When in Rome!

Artsy photo at the Colosseum
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DAY TWO: After sleeping in until about 10 a.m. we gathered our stuff and set out for another day, dropping our bags off at another hotel a level up, as ours had already been booked for the second night. We began walking, stopping first at the Baths of Diocletian, the so called grandest of public baths. From the baths we walked to the Repubblica. The Repubblica is a meeting point for official demonstrations and for receiving visiting delegations from abroad, yet another impressive architectural edifice. Moving forward our next destination was the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, however, first we stopped for lunch at a small Italian pizzeria. I ate a calzone…the best one of my life thus far. Oh Roma! Haha! Anyways, we made it to the Monumento and spent quite a while looking around, standing on the steps and touring the museum. Again, it was an architectural design of such prominence that one feels naturally empowered. The next stop on the list was the Colosseo or Colosseum. The Colosseum is hard to accurately describe as it is, like most buildings and sights in Rome, so architecturally beautiful and imposing, and also capable of taking one back to that period in history. I will let the pictures speak for themselves on this one. I was thoroughly amazed and again mind blown at how people of centuries past could have created such a structure. Wanting to still visit the Basilica St. Pietro at the Vatican before it closed we walked over to the metro and bought our tickets. Now is where the fun really begins…forget last night, this adventure is even better. After purchasing our tickets we put them into the machine to walk through. Note: the machine stamps each ticket with the date and time (called validation) in order to prevent scamming on the metro system. Well we all did such, catching our first metro and then transferring to the second one. At the second one a line of guards stood physically checking every individual’s ticket. I went through fine, as did Stephen (we called him Scotti). We walked down the stairs, expecting the other four to be right behind us as they were two seconds prior to the guard check, however, they didn’t come and didn’t come and didn’t come. Finally Scotti and I decided to go back up and see what happened to them, yet we couldn’t find them. We thus decided to go back through the guards and down the stairs to the metro bus. Well, this time Scotti got caught, however, getting caught it’s the right phrase as he did nothing wrong. While my ticket was validated, the machine he had walked through must have been broken as he did not have a stamp. The guard stopped him and demanded that he pay 100 Euros to the Italian Post. We stood there arguing for quite sometime, myself swinging between absolute indignation to wanting to burst into tears. We did nothing wrong!!! Well, finally we settled for 50 Euros on the spot, much to our resignation. At this point we still hadn’t found the other four and not knowing what to do, we decided to make our way to the Vatican as planned. Well, thankfully, moments after arriving at the Vatican we ran into the other four members of our group. The same problem with the tickets had happened to three of them as well, and that is why they did not come down the stairs right away. They had just purchased gelato to calm there woes, and having wanted gelato all day, I ran back to the shop to buy some as well. Well, I opted for the go big or go home option, ordering a HUGE pile of gelato on a cone. It was glorious…..mmm. Anyway, walking back to the Vatican I never got so many stares in all my life. Everyone looked at the gelato and them at me and either laughed or pointed. Note: You must look at the picture for the full effect. One British man even stopped stared and said “Oh my God” in his accent. Priceless! I have never been so satisfied by sugar in all my life. Thank you Zeus for gelato! Haha! After I finished stuffing my face we went into the cathedral (Basilica St. Pietro). Now I know I sound repetitive at this point, however, it was breathtaking, literally. One walks inside and just stops. It was huge, more than huge, grandiose, but in a seemingly beautiful manner, unmatchable to any other cathedral I have ever seen. We walked around for quite some time, even observing the Saturday evening mass in Italian and listening to the choir. It was probably one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had…really. Upon finishing our tour of the cathedral it was once again time for dinner so we headed in the direction of Piazza del Popolo. We ate at yet another quaint Italian restaurant, myself opting for a delicious salad with balsamic vinaigrette. After a long and delicious Italian meal we visited the Piazza del Popolo, which was extremely pretty at night. Joe and Stephen bought us girls roses and we spent the rest of the evening walking leisurely back to our hotel. The next morning we woke up at 4 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the airport, waited in the airport for nearly two hours and then finally boarded our flight around 8 a.m. We arrived back in Heidelberg around 12:30 p.m. with stories and excitement. Our weekend was the best I’ve had so far! I absolutely LOVE Rome!

Our weekend was the best I’ve had so far! I absolutely LOVE Rome!