Our day in Rome began bright and early--at 5am! For the second night in a row, both Blake and Morgan and Landon and I were awoken at 5am by a loud banging sound in the wall--it sounded like pipes clanging together. Landon and I were able to go back to sleep, but Blake and Morgan were pretty much up for the day, which was sad, because Rome was the day that they were most looking forward to.
However, despite the early morning, we were excited about seeing Rome and hurried downstairs to meet our tour guide. We had splurged a little for Rome and hired a private tour service called Miles and Miles. Our tour guide was a young, opinionated native Roman--he did a pretty good job overall and was very knowledgeable about Rome. And, not a fan of the Pope, ha.
We had a whole list of things we wanted to see and got to most of them, but Rome was a little crazy the day we were there because an organization for the blind was having a protest and it was causing a bunch of roads in the city center to be closed down. Needless to say, it was REALLY trafficky. :)
We drove from the port into the actual city of Rome and our first stop was a little cliff where you could see all of the city of Rome. We got a little background and then headed off to our fist stop: The Pantheon. Our tour guide told us that it maybe be our favorite place of the day, or at least the most beautiful. And, I would definitely say that it was probably the most beautiful--especially for how old it was. Outside they were doing a little renovation, but inside was perfect. It was hard to believe that the place we were standing in was built in AD 120. Unlike most of the other places we saw in Rome, The Pantheon was the property of the Pope, so that explains why it was so well preserved. :)
From there, we made a quick stop at the Trevi Fountain. On the way over our tour guide gave us a little of the history and then dropped us off to fight the crowds to see the fountain. It really was beautiful though, and much larger than I was expecting--and the carvings were really cool up close. We took a few pictures and threw some pennies over our left shoulders for good luck and then jumped back in the van to go see the Colosseum.
One of the best perks of the tour that we booked was that you didn't have to wait in any lines, which was especially nice at the Colosseum, because the line was LONG. He bought us our tickets and then we headed inside. And, it was even cooler inside than outside. :) We saw where people would have walked in, where they would have sat, the stage, the placed underneath where they kept the animals and the gladiators, where the emperor would have sat. We walked around for about 30 minutes, and I could have easily stayed for another couple of hours. I kept picturing Hadassah out in the center with the lions and Atretes waiting to fight and Marcus and Julia coming for some entertainment. I loved it; it's such a great series!
After seeing all we could see in a half hour, and after taking about 100 pictures, we loaded back up in the van to see the Roman Forum, where all the religious, political and business affairs took place. As we were looking at it I just kept imagining people from the Bible times walking around and talking and taking care of their business. We didn't have time to walk through it, which I thought would have been super cool, so we just stopped at a place where you could see it all and looked around for a bit, before getting some lunch and heading to Vatican City. And, I only mention lunch because our guide took us to a little pizza joint that the locals go to that had probably the best pizza I've ever had. They sell it by the kilo and slice off long, rectangular pieces or you and then fold it in half and give it to you wrapped in paper. I tried some fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil and an eggplant pizza and Landon had one that was ham and cheese and one that was cheese and cherry tomato. It ranked up there with the cannoli we had in Naples, for sure. In fact, just writing about it here is making me crave some of that fresh mozzerella, basil and tomato pizza...
Anyway, we were in a rush so we scarfed down our pizza standing up outside the store and then jumped back in the van. On the way to the Vatican we had a few minutes, so we stopped and saw the birthplace of Rome, where the first 5 emperors lived and a keyhole at the Holland embassy where you can look through and see 3 places all at one--Holland, Rome and Vatican City. Cool little places we never would have known about had we been on our own.
We also wanted to see the Spanish Steps, but couldn't because the roads were shut down due to the protest, still. Kinda crazy. :) Oh well--maybe next time.
The Vatican was Landon's favorite part of Rome--and probably my 2nd favorite, after the Colosseum. It was just cool to see the place where it all started, and so much there was so beautiful. We began our tour walking through one of the museums there (we had no idea there were so many) and then stopped on one of the Pope's lawns to get an overview and history of the Sistine Chapel. I loved that part--I love learning the story behind the people and what they did and why they did it. Then, we made out way down a bunch of other museums, which were really fun too. There was a pretty amazing tapestry of Jesus, where his eyes followed you as you walked and his arm continued to point at you as you walked past it. It was wild. And a lot of the paintings were beautiful too. But, I have to say, we were excited when we finally saw the sign for the Sistine Chapel.
When we walked in it was interesting because there were these guards at the front of the chapel making you put the lens cap on your camera (you're not allowed to take pictures in there--something about a copyright and about preserving it)and telling you to not talk. it kinda reminded me of my 8th grade classroom at times...they would tell people to be quiet, it would get really quiet, and then slowly people would begin talking again and the noise level would creep up and then the guards would shush everyone and the process would begin all over again. :)
Anyway, I though the Sistine Chapel was breathtaking, especially when you think about Michaelangelo up there painting it all by himself. You could look and look and never see it all. And, because they had just restored it recently, the colors were really vibrant. I was glad that our tour guide (whose name we couldn't pronounce to save our lives and can't remember right now) had given us some history and an explanation of what he was painting, so we could know what we were looking at.
Landon, on the other hand, thought it was too much, too busy, which is what our tour guide later told us she thought too. I can definitely see what they mean--there was a lot, on the back wall, on the ceiling, on part of the walls. It was busy, but I still just thought being there was too cool.
Landon's favorite part was where we ended the tour--at St. Peter's Basilica, the church that is built on the burial grounds of St. Peter. The church, which had also recently been remodeled, was also gorgeous. And, it was huge--the letters at the top of the walls near the ceiling were six fee tall, but didn't look anywhere that big from where we were on the floor! We just took our time and wandered around together. It was just cool being where it all began.
Before we left we saw the area where people could go to see the Pope on his balcony, mailed a couple of postcards from Vatican City (we thought that was fun--especially for my grandparents, who are Catholic) and headed back to our tour guide, who would drive us back to Rome. It was a full day and it flew by!
All in all, we had a good time in Rome. It was super crowded when we were there and it would have been nice to be able to walk around the city and get a feel for it and to be able to spend more time at some of the places, but for sure there would not have been any way to see as much as we saw without having some type of car. So, I would say that in that respect the tour we booked was worth it. We definitely saw about as much of Rome as someone can see in a day. Like my brother said as he was looking through out pictures with us, going through Rome was like walking through a history book. It was almost a surreal experience at times, to see and be inside of things we'd heard so much about.
That afternoon we definitely used our time before dinner to rest and then hit the sack pretty early that night, because we had to be ready to off the ship as soon as it docked the next morning. However, we did make time to stop in the room where they were showing Spain's semi-finals World Cup game. We watched some before dinner and then stopped by after dinner to watch them win. People were going crazy; we loved it! It was a fun way to end the night!
Coming next: Florence/Pisa
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