When in Rome...

Our time in Rome was definitely packed full of sightseeing and good graces (right?, I mean I guess you have to get some good marks for visiting so many sacred sights!). We began our time traveling to Ostia, the beach town adjacent to Rome and about a half hour away. Our campsite about 100 meters from the beach. We spent the later part of the afternoon and evening walking on the beach, seeing the gorgeous sunset and eating more pizza than we ever imagined possible.

The next day, we took the morning easy and headed into Rome for sightseeing around lunch time and made our way over to the Coliseum. As soon as you step outside of the metro station, it stares down at you! Wow! The size, the history, the giant blocks of travertine – something I will never forget. Hungry, we headed a few blocks away and found this little pizzeria, we got a slab of what looked like some veggie pizza, but was really the most delicious broccoli Panini ever! Walking back over to the Coliseum and Palantino Hill, which holds the Roman Forum and many other very important historical ruin you can think of to the ancient Romans, we laid out our battle plan (ha!). We decided to go through the Forum areas first and purchased the audio set to guide us around. Of course we shared the headphones and it was a pretty funny scene to see us leading each other around. I was impressed by all of the ruins and what it must have been like back in the ancient times, although to me – the most memorable part of Palantino hill was the amount of excavation that had been done and that still needed to be completed! I think about half of what we saw was still being excavated and it really makes you think about history being buried one layer under another for centuries! Next, we headed over to the coliseum and the lighting was just perfect! The inside was well worth the visit and in the last 10 years they have really cleared out the dust and you can see where the gladiators trained and where they caged the wild animals below the central area. JJ and I enjoyed learning about the gladiators, but I really just tried to take my time, imagining the scene where the Romans would have watched gladiators fight each other, wild animals, stage battles, etc. all for entertainment of the Romans. I also learned that public executions were done there as part of the half time show. Well I am glad times have changed, I would prefer cheerleaders dancing any day to that. From the coliseum, we went over to the Trevi Fountain, walked down the Spanish steps and headed in to Trastevere for dinner. We took a long train back to the campsite and decided to stay in a hotel the next night.

On our second day in Rome, we began by visiting the Campo De Fiori market. We enjoyed tasting great fresh produce, buying dried fruit and nuts, and having a spectacular presentation of cooking tools done by a very old Jewish man. He was a perfect character for the Muppet show and I wish that we had taken a video of him. He sold us some amazing kitchen tools that JJ thinks we will use (yeah right) on our travels, but regardless, just being around this crazy old man was worth the investment. He had a whole gimmick for selling his julienne slicer, potato curler, and other things with plastic food, animals as props, and a container of bubbles. It was beyond ridiculous and I loved every minute of it. We headed from there over to the Parthenon. Definitely one of the most amazing things I have seen so far in our travels. The dome of this original Hellenistic prayer house is the largest brick one in the world even still today. The Parthenon was built by the Romans as a tribute to the Gods, although it was quickly converted into a church and very well preserved. The whole at the top was letting in amazing amounts of sunlight and the ability to follow the beam of light from the ceiling to the floor was amazing. I read that architects find the structure almost impossible to replicate even in modern times. WOW! After this amazement, we walked to the Vatican and past an impressive old castle (insert name). We arrived in front of St. Peter’s Basilica literally with no clue that it was the Costco sized church of all churches (we would find this out later). We headed a long way around to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. Once inside, we were astounded by the amount of Egyptian and Mesopotamian relics. We saw works by Chagall and then started to drool over the Pope’s apartment rooms painted by Rafael. The highlight of course was the Sistine Chapel because of the incredible detail all of the paintings had. The Genesis painting by Michelangelo was the most incredible, and the thought of how he was actually able to paint that way on the ceiling. Did he paint lying down? He definitely was not afraid of heights! Next was St. Peter’s Basilica. Oh JESUS! This place was so huge! I could not believe the size! I have no idea how large it really was, but I would guess it was as big as the entire Mall at the U of A? The marble, stone work, iron work, and the mosaic tile images were unbelievable. Why did they put them so high up where you have to lay down (not allowed by the way) to see the whole image? I don’t know, all I am sure of that if that place only took 150 years to built, Michelangelo was not the only one doing the work! Incredible.

We are now on our way to Cinque Terra (Le Spezia/Levanto), Italy for camping, hiking, and swimming around the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Ciao!