A day in Rome
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2008
1
3
19
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Rome,
Italy
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Midnight
You know it's been a long day when your first and only entry is at midnight. Thanks to jet lag, I didn't really sleep last night and I have barely slept since we left the US. I'm pretty much running on adrenaline and espresso. Yippee. When morning finally came at 6:30 via wake-up call, I was more than ready to do something. So I went to breakfast. It was a very nice buffet but my favorite part was the coffee machine.
I've already mentioned that I don't really drink coffee back home, but I do enjoy specialty coffees while on vacation. This coffee machine was amazing! It could make espresso, cappuccino, latte, latte macchiato, "richetto", and many other types of coffee with just the push of a button! Awesome!! So I had a cappuccino and an espresso. Now that you know why I'm still breathing, I'll go on with what I did after breakfast
Outside hotel room window...another window
. We boarded the bus at 8:00 and rain was gently coming down - enough to make it cool outside, but not enough for me to grab an umbrella (I'm waterproof). We met our guide for Rome (Gabriella) and she gave us these weird headset things that made me feel like an FBI agent.
Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain. It is such a beautiful fountain. The white marble sculptures contrasted the pale blue water like clouds against the sky. Of course, I threw a coin in the fountain. I'm going to return regardless - Rome is amazing! Plenty of pictures later, we returned to the bus and took a nice driving tour of Rome. Next time I come, I'll walk the streets and see a lot more - there's too much to see in just one day!
Next stop (and a dream come true): The COLOSSEUM! However, before we went in, we saw the Arch of Constantine and had a short break. During this time, I took pictures with the gladiators! So much fun!! I got some great pictures from it! Awesome! Afterwards, we finally entered the Colosseum. IT WAS MASSIVE! So great in it's infamous history, so beautiful in it's architectural design, so powerful in it's past life. It's 2,000 years old - and it still looks great! SO COOL!! To see it as the ancient Romans did must have been breath-taking. Many, many pictures later, we got back on the bus and drove to the Vatican City. (Time at this point: 11:30)
Those who were taking the optional tour, "Treasures of the Vatican Museums", got out while the rest stayed in the bus and went back to the hotel. Just Grandma and I went out of the Mervine's. After ice cream (not gelato, but it was pretty good) for lunch inside VC (Vatican City), our tour began. There were so many people there! Probably close to 3,000 when I was there - at least
Looking down the street
! Once again, Gabriella was our guide and we had the CIA communicators. Following Gabriella, we walked from one gorgeous room to the next, like little Secret Service duckies following the mother. Vatican Museums in one word - ...nope can't do it. I'll use several: awesome, beautiful, gorgeous, splendid decorations, gilded, full of wealth, awe-inspiring, historical, powerful, and just plain cool. Rome in a day: difficult. VC in 4 hours: impossible. There is so, so much to see, do, and eat in Rome and Vatican City that I would need a week to do only ½ of it! I saw Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, his pieta, and his crazy Swiss guard's uniforms (hysterically bright and utterly ridiculous, I must say).
I was in the biggest Catholic cathedral in the world today. St. Peter's Basilica took a big chunk of sky, put it in a box, and decorated the box so ornately that the sky doesn't miss the stars at night. I really enjoyed all the different works of (non-religious) art. Greek statues, renaissance paintings, tapestries made by ordinary men who made extraordinary things, and Roman columns were watching me every step of the way. I loved it, but by the end of the tour, my feet were killing me! I'd had enough walking by that point and enough church to last me a very long time, so we went back to the hotel.
I was running out of time in Rome by 4:30 when we got back to the hotel. Although I was exhausted, I still needed (or wanted) to do some shopping in Rome before I left for the Amalfi Coast. I took a quick shopping spree in which I bought some small souvenirs and the best gift I've ever bought myself: a "Roma" sweatshirt. I had to nearly sprint back to the hotel to get ready for the next optional tour.
This optional tour was called "Dining with Tenors" which involved great Italian food and opera music
Looking up the street
. Taking the tour bus, I and several other couples drove to "Le grotte dei emperors". The first course was antipasta, the second was spinach and cheese ravioli, and the third was rice with asparagus. My entrée was eggplant parmesan - so yummy! I wished I would have had more room to eat, but I was saving it for dessert. Dessert: GELATO!! J Italians think it's just ice cream but that's where they're wrong - gelato is 10 times better than ice cream! It's not as heavy as American ice cream, and it has a creamy sherbet-like texture. Strawberry and vanilla - delicious! Now that I've covered my favorite part of the night, I'll elaborate on the opera music. Um...it was a definite cultural experience. I felt more Italian but I definitely felt like an awkward teen as nearly everyone else was engaging in it while I just went along for the ride. It was a good idea but it's not exactly my type of music. I'm a typical American teenager.
So after that crazy experience, we saw Rome by night via the magic carpet (aka - bus). It was really neat to see the Colosseum and the Victor Emmanuel Monument lit up against the dark sky. We only got out of the bus once and that was to take pictures of St. Peter's all lit up a night. I got some good pictures before I got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. It's 1:20 AM right now, so I'll go to bed. Yay...sleep!
