By the sign of my throbbing feet and the 400 photos I took, you can tell that today
was a good day – a loooooooooong day, but a good day.
It started off with a buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Typical foods – croissants, eggs, ham, cheese – but the Italian hot chocolate…let me tell you…to die for.
After breakfast, we headed back up to our rooms to gather everything we needed
for the day, which is when Emmeline found the marks she had left on the
staircase walls after tripping last night – so funny.
Packed in the subway like sardines, we took the crowded Metro into the downtown
area and split off into groups of our choosing to explore the city during our
morning of free time. I roamed Rome – get it? I am sooooo funny! – with two
fellow Canadians Alex and Carly. As we walked through the city to the Castel
Sant’ Angelo, we passed through many markets and saw so many alley ways that
reinforced my idea of typical Italy.
We also passed Vatican City, but stopped quickly to enjoy the beauty of the
Basilica.
As we approached the Castel Sant’ Angelo, we had a beautiful
view over the water and the old buildings that make up most of Rome. After
enjoying the view, we ventured into the Castel Sant’ Angelo which was built as
the grave of the Roman Emperor in 139 AD and was used as a tomb for Royal
families for a hundred years after that. Later it was given by the Emperor to
the Pope and has also been used as a military outpost and apartments. Today it
is a museum open to the public and it was really cool to go inside and see
everything. There are a few beautiful frescoes on the ceilings of the
apartments.
After about an hour in the Castel Sant’ Angelo, we walked
across the bridge to the main city core. There were statues lining both sides
of the bridge, as well as solicitors that always try to sell you stuff – and
drive you crazy. The view over the water was so schön!
We wandered the streets of Rome for quite while and I was in
awe of the beauty of the old buildings and the atmosphere that was created when
the locals and the tourists meshed together into one populous - it really was a
unique feeling. Although Rome (or Italy in general) is more “run down”, I think
it really adds to the whole feeling and atmosphere of Rome. Here in
Switzerland, everything is always clean and in order and there is hardly ever
major chaos on the streets. Whereas in Rome, the feeling is much different, but
one that I love!
After roaming Rome - pun intended - we decided to search for a Pizzeria that one of Alex's Swiss friends told him about. It is apparently one of - if not the best - in Rome, so we embarked on a mad hunt. Luckily Carly and Alex are less directionally challenged than I am and were able to read the map to figure out where we needed to go. As we followed Alex's direction, we started to head out of the more touristy area of Rome and found ourselves in a more "local" area. After searching for what seemed like ever to our hungry stomachs, I was about to call it quits and just go to one of the other 100 pizzerias we had already passed along the way. But just as I opened my mouth to say that, we found the prize!
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| Where are we exactly?! |
We found "Forno's"in a little alley way hidden by construction. There were no tourists around and it became quickly apparent that this was a real treasure and a locals hangout place. The pizzeria was really crowded and the atmosphere was just so Italian - hustle and bustle. The way it worked was that you go up to the counter, point to the pizza you want (there were so many variations), show them how much you want and then they slam their knives down to cut you a piece. They then fold it on top of itself, weigh it and give you a receipt and then it is your responsibility to go to the cash to pay for it.
It was also very inexpensive and I have honestly never eaten better pizza in my entire life. After paying, we went outside of the pizzeria and enjoyed our first ever real authentic Italian pizza. And was it ever worth running around like monkeys to find it!
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| OMNOMNOM |
After devouring our pizzas, we headed back through the streets of Rome to meet up with our group for an afternoon tour. We passed through the famous Piazza Novano which was built on top of the Roman Stadium hundreds of years ago and revisited Castel Sant' Angelo because it had free bathrooms and all of us were far to cheap to pay for a real public bathroom...
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| Piazza Novano |
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| Me in Piazzo Novano |
We finally met up with the rest of the group at the Metro station from earlier in the day. Once we were all assembled, we split off into two preassigned groups for a tour of the Vatican and the Vatican City State - one of the smallest independent countries in the world. I was in group Blue which consisted of all of the South Americans and the Canadian girls. Group Red had everyone else.
Our tour guide's name was Franceso. Although he was Italian, he spoke perfect English and used words that I'm not sure I've even ever used as a native speaker! He gave us all head sets so that no matter how far away we were from him, we would still be able to hear what he was saying.
