spring break - phase II - ROMA

me and courtney got to the roma airport perfectly, and we had directions to get to the hotel that patrick and michelle were already at, but for some reason they told us to take a different route. that was our first mistake - we ended up getting so lost in rome, that we were both worried wether or not we would ever make it to the hotel. we're taking the subway, not the right train, because the right one is out of service for the night. here's the sketchy subway of rome. when in rome, do as the romans do, right?
we thought we knew another way to get to where we needed to go on the other line, and using the commuter rail. so we go that other way, only when we get there, its hard to tell where the correct commuter rail is, so we asked someone. and most peopl did speak at least a little broken english. annnnd this guy, this a-hole, workin at the little store in the train station -puts us on the wrong train, headed for civitavechia! which we had no idea, we thought he was telling us the truth! so we're takin this train to no where, and we eventually start to get suspicious and call our roomates, who tell us we'd be better off to take a cab, but when we went to turn around, its not like there's a train coming every 5 minutes - especially at 11 at night. and when we looked outside the train doors when they opened - we were in the suburbs of rome, and then we were just in the country, and then we were going along the sea. courtney was in tears, i was about to piss my pants, i was so mad, everything was ridiculous, so i just went up to some dude and asked him how to get back to rome. i was very lucky that he told us what to do, and a good station to do it at. we had to turn around, but he said to wait 2 stations. so we did, and we got off the train, and there was only one other guy at the station waiting for the train back to rome. so i had to ask him if this was right. this guy spoke very little english, no french, no spanish either, so we just used the sherades route, and figured out that we had to wait for the next train coming to the city, which was in 40 minutes. turned out to be about an hour. so here we are just sitting at the train station, in the middle of italy, at 1130 at night. here's the only picture that was taken that night, while we were waiting. p.s. if you ever find yourself in this station, look for our names written on the 'wall of fame.'

we got the train, took it for about a half an hour, then the guy we met at the station talked a bus driver into letting us ride for free in order to get to stationne termini, which is the main station in rome. he let us, and we rode to there and then out of frustration and the lack of busses or trains running this late at night, we took a taxi to our hotel. the hotel that we reserved so far in advance ended up being about an hour outside of rome, so we only stayed there for one night. it was pretty nice, and had a complementary b-fast, but it was just too far from the city. this is the stationne termini, its a huge building.
the sleep that night was so good, because we had been traveling since early in the morning! the next day we grabbed b-fast then took the train into the city to our new hotel, which was about 3 blocks from termini (the station). rome is a busy city, its dirty, the people aren't very friendly, its packed with travelers, and its kind of cold. but there's alot of beautiful stuff there.

after we got into the new hotel - hotel virginia - we decided to hit up the ancient city. we took the metro (which sucks in roma) to the colloseum, which was pretty amazing. i couldn't believe that i was there. and i went picture-crazy. but i just don't want to forget it.... the colloseum was huge, and busted up, of course, and we paid 11 euro to take a walk inside. it was worth it, because we'll never be there again probably. it was amazing to think of all the stuff that had happened there. here's some pictures from the colloseum and stuff, again, so many were taken its hard to select only a few for the inside:
but this first one is the coolest.
there's a whole area in the city that they call the ancient city, which has the colloseum in it, so after that we just walked around the ancient city (which is all ruins), and took everything in. it was very interesting to be around everything which is so old. the roman forum was here, there were some old buildings still standing, but mostly it was arches and pillars in ruins that you could meander around and explore the history. it was a beautiful day as we walked around the city and everything. mega-tourist stop, so it was really busy, even on a tuesday. here's some cool ones from the ancient city:

there are so many scams in rome, its not even funny. as you were outside of the coll. there were guys dressed up as kings and as caeser, and they offered to have their picture taken with you, and if you did it, they charged you 6 euros! thankfully, no one in our group fell for it, but we saw a couple people get hosed. also, there's tons of guys going around selling roses, and they are the most annoying people in the world! they put the roses right in your face and jsut as you if you want it, and if you take it, you have to pay. if you don't want it, you can try to give it back, but they won't take it. they didn't get us either, but again, i saw alot of people get hit.

we walked past the tomb of the unknown soldier on our walking tour of the city - here's a great shot of it with a homeless dude in the foreground:


