Mamma Mia! It's a Roma!

I do not think that my friends and I could have picked a better final trip for our semester. Rome was everything that I had hoped for and more. We were able to see everything on our list that we wanted to, and most nights we were in easily by eight, which made plenty of time to accomplish homework. I had a blast, and it was such a surreal trip to be standing in so many places where the history that I had once learned about actually happened. It was definitely a trip for the record books, and one that I hope to share with my kids someday.

We arrived in Italy last Wednesday afternoon, and we did not have very much planned on our first day. We checked in to our hotel, and then we took a walk to the student district to grab some dinner. As we were walking the sun went down and evening took over, so we obviously went to find a place to eat, and we were also hungry. We went to a pizza place that had been recommended to us, but it was closed. We were confused because we were hungry, it was dark, and Rome was supposed to be a city that stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning. I glanced down at my watch to find out that it was ONLY 5pm. It was not even dinnertime yet, so no wonder nothing was open yet! We could not believe it because it totally felt like it was at least 6 if not 7 there. Disappointed, we turned around and decided to walk around for an hour until businesses started opening up, and as we were walking we stumbled upon our first ruin, Aurelian’s Wall. It was one of the things that we wanted to see, and it was totally unintentional too. This wall wraps around the whole city practically, and its walls are so tall! It was a nice find because we wasted most of our time walking along it. We did eventually get dinner that night at a little sit down place where I had a calzone that was not up to par unfortunately, however my tiramisu dessert was WONDERFUL. When we finally did make it back to our hotel none of us had any problem falling asleep.

Thursday was our first big day of sightseeing, and it was also Thanksgiving. Our first stop was the Castle St. Angelo. We got our first taste of the street vendors because they were instantly on us to come take a look, and they were so pushy, which got on my nerves all week long. The castle was really neat, and we were actually able to go all the way to the top and have a beautiful view of the city of Rome. It was amazing because you could tell how old this place actually was, even though it was still hard to wrap my mind around it.

We spent a couple of hours at the castle, but we were all itching to get to the Coliseum. It took us some time to find our way there though because we were having issues finding the right bus stop. By the end of the week though I was pro at using the metro, however the bus system was another mess entirely. Eventually we did make it on the right one, and the moment that I saw the Coliseum from the bus window I got chills. I realized as I was standing there that I was looking upon some of the oldest parts of history. This was a city that was around when the disciples were, and that blew my mind away. When we first got off we walked to the ruins on our left, which we thought was the Roman Forum, however we soon found out it was the Imperial Forum. This whole time we had been taking tons of pictures of the wrong thing. The pictures were still cool and looking at the ruins was still impressive, but we wanted to find what we had been looking for. On our way to cross the street a girl who offered us a tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum stopped us. At first I didn’t want to do it, but I am so glad that we changed our minds because going through it our guide took us all to the most important parts and explained them all, so it actually meant more to me because I understood what I was looking at. Our guide’s name was Fabio, which made the tour that much better J At the Roman Forum I was able to see where they publicly burned Caesar’s body, and I saw one of the churches that had the same door and the same lock and key as when it was first built centuries ago. I believe they said it had been the same for 17 centuries. Can you imagine trying to keep track of one key for 17 centuries? That’s just insane.

Behind this is where they cremated Caesar

Roman Forum

The door I was referring to earlier

Just a small part of Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill was really cool to see too, and the place was massive. It literally sits on the side of a hill, and it overlooks Circus Maximus, which was a huge disappointment because that is pretty much gone now. Our final destination was the Coliseum, and walking up to it left me speechless because it was SO big. We saw the Arc of Trajan, and just behind it was the Coliseum in all its glory. We were able to skip the line with our tour guide, and as I walked inside I got the chills again because I kept thinking about all the history and stories this place must hold. From the inside it was really hard to picture what it must have once looked like in its prime because all the grandeur it once held is no longer there. The floor is gone, but you can see what was underneath, which is where they kept the gladiators and the animals before the competitions. It really kept me in awe because I did not even have words to put with what I was thinking. I could not believe that I was standing in a place that hundreds of thousands stood before me. After our guide left us, the four of us hung around inside the Coliseum taking pictures and trying to soak it all in. It made for an even more amazing view at night when it was lit up.

