice comes over the speaker in Italian and English reminding everyone to be silent. The longer we stood in the Sistine the more amazed I was. The figures really do look like they're popping out of
the ceiling and walls. I saw the part where Michelangelo depicted himself as an empty skin.
For dinner on Saturday we ate at a local restaurant near our hotel. We had a table for 12 and a 300 Euro bill at the end, but it was worth it. Caprese, carbonara, wine, tiramisu.... Yum. The carbonara was the best. In the morning we only had a few hours before we had to go to the airport, and since it was Sunday we went back to St. Peter's Square to see the Pope at noon. The crowds started gathering at 11, although it didn't get as crowded as I imagined. He spoke for about 10 minutes in Latin, which was impressive in itself. At one point he began singing in Latin and a chorus of echoing voices followed each verse - the effect was very eerie. After his main message he spoke in Italian, English, Spanish, German, Russian, and a few other languages I'm sure. He said something like "Hello and blessings to all the English pilgrims who have voyaged here..." And went on to bless the crowd.
I hope the pictures help emphasize my words. I finished two midterms
in my classes here yesterday. Today I had my spanish class for four hours, and now it's my weekend. I'm staying in Barcelona this weekend which I'm excited about because it won't be quite so tiring and it's supposed to be beautiful. I'm planning on visiting the beach at least once. I'll update soon with more about day to day life here and school etc.
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DaveObe
non-member comment
Virtural Tourism
Thanks for the photos and narrative. I am awed, never having looked at history or art books. Virtual tourism supplemented with Wikipedia works well except for the pizza photo with mozzarella, olive oil, basil, and tomatoes. Oh, that looked good! DaveObe