Part II: When in Rome...

After a long day of traveling on Friday, we were in Rome! It took a little doing – our plane was delayed, and since the information about our Rome hostel said that check-in time is only until 10 p.m., we were starting to get a little worried. Our hostel was on the other-ish side of town from the airport, and Rome is HUGE, so it would take us a good hour to get over there. We soon realized that there was no way we’d make the 10 p.m. deadline, so Lauren called the hostel and explained the situation. Thankfully, they were very understanding, and said that it was fine as long as we got there before midnight. And when we were there, there were still people checking in after that time, so we probably would have been fine anyway. But I think it was best to double-check, at any rate.

Anyway, after two bus connections and some uncertain searching on some dark-ish streets, we were there. It was rather more adventure than we wanted at that point, but we made it safely. The hostel itself was great (even though the stairwell smelled strongly of cat) – it’s a converted convent and only women are allowed to stay there It was cute – all the artwork and such on the walls were photos of women, articles about women, and paintings done by or of women. No boys allowed! Which was sooo nice – after all the sketchy men we’ve seen on our travels, it was wonderful to feel safe and know that our roommates were for sure not going to try anything :-S And our room was so spacious and nice, with comfy beds and big closets to lock up our stuff. All in all a good choice for a three-night stay, I daresay! Anyway, all there was time for that night was some e-mail checking and some sleep, to get ready for a big day the next day.

On our first full day in Rome, we got up early to head to Vatican City! It was a short walk from our hostel, which was nice. We were instantly impressed with the outside courtyard (I’ll be able to recognize it on TV now!), and took some pictures as we waited in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. The line was fairly fast-moving, and we were in before we knew it. What an impressive building! It’s got to be one of the biggest structures I’ve ever seen, and so beautiful. After looking around inside for a bit, we headed over to the cupola to climb up. 551 dizzying and claustrophobic steps later, we were at the top! This was our second city view, and quite an impressive one. By the time we got back down, our legs were quite shaky, but it was worth it.

Next up was the Vatican Museum. The line for the Basilica may have been a breeze, but this one was decidedly not – we waited in a huge line along the wall for practically 3 hours. I’m pretty sure it’s the longest line I’ve ever been in! Thankfully we had some cookies and pumpkin seeds to tide us over while we waited, but we were more than ready to get inside when we finally got to the door. There were so many people inside! Not losing each other in the crowd proved to be a bit of a feat. After looking around a bit, we bypassed most of the museums because the only thing we really wanted to see was the Sistine Chapel. We found the first sign for it and headed off. Little did we know, they herd you through a seemingly endless section of the museum before getting to the actual Chapel – every time I saw another sign for it, I thought, “Maybe it’s just around the bend!” But it wasn’t, for a very long time. It’s probably good because there might not be too many people who would look at that part of the museum if the setup were different. And at least there were cool things to look at. But it made us rather impatient after a while.

Anyway, 20 signs and a mile of museum (well, that’s what it felt like, anyway) later, we were in the Sistine Chapel! It was worth it, I daresay. Everyone says that it’s smaller than they thought it would be…I guess I’d have to agree with them there. It was very impressive, though, with a ceiling-full of gorgeous paintings by Michelangelo. There were guards patrolling and periodically shouting “No photos!” and “Quiet, please!” in English and Italian. Nobody listened, though. Including us…we sneaked some fairly good photos of the ceiling, especially the famous painting of God and Adam reaching out to touch the tip of each other’s index fingers! So cool.

After we’d gotten our fill of the Chapel, it was high time for lunch. We found a cute little restaurant and had our first yummy meal of real Italian pizza and pasta! Next, it was on to the Spanish Steps. They were pretty cool, though difficult to see because they were absolutely covered with people! Nevertheless, we found a free spot to sit, and spoke some Spanish with each other and with a random group next to us :-D It just had to be done, you know?

Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain. I absolutely loved it! After soaking in the beauty for a moment, we muscled our way to the front, and each of us did the obligatory wish-and-coin-toss-over-the-shoulder. So much fun! I guess we’ll see if our wishes come true…

After the Fountain, it was getting to be time to eat again. We weren’t really sure where we wanted to go, so after some aimless searching, we decided to go back to the hostel to take a better look at the map and ask the front desk person for suggestions. We were hoping to find a McDonald’s (yes, I know, we are shameless…), but had been unsuccessful since we were in a more residential part of the city by the time we started searching. So Megan took a look in her Italy guidebook back at the hostel to see if she could find a likely area close by. She discovered that there was a little plaza not too far from our hostel, so we headed back out to find it. After locating it and looking around a bit, Megan spotted the sought-after McDonald’s sign down the street! This rivaled our McDonald’s moment in Paris for excitement – once again, good ol’ Mickey D’s didn’t disappoint :-D We really ought to write a nice letter to the CEO, or something. Anyway, we had a delicious (and cheap!) dinner there, and then had some still more delicious gelato from a nearby shop! Absolutely amazing. I had cappuccino, mint chip, and – get this – nutella flavors! Nutella and gelato are possibly the best things ever…so whoever thought to combine them is a genius! We took our gelato back to the middle of the plaza (or should I say, piazza) and sat eating it while listening to some rather skilled street performers. All in all, a successful evening and a great day!

The next day was Easter! It was definitely different from any other Easter of my existence. It was weird not going to church and being with my family, but it couldn’t be helped. It was early-to-rise again, and we headed to our first sight of the day, Palatino Hill. We went here first because Megan learned that the ticket you get is good for both the Hill and the Colosseum (which I apparently do not know how to spell…), but the line at the Hill is almost always shorter. And how – since it was early a rainy (the only day of bad weather during the whole trip!) Easter Sunday, the line was nonexistent! We got our tickets and explored the awesome ancient Roman ruins there, all the time wishing that our history major friends were there to tell us what we were looking at. It was still really pretty and interesting, though. Got a lot of great pictures!

After the Hill, it was Colosseum time! This was my favorite part of our time in Rome, and one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. So astounding! And Megan was right about the ticket thing – we hardly had to wait at all, which was fantastic. The place was such an amazing sight. I can only imagine what it must have looked like in its heyday! And another aspect that I loved about the place was that they had a substantial exhibit with the history of the place, what it used to be like, what the shows consisted of, and what the people were like who went to see them. There were displays of what gladiator’s outfits probably looked like, as well as a good deal of information about them. I was absolutely fascinated! It was so nice to finally learn the history that went with what I was seeing – this happens surprisingly rarely during European travel, unless you’re rich enough to shell out the bucks for a tour or an audio-guide (which I am not). It was such great fun to take my time and read about all the super interesting stuff! I was wishing that my dad and brother and various history-loving guy-friends (you know who you are...) were there to geek out with me, but alas, I had to do so on my own. But it was still fun :-)

After touring the Colloseum in the cold and the rain, we were feeling quite chilled and ready for some lunch. Finding a pasta place of the type we were in the mood for proved rather more difficult than expected – I mean, it’s Rome…there ought to be such places on every corner, you’d think. But apparently not. After some searching, we finally found a place. We were all getting a bit crabby, so food was definitely in order. It was a pretty good place – I had some yummy lasagna and some wine. Rather more than I needed…I felt I ought to drink the whole ¼ of a liter, as I had paid for it. But I got a bit tipsier than I had planned on…oh well. Live and learn?

Once our bellies were full, it was time for the last sight of the day – the Pantheon. It was cool, but rather anti-climactic after the Colloseum, especially since the outside was half-covered with scaffolding because of restorations. This seems to happen to us a lot…it was still neat to see it, though. After that, we had no plans for the rest of the day, and ended up going back to the hostel for the afternoon. We napped and relaxed from about 4:00 to 8:00 in the evening. It was quite glorious, and just what we needed on a rainy afternoon. After that, it was time for more McDonald’s and gelato! Just as yummy as before, I might add. And then we went back to the hostel again to get ready to leave – we started the next leg of our journey in the morning. On to Florence!