When in Rome...

 

Hello Blog People,

    It has been a while since I have written a post. I am so sorry! You know how it is; spring during school is always super busy. But today I get to tell you about my trip to Rome (this was most definitely over a month ago. March 11 and 12 to be precise). So here we go!

    We left early in the morning and took the train from Florence to Rome. We had our bags packed because this trip was actually going to be two days. Once we got to Rome, we dropped all of our bags off at the hotel. One thing I love about traveling with Villa is that we don’t have to plan anything. The school takes care of transportation, accommodation, and the general itinerary.  They buy us our tickets for the attractions we are seeing, and they bought us tickets for the metro so we didn't have to walk EVERYWHERE (even though we did end up walking a lot). All we have to do on these trips is show up to the right places at the right times and not get lost or separated from the group. It's the best.  

    Our first stop in Rome was Vatican City and the Vatican Museum. This is iconic for its many pieces of art. We got to get inside faster than most people because we were traveling with a group, (again one of the perks of traveling with Villa). We stood in the rain for a little bit, but once we got inside, we were given free rein to explore wherever we wanted. I did not realize how big this museum was. There were tons of statues, paintings, tapestries, mosaics, and more. The museum was gigantic and so, so full. Some of my favorite things that I saw were the GIANT tapestries, and the Egyptian exhibit which housed to real life mummies. You could actually see the mummified body and the canonic jars (where they kept the organs of the person that had died). It was crazy! Another thing that I liked was a bunch of maps on the walls that depicted an older Italy. I don’t know how long ago they were made, but it was cool to see some of the same towns that we visited on these maps.

    One of the most famous things in the Vatican museum is the Sistine Chapel. It is at the very end of the tour. You can’t just skip to it. You can’t see it and then walk around the rest of the museum. You have to go through a bunch of rooms and follow a specific path to get to it. It takes a long time to get there and you get to see a lot of art on the way. But once we got there, it was worth it. I will never forget the moment I walked into the chapel. It said that it’s a small room, but if you go inside, the ceilings are really tall and it’s actually bigger than I thought it would be. Walking in immediately see paintings on every portion of the wall and every part of the ceiling. The workers try to keep people quiet because it is a “sacred space“ but that doesn’t really work. It's always crowded, and the workers try to shuffle people through and create walking spaces and keep people moving. It's kinda overwhelming. Also, you cannot take a picture of the Sistine chapel for the same reason. There was so much art that I didn’t register seeing the most famous portion: The Creation of Adam (the painting of God reaching out towards Adam and their fingers almost touching). I know I saw it, but I could not remember seeing it. That's how busy and full this room was. It's hard to explain. You just have to see it. 

    We made our way out of the Vatican Museum and went to go find lunch. We had a few hours by ourselves to explore the area. My friend group went to get Burger King because we were STARVING and we knew it would be quick. It was good, what can I say. After that, we went to Saint Basilica, but the line was really really long and we wouldn’t have time to get in and out and still see other things. The line wrapped around the piazza, and it was raining. It didn't sound that enjoyable. The rest of the group decided to go early in the morning before our other stops, but my family was coming soon and I knew I would see it with them. We took some pictures in front of it and then went up to meet the group with Antonietta,  who was going to take us on a little walking tour of the most iconic places in Rome.

    We walked to the Spanish steps first. Truthfully, I don’t know why they are so famous, but Anto made sure that we saw them. It was raining, and walking around the city not the most fun thing ever. But it was less crowded than it would’ve been. We climbed to the top of the steps and looked pretty, but again, it was cloudy because oft the rain. After the Spanish steps, we went to the Trevi fountain. I did not realize how big the Trevi fountain was. It was definitely busy, but we were able to get some nice pictures in front of the fountain. I did get to throw a coin over my shoulder into the fountain. It was fun to do things like that when you go to these big cities, the Trevi fountain we went to nearby gelateria that Anto said was one of the best gelaterias in Rome. It was called Giolitti, and they gave a spoon of whipped cream on top which was really good. I got coffee and chocolate flavors, which turned out to be a nice combination with whipped cream. After that we had tickets to go inside the Pantheon. That was very cool to see. The inside was gorgeous. There was so much marble on the walls and on the floor and of course we saw the iconic hole in the ceiling, which is the only source of light. Yes, rain does come in, but the area that is falls is marked off so people don't fall. 

