Things you should know about Rome:
1) Gelatto is AMAZING and you will be hard pressed to find gelatto in the US that is as good as Italy's
2)The best way to get around is the train/metro super cheap and easy to use once you figure it out.
3)The food is amazing!
4)Most pizza doesn't actually have tomato sauce unless you get pizza magerita
5)The Vatican Musuem was awesome!!
Ok now to start. Once we finally got to Italy on Monday afternoon we took a shuttle bus to our hotel. This was of course after we discovered our baggage never actually made it onto the plane from Chicago to Madrid. Lucky for us I had packed an extra set of clothes in our carry ons with tolietries, toothbrush etc. Monday we pretty much just relaxed at the hotel and had dinner in the hotel restuarant. John had these hollow noodles that had a tomato bacon sauce and I had tortellini in a herb and butter sauce it was delicious.
On Tuesday we had out Coloseum tour and the Best of Rome Walking tour in the afternoon. We took the train to the metro the got off right in front of the Coloseum. The Coloseum is amazing!! It has 80 arches all around the outside. At one point it was completely covered by marble so you didn't see the brick and concrete. After the coloseum we went to Palatine Hill which is "the place where Romuleus and Remus founded Rome." The coolest thing about Palatine Hill is that you can look down into the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum consisted of several buildings one of which was the supposed temple that Juluis Ceaser was cremated in. After our first tour John and I walked around and bought a snack from a little street vendor. Oh John's new favorite thing is to put boiled eggs and tomatoes on his sandwhiches. The put boiled eggs on almost all the sandwhichs over there. Anyway we started our afternoon tour and walked through the upscale apartment area of Rome. We saw where Bernini lived and the Pantheon. The Pantheon is now know as Saint Mary of the Martyrs and is a dedicated Catholic Church. The christian martyrs that were buried in the catacombs are now buried in the Pantheon. Raphael the painter is also buried in the Pantheon. We also saw the Trevi fountain which was huge and very crowded. John and I threw our coins in and made our wish. Supposedly if a man throws in 3 coins he will find a new lady. I of course limited John to just one ;).
Wednesday we saw the crypts and catacombs. Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures because the sites we saw were considered holy places. The catacombs were kinda chilly and damp and super dark. The alcoves where the bodies were buried were super short and not very deep. John wouldn't have fit in any of them. We came up on a bigger alcove and I told John he could fit in that one but barely. The guide then proceeded to tell me that it was a family grave and up to 10 people would be buried in a space that John would have to climb in and curl up in. After the catacombs we went to the church of St Clement where they have excavated all the way down to 2nd century apartments. It was pretty cool to see the level the soil has risen over the past 1000 years or so. After that our last stop was the Capucin monks monastry. These particular monks take a vow of poverty and don't own anything unless it is given to them. There monastry is decorated with bones of the previous monks because they have no money to buy decorations. It was actually very interesting how they displayed the bones in patterns etc. This particular monastry is considered to be a place of an on going miracle becuase the monks are not decaying at the normal rate. There were some white lilys that had supposedly been there since christmas and some of the blooms hadn't even opened yet and they still looked fresh.
Thursday we spent all day in the "Vactican." We saw the four major basillicas (churches) in Rome which are all extensions of the Vatican City. We first visited Sainta Maria Majorie which was beautiful. The second basillica was where the Pope is made the Bishop of Rome. There are two statues of St Peter and St Paul and rumor has it that their skulls are actually inside the heads of these particular statues. The next basillica was called St Paul outside the walls. This particular basillica is outside the Arellian walls thus the nickname. This basillica had round portraits all around the base of the ceiling with portraits of the Popes starting with Peter and going all the way to Pope Benedict XVI. The Last basillica we say was actually in Vatican city, St Peter's. St Peter's is massive it can hold 60,000 people just on the inside, that does not include the big square in front of the church. The altar in St. Peters was designed by Bernini when he was 20yrs old!! It has something like 450 tons of bronze some of which was melted down from the Pantheon. The altar also sits above the grave of St Peter. Our guide told us that is supposed harder to archeologically harder to prove that it isn't St Peter that it is to prove that it is. The grave has 1s ce coins and they can tell the cause of death was crucifixtion and there are remnants of purple fibers which is what martyrs were buried in.
The afternoon was spent inside the Vatican Museum. The museum consists of 9 mi and is the largest private collection in the world. We were told that if you spent only 60secs looking at each piece of art in the museum it would take you 12 years to see everything!!! There were some pieces in the collection that I didn't even realized were owned by the Vatican City! Interesting little tidbit about the Vatican it is the only absolute monarchy in the world, and the city has 500 hundred citizens. Also the Vatican is 110 acres funny thing my dad's land is 117 acres. I just thought it was cool that my home I grew up in is bigger that the Vatican City which is its own country.
On Friday we went to Naple and Pompeii. Naples we just did a little drive through and our guide pointed things out. Our tour group was kinda interesting it consisted of half english speaking and half spanish speaking. Our tour guide was this little old man who kept switching back and forth between english and spanish and itialian. It was great haha!! When we got to Pompeii it was so quiet it was kinda spooky but there was lots of sun and some of the houses were still in awesome condition structurally. The streets were interesting because they were set deeper into the ground so the streets wouldn't flood the houses in the spring.
Saturday was our day we left. We took a flight to Madrid and the Madrid to Dallas and Dallas to home. It was an amazing trip and was so nice to be with John for a whole week by ourselves. I would definitely recommend Rome as a vacation spot! Lots of history and beautiful artwork
Oh PS we actually walked and drove on streets that were constructed during the Roman Empire!!
Pompeii
Coloseum
Trevi Fountain
St Peter's Basillica and Square
Crazy guy making HUGE bubbles
The train we took to the Metro everyday
Just one of many amazing statues in the Vactican Museum
John's weird egg, ham, olive pizza
St Peter's again
Hall of Maps of Italy (AMAZING)
Me in front of "The School of Athens"
John in front of "The School of Athens"
Us in the Vactiacan Museum
Castle in Naples John commented "Hunnie we could just build a house like that." My reply "Oh yea and who is going to clean it?" John's answer "Well you of course. Why you think it's to big?" My answer "Are you high no way am I cleaning something like that all by myself, I wouldn't get anything else done."
One of the molds of a body in Pompeii
Pompeii
ah what a great trip!!! It looks like you had a blast! Your post was fun to read and educational :) next time, we're going with you!!
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