The Eternal City

Remember in my last post when I said that I was tired, was hitting my wall, and that I was ready to go home? Nevermind.

Rome is easily my favorite place so far. I like it better even than Paris. Now, that's a very personal choice, because I think that most people say that Paris is better, and more beautiful. But I think I may have found my happy place; for a city, that is. They call it the Eternal City, and there isn't a better name for Rome. Modern cars drive along the streets, with little shops and kioks selling hot pizza, bottled drinks, ice cream, and the like. Right next to them are the centuries old houses, very European but also very Italian. Then there are churches and monuments (and the Vatican) from the Renaissance. And underneath it all, cropping up when you least expect it, are the foundations and landmarks of ancient Rome. Many of the buildings that stand today were constructed on the Roman foundations. Just walking down the street gives the humbling knowledge that people have been making their way around this place doing their daily business for thousands of years. For a history buff like me (and my favorite history is Roman history), it's nothing short of amazing.

Yesterday I left Florence at 11 AM, and got to Rome at 1230. I don't know why I thought it was going to take me three hours, but it didn't. I immediately went and found an internet cafe, because I had asked Uncle Tim (he does some travel agent stuff on the side) to look into some possible lodgings for me while I was here, because I wasn't going to stay in a hostel here. He found me a couple of very nice-looking bed and breakfasts, and I almost just booked one. But, I had really been thinking of a hotel (I don't know why, I was just being stubborn), and so I went to expedia to see if maybe I could find a decent deal there. I did, and now I'm in a four-star hotel 300 meters away from the train station, just a block or two away from the internet cafe I was in. I'm staying there for 90 dollars (not euro, dollars) a night. It would have been 80, but I booked a room with a "double bed for single use," which I thought meant that I'd have a double bed. Instead, it was a room with two twin beds. Oh well. After that I went and looked around for a bit, bought myself a nice-but-cheap bottle of wine, bought a little pizza (Italian pizza, not American) and went back to my hotel and settled in for the night. It was lovely.

Breakfast this morning was certainly better than I have been getting, but it wasn't a big American breakfast like I was hoping for. I suppose I shouldn't have hoped for that, seeing as how I'm in Italy and all. Still, it was good. Cereal, a couple types of pastries, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, bread, fruit, and bright orange scrambled eggs. Maybe they added cheese sauce or something, I don't know. Anyway, I was slow to get out of the hotel because there's a TV in there and I haven't had one for a month. The only English channels are BBC and CNN, so I've been catching up on my current events. Still, I was out a little before 11 this morning.

I walked straight to the Vatican, stopping on the way to see the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Novana, and the Pantheon. Of those, the Pantheon was easily my favorite. (Fun fact that I already knew: the Pantheon was built around 115 AD, by Emperor Hadrian. Around 1500 years later, I think around the 17 or 1800s, when some Pope wanted the same type of dome for a church, the engineers couldn't figure out how to build it. I think they still haven't). Have I mentioned that I love Roman history? Anyway, then I saw the Castel Sant'Angelo from across the river before heading into the Vatican. I went to St. Peter's first; and oh my goodness is it beautiful. I've now been all over Western Europe, and seen a lot of churches along the way. I don't think St. Peter's necessarily dwarfed them in terms of size, but it was definitely much bigger. Everywhere you looked, the view was spectacular. I went a little picture crazy in there, and my count for the whole day is around 150, I think. After that, I went to the Vatican museum. That was cool; lots of Roman and Greek statues, paintings by Raphael, some Egyptian art, but the best was of course the Sistene Chapel. It's fantastic. It's a little bit dark, and there are attendants there that kept shushing everybody, but it was really cool. My neck hurt by the time I left, from looking up so much. The best part, in my opinion, is the Creation of Man; I love the way Michelangelo shows that. His Last Judgement scene was cool, but I find most paintings like that a bit dramatic. On the sides of the walls are frescoes of Moses' and Jesus' life, but they weren't done by Michelangelo.

After that, I got some gelato right outside the museum. I got two flavors: tiramisu and something else. I think it started with an S. Anyway, it was good. Then I headed over to the Spanish Steps, which is in the ritzy part of town. There were big shops with Louis Vitton, Versace, etc. Finally, I went up to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy a t-shirt, because I'm addicted to them, before heading here. Next I'll go back to my hotel to write an essay about a thought I had today.

Tomorrow I'll go to Pompeii. I don't know how I'm getting there yet; I have to figure that out tonight. It'll take all day, I imagine. Then I think tomorrow night I'll go out to a niceish restaurant here, and then Saturday is going to be Ancient Rome :-D. Saturday night I'll blog again, for the very last time on this trip. It'll be a lengthy one, where I'll talk about what I did before talking in abstract generalities.

I can't wait for the next two days, and I also can't wait to get home. See you Saturday night!

-Swag