When in Rome

May 4-7, 2011-  May 4 marked the beginning of my 6 day trip to Rome and London with Matt Wever.  The plan was to fly to Barcelona, Spain where I would meet up with Matt since we had different flights and once we found each other, we would try to get some sleep in the airport.  The finding Matt part was easy as Matt found me trying to sleep on the ground, the sleeping part proved difficult.  We eventually found a table to rest our heads on and got a couple hours of sleep.

In the morning our flight left for Rome quite early which meant we arrived in Rome around 8am, a perfect time to begin our day.  We bought some Roma Passes which allowed us to take the subway and buses all over Rome and began heading downtown.  Our first stop was Saint Peter’s Square located in the country Vatican City.  

The line to get into Saint Peter’s Basilica was enormous and it turns out Pope John Paul II had his beatification earlier in the week.  The large number of people was probably due to this major event.  Despite this long line, we decided to jump in line which actually went very fast.  We were in Saint Peter’s Basilica in no time.  

I should point out that I have been to Rome before on a trip with my family four years ago.  This was the second time I went in the cathedral and it was just as impressive as the first.  The cathedral was huge and had statues everywhere.  But since I have already been there, my main desire was to climb to the top of the cathedral and look over the city since I did not do that in my previous trip.  After a very long climb to the top of the basilica, we finally arrived.  The view was absolutely breathtaking.  We could see the Vatican Gardens and also the whole city of Rome not to mention a great view of Saint Peter’s Square.  If anyone goes to Rome in the near future, I would strongly suggest paying the 5 Euros and climbing to the top!

Next on the agenda was a trip to find some pizza!  Since we were close to a huge tourist attraction, the prices were outrageous!  So we walked around and eventually found a good place where we bought some pizza.  Seeing that we were in Italy, it was only proper to eat pizza for every meal and it was delicious each time.  After we had our fill we went to the Vatican Museum.  I had forgotten how large this museum actually was.  We worked our way through massive halls filled with statues of people or halls where the whole walls and ceiling were filled with paintings.  

We eventually made it to the Sistine Chapel and saw The Last Judgment and The Creation of Adam, both masterpieces of Michelangelo.  These paintings were huge and covered the whole wall.  The whole chapel was amazing!  To finish off our day, we bought some gelatos and sat right outside the Colosseum enjoying the fact we were just chilling outside the Colosseum in a city that dates back thousands of years.  It was amazing!

The second day started off as a complete disaster!  It turns out the public transit system was shut down from about 9am to 3pm due to a strike.  Naturally we went to the cheapest hostel in Rome which was located way outside the middle of the city.  Despite the public transit of Rome was shut down, there was one bus line which was still working.  We eventually made it to the Colosseum at noon where we saw a demonstration pass by.  

We discovered a couple days later from a British couple we met that were on our same flight to London that Hilary Clinton was in Rome the same day.  Strange.  Anyways, we decided to give up our plans to visit another city nearby Rome for the day and instead decided we would see the Roman Forum and the inside of the Colosseum.  Those plans also failed as the line for tickets closed 5 people ahead of us due to the strike.  Apparently that strike completely put Rome on hold.  So after a quick change of plans, we started walking around the city.  The first place we arrived was the Circus Maximus.  

Matt and I decided to take a nice job around the dirt track just to say we ran on the Circus Maximus.  Next we found a nice gelato place and continued walking on the west side of the city.  We saw some sites attempted to find a statue, but instead got kinda lost.  We found ourselves walking alongside a road that had sideway with only two feet on the side of the road where we could walk without being in the street.  

But we ended up finding a really cool park that we otherwise would never have.  This park seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but was massive!  

The park was beautiful and we relaxed there for a while.  After relaxing, we started heading back into town.  Once there we walked around and saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and huge government building where a celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the Italian Army was taking place.  

A bunch of military vehicles including a helicopter was there which was pretty awesome!  Also, on our way to the Spanish Steps we stumbled upon some Lamborghinis!  The 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 was on display along with two other Lamborghinis.  This made my whole day complete, especially after the rough start.

Day 3 in Rome was quite relaxing as all we really had left to do was see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  However, the line to buy tickets moved at a snail’s pace while standing in the brutal sun.  The line took us about 3.5 hours to get through but we eventually made it.  The Roman Forum consisted of many destroyed buildings from ancient Rome.  

Just imagining what the buildings would have looked like in the past made this a really cool experience.  Also the inside of the Colosseum was really cool to see.  The massive size and the knowledge of what used to take place there made the trip to Rome complete.