My life is in Ruins....

Venice = Amazing.  Off to Roma, Roma, Roma!!

Day 1 - Getting some small sights in by dinner!

 

The Spanish Steps.  PACKED!  But still beautiful. 

Travis and I got an early start so as not to miss our train to Roma Termini from Venezia.  One train ride later, and we were greeted by Carter's smiling face on the platform in Rome.  Rome is probably the place I have been most excited to visit.  Most of my adventures abroad have been to less-traveled locations, ones that I probably wouldn't think to pay $1400 for a round trip ticket from the US and a week.  Rome, however, was the most tourist-y area that I had on my list of places I must see.  And it was soooo worth it.

After checking into our hostel/hotel and dropping our luggage, the three of us headed out for - what else - food.  One plate of Pasta and a delicious bowl of gelato later, we were off to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon.  When in Rome - hit the ground running!


The Spanish Steps were PACKED with people, sitting, drinking (at like 1 in the afternoon, gotta love Europe), lounging in the sun -- oh yeah, our first day there I was wishing I had packed some shorts, but coming from Vienna, the thought never crossed my mind -- by the time we reached the top of the steps, I felt I had worked off at least a portion of my gelato.  There is a church at the top of the steps that we went in and checked out.  Beautiful.  I lit a candle for my grandpa.  When in Rome - get some exercise in when you can, because you'll be eating a lot of pasta.

Ahh, Scaffolding.  You'd think I'd be used to you after 3 months.

The Trevi Fountain was huge, and I requested a 10-minute sit to take it all in.  I tossed my coin in, of course (unfortunately photo documentation was eaten by my computer), and made a wish.  Carter had to try his twice.  Fail.  When in Rome - make a wish, and don't miss.  I feel like that's bad luck.

The Pantheon, like many other historically significant European landmarks, was about 75% covered in scaffolding.  Lovely.  The inside was pretty awesome, though.  The walk from the steps to the Pantheon was packed with souvenir shops, too.  Noted for Wednesday, when we will make our shop rounds. When in Rome - accept the fact that scaffolding dominates basically everything, and move on.

Day 2 - The Coliseum, and Kelly gets her fix of Ruins!

Can't express my excitement to visit the Coliseum.  I'm a fan of ruins, I think they're ridiculously awesome, and I needed some ruin action in Rome, of course!   Travis, Carter, and I headed to the Coliseum stop only to be greeted outside the Coliseum by, of course, a tour group selling their tours.  Tour of the Coliseum, ticket price included, skip the line (yes!) and a tour of the Roman Forum area as well.  Worth it!  When in Rome - see some ROMAN RUINS!!

The Coliseum - at NIGHT!  Beauty, ain't she?

The Coliseum was breathtaking, and the tour was great.  The locals in Rome basically call it the "Swiss Cheese" building because of all of the holes in it, which aren't actually erosion - people took apart the Coliseum to harvest the metal rods holding the marble stones together for use in other buildings.  Unsteady base = a collapsing Coliseum.  They've been rebuilding a bit of it out of brick, which kind of distracts from the overall ancient feel of the building itself, but hey, do what you gotta do.  When in Rome - watch out for falling marble.

This was going to be my souvenir.  I don't know if it would have fit in my backpack, but worth a shot, right?!

Our tour guide for the Roman Forum and surrounding area was AWESOME!  His name was Greg, he sounded like an Aussie, but he was actually from Romania.  Great tour, and I couldn't believe some of the ruins I was seeing.  These buildings were huge.  I can only imagine (and not too well, actually) what this area looked like in it's heyday.  When in Rome - find a good tour guide. 

It's like I could take it home with me in my pocket!

I am Reptar, hear me roar.

I don't even want to think what would happen to that poor girl behind me if I accidentally dropped this archway or something....Bad things would happen.  Good thing I have super strength.

I got a little crazy with the camera in terms of perspective pictures.  With all these awesome landmarks surrounding you, how can you not?  Between me crushing the coliseum between my two hands and my holding up a huge, probably-100-foot-tall archway, I would say victorious on the photos.  I'm so thankful my camera ran out of batteries on this day, because Carter took some photos of me on his camera.  (My memory card decided to wipe itself upon my return back to Vienna.)  When in Rome - get creative with the camera.

Irish Beer - Cheersies!

