One FAST Day in Rome!

Trip Start Mar 17, 2005

124

Trip End Mar 13, 2006

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Flag of Italy Rome, Italy
Sunday, October 23, 2005

Ok, this was a fast one. We arrived in Rome at noon and were leaving on a 11pm night train to Cannes, France. That left us 11 hours to do basically all of Rome in a day (if that was even possible--it�s not!). First order of business was to ditch our bags in a train station locker, which took about an hour and a half due to the crowds in the train station. Finally we were out of there and on our way to the sights.

We started by going to the Vatican and learning that it was Sunday and the Vatican is closed. Bummer! So, then we moved to St. Peter�s basilica, but the line was PACKED full of tour groups. We decided to try to come back later and bailed for the Coliseum. Soon we came out of the train station and there was the huge Roman Coliseum. It was awesome to see and we got some good pictures during the day and at night. From there we walked through the Roman Forum, which was amazing

At the Roman Forum

. This amazing-ness was tempered somewhat by the fact that we didn�t have a guidebook so we mooched off english-speaking tour guides by covertly standing within earshot as they spoke about each monument to their group. The forum is pretty amazing and, though it�s now ruins, you can get a sense for what the actual city looked like back in its prime. From the forum we went in to the Mamertime prison where it is said that Peter and Paul from the Bible were imprisoned during their time in Rome. The cell they were in was very small and Matt had to duck so that he didn�t hit his head. It certainly would not have been fun to be locked up in there as it was underground and had no windows whatsoever.

We left the Forum area and made our way back to St. Peter�s Basilica where we got to watch part of a mass take place. The church is unbelievable in size and decoration. Inside on the floor you can see where the lengths of the other large churches of the world would be inside St. Peter�s if you put the front of each building at the entrace. St. Peter�s dwarfs all the others. There is also what appears to be a plaster cast of the pope in a viewing coffin inside the church as well, which is extremely popular. Probably most moving in the whole church was the Pieta that Michaelangelo masterly sculped just to the right of where you enter. It�s an amazing sculpture of Mary holding the dead body of Jesus after he was crucified, and it brings many to tears

At Trevi Fountain

. We sat for a long time just staring at it before we left.

Finally, we walked by the famous Trevi Fountain, had some dinner and then made our way to the train station. Once we got in the train, we had the WORST train ride ever. We had a $60 2nd class ticket to Cannes, but apparently this does not include an actual seat assignment. So, we got booted out of our seats shortly after sitting down, and had to find new arrangements. Apparently people don�t like to let you into their compartments in Italy, as evidenced by every compartment door shut with the curtains drawn, even though there were surely empty seats. So, the net result of it was that we got in a 6 person compartment with a total of 5 people and it was miserable. Matt actually left the compartment and spent the night entirely awake in a fold down seat in the train hallway. He looked like a contortionist trying to get some shut-eye in various body positions in that little seat, all the time fending off passerby after passerby bumping into him and drunk guys stumbling through the hallway yelling things in italian. Finally we arrived in France.