After the Coliseum we went on a hunt to find the best place for Thanksgiving dinner, but we failed. The place we chose looked promising, but once again dinner was only sub par. We were all tired and disappointed after dinner, and the fact that it was a holiday and I was exhausted began to wear on me, and I had a rough night being away from my family. I thought it would help to skype them, but I think that might have only made it worse because I was missing them pretty bad. I hated not being able to be there with them to celebrate the holiday.

We had another jam-packed day on Friday, and the first place we went to was the Baths of Caracalla. We were not really for sure what to expect with this, but when we saw it we were all impressed by how big and how well maintained the ruins were. That was another place that I saw that was hard to imagine what it must have been like in its day, but I could not get over how tall the pillars were that once held the baths. We looked like nothing compared to them and many of the walls were still standing strong.

Our next stop was Capitoline Museums, and they were beyond overwhelming because there was just so much to see inside. All I cared about though was the head of Medusa, and I got to see her, so I was content! My friend even got a picture of it for me, even though we were not allowed to. If I was more of an art expert or enjoyed staring at statues more maybe I would have appreciated it more, but after the 5^th or 6^th room filled with statues of people they all kind of started looking the same to me.

We headed to the Piazza Novana next, which is the art district, and there was so much happening in one area. There were tons of people with their art, and I absolutely loved it. I fell in love with a lot of the pieces, but all the ones that were original paintings were pretty expensive. There was not much to do there other than look at the art and get pestered by street vendors, which the latter I had no interest in messing with.

We found our way to the Pantheon right as the sun was setting, and the size of this once temple now church shocked me. I had no idea that it was as big as it was. And the fact that it was so well kept was impressive to me as well. It is one of the best ruins of Roman that is as close to what it was when they first built it. Inside holds the tomb of Raphael, and that was pretty cool to see. It was definitely one of the sights that was high on my list of favorites.

Our last big stop for the day was the Trevi Fountain, and it was literally a jaw dropping moment because it was that impressive. It was HUGE, and the water was a gorgeous ice blue color, and it was PACKED. There were so many people everywhere, and I was very overwhelmed, but we did weasel our way down to the middle so we could get our pictures in front of it. It was pretty amazing, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I didn’t give the fountain enough credit because it was beautiful.

For dinner we chose to be super Americans and we ate at the Hard Rock Café, which was honestly probably one of the best meals I had the whole week. I enjoyed a nice burger and fries, which was so tasty and for dessert we all split a hot fudge brownie that was to die for. It was definitely one of my favorite nights if not the best of the week. We decided that would be our official Thanksgiving dinner.

The best part of Saturday was that we were able to sleep in a little bit because we did not have as much planned, and as exhausted as we all were from walking all over Rome every day it was very much needed. Our first stop was the Catacombs of Callixtus, and we made it just in time for the final tour before they closed for lunch. I did not know very much about the catacombs, but it was really cool to go underground and see them, but also a little creepy to be walking by empty tombs that used to once hold dead bodies. Most of the marble slabs were no longer there because they were broken, but there were some frescos that still remained. The tour was not very long because you are not allowed to stay beneath for very long. There were no bodies left on the floor we went to because the pope had them all moved to the next level down because when they first opened the catacombs to tourists people sometimes took the bones. Personally, I think that is just disgusting, and I think, why in the world would anyone want some random dead person’s bones? It does not make any sense to me, but whatever. The catacombs are 12 miles long, so I made sure to follow our tour closely because I am pretty sure if I got lost I would not find my way out. After the tour we decided to hang out around the area because it was away from the city, and it was so beautiful. We really were blessed with fantastic weather the entire time we were in Rome. It was in the mid to low 60’s all week. I LOVED it. We sat down on the side of the road by a field filled with sheep and enjoyed an hour of leisure, just enjoying the sun beating down on us. It was a nice break to have after a crazy few days. Unfortunately if we would have walked about 50 more feet we would have seen the famous road of Appia Antica, but alas we completely missed it. 

After the catacombs we went back to the Trevi Fountain so we could see it during the day and it was just as packed if not more than the night before. We enjoyed some delicious gelato there like Lizzie McGuire did in her movie, and we also all threw a coin into the fountain. We did some souvenir shopping around the area, and slowly made it back to our hotel where we had dinner in an authentic Italian basement restaurant. The pizza was massive, and I would have liked mine a whole lot better if would not have had bleu cheese on it. That grossed me out a lot. We all went to bed earlier that night because we knew that the next morning was going to be an early one.

