Speed Tourists

In front of the Pantheon...
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We were told we couldn't see the whole city in one day by foot- so Veronica and I set out to prove them all wrong. Our tourguide met us at 8am to take us on a tour of the ruins and then over to the Vatican where we would be left to do our own thing for the rest of the day.

This tourguide was really great. He wasn't very friendly nor happy to be there BUT he was very very informative and kept us on pace to be able to accomplish our mission of the city in a day. We rode around the city and saw the Jewish ghettos, many churches, the President's house and finally there it was, the Colosseum. I would definitely be visiting this spot later today.

Glowing in excitement and pending food comas...

In St. Peter's...
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The group headed into the ruins where we were told stories about the Vestal Virgins, where Caesar died and right there in front of us was where his body was burned for days in front of crowds. So much history happened here, and yes there are only bits and pieces left, but these places are a thousand, if not more, years old! It's crazy how long they have been preserved. The neat part about Rome is that no matter where you walk you run into ruins- in between random buildings, sometimes huge areas, really just all over the place.

Light coming in St. Peter's...
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We leave the ruins after learning about the original Arc Di Triumph (the Arch of Titus in Rome), apparently the one in Paris is what Napoleon had rebuilt to copy this one in Rome. Anything he couldn't steal he had remade. However, this one's detail actually depicted a story with random Jewish sentiments put throughout it as it was apparently built by the Israelite slaves (so was the Colosseum).

Our tourguide's final stop with us was at the Vatican. He took us into St. Peter's Square and told us where to go and left us. They recommended waiting an hour before attempting to get in the line for the museum, but Veronica and I just went straight to the line which was completely fine. We waited about thirty minutes and then we were in! It was so much larger inside than it looked like from outside- even this massive staircase we went up immediately after entering. We went through hundreds of exhibits on our way to the Sistine Chapel, but I really wanted to stop in the Egyptian one. I have always wanted to go to Egypt- so getting to see real mummies and other artifacts from Ancient Egypt will have to do for the time being. It's just weird because how did the Vatican acquire these things? Veronica was afraid of the mummy, she didn't want to look at a dead human body on the other side of the glass- but I'm sure I'll see weirder things with nursing and wasn't really phased, just mesmerized by the history behind it. We kept following the path probably for about three miles of turns and bends and different rooms before we finally hit a traffic jam which was apparently directly outside of the Sistine Chapel- so we had made it here finally! The Chapel was much smaller than I was expecting and I never really realized that it was a part of the Vatican, however it was beautiful. The finger touching scene was just as I had imagined it; like an incredibly in depth story apparently titled "The Creation."

In front of St. Peter's Square...
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From the Sistine Chapel there is a miniature door in the back that if you go through and follow actually leads you right into the side of St. Peter's Basilica which was another experience in and of itself.

Apparently 200,000 people come here for the Easter service every year, making this the biggest church in the world. From inside I don't know how you would even see the speaker... I guess people are just content to be able to hear the message rather than having to see the person delivering the word. All around inside there are glass caskets with wax bodies of Popes from across time (apparently not the actual popes, but a very weird concept to have wax bodies around for people to stare at). The neatest part about these Popes was being able to see their actual uniform, what the Pope actually wears during his reign.

Overlooking the ruins...
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After experiencing the magnificence that is St. Peter's, Veronica and I set off to accomplish the whole city in one day. Our hotel was on the exact other side of Rome, so this would be perfect- just go straight across and check out things on the way.

We first headed back to the Pantheon because it wasn't opened the day before. The Pantheon is an ideal example of the impressiveness of Roman architecture. It is considered the most well preserved piece left from ancient Rome and until this day continues to teach architects and other engineers the importance of shape, mass, space and of course the dome shape. Considering it has been around since 125 A.D. it can obviously serve as an example of how to make buildings work. The name Pantheon comes from "Pan Theos" which means all the G-ds, of who it was created for. The Pantheon remains an active church titles Santa Maria ad Martyres and holds the remains of many famous Italians including Raphael. As the first Pagan temple in Rome to be Christianized the Pantheon was kept in used and preserved for the future.

In front of the monument for the Vestal Virgins...
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Our next goal was more gelato- we wouldn't be in Italy forever- better make the most of our time. This time I decided to try something a little new, I got three scoops in one cup: 1 dark chocolate, 1 tiramisu, and of course 1 coffee. It was glorious, made my mouth very happy, but the coffee was still my favorite!

Our next stop was to finally go inside the Colosseum- suprisingly only wearing flip flops was not hurting our feet- we had a mission. This line once again was shorter than we had expected, maybe going to Disney World so many times has made me very line tolerant...

Our nightime Roman banquet...
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While waiting to get in I recognized the girl in front of me from somewhere so I struck up a conversation with them and it turned out she went to my high school! She was a year older than me, and her older sister had been friends with my sister. She was their on her honeymoon with her now husband and they were traveling through all of Italy. This moment really gave me one of those It's a Small World moments- out of all the places in the world I meet someone who went to high school with me while waiting in line to see the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. How we ended up in the same place at the same time is weird, but neat.

Battling in the Coloseum...
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Veronica and I leave the honeymooners to their own touring and go inside. We run into a few people from our group including Lindsay, Pip, Ryan, Rachel and Marni. Apparently a lot of others went back to the hotel room to take a nap- but why would they ever want to miss this??? The history of this place just blew my mind. To think that thousands of people and animals had all died in this space in front of me for the viewing pleasure of others was to some extent disheartening. It was hundreds of years ago- but seeing the places where gladiators had marked in the walls their battles- and knowing that they had to win twenty to get their freedom was very sad. Apparently there were very few to ever accomplish this feat. It was also sad to think that all of the underground compartments were used to house animals- some extinct today, that would be slaughtered for the sake of entertainment for the people. This is not my type of entertainment...

Looking down into history...
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After leaving the Colosseum we weren't sure what we wanted to do. We passed many more ruins, as they are everywhere here. We didn't want to get dinner because tonight we were having an Italian banquet as a group outside of the city. So we decided we would just walk and see what we found. We passed many churches, a monument to Vittorio Emmanuelle II who is the equivalent of our George Washington apparently, and finally made it back to our hotel.

We all got dressed up for our Roman banquet- a dinner we were told we wouldn't forget. Great Italian food amongst great new friends, this trip has offered me so much more than I ever bargained it to. An Italian band played for us including a flautist and singers- and they convinced everyone to get up and dance. They played beautiful Italian pieces and then some fun stuff such as the chicken dance which we all know so well. After an appetizer, salad, main course, dessert (an icecream cake type of pastry) and more wine than necessary we were all glowing in excitement and pending food comas. Tomorrow we will be leaving Rome, but I will definitely be coming back here in my lifetime...