So to start, I lied and feel like an idiot about the Trevi fountain. It's a long story but I'll get to it. We started our second day with a 4 and a half mile walk to The Vatican. Thanks to Courtney's pre planning we didn't have to wait in line. All I can say is huge and beautiful. It's a giant piece of history. I took pictures of the statues I found interesting and the other things I enjoyed, but about an hour and a half in my brain was exhausted. Then we got to The Sistine Chapel... Wow. I need to look up how long it took Michelangelo to do that because its breath taking. They don't allow pictures but I snuck a few, and almost feel bad posting them because it really doesn't show the magnificent artwork (pretty much how everything has been so far). You look up and think your seeing statues on the ceiling. The detail and thought that went into it is inspiring. I would keep going but we had a busy day so I'll move on.
After leaving we got gelato at a place my hostel recommended and then headed to St. Peters. Remember that whole you can't describe it and picture don't do it justice thing...ya...definitely applies here. They built this place just to bury the first pope, and it is outrageous. I literally stood and glanced around and just tried to take it all in. Everything is so ornate and detailed. Everywhere you look you think how amazing it is that someone built that.
Moving on again... Long story so I'll try to be brief. Basically our first night here we followed the map to what I thought was Trevi Fountain..and when we got there we both were kind of disappointed and didn't understand all the hype. And we both separately knew about that huge famous fountain that takes over the whole plaza and is on the side of the building. But courtney assumed it was something else we hadn't gotten to yet and I assumed if that wasn't it it must be in Florence and I was just confused.... Well then at the vatican we see a post card for Trevi with that picture....and we realize after checking the map that we had missed it! So we figure it all out, go get a slice of pizza for lunch, head to another beautiful plaza, get lost getting to the Pantheon and get help from an Italian waiter that tried to teach us Italian and convince us to come dance the night away with him and continue to give Courtney his number...
Then we finally find it. And as we walk in I am so ecstatic that we realized the mistake and fixed it. Trevi is alllllll it's cracked up to be and the some. So disregard my previous post about how small it was. It wasn't, and we took pictures and tossed pennies over our shoulders and just enjoyed it.
Sound like a busy day, right? Well...THEN we headed to the Colosseum to see it! I've always really enjoyed the stories of the gladiators and all the emperors and lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). So I was stoked to see the inside. And it really is ruins, unfortunately. But they had a ton of info on then history and I learned a lot and got to imagine what it was like. Did you know the Pope still goes there for a ceremony on fat tuesday? I sure didn't.
So nearly 700 pictures later we are done with Rome. Off to Florence bright and early for a new adventure!
A few closing thoughts on Rome and random things I saw and/or noticed.
-I mentioned the strange sight we saw when a man drank from the fountain...come to find out that's normal. They have some fountains with steps going to the water and some faucets just continuously running on the streets... It's all clean. Very clean, actually. There water tastes perfect...which makes me wonder why they all drink bottled water only and pay for it at restaurants.
-The toilets don't fill with a lot of water, kind of like a toilet on a plane. Its different, and causes our hostel bathroom to smell like nasty old pee all the time
-back to water. Well, either eater or climate, but my hair is extremely greasy here. Like i shower at night and at 7am it looks greasy. So I'm trying to not use conditioner and see if that helps
-we didn't see too many sketchy people that looked like they were trying to steal stuff, but we had a few. Or I'm just really paranoid and anyone too close is sketchy. Either way we still have all of our stuff. There was one almost freaky incident....walking to Trevi...or maybe Pantheon... Either way, two men are walking towards us and as the guy starts passing I notice his hand literally reaching for my crotch. I instinctively jump back and he pulls away and we both walk off in opposite directions..and I know I'm not crazy here cause even Courtney noticed...
-I heard a lady yelling at her dog in Italian.. And realized dogs must speak different languages. In realize this sounds ignorant, but it's weird for me to think that, it's like people dreaming in Spanish....hard to explain. Anyways, Courtney knows German dog commands so I'm going to convince her to mess around in Germany. Also, this reminds me, I should have asked the Brazilian we just met what he dreamt in...cause he is learning English now, so technically as a bilingual i feel like your dreams could get interesting. I need to remember to ask the next bilingual I meet about it
-we didn't really see the ghetto except when we rode the train in from the airport, but on that ride I saw the most graffiti I've ever seen... Its like they have given up and don't clean it up. Anyways, it makes me curious what it would really be like to live here. that and the crime scene we saw just around the corner from the Vatican today
-Italians overall are very nice and respectful to tourists
-Rome is very fast paced half the time....and the other half its like they are trying to balance out by being very slow moving and relaxed. Its very unique
-these Romans are very stylish. Its hard to explain so I'm just gonna leave it at that.
That's all I can recall... And I'm getting up in 6 hours for a train. So, chow, from Italy!
No comments:
Post a Comment