Rome, Italy!

Total Fall break mile count: 2,585. Salamanca to Madrid, Madrid to Rome, Rome to Reggio and back.  Once in Reggio, we went to Taormina (Sicily) and back, as well as Scilla and Back.  Look em up on a map!

Monday, October 31st, Happy Halloween!  We flew air europa from Madrid to Rome without issue, and then caught a bus from the airport (named after Da Vinci) into the center of town.  Our hostel, The Yellow, was somewhat famous and very cool.  By the time we got there it was about noon, so we dropped our bags and headed off to be gladiators.  You can see the colosseum all you want in movies, textbooks, and on google image but you just don’t get it till you see it in person.  The word that comes to mind for all of these huge ancient structures for me is impressive. 

View from outside!

They are just so big and complex in construction and function, that it’s pretty unreal how long ago they were built.  

The colloseum was all it is hyped up to be and more – the sheer size of it was unbelievable, and the idea that they filled up the bottom portion with water to stage naval battles was the coolest thing to me.  

Moving on, the palatino was like an ancient college campus – houses, fields, random buildings that I wasn’t quite sure what they were, and the huge athletic field where they started the decathalon and the olympics!  

Ancient Field!  

The Roman Forum was lots of pillars, old churches, and old stages – wasn’t quite sure about the history per say, but it was still neat to see all of it.  After a long day of site-seeing, we returned to our hostel at about 5:30, and got a shower and a nap.  Then we headed out to dinner, at Restaurante al Giardini, a restaurant that was in Tanner’s college travel guide written by Harvard grad students, which has been a life saver.  I got this amazing pasta, that I’m not sure what it was, but the noodels were clearly home-made and coated in some sort of sauce, but it wasn’t a sauce like I’d ever had. 

Authentic Italian!

Topped it off with fresh parmesian cheese, and it was delish.  We ended up meeting all kinds of people at the hostel – brits, Australians, people from Holland (Dutch?), Ireland, New Zealand, and the States.  With that mix of people all having happy hour drinks, it turned into a big ole party as more people kept getting there as the night went on.  The world is SO SMALL – I met two girls in the hostel who go to University of Richmond and hang out with my friends from high school!  Getting even smaller, I met a girl who goes to Davidson and knows my friend from middle school who now plays baseball there!  Craziness.

Tuesday, November 1st.  Ouch.  Waking up was rough, and on top of that, All Saints Day is a national holiday in Italy (who knew).  We made the best of it.  We headed down to the famous Roman out-door markets, in the Southern part of the city called Fori Imperi, Which was SO COOL.  In terms of cultural experience, it’s been one of my favorite things yet.  

Awesome Market!

There were all kinda of vendors which you could barter with and ask for stuff – foods, spices, pastas, t-shirts, jewelry, hats, ties – you name it and it was there.  We shopped around there for quite some time, and on a cool note, there was a statue in that plaza on which the video game character in Assasins Creed is based. 

For all you Assassin's Creed fans out there

From there, we got some awesome pizza (one of my top two favorites in Italy). 

Spicy Salami with Tomatoes and Spinach!  Delishhh

After lunch, we walked to this artisan square where there were thousands of paintings and drawings on sale, and these street artists who were SO TALENTED doing ridiculously good pastel portraits in under 15 minutes.  

We watched this one from start to finish, which was incredible

From there we hit the Trevi Fountain, which was gigantic, you couldn’t even fit half of it in one picture frame, zoomed all the way out.  

At the Trevi Fountain, last picture with the oakleys, sad day.

We tossed our two coins into the fountain, for return to Rome and good health!  After that we went to this huge park where all the trees looked like they were from Africa, only the tops had leaves and branches, it was nice and relaxed.  That night we went out to an ICE CLUB, a bar that was completely made out of ice, it was quite an experience, but it was a fun time.  

A bunch of people form our hostel ended up there too, so it was fun!

Wed, Nov 2: Not a national holiday, thus the Vatican was open!  We missed the Pope speaking by like an hour, which would have been so cool, but it was still an experience.  You were allowed to photograph ALL of the vatican museums, which was a pleasant surprise I took advantage of.  I’m not going to walk you through every bit of the Vatican Museums, just my favorite parts, which were Raphaels apartment (my favorite example of art), the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Square, and St. Peter’s Basilica.  We started off in the meseum, seeing all kinds of statues and works of art from literally all over the world.  The immense collection itself is enough to stun you, but the quality is what got me.  There was a room called the Sala Rotunda, with moziac floors depicting mythical battles that was AWESOME, and they had a statue of Hercules. 

Moziac pictures!

Hercules Hercules!

There was a really cool tapestry of the last supper that I liked, here it is.

Getting into Raphael’s apartment, you are just awestruck at the incredible artwork that is all throughout these massive rooms.  My personal favorite was the ceiling of one of the rooms, which depicted four biblical scenes: Moses and the Burning Bush, a sacrifice that I can’t put my finger on, Jacob’s latter, and the Birth of Christ.  Very cool.  

Whole ceiling

Birth of Christ

Jacob's Ladder

Moses and the Burning Bush

Sacrifice...name is escaping me right now

Moving into the Sistine Chapel, the hype was destroyed.  It was just amazing to think that one person painted this by himself.  Apparently Da Vinci never recovered from back problems that he sustained while leaning backward to paint the ceiling.  The famous finger touch can be scene in th center, but the zoom on my camera is not good so I couldn’t zoom in very far.  I was just overwhelmed by all of the paintings, it was something else.  Here are some pictures.

Front Wall

Ceiling - famous finger touching part in top left hand corner

more ceiling

Unbelievable!

Moving out of the meseums, and entering St. Peter’s Square, as corny as it sounds, I could just feel the history.  It was pretty neat to imagine the square being packed, everyone waiting for the announcement of a new pope.  I can’t even imagine how many people could fit in it, it’s freaking huge.  I also am a big Angels and Deamons fan, so it was cool seeing where the movie was filmed!  Here are some pictures of St Peter’s Square. 

Just plain awesome

Tan-man and I livin the life

The line into the Basilica was about 40 minutes, not bad considering it can apparently get up to 4 hours, and it was the only line we waited in all day.  As soon as we got in, our jaws damn near hit the floor.  This was, for me, the most impressive thing we saw all trip.  The ceilings had to have been 200 feet, and God knows how high the dome was (it is still the biggest in the world). 

Packed, but didn't even feel crowded it was so big

The statue of Mary and Jesus that is so famous was pretty moving, and there were other huge statues and paintings that were gorgeous also.  

Mary holding Jesus

The way they had the windows set up, the light was beaming in so beautifully and it was an awesome time of day to see it.  They were actually setting up for mass, which was neat to see.  

Pretty light beaming in

The dome!

The big wooden awning thing was massive and intricately designed, with thombs all around and an actual body of one of the Popes visible in a glass Coffin.  I did not care to look at it, grossed me out.  Still, my favorite was definitely being in St. Peter’s Square, it was just really really cool, that’s the best adjective I can use to describe it.  After a long day at Vatican City, we grabbed some quick pizza and headed to the airport to catch our flight.  Blog about Reggio Di Calabria and the South of Italy to come!  I need a break, this one took me a few hours!  Ciao!