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| WHAT?! |
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| The ear piece |
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| What cha got there? |
We then started the tour by walking towards the wall of the Vatican that was designed by Michael Angelo hundreds of years ago. We entered the Vatican, got our tickets and then headed up the spiralling ramp to a replica of the Vatican City State. It is actually an independent country from Italy but because we were only visiting the museum areas, we didn't need to cross customs - but we were still in another country!
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| Spiralling ramp |
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| Replica of the Vatican City State |
We then ventured outside to where we could see the top of the St. Peter's Basilica that Michael Angelo had a hand in designing. While we were listening to the tour guide, we took pictures and walked around. Unfortunately there was construction, so we weren't able to see everything perfectly! Thank goodness for the fountain though because we were all about to die of thirst. The weather was quite warm and we had been doing a lot of walking, so hydrating ourselves felt amazing!
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| The lifesaving fountain |
We then ventured into a courtyard with magnificent buildings surrounding us. Finally we had a chance to sit down while Franceso explained a view things about the Sistine Chapel to us - because it is such a holy place, you have to be quiet and they aren't allowed to explain while inside.
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| Just taking a break |
We then entered into the building again and walked through room upon room upon hallway upon hallway of old Roman statues. They were really cool, but I'm not sure I have ever seen a bigger collection of something in my entire life.
As we walked from room to room, there were always Frescoes on the ceiling and they were stunning!
From there we headed to the Sistine Chapel where Michael Angelo spent over 10 years of his life painting the ceiling and the wall. Because we weren't allowed to take pictures, I have nothing to show you the beauty of the Chapel, so I have stolen a few photos off the Internet for you to see!
The Sistine Chapel is where all of the Cardinals are kept while they vote for a new Pope and it has been in use for hundreds of years. It is where the votes are burned to inform the public if a new Pope has been found or not - black smoke means no Pope yet and they have to vote again while white smoke means that a new Pope has been found. The painting on the wall is called "The Last Judgement" and the one on the ceiling is supposed to introduce the story of Religion from Adam and Eve to Jesus to St.Peter and it involves both the Old and New Testaments.
After the Chapel, we exited the main building and headed to St.Peter's Basilica which is probably one of the most well known symbols of the Vatican. It is huge and can hold up to 50,000 people - perfect, just enough for my wedding! All of the previous Popes have been buried in the basement of the church and the previous Pope's body is actually still sitting in the Basilica while they wait for the process when he will officially become a Saint before they bury his body.
We walked around the "mother of all Catholic churches" for a little while, and although I am not religious myself, it was really interesting to go inside and see the beauty of it all - and plan my wedding...
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| Inside the Basilica |
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An important balcony that the Pope uses on
Christmas and Easter Sunday to address the crowd |
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| The Basilica |
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There were hundreds of chairs because the next day,
the Pope would be addressing the city of Rome |
After concluding our tour with Francesco, we had about an hour of free time before we had to meet up with everyone again for dinner. Carly and I headed off to the Vatican Post to buy postcards and stamps from the country of the Vatican City State. It was so cool! They have their own post! After filling out the postcards, we used the Vatican Post Office to send them - so Mom, look out, you're getting a postcard with a stamp from one of the world's smallest countries!
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| The Vatican Post |
Carly and I were running late as usual and managed to get ourselves extremely lost in the streets of Rome on our way back to the Metro station where we were meeting everyone before walking to dinner. We literally ran through the streets and I am so bad with direction, that I'm pretty sure I managed to get us even more lost than we already were. We stopped to ask a local for directions - a very, very touchy local - and after a little bit of discussion, he set us on the right path. From there we literally ran to the Metro and arrived at the group only one minute too late! Not too bad when you think about how lost we really were.
We then walked to dinner at a local restaurant where we enjoyed salad (with salt...so gross), pizza and cake for dessert!
A lot of us were still really hungry after dinner, so we headed to a Gelato parlour. On our way to the Gelato parlour, we witnessed how dangerously Italians drive when we saw a car hit a man on a Vespa. Luckily, he wasn't hurt too badly and there happened to be an ambulance in the area. After that shock, we enjoyed our Gelato and headed back to the hotel via subway.
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| First Italian Gelato! |
When we got back to the hotel, Carly came to visit us in our room for a little bit while her roommates showered and got ready for bed.
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| Typical Carly.... |
And then it was time to call that day of adventure over!
Stay tuned for the rest of my adventures in Rome and Venice!
