rome, italy

We made a reservation for the early 7:30 train from Naples into Rome so we could make the most of our afternoon once we arrived. We checked into our hostel, called the Beehive, which was conveniently only a short walk from the station. It was kind of a hippy place with a lot of rules and vegetable-based handmade soap waiting for us on our pillows, hehe. it was pretty different from the other hostels we've stayed at. It was really quiet, with everyone in bed by around 8:30 and up and out for the day at like 7:30. It was weird, I don't think we really saw or talked to any of our roomates! There was a cool cat that lived there named Ingmar which was neat though. We got going right away and headed for the main ancient sights of Rome - the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.

It's really overwhelming just how much history there is in Rome; I could spend all day typing about it. You always hear about how great the Roman Empire was, but to learn all the details was amazing. Like how they would bring in exotic animals from Africa for slaves to fight in the Colosseum as proof to the Roman people just how vast and capable the Empire really was, and how the important buildings all had multi-colored, imported marble from distant lands as well. The Colosseum was really cool, and we skipped most of the line because we bought the combo ticket from another sight ahead of time! We were able to walk all around the inside and see the underground maze of cells, ramps and elevators they used to transport the animals into the arena. After that we walked around all the ruins of the Roman Forum, which was once the home of the Senate, courthouse, markets, temples, speakers platforms,etc. It was basically a "downtown" centre area for ancient Rome. Overlooking the Forum was Palatine Hill, with gardens and more remains of the palace for the emperors, temples, and fountains.

After our feet had had enough and we were starving we started to look for something to eat. Our hostel gave us this little guide to Rome and we decided to eat at one of the places they recommended for a nice dinner, but when we went there it turned out to be closed. We normally would have just said ok forget it lets look for somewhere else, but their menu was posted outside and much to Mike's delight they had chicken cacciatore, something he had been craving forever but not been able to find. We ended up killing THREE more hours until then opened, walking all the way to Capitol Hill and back, before returning to the restaurant only to find out that the chicken cacciatore was not available that night.. BURN! I had a yummy broccoli pasta, and Mike (being caught off guard and not having a second choice ready) ordered the mixed grill plate spur of the moment, lol. It came with 5 different types of meat and he wasn't even able to finish it.

The next day was dedicated to touring the Vatican. I didn't think it would take THAT long, but we ended up spending pretty much the whole day there. We started with the Vatican Museum, which had some of the most beautiful art and such a huge array of ancient aftifcacts that had been collected by the Popes over the years. The tour of the museum finished off at the Sistine Chapel which was pretty impressive. It wasn't as big as I thought it might be, but it was painted with SO much detail.. They were REALLY strict about no pictures and had a couple guys watching everyone like hawks.The same guys would also periodically let out a big "ShhHHhhhh!" and silence the murmuring crowd.. hehe. After the museum we headed to St. Peter's square and the Basilica. We were hoping we could make a reservation to see the Pope for one of his bi-weekly blessings, but the Wednesday we happened to be there was also the Wednesday that the Pope happened to be in Turkey.The Basilica itself is just.. beyond words. Everything about it was so HUGE. The lettering that ran around the ceiling for example, each letter was 7 feet tall! It's hard to imagine that until you see someone walking around the upper ledge and they are the same size as the letters! We also climbed the 500+ steps to the top of the dome (we saved 3 Euros by not taking the elevator!). It was tiring but worth it for the awesome view as the sun was setting. Our night didn't end there however - oh no, there was just too much to see! We continued by getting some dinner (different kinds of pizza priced by weight and these awesome rice/tomato sauce/mozarella ball things) and going on the reccomended night walk from Campo dei Fiori, to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. There were so many pushy guys selling things at the Trevi Fountain, Mike would be trying to take a picture of me in front of it, and they would come right up and shove roses in my face. Hello! We are trying to take a picture here and no I don't want to buy a rose from you! Mike actually ended up taking my picture with one of the guys I think! haha.. The plan was to take the metro from the Spanish Steps back to the hostel, but the metro had stopped running for maintenace or something. This meant a LONG walk back. Rome's metro system is really limited (only 2 lines) because it's hard for them to dig and build the tunnels because of all the buried ancient ruins.. crazy eh? We ended up hopping on a bus partway back which did save us some time though.

The next day we checked out the National Museum, the Baths of Diocletian, Trajan's Column and Market, and also went back to the Pantheon because it was closed the night we had first stopped by. The concrete dome of the Pantheon was really impressive. The whole thing was actually; I have no idea how they could have built such grand structures and columns with such limited technology. They didn't even have calculators for the mathematical calculations for pete's sake! Amazing. We also went back to the area around the Spanish Steps where all the high end designers have their stores. Every designer you could think of, some even having multiple stores within a few blocks of each other! That was just for fun though, we didn't find any normal stores to shop in that night which was too bad because Mike is in desperate need of a new pair of jeans. He has a gaping hole in the knee of his that gets worse every time he steps into them and puts his foot through it a little more, lol.

The next morning we had an appointment at the Borghese Gallery which was pretty cool. There were a lot of good sculptures there, by Bernini especially. The gallery was situated in this huge park and as we were leaving the park we saw these bikes for rent. They weren't just any bikes, they were these like double carriage bikes with electric assist, haha. We rented one and had a blast! It was actaully kind of scary because it got going pretty fast at times and that was the most either of us had driven in six months so we weren't used to it! We went all around the park, including Mike pulling up to an outdoor food vendor as though it were a drive through, hahah. The brake was pretty sketchy though and was really squeaky. If we used it on any sort of downhill we would come skidding to a stop. In the afternoon Mike went to the Capitol Hill museum while I did a little shopping, and then we met up and went to the Vatican for mass at St. Peters. It was very traditional, with probably about 20 or so priests, bishops and cardinals. The choir was beautiful, and although the whole thing was all in Italian and we couldn't understand, it was still really nice! After mass we sent a couple of postcards from the Vatican post office (they have their own postal system and stamps and everything!) and then had dinner and gelato. We headed back to the hostel for the last time in Rome and surprise surprise everyone was already sleeping, by like 8:30. We were SO exhausted from the 5 days we had spent in Rome and all our walking that we hit the hay right away.