Spring Break Part 1: Rome

I don't even really know where to begin.

We knew this week was going to be awesome. We had plans. We had booked our hotels and flights. We knew where we wanted to go, what we wanted to see, what we wanted to eat. We were excited, to say the least. Our hopes were high, and this vacation exceeded even our highest expectations. It. Was. Perfect.

Because we did so much, I am going to divide up my Spring Break blog into three parts. First, I'll tell you about Rome.

We left Friday morning. The forecast called for rain, pretty much nonstop for at least a few days. The real weather? SUNNY and WARM and PERFECT. (It rained for about 20 minutes the first evening in Rome. That was it. Oh, and it started raining when we got back to Florence, after we were already safely inside our apartment. How did that work out?) Anyway, we took the slow (cheaper) train to Rome and got there around 11 or so. We purchased Roma Passes to cover some sights we wanted to see, plus transportation. Then we headed to our hostel.

It's not hard to get around in Rome. The Termini train station is in the middle. The metro has two lines, which cross at Termini. We had to take the metro to a certain stop and then catch a bus from there. The bus dropped us off a short walk from the hostel.

Side note: If you are unsure of the differences between hostels and hotels, this article is helpful.

We stayed at Peter Pan Hostel. It's not very close to the center of Rome, but it is easily reachable by metro and bus, and it was a lot cheaper than the ones with better locations. We had a private room for only €13 a night for each of us. The beds were clean and the door locked, so really, that's all that mattered. We shared a separate bathroom with random people, which was okay, but the shower was NASTY. We didn't shower in Rome. Peter Pan Hostel also gave us breakfast: cereal and croissants. And the people working there were really nice.

After checking in, we left our heavy backpacks and headed into the real part of Rome. First stop: The Colosseum. The Colosseum is 2,000 years old. When it was built, it could accommodate 50,000 people, and they came to watch gladiators, criminals, and animals fight to the death. We marveled at the outside before using our Roma Pass to go inside.

Do those look like rain clouds? Nope!

Inside the Colosseum

After taking lots of pictures, we began to search for food. We stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch. I had a sandwich and fries, and lots of ketchup.

Then we went to the Roman Forum. The Forum was the political, religious, and commercial center of Rome. We explored the Forum using a tour from my Rick Steves' book, and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Palatine Hill (ruins of emperors' palaces) before it started getting dark and we had to leave.

We walked across town to the Pantheon, where it started to rain. Since we needed to get out of the rain, we decided to was time to stop into Gelateria Caffe Pasticceria Giolitti, for Rome's most famous gelato. Although Florence is considered the birthplace of gelato, we now strongly believe Rome has the best. This place was where we went for dinner all three days we were in Rome.

Pantheon at Night

Once it stopped raining and we had finished our ice cream, we walked through town, stopping at the Trevi Fountain to toss in a coin. (Fun fact: The coins tourists deposit daily are collected to feed Rome's poor.) Rome was beautiful at night, with all the major monuments lit up. We went back to the hostel and went to bed after our first day.

Day two began with a trip to the National Museum of Rome. It houses the best collection of ancient Roman art. We saw tons of sculptures including "the best-preserved Roman copy of the Greek Discus Thrower," lots of mosaics, old jewelry and coins, and many other really cool things. The best part of the museum was this:

It's the Portonaccio Sarcophagus. I don't really know what that means, but I couldn't stop staring at the details carved into this chunk of marble. It's really jaw-dropping. I didn't want to look away!

After the National Museum, we went to the Capitoline Museums. We saw some famous works of art: Capitoline She-Wolf, Boy Extracting a Thorn, Commodus as Hercules, the Dying Gaul, and the Capitoline Venus.

At the end, we were pretty museumed-out. We ate lunch at this place called Miscellanea. It's in Rick Steves' Italy, and since we had the book we got free homemade "sexy wine" to go with our meal. It was a sparkling red wine made from strawberry-flavored grapes, and it was delicious. I had spaghetti carbonara. And after our meal, the owner gave us ice cream sandwiches, and more wine.

