August 29: We left at 4:30pm from Istanbul to Rome via
Turkish Airlines. No wonder they were named the best airline in Europe for two
consecutive years; what a great experience. The flight was only two and a half
hours, yet we were fed a delicious full course meal and we had individual tv
screens. With China Southern, which we flew to Istanbul, for ten hours, we had
no entertainment. And I had never experienced such rude flight attendants in
all my life!
We landed at about 6:30pm and with a few sentences of
instructions, we found the train station and caught the train to Travestere
where we would be staying. This would be the first city where we booked an
apartment rental through the booking site Wimdu. We have always only stayed in
hotels or hostels, but with budget prices, we thought we’d try to live like a
local while in Rome.
The apartment is nothing to brag about. It’s very basic and
doesn’t even have air conditioning. But the room size is nice and we share a
bathroom and kitchen with the other attendants but our paths never crossed. It
is about a 2 mile walk, or 30 minutes to the city center, but we don’t mind it.
Living in Korea, we walked 2.5 miles homes from school everyday; so this is
actually 15 minutes shorter J
August 30: Armed with a Rick Steves guide book and free
audio tour pod casts downloaded, we were ready to find our way to the city
center! Because we didn’t quite know where we were going, it took us about an
hour to get there, but we made it! And our first stop: the infamous
Colosseum!!! The Colosseum for me is something so iconic. A place I have always
wanted to visit; when we walked up to it, I could not believe I was there!
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| Inside the Colosseum |
We had read that to skip the long lines, it’s smart to
purchase a “Rome Pass.” A pass that gets you into
two sites of your choice for
free, and free local transport for three days. Well, when we looked into it, it
was 35 Euro. The Colosseum is 12 Euro by itself, and we felt like 35 Euro was a
lot to cut the line. The tour guides were trying to get our business by paying
for a tour; telling us the line to buy tickets was an hour and a half. Taking
our chances in the line proved to be the best decision. We were at the ticket
booth in under 30 minutes AND they took our teacher cards which enabled us to
buy our tickets for half the price!!!!!
I had read that some places give reduced entrance fees to
youth (under 26), and teachers. All we had to do was go on the ITIC (International Teachers Identification
Card) website, sign up, pay $20 and we got an official card with our photo validating
that we were teachers! Had we bought the Rome Pass, or paid for the tour, we
would not have been given the discount because I asked them. Chalk that point
up to Sarah and Andrew!
Allison and Jordan Gristy (Allison is Andrew’s sister) told
us to download the Rick Steves free audio tour guides on our iPhones before we
visited sites; saving us the five euro cost of an audio tour at each site.
Another fantastic tip! The guides were perfect and make touring these sites so
much more meaningful!
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| Ruins of the Forum |
After the Colosseum, included in the ticket price, we visited
the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. The Roman Forum was pretty cool. It was
the hub of Rome during its prime and reign of Caesar. It was for centuries the
center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections;
the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and
the home of commercial affairs. To think we were walking on the same streets as
Julius Caesar really made the history come to life!
Following the Forum, we walked around and took in the sites
of Palatine Hill. Rome has its origins on the Palatine. Get this, some
excavations showed that people have lived there since approximately 1000
BC!!!!!! WHAT?!?!? Sure, there isn’t A WHOLE LOT left, but what we saw was that
old! I seriously can’t even grasp that. Many affluent Romans of the Republican
period (509 BC – 44 BC) had their residences there. During the Empire (27 BC –
476 AD) several emperors resided there.
Day one was a success on so many levels!! MIND BLOWN.
August 31: Today was one of the most amazing days! It was
also one of the most physically exhausting. We left the apartment at 9:45am
with the intention of taking the train to Vatican City. Once we were at the
station, all the ticket booths were automated and there was no one around to help
us figure out where we needed to go. So we left and went to the bus stop. Same
situation. So, what did we do? We WALKED all the way to the Vatican from our
apartment. It took just over an hour. Yeah for a short four mile walk to warm
up for an ENTIRE day of walking! I have to give credit where credit is due.
From now on, I should refer to Andrew as simply Magellan. He was a rock star
when it came to navigating the streets of Rome!
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| One of the many gorgeous ceilings in the Vatican |
WOW! The place was gorgeous! There was not a wall that was
not completely covered with paintings, tapestry, or sculpture masterpieces.
Room after room the scenes were truly amazing. It was a bit overwhelming to say
the least. After walking around for about and hour and a half it was time for
the main event; the Sistine Chapel. The masterpiece and greatest work of Michelangelo.
We sat in there for about 30 minutes listening to a Rick Steves audio tour and
just trying to take in the God given talent of this artist depicting the events
in the Bible from creation to the coming of Jesus. To think that one man, over
the course of four years painted the entire thing is mind blowing. What an
amazing gift to give to the world. (Pictures were not allowed, so you will have
to Google to check it out). Truly the greatest work of art by a single human
being in the world….hands down.
