Italy - Student Style (Part III - Roma)

I love Rome. What a great absolutely ancient city! You could just be walking, turn a corner, and BAM! The Colosseum!
So Phoebe and I showed up in the dark and tried to avoid the homeless and beggars outside the gigantic Termini train station and pretend we knew where we were going - we did find a nice man to point us in the right direction...so we showed up at our first hostel and found that we were overbooked so they moved us down the road to another hostel. That worked out alright...made some new friends, watched some music videos, and ended up being the only girls in the all boys dorm...dang overbooking. That resulted in some pretty awkward, humorous times! The next day, we moved on to the Alessandro Downtown hostel to meet up with our SPICE program buddies. That was a legit hostel! It was great! We got free breakfast and pasta for dinner and met all kinds of great people!
We spent that first full day in Rome freezing to death walking under the Roman palm trees and touring Vittorio Emmanuel's memorial which was really beautiful. And becase we couldn't get enough of the cold wind, we went to look around the Colossuem as well. Wow. Just being able to see that, this ancient, fascinating, troubled structure and hearing its loooooong and varied story, was amazing. We spent a long time there - we had to get our monies worth! And we took tons of photos...good times. Then we went back for our free pasta, which was decent. and FREE, that's the important thing.
Thursday we walked over to the Vatican...we are walk pros...it was only all the way across the city, no big. It was pretty cool, but I was hoping that they would check my passport since it is its own country, but no luck. So we dressed appropriately and get through security and went into St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world. Apparently Peter, the first pope is buried under the basilica, you can actually see the valut and the mosaic covering his grave. The church was interesting...but honestly, I felt like I was in a Pope-shrine. It was absolutely overwhelming, all decorated to the max with precious stones, marble, gold, and whatnot. A lot to take in. Then we got lost on our way to the Sistene Chapel (hint: follow the large crowd of people), but we found a fantastic bakery! So we lucked out. And so with our chocolate croissants, we headed off for the Papal Palace to see the Sistene Chapel and all that. So you know, you can't just meander over to the Chapel, you need to go through EVERY exhibit to get there, but it's ok, because the other museums are fantastic! Gallery of maps, Raphael's Rooms, all sorts of stuff with frescoes by THE artists of the day, so that was alright. Of course you were allowed to take pictures everywhere except the Sistene Chapel, isn't that right mister NO FOTO! Jeepers. So while we gawked at Michelangelo's Creation of Adam and the like, we entertained ourselves by counting the number of people taking pictures compared to the number who actually got caught...those illegal photographers were the winners by far:). I won't say if I took any... :) Afterwards, we walked to the Pantheon to check out the hole in the ceiling. The outside was pretty dingy, but I guess that's allowed becuase it is absolutely ancient...the oculous was HUGE though and very impressive, but I would avoid it in a rainstorm...then we got some gelato:) That night, Phoebs and I met up with her cousin Hilary who was in Rome on business, what are the odds. She's great! Good times...
Friday we went to St. Sebastien's catacombs. Like the Colossuem, this was an incredible portal back to the time of the early church. There were carvings of the fish symbol and the names of Peter and Paul etched into the walls. There were also Roman mausoleums with the ashes of aristocratic Romans still in the urns with ancient fresoes decorating the walls. In total, I think these catacombs go down about 7 levels and there are 100,000 graves in total... we only got to see a small part but that was incredible! The museum on top was full of sarcophagi that had been uncovered in the catacombs, and other trinkets and decorations. And in the catacombs, you can see the clefts in the walls where people were buried, and look down the long halls and see more and more rows. It was surprisingly warm down there...the stone is volcanic and it was soft and moist. I'm claustraphobic but it was alright...I think the fact that I was down in ancient catacombs captured my attention instead. The church on top of the catacombs was built by...Constantine. How cool. So that was a good time. On the way back into the city I tried a Roman experience...I bought a panini from a roadside stand. Not recommended - go to a bakery or something. Ew. When we got back to the Colosseum, we split up so Jaime, Cherylyn, Phoebe and I could attempt to break into the Roman Forum (ancient ruins). In all honesty, we bought the tickets but they expired the day before (we were 15 minutes late- boo). So we got in line, tried to look like retarded tourists and they let us in! The Roman Forum is great, extra great because of our mildly illegal entry...it's all ruins of ancient temples, roads, palaces, and the like and it is HUGE! The weather finally matched the palm trees so we had a lovely walk around, it was what dreams are made of. Then we headed off to the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps. Made some wishes at the fountain and played some Crazy Eights on the Steps, headed back to the fountain and got some, o...gelato:) Friday was also Jess's birthday (one of the SPICE girls:p) so Amber, Jaime, Jess and I bought some fresh pasta, pesto, tomatoes and wine (and lemons we picked right off the trees) and made a rocking awesome Italian meal of our own! Pasta tastes so much better in Italy...then we went to the grocery store and bought some cake and ate it at McDonalds (everthing else was closed...it may have been pretty late...). Good party times...
Saturday morning, the SPICE girls left to return to the Netherlands:( We definitely had some super times and Phoebs and I were sad to see them go!
Then we left for Pisa...last stop...