Roma! the Eternal City

My best friend from back home (Angela/Angie/Ange) is on study abroad in Rome for Fall Quarter. Last weekend I was had the chance to take a train down to Rome and have my own personal tour guide for all the sights in the city.

Thursday afternoon I left for Rome after classes and lunch. The train was a bit crowded, but it only takes less than 2 hours to get there, so I have no complaints. I arrived in Rome and had to wait at the train station for Angie to come meet me, I had no idea how to get around in Rome! It was so exciting to see her again and in Italy no less!

The first place we went to was my hostel to check in. I stayed at Chianti hostel. It was really cheap (13€/night) but I don’t recommend it. It wasn’t too sketchy, I felt safe there and all, I just didn’t really like being there. The other people staying in the hostel weren’t very friendly, the showers were really cold, the bathroom had no counter space, and my room was so cramped! On one night they overbooked the hostel and people were sleeping on the floor in the hallway! But the staff was nice and I shouldn’t diss on the place too much.

Anyways, Thursday night we walked around town for a while. Went to the Trevi Fountain (I threw two coins in, so I will return to Rome and fall in love.)

We found a really good place for dinner that was fairly cheap. Ange wanted white wine, and I am starting to appreciate the white wine more and more these days. I went to Angie’s apartment and met her host mom. Then we went out to meet up with some people from Ange’s school for a drink. We didn’t stay out too late though. I actually didn’t go out that much in Rome. But I think it is a good thing, cause I had to get up so early every morning to get to all the places I wanted to see before they closed! And I wasn’t too tired to enjoy them!

Friday there was a strike on all public transit in Italy. It sucked. We had to walk everywhere and not that I am against walking at all, just that it takes so very long time to get to the places I wanted to see when all I have is my own feet. All we could get to before it closing (most have last entry at 3:30pm) was the Borghese Gallery. But it was amazing, great, great art work! On the way there we climbed the Spanish Steps, saw several fountains (Rome as a LOT of those) and explored this really cool park. You have to have an appointment for the Borghese so we had some time before our appointment to see the park. It was really cool and didn’t have tourists in it, which was great.

That night we went to the Pantheon after dinner (it’s open late). The Pantheon is incredible! It was first built in the B.C.s and is completely intact, though much changed throughout the years and is now a Catholic church/tourist attraction. I remember learning about the Pantheon from Fr. Maher (my History 101 professor). He told if we learn just two things in his class it should be:

1. How to pronounce forte, and

2. That the Parthenon is in Athens and the Pantheon is in Rome.

Now I need to go to Athens and see the Parthenon to completely understand where these two structures are. After the Pantheon we got some excellent gelato!

Saturday we saw the Vatican Museum. So I went to a whole other country! No passport stamp though. The museum is only open from 10am to 1:45pm. We got in line about 9am and the line was four blocks from the entrance! But it was worth every minute waiting and every penny on the entrance fee. They didn’t accept the Roma Pass (maybe because it’s another country?) but I did get a student discount. The Museum has art and artifacts from ancient Egypt all the way up to Modern Religious Art. My favorite part was the Rafael Rooms because of the history. In my Jesuit education at Gonzaga we cover The School of Athens extensively and this was my chance to see the real thing! Amazing! The Vatican Museum is HUGE! The hall of tapestries was incredible, the tapestries had all the detail of an oil painting and the map room was really cool to look at. The ceilings were decorated so ornately, it was too cool! The crowning glory, however, is the Sistine Chapel. Everyone says it’s smaller than you think, so I was expecting tiny, and it was a lot bigger than I imaged. I guess I think small. No pictures allowed in there and the guards yell at you to be quiet. It was so crowded! But I finally got to see those fresco panels from Genesis that I’ve studied and seen in school for years.

Once we finished at the Vatican we booked it over to the Coliseum. That was so much fun! We tried to imagine what it was like to be there in Roman times and see the Gladiators. Then, we then went across the street to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Palatine Hill was a residential area and it had a lot of gardens in its ruins. I think we all learned about The Forum at some point in school. It was so weird that I was at the Forum, where Caesar and the greats once were! When you go to the Forum you get to see the ground level of ancient Rome. Its about 20 feet (I estimate) below current Rome, everything just gets built on top of each other.

Close to the Forum is Bocca Della Verita (mouth of truth). Those of you who’ve seen Roman Holiday know about it, and those who haven’t seen that Audrey Hepburn masterpiece need to get on it! At the Bocca there are two men who stand there and try to push the line along by only letting you take one picture each.

That night I had dinner at Ange’s place with her host Mom. She doesn’t speak any English and my Italian is very limited so I didn’t understand her very much. But she was very nice to me. The food she made was delicious. She made zucchini on homemade pastry-type crust with smoked mozzarella cheese! Delicious! She even gave us some sweets for dessert!

Sundays at noon the Pope gives a blessing and says a Homily. Couldn’t miss that! But first I went back over to Ange’s place and she made me a “cappuccino” for breakfast. Thanks love! I took the rosary I bought in Bosnia to the blessing to have it blessed. Most everything he said was in Italian so I didn’t really have a clue what was going on. But I have been blessed by the Pope! He also said something in several languages at the end: French, English, German, Spanish, and Italian (I think that’s all). It was about a Cardinal in Argentina. But the Homily and Blessing were Italian.

The POPE!!!!!!!!

Pieta!

After the blessing we went into St. Peters. It is one massive church. We started at the Tombs of the Popes. It was a sacred place and quite eerie to be walking amongst all the tombs. Most of the ones there are from way long ago and were not there. Most of the more recent popes are there, including Pope John Paul II. There were a lot of people gathering around his tomb to pray.

After the tombs we went into the basilica. Michelangelo’s Pieta is kept behind bullet proof glass. It’s another work of art I have learned about in school and I tried my best to get a good picture of it. Also in the basilica a Mass was going on. It barely took up one corner of one transept of St. Peters. In pretty much any other church I have been to the Mass would have filled up the place! St. Peters is really stunning, it does not rely on just its size and grandeur, it really is beautiful.

All too soon it was time for me to head back to the station and hop on a train back to Florence. But I love Florence! I hope you all (my blog readers) know how much I love this city. And this weekend, Angela is coming here to Florence! So I get to tour guide her around my city!

Side bar: power just went out in my Pensione! (and not for the first or even second time…). Its all just part of the experience, I wouldn’t have it any other way. So I won’t be able to post this just yet.

Bridge over the Tiber.