"When in Rome!" was our cheesy and overused phrase during our three days in Rome. I usually applied it to getting gelato...When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and eat gelato four times a day! :) Thomas' favorite use of the saying was "When in Rome, try every new beer we can get our hands on!" Needless to say, we both had a great time in Rome.
Anyhoo, Rome was spectacular, everything about it was just amazing. It's incredible to think about all the history there. I feel like you could point to practically any building in the city and it will have some sort of historical significance, probably from thousands of years ago.
On Friday we decided to start by heading to Vatican City since my handy-dandy tour guide said it was absolutely not a good idea to go on Saturdays because of the massive amounts of tourists. I'd seen plenty of pictures of St. Peter's Square and the Vatican, but to actually be there was pretty humbling. To think that you could be walking the same path as Michelangelo or any number of Popes from the past is mind-boggling.
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| Piazza San Pietro |
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| Thomas and I in front of St. Peter's Basilica |
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| Thomas with St. Peter's Basilica in the background :) |
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| Inside St. Peter's Basilica |
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| Vatican Museum - this used to be some Emperor's bath tub (supposedly for his wife) and she would always bathe in donkey's milk! |
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| On the way to the Sistine Chapel |
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| We weren't supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I snuck this blurry one of the Creation painting ;) Saturday we decided to get passes for one of those hop-on, hop-off bus tours. We figured it'd be a good way to get ourselves oriented with the city, plus the amount of stuff we still wanted to see was a little overwhelming. We took one whole loop around the city on the bus and listened to their tidbits on the headphones, then we got off and ended up walking to everything for the rest of the day - everything ended up being pretty close to each other so it would've been a waste of time to get on and off the bus for every site. We managed to hit the Altar of the Fatherland (where their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located), Piazza Venezia. Trevi Fountain, the Piazza di Spagna with the Spanish Steps, Ancient Rome and the Roman Forums, the Colosseum, and many more piazzas, statues, fountains, and obelisks.  Altar of the Fatherland (in the foreground). The building in the background is the Palazzo Venezia  Trevi Fountain  After we threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain  Me on the Spanish Steps  Roman Forums  Inside the Colosseum - there were tons of rooms/corridors under where the floor was!  Outside of the Colosseum Sunday we just bummed around Rome and saw some things we didn't get to on Saturday, like the Piazza del Popolo (my favorite thing to say that day), Church of the Sacred Heart (there was a Museum of Purgatory in that church - creepy, but interesting), Castel Sant'Angelo, and the Altar of Peace. We went back to Vatican City and attended Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, which was pretty amazing. Oh yeah, we also managed to squeeze in lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Rome - we were craving a good American burger!! :)  Castel Sant'Angelo  Church of the Sacred Heart  This is where the huge Altar of Peace is located - apparently the Italians hate this building because it's too modern (which I can understand) - they call it a "Texas gas station" :)  Piazza del Popolo - second oldest obelisk in Rome!  Tiber River I have to say, the weather we had in Rome was amazing. It was cold, but sunny and beautiful skies - we really couldn't have asked for anything better. We only had about an hour of rain on Saturday afternoon, but we love rain so we didn't mind :) We're so glad we got to see so much in Rome, but we already know of things we want to see when we go back again - like the Roman Catacombs and seeing Pope Benedict XVI! |
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