Roman Holiday

Last weekend I went on a Roman holiday. While I didn't meet my Gregory Peck, I did fall in love. With the city, just to make that clear. Rome is absolutely amazing for anyone who likes bigger cities, lots of historical sites next to modern buildings, and Roman history. I can see why Rome is such a beloved city by so many. It certainly surpassed my expectations. During the three days we were there, I was able to go to the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Sistine Chapel, the Trevi Fountain, and stick my hand in the Mouth of Truth. There was a lot packed into two and a half days and I went a little picture crazy in Rome which is enough of an indication for people who know me that I was really taken by that place.

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Starting at the beginning, we arrived in Rome by train around nine in the morning and, after dropping our stuff off at the hotel, went right away to tour the Roman Forum. It was absolutely, hands-down my favorite ruins to tour. We had a tour guide who was adorably short (and she noted it with pride) and very informative. She painted pictures for us of what ancient Rome must have looked like in the years before Christ and kept me captivated the whole time. I never realized how deep my interest in ancient Rome was until she started talking. We walked around for maybe an hour and a half or two hours, and then stopped in a really nice grove where we ate our lunch. We probably only walked around half of the Forum because I saw a whole other part to it during our break, but we were on a tight schedule.

Roman Forum

Inside the Roman Forum

After lunch, we went to the Colosseum and had a special tour where we got to go from the bottom of the Colosseum where the gladiators and others would enter the stadium to the top where the poorer people sat. It was definitely a thorough tour of the place, but it made me a little sad. How grand the Colosseum must have been when it could seat 87,000 people and was so lavishly decorated! Seeing the skeleton of what it once was and imagining the grandeur of the place was depressing.

Ground level of the Colosseum

First level of the Colosseum

Second level of the Colosseum

Third level of the Colosseum

The Pantheon

That brought my mood down, but after that we went and toured the Pantheon, another really awesome site considering the people who used to meet there, and then got really good gelato. Afterwards, there was another hour and a half walking tour which was actually really interesting, though my feet definitely hurt after being on my feet all day, and after ending the tour in Piazza Navona, we made our way back to the hotel for some rest. My friends and I got dinner on our own at a nearby restaurant called Insalata, a place seemingly known for their salads (I didn't try their salad) with decent dinner prices, and then walked around for a bit before going back in to sleep early after the long day.

Altar in the Pantheon

Saturday started off with breakfast at the hotel and then a trip to Vatican City. It is its own city within Rome where the Pope would live (if there was a Pope). We had a special tour of Necropolis, an underground crypt where people before Christ buried their dead in the walls lining the streets that used to be at ground level however many thousands of years ago. We also saw one of the first portrayals of Jesus in a mosaic of someone's tomb and he looked a lot like Apollo, the sun god the pagans worshiped, with some very important, but subtle, differences. It was all very fascinating, but a little creepy.

Then we went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The basilica was enormous and lavishly decorated, though it was a bit too ostentatious for my liking. Although it was incredible, the decor was just a bit too overwhelming. The church also held Michelangelo's The Pietà, one of his first sculptures and, in my opinion, most polished works. It was unfortunately behind glass, so I didn't get to get a good picture of it, but it was certainly beautiful.

After the Vatican, we had lunch and then went to see the Sistine Chapel. We had to get through a lot of the museum first, however, just to get our money's worth and see what the program directors wanted to show us. When we finally got to the chapel, it wasn't exactly all that I expected. It was fascinating, but also had an overwhelming number of frescoes and paintings. After that, we were free once more to wander, and after getting dinner we went back to the hotel and talked for awhile before I went to bed. Other people had more interesting nights out in the town, but I just wasn't feeling it.

Careful, it bites!

Sunday morning, we had breakfast, packed our things and put it away, and then were free to explore the city on our own. A couple girls and I decided to hit two main places: the Mouth of Truth and the Trevi Fountain. As huge fans of Roman Holiday, my friend and I both needed to take the opportunity to stick our hands where Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck did. We had planned to go to the fountain first, but a few wrong turns and we ended up heading towards the Mouth instead. Getting there early was a great idea because the weather was beautiful and the line was short. We went through, got our pictures, and then left all in maybe ten minutes.

View of the city behind us lovely ladies

As we made our way to the Trevi Fountain, we passed a lot of ruins, pagan temples, and random broken down walls and pieces of stone that were just lying around. The random ruins looked like trash that the Romans had never bothered to pick up even though I know and they know it has more meaning than that. It's a connection to their past, so nobody bothered to pick up the stones where it fell, although I'm sure if independent pieces were in the middle of the street they moved it to the side. They also may have left those things there because it was too heavy, but I like to pretend there's meaning to everything there.

Random piece of a pillar

Arches in a broken wall

We also passed the Altare della Patria, otherwise known as the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, and climbed up the back way to some museum I still don't know much about. It was pretty, though, and we had a beautiful view of the city where I took a lot of pictures. When we finally made it to the fountain, we took more pictures, had lunch there, and then made our way back. That was probably my favorite part of the trip, being able to explore and see so much of the city. I love seeing the ruins next to the modern city and Rome is pretty clean, something I hadn't expected.

One of the many pagan temples

And we finally made it to the Trevi Fountain

S.P.Q.R.

One fun fact about Rome is that the letters "SPQR" are everywhere in the city from the ancient ruins and arches to the trashcans and manhole covers. It stands for the Latin phrase "Senātus Populusque Rōmānus", or "The Senate and People of Rome," obviously a phrase that was coined and used when ancient Rome was a republic. By having these letters around everywhere, it's another way modern Rome can connect to her rich past. It became something of a game for me to find the letters wherever I went.

Once our free time was up, we met back at the hotel, grabbed our things, and took a bus to the Borghese Museum which consisted of a villa-turned-museum and a large park for the Romans to enjoy. The villa had really awesome paintings and sculptures from Bernini, who is now my favorite sculpture, to Caravaggio's paintings. Apparently most of the real sculptures that used to be a part of the family's collection were sold to Napolean and are displayed in the Louvre. Lucky I'm going there in the next two weeks!

The magical-looking fountain in the
Borghese Park

After that, there was a three-hour bus ride back to Florence which was quite entertaining. We watched Gladiator during most of it and I was able to point out the places in the movie that I had just been to and some symbols that I recognized. It was a happy moment for me as I watched a portrayal of what ancient Rome might have been like then.

Of all of the cities I've ever been to, Rome is my favorite, and, God be willing, I'll be back.