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| St. Peter's Basilica is right behind us |
After we left the Vatican, we walked the ten minutes to St.
Peter’s square. This giant plaza houses St. Peter’s Basilica, the home of the
Pope and a 4,000 year old Egyptian obelisk. We ate some sandwiches under the
shade of the giant columns and just tried to take it all in. We then decided to
get in line to go inside St. Peter’s Basilica.
Completed in 1626, it’s not only one of the largest churches
in the world but it’s regarded as one of the holiest as Peter (one of Jesus’ 12
apostles) is buried there. Remember how I said that the Hagia Sophia in
Istanbul left me speechless, well, St. Peter’s Basilica left me breathless.
Granted, they were built during very different times, but both are grand in
their own right. This Basilica was absolutely STUNNING! No detail went unfinished.
From the marbled floors to the painted domes, I felt like I had walked into the
gates of heaven. It was religious
experience like nothing else and if something that beautiful exists on earth, I
can’t even fathom the site of heaven. THIS IS A MUST SEE for anyone who visits
Rome.
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| Inside the basilica |
It was now late afternoon as if we hadn’t already walked
enough, we made our way to the Pantheon. One of Rome’s best preserved
buildings, it was built in 126AD and is still is use today as a Roman Catholic
Church. In fact, when we were there, they were conducting five-o’clock mass.
This church is credited with helping to design the Sistine Chapel as well as
the Capital building in Washington DC. I just think that it was so neat to see
it still being used as it was intended to be when it was constructed so many
years ago. The audio tour even said that couples can still get married here!
Can you imagine that wait list!? Sheesh!
Still trucking along, we made our way 15 minutes to see the
famous Trevi fountain. We fought our way through the crazy crowd to take our
picture throwing our coins and making a wish into this magical fountain. It was
so fun to just sit down and people watch. Such an iconic site!
Leaving the Trevi fountain, we made our way to the last stop
of the day, the Spanish steps. Again, we fought our way, took some photos, then
climbed our way up to take a seat and just take in the sites we were so blessed
to see that day. At 7pm, we left to start our decent back to find a place to
eat and our apartment. Well, we got slightly turned around, and ended up in
what some might call the “seedy part of town.” It wasn’t until TWO HOURS later
that we found a place to eat and rest our poor legs. The meal was basic but delicious
and the wine was even better! Overall, the sites we saw were amazing, and I’m
not even exaggerating, we probably walked 20-25 miles. We have got to figure
out this bus system or I’m not going to last another six weeks!
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| At the Trevi Fountain! |
September 1: Today wasn’t nearly as thrilling as yesterday.
But I mean, we are in Rome so it’s still fantastic! We decided to make it a
lighter day since our feet were still barking due to the miles we put on them
yesterday. The plan was to see the renowned National Museum of Rome that we had
heard so much about.
We left our apartment at 10:45am and as soon as we stepped
outside we noticed a bunch of people and a ton of tents; a flee market!!! We
spent what was left of the morning making our way from booth to booth to check
everything out. Sadly we didn’t end up buying anything but it was still fun to
look.
We then set off for the museum. We did NOT anticipate the
two hour walk it took us to get there. Then, following the ‘signs’ we were
walking in circles trying to find the entrance to this dang place! After asking
several people we finally found it. A three story brick building just
caddy-corner from the main train station. I was pumped to see gladiator gear,
swords, togas, the crowns of past emperors; you know national museum level
artifacts.
Following the museum, we made our way to St. Mary’s Basilica
that used to house Baths of Diocletian. A Roman bath house converted into a
beautiful church, strange huh? In addition to being a place of worship this
church also contains a meridian line. At the beginning of the eighteenth century Francesco Bianchini built a meridian line, a sort of sundial, within the basilica. Completed in 1702, the pope
wanted to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar and to
produce a tool to predict Easter exactly. It
was also Rome’s official time keeper for several years.
We could walk no more. I told Magellan that we needed to figure out
this bus situation. So we made our way to an information booth, bought a ticket
and hopped on. We got off a little early, and had a 20 minute walk home, but it
sure beat the hour and a half it would had taken. We ate at a delicious pizza
place near our apartment and sipped on a $4, pretty dang good bottle of wine
and called it a night!
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| Beautiful Capital building built in 1906 |
Our last stop of this relaxing day was Capitol Hill; a gorgeous little
plaza that we walked around and snapped some photos. It was a very low-key day
relative to the last few, but it’s nice to not have an agenda to just enjoy
being.
We walked our tails off in Rome. It’s a fantastic city filled with
so much history it’s really hard to wrap your head around. One thing that was
unexpected that I really enjoyed were all the free water fountains throughout
the city. The water in Rome is
just fine to drink. So as long as you carry around a water bottle, you’ll save
a lot which is always appreciated! We enjoyed our time so much in this
beautiful city. Can’t wait to see what Venice has in store!
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