spring break adventures, part three: when in rome...buy shot glasses of the pope

Warning: Very long and picture heavy post. There's a lot of history in this city.

I met up with three of the other RoHo internationals in Rome, which was fun except I'm really not a fan of one of the guys that came on the trip. He was his usual self, but we all tolerated it because, well, we were in Rome.

On the first day we checked into our hostel, then went to see the Four Fountains, which was a bit of a letdown because they were flanking a very busy intersection, so there were people and cars everywhere and nowhere to stand. We moved on quickly.

First full day we were there we visited the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and walked around and got lost for a while.

Fontana di Trevi

The Spanish Steps

View from the top of the steps.

Day two was Ancient Rome day. BTW, the whole week I was in Italy it happened to be "culture week" meaning that tons of museums and exhibits and other things were free. So we only had to pay for the audio guides, and then we proceeded to get lost in the ruins, looking for the correlating structures to the stupid guide numbers. We ended up running around trying to identify every structure by its foundations and getting super confused, but it ended up being a ton of fun anyways. And surprisingly informative.

Ancient ruins.

Palatine Hill had a killer view. The remains of ancient Rome are spread out below, and as I looked from left to right the Colosseum loomed out of the distance. It was totally one of those "woah, this is unreal" moments.

View from Palatine Hill.

We splashed out a bit and joined an official tour of the Colosseum because we hadn't paid for anything else so far, and I'm glad we did because it was full of interesting tidbits of info. For instance, did you know that contrary to popular assumption, only four Christians were ever killed in the Colosseum? Also, despite what some people think it was never flooded for naval battles.

The Colosseum. Pretty cool, huh?

The inside of the Colosseum. Really made me want to watch Gladiator.

The third day was dedicated to all things Catholic. We woke up early to take the Metro to Vatican City, which in itself was quite an experience. I never want to take the Roman Metro ever again. We were packed in like sardines and the whole time I was thinking that someone was about to pickpocket me. The random guy in front of me had the same idea about me, since he kept looking backwards at me and his backpack. Do I look like a thief, really?

The Vatican Museum wasn't too interesting. Usually I love art museums, but this was full of religious art which isn't really my thing. Only so many times I can see a graphic picture of Jesus being killed or God casting sinners into hell before I get bored and a little freaked out. But the Sistene Chapel was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures or videos, so naturally I took both.

I'm sure this is familiar to all of you. Yeah, yeah I know what you're all thinking: where's the FSM? And the cloud behind God is totally a human brain. Michelangelo was a closet pathologist (autopsist?).

St. Peter's Cathedral is pretty indescribably breathtaking. It's ginormous and a little too ornate for my particular taste, but still really pretty. We spent a long time in there because the four of us got separated and then couldn't find each other again for ages. Then we climbed to the top of the basilica, which was quite literally breathtaking. That's a hell of a lot of stairs and we were exhausted by the time we got to the top.

Halfway up there (at the top of the church but before the cupola) there was a place to stop and catch your breath, and go out and look at the view. This resting place had a gift shop with lots of religious style things to buy like crucifixes and angels and such. They also had shot glasses. With pictures of the pope on them. We dared Rob to buy one from the scary nuns who didn't speak English but he chickened out. Brigid went traditional and bought a rosary for her grandmother. She managed to communicate with them in French. I didn't buy anything because a) my french is atrocious, b) I'm not really one for religion, and c) I had very little money left.

The curve of the walls near the top of the cupola. I'm not claustrophobic in the least, but this part even had me a little spooked.

View from the top.

A Swiss Guard in the fabulously stylish uniforms allegedly designed by Michelangelo.

We found another tourist to take a picture of the whole gang.

After we left the Vatican, we realized that we hadn't quite gotten our fill of climbing things, so we climbed to the top of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Another great view from the top.


That night we went to a (surprise, surprise) pizza place in Trastevere (the medieval quarter) for dinner. This place was recommended as having the best pizza for a reasonable price in the city, and I wholeheartedly agree with that guide book. It started raining while we ate, but stopped before we left so we decided to get gelato as well. Bad idea. Just as we were finishing our cones we saw lightning and the wind started howling, and within two seconds we were drenched. And we were all the way across the city (and the river) from our hostel. So we had a long walk in front of us and by the time we got back we looked like this:
Brigid and I were numb and slightly delirious by this point, and we turned on Italian TV and proceeded to find every channel hilarious. There was a football talk show with these old men with the most ridiculous haircuts I've ever seen in my life. And Italian pop music is...well, awesome, to say the least. Fun times.

Our fourth and final day was filled with seeing/doing the miscellaneous things that we couldn't do the previous days. First stop was Piazza Navona, to see more Bernini sculptures. I swear, just like Florence is filled with Medici things, Rome is covered in Bernini.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

From the back, con obelisk

Then we moved on to the Parthenon.

Raphael's tomb. And a bit of my finger. Picture taking win right there...

Bernini's Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini

Finally, we went to the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, or the Altar of the Fatherland. We wanted to climb more stairs, and didn't have anything else on our list of things to see. Unforch it closed right when we got there, and then we got yelled at by guards for sitting on the steps outside while we figured out what to do after.

When in doubt, get gelato. Since the guidebook pointed us in the direction of great pizza earlier, we decided to trust it again when it said Gelato di San Crispino was the best in Rome. And boy were they right again. I got nocciolo e cioccolato (hazelnut and chocolate) and it was pure creamy heaven.
*deep breath* Oookay that's pretty much it. The next morning the three others had an early flight so they left before I woke up, and I took a noon train to Pisa. My final Italian adventures coming soon...