When in Rome

Rome

Day One

We left Athens early on Wednesday morning and arrived in Rome at about 11 in the morning. Instead of taking the metro to our hostel, we decided to take a shuttle bus that would take us directly to our hostel. The metro probably would have been faster. The traffic in Rome is absolutely horrible. It's so backed up and people just weave in and out of each other and cut each other off as if it's no big deal -the motorcycles are particularly bad about this. Also, lanes don't seem to exist in Rome. At least half of the roads had no lane markers so people pretty much did whatever they wanted and didn't care when everyone else honked and yelled at them. It was actually kind of frightening.
Our hostel in Rome was extremely nice. It was only for women and there were a surprising number of rules- There was only one key to our room so when the last person left for the day, they had to give it to the woman at the front desk and there was a curfew (and they actually called it a curfew).  It made me feel a little bit as if I was in a convent or nunnery. However, it was exceptionally clean and, even better, there were no old men walking around in speedo underwear.

 

Our hostel room!

We still had quite a bit of time that day so Annika and I went out to explore the city. We came across a sort of market area. There were TONS of people here selling their paintings of Rome. Most all of the artists were really good but all of their paintings looked alike. You really couldn't tell one artist from the other- it was a bit of a disappointment. Then we ventured to the Pantheon. This was amazing and far more intact than any of the monuments we saw in Athens. Also, the monuments in Athens were much more separated from the rest of the city. Even though they kind of looked the same, they were much more spatially separated. In Rome however, the city was build around the monuments more so they were right next to roads and cars and the modern city. Both ways had their appeal- I can't say I liked one way better than the other.

 

View of canal

 

Typical small street in Rome

 

 

Cool fountain

 

Me in front of another cool fountain

 

Pantheon!

 

Inside the Pantheon

 

Ceiling of the Pantheon (a truly remarkable piece of architecture)

 

Stray cat chilling by some ruins (there were TONS of stray dogs and cats all over Athens and Rome. It took all my self restraint to not run up and pet them)

 

Castel

 

View from top of castel

We also had a simple dinner that first night there. We ended up back in the market area so we ate at a more touristy restaurant. The food was fine but not as good as what I had been expecting.

Day Two
We devoted our entire first day in Rome to seeing The Vatican City. This was probably one of my favorite things in Rome (even though it's technically another country). Originally, we thought about trying to get a guided tour of the museum and Sistine Chapel but that was too complicated so we just played it by ear and hoped that the lines wouldn't be that long if we got there first thing in the morning. Well we really lucked out because we only had to wait in line for about half an hour. And then we were able to get student discounts into the museum and the audio tour ended up being really inexpensive. So we really lucked out. The museum itself was interesting. There was a lot there and it was kind of overwhelming- tons of hallways with maps and tapestries and paintings. Pretty much the entire museum was covered in murals. We saw a few rooms where the Pope lived once upon a time. They were beautiful rooms covered entirely in murals. My favorite mural was The School of Athens by Raphael. Though I'm impressed anyone could live in these rooms. As beautiful as the murals were, they would have driven me crazy if I had to live with them. That's way too much visual clutter. I wouldn't be able to deal.

 

 

The School of Athens

 

Stairs in the Museum

The last stop on the tour was the Sistine Chapel. It was gorgeous (though smaller than what I was expecting). I wish I could have taken pictures in there but sadly, that wasn't allowed. Though I suppose that's something that wouldn't translate very well to a photo. There really aren't any words to describe what it was like to stand in there and see all these beautiful murals, especially the last judgement.
After lunch, Annika and I went to St. Peter's Basilica. This was also beautiful (and a lot more spacious so the murals and statues were much more bearable). Though it was really hard to take pitures because it was so dark in there. We did get to see Michelangelo's Pietà. This was beautiful. It's amazing how soft the marble looked. It really did seem like fabric.

 

Me outside St. Peter's Basilica 

 

Michelangelo's Pietà

Once we were done inside St. Peter's we got in line to walk the 500 sum stairs to the top of the dome. It was an excruciating hour long wait but entirely worth it. The view from the top was absolutely beautiful and I felt as if I could see forever. 

 

 Inside of the dome

 

Walking up the dome was really fun because the walls tilted so much! They got much worse than this at times. 

 

View of city from the outside of the dome  

Day Three
On our third day in Rome, Annika and I went to the Colosseum. Another amazing monument. It's so grand and almost intimidating. Although the inside of it is also impressive, I think most of its grandeur comes from it's outward appearance. However, this could be because there are more ruins on the inside so it's hard to fully understand where the spectators used to sit and just how scary it would have been to be in the center. The whole thing seems to be build entirely from arches which is truly amazing.

 

Colosseum!

 

Inside the Colosseum

 

Another view inside the Colosseum

We also explored the Roman Forum later that day and saw the Arch of Constantine. Both were incredible. Though the area around the Roman Forum was so large and we were so tired that it was hard to explore it all. It felt a little bit like we were walking through a park with ancient columns casually strewn about the ground next to the path. It definitely made you forget about the rest of the busy city.

 

Me in front of the Arch of Constantine 

 

Part of the Roman Forum

 

 

  

That night, I had some of the best food I've had in a long time. We went to a little restaurant not too far from our hostel and we were probably the only tourists there which was a nice change. The restaurant also sat most everyone outside so it was wonderful to eat delicious Italian food in Rome while being serenaded by all the street musicians. There were quite a few musicians wandering the streets and they would camp outside of restaurants and play music with the hope that the people eating would give them money. It was wonderful- so great in fact that we went back there on our last night in Rome.

 

Best dinner ever!!! Parmesan chicken. :)

Day Four
Annika and I really couldn't decide what else we wanted to see. We had already covered all the important things on our "to see" list and then some. So we spent most of the day walking around the city and shopping.  First however, we went to the Trevi fountain. Another amazing piece of work but, unfortunately, it was partially covered- probably because of reconstruction. We also went to a small church a little bit out of the main tourist areas to see The Ecstasy of St. Teressa. Again, it was too dark to take any good photos but it's probably another one of those things that doesn't really translate as well to a photo. Like the Pietà the fabric almost looked real. And the use of light and dark on the statue was incredible!

 

Me in front of the Trevi Fountain 

 

Trevi Fountain

 

Me in front of the Spanish Steps

 

 

We saw a photo shoot for a wedding while we were sitting in front of a fountain. They had the best cars ever!

 

The guy's car had a bowtie!

 

 

And the woman's car had giant lips and a veil

Most of the rest of the day was spend wandering around and buying small souvenirs. Annika had a long list of people she wanted to buy things for.
For dinner, we went back to the same restaurant we were at the night before. The main waiter or owner (we couldn't tell what he was exactly) recognized us and thought it was great that we like the food so much to come back a second time. As with one of our waiters in Athens, he was extremely nice and gave us discounts because we were young, American tourists. And probably because we were female...Being female definitely has it's perks.

As much as I liked Athens, Rome was, by far, my favorite of the two. The city just seemed to have much more character and charm. The city almost felt like it was alive. It was also nice because the Italians weren't quite as annoying in their attempts to get people to come to their shops and restaurants.
Also, my bed in the hostel in Rome smelled like freshly baked bread. Even though they changed the sheets every day. It was the best thing ever and it has now become one of my favorite smells.

Now it's time to shift back to Copenhagen mode. It's really starting to get cold here. I can already see my breath in the morning- it's kind of frightening.