Arrivederci Roma!

Actual real-life update: I am in Florence right now!! Yes, we made it to Italian stop number 2! But I am playing catch-up and I wrote this post while on the train, so...

Ciao! I am on the train from Roma a Firenze, racing past the beautiful Tuscan countryside, and I can’t believe stop #1 on my tour Italiano is already over! Two days is not really enough time to see Rome, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of cool stuff!! Originally we had 3 “official” days set aside for Rome, but when we added Bologna in between Florence and Venice, that took away time in Florence, so we had to cut into our Rome time as well.

My favorite shot from the Roman Forum.

Our first full day, Tuesday, was our “Ancient Day”: we strolled through the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, up to Capitol Hill, down to Piazza Venezia, up to the Pantheon, down a little side street for some excellent pizza, over to Piazza Navona, and all the way and back in the other direction to the Fontana di Trevi. Lots of walking. Very sore feet.

Wednesday was “Art Day”: First we got up early and went to the wonderful and pleasantly small Galleria Borghese. We spent our full two-hour limit enjoying all of the wonderful sculptures and paintings. I was almost just as impressed by all the artwork of the rooms themselves (the ceiling art was amazing!). Then we popped over to the Vatican, and spent the entire afternoon marveling at the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. By then end of the day we were a little overwhelmed, to say the least, by all that exquisite art and architecture!!

While all of the cool sites and art were amazing, the next best thing about Rome was our bnb, where we were hosted by the wonderful Luca and Nicole! We stayed at their little private bnb, and they were absolutely amazing. The first night they met us at the train station, helped with our bags, and even cooked us a lovely Italian pasta dish! Luca is Italian and Nicole is German. Luca doest not speak German, nor does Nicole speak Italian, so they speak to each other (and to us) only in English! Almost every night we sat up with them for a while eating dinner, or having a drink, and talked about everything from traffic lights in Germany, to the mafia, to the problem with lazy Italians (a lot of it ended up being Germany vs. Italy!). They were absolutely hilarious, and made our stay 110% better!

Rome according to Jolene: 

Well, Hannah has summed it up quite nicely, but I really was amazed by the Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon, the history they represent. I kept grabbing the camera* from Hannah but we managed to share it very well, and I think that between us we managed to capture the feeling of that day. Day two and more Art with a capital A, again the years of Art History classes have come to life in a most amazing way. I can’t wait to continue Art Fest at the Uffizi in Florence, but I’m grateful for a day off my feet, since I developed a massive blister on my all-important little toe; otherwise I have limped along quite bravely, and Hannah is mostly patient with me as I grab her arm and we stroll along.  I think the Vatican could single-handedly solve the world financial crisis if it held a garage sale of one fraction of its wealth…incredible!  The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was fabulous and we listened to Rick Steves’ guides that we downloaded for free on our ipods, and trundled along with a Brazilian tour group to use the faster exits. The Crazy Borghese Gallery was quite splendid and the Gardens lovely.  

* Side-note: I forgot! New camera! After an entire semester of hazy, grainy photos from my trusty old pinky, my dad bought a shiny new camera and my mom brought it along. So at least Italy will be beautifully photographed.

More photos from "Ancient Day":

Pantheon. So cool...I could easily have sat in there all day!

Fontana di Trevi