Ruins day was probably my favorite sightseeing day thus far, all trips included.  We concluded our 5-hour walk-around with a few beers and a burger at a local Irish Pub recommended by our tour guide.  The pub was playing football games!!!  So over a couple of Kilkenny's, the three of us got to go back to our roots a bit and find out what we were missing....The Bengals were playing, though, so really, we weren't missing much. When in Rome - well, honestly, you probably shouldn't go back to your comfort zone.  Eat more pasta, and watch 'futbol' (soccer, Americans, soccer) instead.

Day 3 - Saying "Buon Giorno" to the Pope

Our tour guide, Greg, from Ruins day was offering a tour of the Vatican Museum as well.  He was great, the tour was reasonable, so why not?!  Going to the Vatican made me wish I were religious, as do most trips to sweet churches over here.  Please note that my Updated Country Count: 7 - Vatican City is it's own country.  I felt like I was back at the Louvre with all of the art surrounding me.  There were Tapestries that were gigantic and contained silver threading, more marble statues than I care to count (most manhood-less, poor guys), and ceiling paintings that made my neck sore from staring.  We spent about 20 minutes looking around the Sistine Chapel, and it took until about minute 18 for me to fully grasp the fact that I was in the room where the Popes are appointed. (I, of course, got two sets of Rosary beads for my grandparents, who are the most devout Catholics I know.  I'm sending them to Grandma, and even though Grandpa passed almost 3 years ago, I grabbed him a set, too.)  When in Rome - go to another country.

The exit from the museum was a SWEET spiral 'staircase'

St. Peter's Basilica is sweet.  The church itself is like a huge maze, and I could spend an hour in there and still not see everything.  Huge.  HUGE.  We made a trip to the tombs to see the resting places of the former popes.  John P. II has a guard at his tomb, and an area off to the side where people can chill for awhile.  Let me tell you, the Catholics loved JP.  I don't know much about him, but my impression from what little I do know is that he was a pretty awesome Padre.   When we got out of the church, we were fortunate enough to see a pretty kick-ass sunset, and decided to stay out on the front balcony for 20 minutes or so and take in the beauty.

Day 4 - Getting in some chill-time before class requires our departure

With no huge sightseeing sights left on our must-see list, the three of us decided we were going to take a day to peruse some shops and just hang out.  Relatively uneventful, but I did get my brother a pretty sweet Christmas gift.  Obviously, I can't say what it is, because he's 19 and more than capable of accessing the internet himself.  I do have a knack for finding my way into cities during movements and protests and such.  There's a huge protest by the students of universities here over some sort of educational reform.  One of the government buildings was being guarded by armed guards, and my Hunters Safety instructor would be appalled at the natural holding position of their guns - pointed straight out, as opposed to up or down.  This means that in order for us to get past the building without going around, we had to walk in front of 2 guns pointed right at us.  I'm sure safety's on, and fingers are nowhere near the triggers, but I'm not a huge fan of it... When in Rome, watch out for trigger-happy guards.

Guinness Beef Stew with Potatoes - YUM

We ended the day at yet another Irish pub with the intention of just grabbing a beer and jetting.  Instead, we stayed there for 4 hours, ate some great pub food, and watched the end of an American football game, and some NCAA College Hoops.  Yeah, both were on, and we haven't watched American sports in SO long that we couldn't actually peel ourselves away from the screen.  When in Rome - do as the Romans do, not as the Americans do.  We failed at this.

 

Conclusion - ROME WAS AWESOME!  

Easily one of my favorite, if not my favorite, locations in Europe thus far.  The comfortable beds in our sleeper compartment on our night train home were appreciated, and the three of us got a much-needed full night's rest...after watching Angels and Demons on Travis's computer, and pointing out all the places we had seen throughout the film.



Carter's List (I pulled it from his notebook...)
When in Rome....
... eat gelato- lots and lotsa 'lato.
... take some crazy perspective photos.
... avoid the accordion player riding the subway.
...... toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain- just don't miss like a jackass. That was Carter...
... grumble about the scaffolding covering half of the Pantheon.
... avoid running into a pole while reading a map. That was me...
... avoid student protests and demonstrations.
... TRY to avoid... No sir I don't want flowers, thank you... that guy.
... make friends with an Italian small restaurant owner.
... LASAGNA!
... ask the pope "how's it hangin'?"
... enjoy an amazing sunset over the Vatican.