Ciao Bella

   While you, my fellow Americans, were dreaming of Turkey legs, yams, & football on the eve of the gluttonis American holiday that is Thanksgiving - I was up and on my way to Rome, Italy! My love for Pasta (I believe I was Italian in a previous life) was enough to guarantee a successful weekend. We arrived in Italy to a blustery, semi-rainy, cold slap in the face. I will say this 1 time and 1 time only - I missed Greece at this exact moment. Exhausted and airplane stale, we boarded a train from the airport to Termini (the Grand Central Station of Rome). According to our guide book, once arriving at Termini we simply needed to change to the Metro line and then we would be two short blocks from our hotel. Sounds quick and simple. Oh, contraire my friends...
   Let me paint you a quick picture... 3 girls (2 blonde and blatantly not Italian) who departed at 3:30am for the airport, 1 in heels, toting a 50 lb LARGE suitcase. Picturing it? Good. Moving on...
   After squeezing our suitcase off the train we headed toward the Metro. The closer to the Metro line we got the thicker the hoards of people - 50 lb suitcase in tow, just great. Icing on the cake? Oh about 8 sporadic flights of stairs. Now for those of you who know me frequenting the gym is not high on my priority list - therefore, me and my abundance of upper body strength hauled this obnoxious suitcase both down AND up various flights of stairs. We finally reached our train (approximately 20+ minutes later) and at this point I'm cursing Rome and all that it entails. The Metro system here is dysfunctional, to say the least. Small train, tons of people - NEWS FLASH: not everyone is going to fit at once. Oh, but how they try. My best description - it's like squeezing pachyderms through a doorway, just doesn't work well. Once we are on the train we take it 1 stop. Yes, that's right 1 stop! Haul the bag up a couple more flights of stairs and we finally breathe fresh air.
   We head in the direction of our hotel, find our street and begin searching for street numbers. Looking across the street (we are looking for #163) we see 154, 152, etc. and so we begin heading in the opposite direction. We have to walk through a flee market - little detour through Asia and Africa, no big deal - only to get to the other side to see street numbers such as 23, 5, etc... and we turn back around. A quick pit-stop in the Radisson Hotel for directions - "Hi. We're not staying in your hotel, but could you give us directions to your competitor hotel? Thanks." - and we were back to our search. Back on the corner we started on, we found that before we walked in the opposite direction we were literally standing in front of the door to our hotel - literally. You've got to be kidding right? Here's the kicker: the first train we got off, before trekking to the Metro, the track was literally a 2 minute walk - we could see it from out hotel! Just ridiculous.
   We enter the foyer of the building and find that our hotel is on the second floor - what lies before us? You guessed it: STAIRS, naturally. Oh, don't forget a very reliable looking elevator - circa 1812. Once inside we were not only pleasantly surprised, but overwhelmed with excitement to be able to sit.

 



Rome 1 - Jessi 0

    ahh deep breath. Welcome to Rome! Moral of the story: live & learn... then laugh about it later. Sorry for the lengthy introduction, but our first meeting with Rome had to be shared! Hope you got a nice laugh! :)

After a much needed cat nap - or rather tiger snooze - we set off to explore Rome for the afternoon. Our first sightseeing adventure was to the Spanish Steps.


Piazza di Spagna




Jessi and I on the Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are a popular tourist attraction and on most days are so crowded with people you can't even see the steps themselves. Thanks to a light drizzle we got prime picture taking opportunites. When we got off the Metro I was really excited to see my first Roman attraction... my initial reaction "that's it?" ha Anti-climactic. Fun fact about the steps (thanks Wikipedia): The Spanish Steps is the longest and widest staircase in Europe!

Onward we go... next stop: the infamous Trevi Fountain! A famous European landmark did not cease to impress. It may even give the Colosseum, in my opinion, a run for it's money. The fountain is the most famous in Europe and it is absolutely beautiful!! We went back here several times... so here are some pictures of the fountain both during the day and at night.



The BEAUTIFUL Trevi Fountain



Shelby came to Rome! She loved it :)



Making a wish! You have to throw the coin backwards and it has to be Euro or your wish doesn't come true :)



Still being Thanksgiving day and all we had to have a dinner to celebrate... Italian style of course :)



Thanksgiving menu: Gnocchi - potato puff pasta.
Grandma it didn't hold a candle to your chicken & noodles :)

Day two found us bright and early on our way to see the magnificant Colosseum! We exit the Metro and this is literally the first thing we see...

For those of you who don't know the Colosseum recently opened the bottom section this past October. I am one of the few who have now stood where Gladiators and animals alike anxiously awaited battle. While the tour itself ranked a 4/10 the experience and photos were well worth the freezing cold and mediocre tour!

Enjoy some photos of the beautiful Colosseum...



waiting out the torrential downpour inside the Colosseum





This is looking down on the lower level - that was once covered.





Bottom of the Colosseum

 

You can see the small cells where either animals or Gladiators (who were often prisoners or slaves) were held before they were brought up by elevators to fight to the death for entertainment.




View of the entire Colosseum from the top tier

Being the good Catholic girl that I am I couldn't venture all the way to Rome and not see the Holy Grail of Catholicism. Welcome to Vatican City!

Vatican City is the world's smallest country. Yes, it is it's own country. Ironically, per capita, it is also the richest. It has the lowest birthrate and about 1,000 people including the Pope himself call this place home. Vatican City is fully functioning with it's own post office, bank, & hospital. Pretty amazing!



St. Peter's Square



"Sphere inside a sphere" - the larger sphere represents the entire world, the smaller the church. The sculpture is suppose to represent that the church is the center or the world and all that that implies.. interesting 



Amazing hand-made tapestries in the great hall. Depiction of the Ressurection




I was amazed by the ceilings. They look like they are 3D, but they are actually all 'flat' painted!!



Hall of Maps



Illegal photos of the Sistine Chapel. Painted by Michaelangelo




The infamous ceiling... God reaching out and 'creating' Adam




The indescribable St. Peter's Bascilica





Outside of St. Peter's




It's the Pope's House!

Rome was such a 360 change from Paris. It was relaxing, low-key and a fantastic break from school. Unfortunately, I was not swept off my feet by an Italian hunk. However, we always have Dublin, Ireland - which is what my next blog will be about.

Hope you enjoyed traveling to Rome.
Ciao Bella