A Un Passo Da San Pietro Rome

... collection on its own.

No place knows culture like Rome. Beijing, Athens, Cairo, Istanbul have their depth, but no place commands influence in art, architecture, history, politics, military and style like Rome. The City learned to bury its treasures during times of war, having been sacked dozens of times. With lots of treasures and lots of sackings, Rome’s subsoil is still a gold mine of culture. Populations were often ...

... and I have yet to eat a bad pizza. They are made into a square football size thing probably about half the size of an American large. Then you just say how many slices you want and they use scissors to cut it up and weigh it for the price. 1 slice equates to 2 good size pieces. And it is so dam good. No tomato sauce yet has been found on any pizzas. Feta cheese, whole tomatoes, mushrooms, little cheese, and olive oil make it ...

... audio-guides for the gallery. The gallery itself was really incredible. Each room was designed and painted in a unique style and functioned both as a space to view art and a work of art in its own right. The art work was a collection of classical paintings and sculptures collected over time by the Borghese family. I particularly liked the sculptures by Bernini; they were incredibly life-like and organic for figures constructed of stone. Rachael was ...

... in the evening, 6 PM I think... took a shuttle bus into town to see what was around the pier. They have a really wide avenue that is mostly people walking but some cars. It is full of café's and shops. They also had lots of kiosk type stalls with books and trinkets for sale. We just walked up there and back the first night. The next morning we took the hop-on hop-off bus again. This one had three different routes you could choose ...

... to go, especially because the only Italians tend to be creepy men who go with the intention of meeting drunken American girls. Despite that, the night wasn't too bad because we were able to just hang out with friends and talk. We did not stay out too late that night because my friends and I had signed up for an optional trip planned by the school the next day. Friday was a really great day. The weather was beautiful and we were able ...

... have known almost personally. We breezed through the overwhelming Vatican Museums, arrows pointing at the turn of every long corridor, the directions to the showstopper 'The Sistine Chapel'. Once there we stood in awe gaping at Michelangelo's awesome frescos wondering how he could have accomplished this with a perhaps a sore back! The other churches we visited were St. John Laterano, Maria de angeli and Santa Maria Maggiore but the one worth mentioning was the ...

... wall tapestries, wall to ceiling maps and enough marble to encircle the globe. We saw only a fraction of the collection [According to our guide there are some five kilometres of galleries and would take a person about two years to take it all in.] but saw thousands of other tourists. The maps were the most remarkable. Artists impressions of the nation and its islands in the most intricate detail...all without the benefits of satellite photography...and painted ...

... a graceful exit but that wasn't meant to be and both ended up on their bottoms giggling like schoolgirls. I probably shouldn't laugh though - I would have done the same if I was first down. It is a really slippery decline worn smooth with millions of footsteps each year so I wonder how many lawsuits the authorities receive. Probably a few even if they ...

... With our backpacks it kind of sucks, but they had space for us!!! All 6 of us, the hostel is a bit far out, but easly managable with the bus and metro system. Rome is nuts! There is wayyy to many people here. It is very hectic, but beautiful! There is sooo much to see here. The 6 of us kind of stuck together for our time in Rome here, which was nice. 2 were Canadians on the east coast, and the other 2 were from Utah, USA. We ended up going out ...

... a day trip to the ruins of Ostia Antica, a 35 minute and only 1500L (90 cents) train ride out of town. But first, Susanna wanted to hunt down a nearby church she had heard about with her name on it. We checked the map, walked only a few blocks. Sure enough, right near Termini (train station) was Piazza di Susanna and Church di Susanna. We roamed the inside of the chapel, took a couple of pamphlets on our way out. I wanted to take a picture of her standing by the sign but she ...