Since the restaurant was right by the Pantheon, we went inside the church after lunch. The Pantheon has the biggest one-piece granite columns in Italy. It also has a really awesome skylight in the middle. Raphael, and Italy's first two kings are buried in the Pantheon.

Once we finished looking around inside, we didn't have any real plans for the afternoon, which means we went shopping. I didn't buy anything, but Hannah and Meghan each bought some clothes. We wandered down the main shopping street, ended up in a square where we heard a woman singing a beautiful opera song, and we checked out a church called Santa Maria del Popolo. Inside is the Chigi Chapel, designed by Raphael. There's also the Cerasi Chapel, with Caravaggio's The Conversion on the Way to Damascus and Crucifixion of St. Peter.

Since we needed dinner, we headed back to the Best Gelato Place Ever, stopping along the way to climb the Spanish Steps and take some more pictures. When we finished our ice cream, it was dark, and we took pictures of the Colosseum at night before going back to our hostel.

Day three, we had reservations at the Borghese Gallery, a museum with Bernini sculptures and paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian. We couldn't take pictures inside, but I googled this picture because I want you to see it:

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne

This sculpture is amazing. The picture is definitely not the same as seeing it in real life, because you can only see one side here. This statue alone was worth the cost of the Borghese Gallery.

It was time for us to head to Naples. We grabbed some snacks at a grocery store for lunch and took the slow train to The City of Pizza. Yes, pizza originated in Naples. And yes, we had pizza for dinner both days we were there. But more on that later, because after a day and a half in Naples (next blog), we spent one more day in Rome. (Confused? Don't worry.)

So, day five of our vacation, we took a train back to Rome from Naples. We went to the Vatican Museum first. (We had planned on going there the second day, March 19, but it happened to be a holiday for St. Joseph, so it was closed then.) The Vatican Museum is huge. The best parts were the Raphael rooms where we saw School of Athens, and the Sistine Chapel.

We ate lunch nearby (salad, lasagna, fruit salad) and then went to St. Peter's. We took pictures in the square and then headed inside St. Peter's Basilica. It is "the richest and grandest church on earth", and houses Michelangelo's Pieta, Bernini's seven-story-tall bronze canopy, St. Peter's tomb, and a lot of breathtaking awesomeness. Vatican City, where the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's are, is an independent country of 100 acres. It has its own postal system, radio station, mini-train station, and dress code. The pope is the religious and secular leader of Vatican City. We didn't see the pope. He usually gives a blessing on Sunday and Wednesday, but we were there on a Tuesday.

The last big thing we did in Rome was visit the Catacombs of Priscilla. The catacombs are burial places for Christians who died in ancient Roman times. No one was allowed to be buried within the city walls. And Christians wanted to be buried instead of cremated. Land was very expensive, and some wealthy Christians allowed their land to be used for burial places. To fit more tombs in a small amount of land, the Christians dug 375 miles of tunnels, from the first through fifth centureies.

The Catacombs of Priscilla were the ones we went to. The tour was about half an hour. We were the only people there, and the guide led us through the dark tunnels with a flashlight, pointing out some amazing things. We saw the first depiction of Mary nursing baby Jesus, and the oldest Adoration of the Magi. We saw layers and layers of tombs, some of them never opened, and some of them tiny, for babies. If you're ever in Rome, don't miss seeing some catacombs. Rick Steves recommends the Catacombs of Priscilla, because they're less crowded and commercialized, and more intimate than the famous catacombs of San Sabastiano and San Callisto.

Once again, we had gelato for dinner. Then we took a train to the airport, where we sat all night. Our flight from Rome to Athens left Wednesday morning at 7, so instead of paying for another night in a hostel and then figuring out how to get to the airport super early in the morning, we pulled an all-nighter. It would have been okay if it hadn't been so cold in the airport. We were freezing!

That was our Rome experience. (Check out the link to the pictures, on the right side of the page.) The next blog post will be about Naples. Prepare yourself for Pompeii and Pizza.