When in Roma...

Alright, so I think I am finally going to leave Roma. I first came to visit the city last friday with Brandi, from my Firenze hostel. We came on friday just for the day since we couldn't get a hostel booked in roma for that night, and then we took the train back to Florence. We arrived early afternoon, and walked into the downtown area, saw some pretty churches along the way, some fountains, and noticed just how busy and huge the city of rome really is!! But yes, every other building is one of interest, it seems. We were making our way towards the Colisseum of course and when we turned a corner and saw it, we took a moment. We had a fun day, pinching each other and saying - were in rome!

I have been sooo lucky with the weather on my trip, the sun is shining most days and its been beautiful!

even saw the place where Julius Ceasar was buried

We walked around Rome, and found a little cafe to have some pasta and wine before we made it back to the train station and then had to take another train back to Florence (2hrs). Saturday morning we came back, having made a reservation online the night before, checked in, and then headed back out. This time we made a loop north of the Stazione Termini, and started at the famous Spanish Steps. But these were a disapointment to me. So there is this large staircase, and at the top is this church. And there were tonnes of people sitting on them. And a fountain at the bottom. I know it sounds pretty, but the tall buildings around the steps block most of the sunshine at this time, and then there were no flowers left at this time of year, except the ones that the street vendor guys are trying to shove in your hands and then make you pay for, and the church at the top of the hill was covered in scaffolding... I was a little annoyed by the vendor guys, and at one point kinda snapped at one of them that they were ruining my experience! Not that he knew what I was saying, but he got the point. From there we walked down to the Trevi Fountain - I had no idea it was that large! (and busy) more flower guys... But it was beautiful all the same. And then over to the Pantheon - the first dome roof built I think we read somewhere. It has this large hole in the top, and there are notices when you walk in that explains that if it is raining outside, then the rain comes inside the Pantheon, and is drained through holes in the floor. I thought it was funny that it warned you. I can imagine the tourists complaining that they got wet when it was raining inside and wondering why they didnt fix it...

Then we walked over to the Piazza Navona, to see the beautiful three fountains the guidebook mentioned. It was a beautiful Piazza with palaces all around, and the square in the middle, in this case an oval actually, was full of cafe patios, artists selling their work, and others drawing characitures... however, the middle, largest fountain was - yes, covered in scaffolding and wood, and you could only view it through glass windows they put in the wood covering... we had to laugh.. The other two were nice, just much smaller. We covered a lot of ground today and took the bus back to the station ' now that was fun! You enter through the front or back door, and exit out the middle door, theoretically that is... we were so jammed packed, that we couldnàt make our way to the door for our stop so had to get off two stops later when we finally made it to the door... hilarious.

That night we headed out to the bar of the affiliated hostel, the Alessandro Palace. This was a really fun night, met lots of people from Canada, Usa, and Australia, as usual... we seem to be taking over!

Ok, so I spent another five days here - we missed seeing the pope on sunday, partly because we slept in (long night) and also we knew it would be crazy busy. So we went back to the Colliseum area, and I really wanted to do this guided tour. I wanted to hear the history and stories behing it, and wasnàt getting a good feel just looking at these ruins. So I had a tour, and then in the afternoon it included a second tour around the Roman Forum. This tour really saved my trip to Rome and made it from ok, to amazing! It was incredible to hear the history, and realize (I mean, i knew but...) that the things we know and hear about ancient rome through movies, etc, are actually real and not just stories. I even saw the place where Julius Ceasar was buried! Surreal! And to get an understanding of how the emporers lived, their palaces, the extravegance, the mere size and importance of these places and people who lived and worked in them. I loved the Roman Forum - though most of the marble and artifacts were all pillaged throughout the years, the remains still are spectacular. And once again, I caught these images at sunset, which has become my favourite time of day.

I will make another entry about my next couple days...

I canàt believe how quickly these past few days have gone by!

joanie