Rome

Now that I've returned from another trip altogether, I can finish telling you all about the trip I had before! After the heinous night train from Paris, I arrived the next morning in Rome.

I really had a lot of fun in Rome. I was so discombobulated from that peculiar night on the train that I guess I was behaving confusedly when I checked into the hostel because the receptionist asked several times if I was okay. She then pulled out a small map of Rome and pointed out everything I might need to know, including areas to avoid at night, because she was worried about me in my confused and under-slept state. Check in was not until the afternoon, so I wandered around for a few hours until then. I quickly found that the map I had was difficult to read. Nothing was to scale, and the little images of buildings were facing wrong directions, so when I was standing in front of one, I would be facing a different direction than the map indicated. Almost immediately after I stepped out of the hostel, I was heading in the wrong direction. A local asked me what time it was in Italian, and once I explained that I had no idea what he was saying, he asked again in English. We made small talk, and he told me I was going the wrong way. His name is Alessandro and we went for a quick coffee before I continued wandering around. He pointed out some things on my map that only locals would know, like nightlife spots and good areas to find authentic food. By the time we were done, it was siesta and Alessandro retired to his apartment, which you can literally see from my hostel. I decided to make the most of the little time I'm spending in Rome and endure the heat during siesta. It really is brutal. My first stop was Piazza delia Repubblica. There is a church here named Santa Maria degli Angeli.
This is the other side of the piazza.
Afterwards, I headed in the direction of the Roman ruins. I first came upon Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.
Just beyond that is a sea of incredible ruins.




On the other side of the ruins is the Colosseum. Walking through the halls, you can get an idea of what some prisoners experienced in their last moments.



Inside the Colosseum is a museum featuring Eros, god of lust. It also has more Roman artifacts.
From the Colosseum are great views of the other ruins. You can really get a feel of the metropolis the Romans built when you see so many foundations still intact and laid out as they were thousands of years ago.


On my way back to the hostel, I passed Santa Maria Maggiore.
When I got back to the hostel, I met two of my roommates, Max from Finland and Ellie from New York, formerly from Texas, formerly from Argentina. After all that, you'd think she'd have an accent, but you'd be wrong. They are both delightful people. We all went out to dinner together that night to the area Alessandro recommended. I took a quick stroll through that area before I met my roommates at the hostel and found a restaurant that made homemade ravioli stuffed with pumpkin. I took the other two to that restaurant because I really wanted to try this dish. So of course when we get to the restauant they were out of that dish. It was good food regardless, and very good company! We stopped by the Piazza delia Repubblica on the way back to see it at night. It was pretty quiet, but nice.
Ellie and I had similar itineraries, so we decided to spend the next day together in Vatican City. I am so happy I got to see it, it is positively breath taking. To see so much history, man hours, money and more encompassed in this community built solely on faith is really something to see; it shows what the human mind and belief is really capable of. If we put this much dedication into other things, you can get a glimpse of what we can really do. We went to St Peter's Cathedral first. We got there shortly after 8 am because the crowds can be horrendous. We wandered around the cathedral for over an hour, and we could have spent much more time there as it is a massive building with so much intricate detail. As you can see, we spent a lot of time in the courtyard alone!













Again, my camera seems to be shy in low light, but I did get some good photos inside the cathedral, though they hardly do any justice to the beauty of this masterpiece.






























Ellie and I headed up to the dome atop the cathedral. We had a wonderful view of the city on the outside of the dome, and inside we were close to the art on the ceilings and could see down to the main chapel.







On our way to the Vatican museum, we passed the bronze doors, where one must wait when requesting an audience with the Pope.
The Vatican museum is huge. It is set up such that you don't wander around to the exhibits you choose, but you have to follow a path that is laid out for you, kinda like the way Ikea is laid out, with the Sistine Chapel at the end. The courtyard has several courtyards in it, each filled with artifacts from a specific theme.




After several rooms of artifacts, busts and sculptures, we entered the Round Room with a massive bath in the centre.



Beyond this, we finally reach my favourite, the ancient Egyptian artifacts. It's meshed with ancient Roman pieces as well.



Proceeding this are many Italian masterpieces. I noticed that the walls and ceilings of the building interior are remarkable, and like the Louvre, could be empty and still breathtaking.






After these dozens of rooms, we enter a string of chapels, where I believe each Pope gets to design one. There are so many chapels, I was selective when taking photos. The second and third images were on the ceiling of one of the chapels. I found it rather harsh. If you can't make it out with my blurry camera, it is Christ on the cross in room, with a fallen statue of a Roman god, in pieces, at His feet.


Once we passed all these chapels, we finally came to the Sistine chapel. It was prohibited to take photos, and I respected that. I must have sat in there for a good twenty minutes. On the way out, there is a very vibrant and lively painting of the Garden of Eden that I felt really captured the essence of purity.
We grabbed some lunch after the museum and checked out some more sights. I had a fantastic pizza with tomato, basil and ricotta cheese! We visited the Piazza de Popola which has a square and a nice park.





We continued through the park to the Galleria Borghese, a museum that was recommended to us by the hostel receptionist.
They are rather pretentious at the museum: they only let people in every other hour, so they can control how many people are visiting and how long they are there. We didn't stay. Our next stop was the Pantheon. On the way, Ellie and I stopped for gelato, something you find as frequently in Europe as you do street meat in Toronto. We found a great spot that has around a hundred different flavours, and my lactose intolerant eyes rested on the dozen soy flavours. However, I went for the sorbets. The Pantheon was nice, though not as majestic as the other sights I had seen that day!







Our last stop for the day was Fontana di Trevi. A surprisingly large crowd was gathered around this fountain, so we were there for a while resting before we had any opportunity to take photos. I had a fun time with Ellie and hope to visit her in NYC!

One thing I did learn while in Rome, is that I want to visit so many other cities in Italy! There are so many things to visit in this country, and I really hope I get to come back and see more.