It was fun to think that how old this building is and it's still standing and still so famous. Inside, we got to see burial place of Vittorio Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy, and of Queen Margherita, which the margherita pizza was named after (thanks Queen! That's my favorite). The last place we went with Anto was Piazza Nona, which had a fountain with big spire with some hieroglyphics on it and a bunch of statues in front of a big fancy building. Again, this is famous and I’m not sure why, but I did see it.

    By this time it was getting late, so my group went to get dinner. This time we chose something more Italian and went out for pizza. It was pretty good since it had been a long day. Once we were finished, I went back to the hotel. I called my friends and went to bed. We had been going for a long time and did a lot of walking. I slept well that night.

    The second day was just as busy as we started by going to the Basilica of Saint Pietro in Vicoli. Apparently the chains that held Peter are in this church. They are in a box on display for everybody to see any, even if it’s not true, the idea that a place in the world has objects from the same time is so interesting.(Picture in Picture post ;) )

    Our next stop was the Colosseum and this is obviously one of the most iconic places in Rome. Everybody knows about the Colosseum. Again, we were able to jump the line because we were going with a group, and once we were in, Anto said we had about an hour to walk around and explore. The Colosseum is huge and it seemed surreal to actually be there and walk around. Now for the rest of my life, I can say "Yeah, I walked around the Colosseum". I was a bit melancholy while walking around, though. One of the things that I thought of while walking up to it was "I’m get to just come here and to look at this place. But I cannot imagine what it would be like if I knew I was going to die in this place. And having so many people watch my death? That would be so scary. ” I cannot imagine what it was like for the people who were murdered in the Colosseum. They have a level of faith that I hope to have someday.

    

    

After walking around the Colosseum, she took us to the Forum, I wasn’t sure what the Forum was, but basically it is a giant area of parks and ancient building remains and statues from Ancient Rome. It's beautiful. It would take days for you to go and look at everything in the Forum, so Anto took us on a little walk and made sure we saw the main parts of it. It was so interesting to see so many old things and to think about the lives of people who lived in ancient Rome. It was nice to take a little walk through the area. Obviously Rome is a big city, so all the places that we walked before were crowded with other people and very busy and there were people in the forum. It wasn’t as busy,  and it had more greenery in this area. After we walked around the Forum for a little while, we took pictures in front of the Colosseum. We went on a little exploration because my friend Sarah said that the building where they kept Paul in prison was near the forum. Though we didn’t get to see the area, we did get to go inside the building above where that prison was. That was cool I guess. Thinking about the lives of people in ancient Rome it’s so easy to also think about the lives of people from the Bible, who came to Rome and maybe walked the same areas that we were walking then.

    By this time it was the middle of the afternoon and we still have not eaten lunch. So we went and got lunch at a delicious restaurant kind of close to the Colosseum. I had ravioli, which was very good. Then we walked around a little bit more by the Colosseum and then we had to go back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Then we got on a train and headed back to Florence.

   Though this entry was not as detailed of an account as my normal blog post, I hope you got the general gist of what I saw while I was in Rome. I had a good time. Rome is very big and very busy. I would say it is a monster unto itself. I haven’t been to any city like it in Italy. It’s very unique. I think it’s important to see at least once and if you do a good job, you could see a lot. I would personally give myself more than a day, but that’s just me. 

    I had a really great time traveling with Villa. I saw so many iconic things for the first time because that I I hadn’t gone to Rome before this trip. Anto is very good at making sure we see the important parts of the city so we can say "Oh yeah, I saw that!" or "Oh I have a picture next to that." It was also nice way to start the semester; everybody being together and traveling and seeing something new. This also gave me a leg up for when my family came because their first stop was wrong and so I could show them the places that I had enjoyed seeing and make sure they also saw the important parts of Rome.

Hope you enjoyed my little account of my trip to Rome. Thanks so much for reading! 

Ciao,

            Ellie.