Roma... the Eternal City!

Day 16 - Friday 10 April

We arrived at the airport in Rome late Friday morning. From there, we took the metro and a bus to get to our hotel, which turned out to be way outside the main area of Rome. Although it took awhile to get there, it was fairly easy to follow the directions there. By the time we actually left the airport, figured out the transportation to our hotel, and got there, it was mid-afternoon. We checked into our hotel, which was really nice, as it should have been because it was way out of our price range. Hannah and Laura decided right away to drop off their bags and then hit Rome; Jess and I were hesitant about doing this and decided against going. We were tired, crabby, and hungry, so we chose to walk to a grocery store, get some food, and relax in our hotel room. We ended up getting some fancy ice cream, chocolate, and drinks. When we got back to our hotel room, we enjoyed some of the ice cream and chocolate while watching… Bring It On. Seriously. That’s what we did, or at least, attempted to do before we fell asleep only some twenty minutes into the movie. We were awoken by the sound of knocking on our door – Hannah and Laura were back, and it was almost midnight, even though they were supposed to come back at 9! Jess and I couldn’t believe we feel asleep and for that long, but we obviously needed the rest. I was sad, though, that I missed out on what Laura and Hannah experienced – seeing the Pope at the Coliseum! We didn’t think Hannah and Laura would do anything remotely that fun… from then on out, I was determined to see the Pope at some point while in Rome.

Day 17 - Saturday 11 April

We woke up early to go the Vatican museum because we hear the line to get in was crazy ridiculous. So we got there relatively early, waited in a relatively short line, and were in the Vatican museum within a relatively short amount of time. First thing we did once we were in and purchased our tickets was go straight for the Sistine Chapel to see it as empty as possible. It was a good thing we did that first, too, because by the time we left the Chapel, it was crammed full! The Sistine Chapel was amazingly beautiful – I can’t imagine all the hard work and detail put into all the paintings that cover every surface of the chapel! With the chapel visit over, we wandered around the rest of the museum for the morning before heading outside to St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the main cathedral attached to the Vatican. This is where the Pope can be seen on his balcony.
In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Coliseum. On the way to the Metro that would take us there, we ran into some other students from Eau Claire who are also studying at Winch! Crazy! When we got to the Coliseum, we found a tour group that would provide an English tour of not just the Coliseum, but also Palatino Hill and the Roman Forum. At first we were a little nervous about paying the extra money to do it, but once somebody explained to us how the tour worked and that the tour guides were official guides, we decided to do it. Without the tour, the ticket price to get into the Coliseum is 12 euro, but there’s no information on the history of it and the importance of it was. For eight euro more, we could have an official tour guide of not only the Coliseum, but of Palatino Hill and the Roman Forum. It turned out to be an incredible tour and one of the best decisions we made on the trip – we would not have appreciated what we saw if we had not known the history and significance behind it.
The Coliseum – It was interesting to be in a building that has been there for 2000 years – hard to wrap a mind around that when my own country is not even 300 years old. The tour guide told us stories about what took place there, the games between gladiators and wild animals. The arena floor was covered with sand to cover up blood, so whenever the floor became too soaked, more sand was added to the floor. Underneath the floor of the arena were tons of little rooms that were used to hold the animals and gladiators waiting to fight.
Palatino Hill – the hill that Rome was founded on. Story: Romus and Remus, princes abandoned at birth, were found and nursed by a she-wolf before being founded and raised by shepherds and farmers. When they were older and discovered their natural birth rights, they took over the area. We toured the ruins of the large home that became a place on the top of Palatino Hill. The guide for this part of tour was very knowledgeable and told so many different interesting facts and stories, such as how all the different kings added on to the palace and how the palace was completely covered in marble. The marble was later taken from the palace to be used in other important buildings at the end of the monarchy in Rome. Some of the marble flooring is still there, though, and visible. The white marble is native to Rome, but the colored marble comes from all different areas that the Romans conquered. By looking at the different colors, one can tell which lands Rome conquered. After walking through the ruins, we went to the edge of the hill and had a spectacular view of the Roman Forum.
The Roman Forum – the original city area or downtown of Rome.
After our tour, we met up with Jess’ flat mate from Malta, Valeria. Valeria is from Rome, and was actually in Rome for a few days for Easter, so she agreed to show us around that evening. We met up with her and her friend Julia at a metro station near her house. We went back to her home and enjoyed some snacks and wine. It was so good to be able to go into someone’s home and to witness a normal neighborhood, not just the touristy areas, of a city. She then took us out for pizza at this Italian pizza place. Once they were done with their pizza, we all crammed into Valeria’s itsy bitsy car. She drove us to this area that overlooked Rome in a much less touristy area, so it was much less crowded. From there, we saw Rome all lit up – it was spectacular! We got to see the whole city of Rome sparkle at night – so beautiful. Then we took the metro and bus back to our hotel. It was a long, but thrilling, day!

Day 18 - Sunday 12 April – EASTER!

Originally, we had all decided we wanted to go to Vatican for Easter, but after Laura and Hannah experienced firsthand the craziness of the crowds over Easter at events featuring the Pope, they were unsure they wanted to go. So I spent the entire weekend pleading my case to them; I was, after all, very determined to see the Pope at some point. I went to Rome with the expectation of seeing him, and I did not want to be let down after there were other things I really wanted to do that I couldn’t in Spain and Greece. After were found more information on how the Sunday mass and blessing worked, we compromised on leaving early Sunday morning to get there for the blessing; that’s all I wanted was to see the Pope and be blessed by him on Easter… I did not need to sit through two hours of service in a different language. So we got to Vatican at about 11 am, and it was crowded! The service was still going on, which we could see some of it from the large screens. We waited in the “Catholic mosh pit” – a term coined by Hannah – for the service to end and for the Pope to go out on his little balcony and give the blessing in different languages. Right before the Pope came out, the police took away some of the gates that were keeping people from getting closer to the building during the service. This enabled us to move up right before the blessing and to get a better view of the balcony and the Pope. The Pope gave his blessing “May the peace of Christ be with you all.” That was it, short, sweet, to the point. Then we hung out in St. Pete’s Basilica, sitting on the ground eating carrots, while we waited for the crowds around us to clear out. Then we did our own “walking tour” of Rome, which consisted of a bunch of places Valeria told us to go see. We saved the walking tour for Sunday because all the places on the list did not require being open, paying money, or waiting in lines to see it. The places were different piazzas (basically common squares with statues), the Trevi fountain which was extremely busy, the Spanish Steps, and some other buildings. At the Trevi fountain, we threw in our coins to ensure that we would be back to Rome before finding a gelato place. We had absolutely scrumptious gelato (four different scopes each, but they were small) then found a place to sit for awhile, where we were amused by the “grass police” who yelled at anyone who sat on the grass! After a nice sit, we went to the Pantheon, which was cool to see because it’s always mentioned in history books, but it was not really that exciting. There we had another crazy run in, this time with three American girls Jess is studying with in Malta! We chatted with them for a little while, then headed back to our hotel to get a real night’s sleep before heading out to our next holiday spot…