Sunday was our last full day in Rome and our last big stop was Vatican City. The last Sunday of every month is free, which means that Vatican is going to be absolutely crazy, which it was. We chose to go on a tour of Vatican because that meant that we did not have to wait in line for two hours, and it guaranteed us a spot inside because the gates close at 12:30pm, no matter how long you have been waiting in line. We waited in line for only 15 minutes, and we were done with everything by 2pm. Once inside it was like a madhouse because there were people everywhere, but thankfully we had headsets, so we were able to hear our tour guide even if we were not right next to him. The place was ginormous, and I believe I remember hearing that there are over 4,000 rooms in Vatican City. We walked through only the important things, which was fine with me because there was too much to see, and I was even more overwhelmed there than when I was in the Capitoline Museums. My favorite was Raphael’s rooms because there I was able to see the School of Athens, which I did not know was in Vatican City. It was cool for me because I recognized it before our guide even explained it to us. From there we went into the Sistine Chapel, which once again I was blown away by the size of the frescos. I was also glad that our guide had explained all the paintings to us beforehand otherwise I would not have known where to look. On the front wall was the fresco called The Last Judgment, and then all along the ceiling were the infamous paintings of Michel Angelo. They were AMAZING. I had heard about them, and I had seen pictures of them before, but nothing beat seeing them in person. There was to be no pictures or talking in the Sistine Chapel, but both were accomplished without getting in trouble J I could have stayed in that room for hours looking at all the paintings, but unfortunately we did not have that much time. I tried to soak it all in, but I know that I did not see everything in that room.

Hercules

School of Athens

The Last Judgment

Creation of Adam

That was the end of the tour, but we had our guide take us to St. Peter’s Basilica, so that we would be able to go inside. We cut in line without shame because the line was ridiculously long, and we did not want to wait in it. And we were easily in the Basilica within the first 10 minutes that it opened, so cutting was totally worth it. I do not even have words to describe the grandeur of the St. Peter’s. The building itself was massive, and I had no idea where to look because there was so much to take in. We went to the right first where we were able to see the famous statue, La Pieta, which is the one of the Virgin Mary holding Christ’s dead body. It was beyond moving, and seeing it in real life and not just in all the tourist shops made me appreciate it all the more. I can safely say that it might be one of my favorites, if not my favorite now. I could have stared at it all day because it captured me that much. However, there was so much more to see in this building that I had to keep moving. It was so ornate, and there were so much gold and intricate designs on the pillars, the walls, and the ceiling. It was a lot to take in in a short amount of time. And for all of you that are wondering, no I did not have a happenstance meeting with the Pope. Sad day, I know. 

By the end we were all really hungry, and we found a small pizza shop on a side street that our tour guide showed us, and it was literally the best pizza that I have ever had. It was definitely the best meal in Italy. It was delicious, and it was not just because we were all so hungry. It was really just that good. After lunch we went to the Spanish Steps, which honestly were not that exciting, and they were a bit of a let down, but we ate our last gelato on the steps anyway. Then our last stop for our Rome trip, to complete our list, was the Mouth of Truth. We all were able to stick our hands in and we came out with both hands, so none of us must be liars! Afterwards we were able to see the smallest underground church in all of Rome, which was a little random, and it reminded me slightly of the catacombs. On our way back to the hotel we walked by the Coliseum one last time, and it looked amazing with the moon and the stars in the background. We had an early night, and I was able to get all packed up, so that I would be ready to go this morning.

 This was the perfect way to end my semester because I feel like I could fly home today, easily, and be satisfied with my semester. I have 5 days left until I go home, and I do not think I could be more ready to be home. I want to see my family face to face and not through skype. I loved seeing Rome and experiencing the history I have heard about all my life. I know that I have been blessed ten times over with this opportunity, and I hope to never take it for granted. I cannot wait to get back stateside and share even more pictures with those who want to see and hear all my stories because trust me I have PLENTY of them. For now though my focus is getting packed up and making sure all my stuff will fit in my suitcases, so I can have a safe and successful trip back home to the states. Wish me luck because I am definitely going to need it. Til Next Time.