from the ancient city we walked up the street a few blocks to the pantheon. this was at the time, the biggest dome built. it was pretty big, and they say that if you continued the curves down, it would make a perfect sphere. there's a hole in the roof where the rain and sun can come in. the floor is made of marble, and its slanted ever-so-slightly, so that when the rain does come in, it drains to the outer walls where there are drainage holes. its a really old building, and its an engineering feet, pretty cool to see. here's the outside, the hole in the roof, and the interior:
just outside of the pantheon, we got our first taste of italian pizza. they sell it by the kilo, so you just say you want some, and they have a huge sheet-pizza that they cut your piece out of. then they coo kit up, and then they cut it in half, and fold one half ontop of the other. i had just regular margherita style pizza, and it was very delicious! even the folding over part tasted good.
from there we walked thru the city to the spanish steps. the spanish steps are supposed to be very beuatiful, but there was alot of construction going on in the area, and the flowers weren't allive, so they didn't look spectacular, but they were still very cool. we also went to the tomb of augustus, which i thought i was going to like because of the name, but it turned out to be an overgrown mossolium type thing, that was kind of sad. it was still cool, i wanted to explore it but it turned out to be closed. so basically it was just a big eye sore. then we just walked around the city back to our hotel, and checked out all the cool monuments and statues along the way. here's the tomb for augustus and all of its vegetation, and the spanish steps, and the cool statue at the base of the steps that is surrounded by fencing:
that night we got our first italian meal. the italians do it in 3 courses, really, the anti-pasta, which is like an appetizer, then the first course which is pasta, and then the 2nd, which is meat. we only needed the pasta course to fill us up alot of the time, so we just got pasta at this little place by our house. i had pasta in a dish with some sort of egg based sauce, with bacon in it. it was penne, and it was delicious. after dinner we got our first taste of gillato!!! which is ice cream!!! oh man, it was delicious! my first flavor was crema, which is like vanilla, and of course it was wonderful. it so creamy and thick. probably really bad for you. one note about the water here, its always tonic water-y. always has carbonation unless you ask for 'no gas.' i hate tonic water, so it was a bad discovery to make, but at least we knew for future reference. that night we just went to bed after gillato. note to everyone: we visited the place where caeser was murdered just ONE day before the day it happened - it was march 14 when we visited, and on the ides of march we were touring another part of the city. thought that was kind of cool tho. here's me with my gillato... the next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to go to the vatican and that area of the city. the vatican museum is the longest line, so we went their first. this includes the sistine chappel. we got in line about 9 oclock, and it already wrapped around the huge wall outside of the city. we waited for probably 45 minutes. some people in our group didn't wait tho, as they BUDGED IN LINE at the vatican! how could you do that??? they didn't even feel bad about it. it made me really mad. here's the line by the wall:
anyways, we read that the sistine chap fills up alot as the day goes on, so we went right there instead of working our way slowly thru the museum. the sistine chappel is amazing. its not even ornate in its architecture - its basically a barn - but the painting is great. it has been restored, resulting in the loss of alot of detail (actually it was a huge thing in the 80s or 90s), but it was still very lifelike. there was so much to look at also. and they said no pictures, but i took a few. here's a look at the inside of the museum, and the inside of the sistine chap... the blue side wall is 'the last judgement' and the roof is, well, the roof (the dark spot is my chin):

then we worked our way back thru the museum, checking out the raphael's and all the other sculptures. there's alot to see there. it was cool, because it was the ides of march, and there was a tapistry of the murder of julius caeser there, so that was cool. the whole museum would have taken along time to go all the way thru, but we skimmed thru it. here was a cool grass fountain that we saw tho:


we ate lunch at a hardcore italian cafe, a few blocks from the vatican. i had tortellini, and it was really good. it was just re-heated, probably in the microwave, but it was pretty good. kind of just tasted like regular wegmans stuff or something. and they gave us gassy water again, crapppp.

after lunch, we walked back to the vatican to go to st. peter's - the largest church in the world. apperently every wednesday the pope comes out and gives a blessing, so the crowd at the vatican was like no other. we waited in line to get in for a good 90 minutes before we could get in. and i know it sounds like im complaining - but it was in the sun. and it was getting pretty hot. i wasn't perspiring, but some people in the line were definitely wishing they had put on more deoderant. that i can assure you. the line is ridiculous too, its like 10 people wide, and it weaves around like a snake, so everybody is cutting in line, and fighting to get ahead. it was very unorganized. there were little italian kids going in for a tour, and they were the worst. they didn't care. they would climb over your back to gain one spot in line. kind of fun tho, because it was exciting. finally, mid-afternoon - we got in. the place is huge. here's the group infront of the church in st. peter's square, and me and courtney in front of the church:
here's some other shots of the church from st. peter's square. there's 2 huge arms that come out of the church wit pillars in them, they make up what is know as the square:

here's the line just at the metal detector, and in the middle is patrick, looking at the camera. you can see the line tailing back throughout the square. it was intense:

first thing we did was get in line to climb to the top of the dome. i don't know the exact count, but there's somethin like a bajillion steps all the way up! and as you get going up, the shape of the dome makes the stairs curve in, its very confining and scary at times. but you get to be on the inside of the huge dome, looking down to the inside of the church, and then you get to go alll the way to the top to see the view of the city from up there. like i said, it was a gorgeous day, and the view was spectacular. i got some great pics of the city, and it was amazing to be up there. here's the view as you're climbing to the top. the picture isn't taken on a diagonal, thats just the pitch in the dome. and more shots from inside:
here's some other shots from up top, of the inside of the church and the whole city,etc. on the bottom one, that little building that looks regular is the sistine chappel:


when we came down, we went into the church. the thing is huge, and there's no chairs inside because they must set them up for every mass. so its like the new york state fair inside, its so busy. and there's alot to see, although i might point out that i think the inside of the westminster abbey is a little bit more interesting, st. peter's is still pretty cool. there were 2 main things i wanted to see here - the pieta, by michelangelo, and pope john paul II's tomb.
here's the inside of the church, the altar with the huge treehouse in the middle, and another cool statue in the corner that has a marble blanket on the bottom, which was totally cool:

the pieta is behind glass because a few years back, some mad man entered the place with a gun and shot off mary's hand. as the story goes, the tourists all ran up to it to get a chunk of marble as a souvenir, and then later that week the pope sent a desperate plea out to anyone who had a piece to bring it back. thats just the story, i don't know if its true. but it was amazing to see! especially because i've been learning about it this year. a side note about the long lines - apparently the line originated after 9/11, and before that you could just walk in. now, they make you go thru metal detectors, which is slow as hell. the pieta, by michelangelo:

we went into the basement to see john paul II's tomb. not too showy, but it was powerful to see as a catholic. alot of pope's were buried there. alot of people are buried there, period. apparently there's an underground catacomb full of skeletons.

and of course, there's a famous statue of st peter in the cathedral, that if you rub its foot brings you good luck. i got a little rub in. the foot no longer looks like a foot, it just looks like a blob of marble, kind of funny. but there is a huge line of people just to rub the foot.

when we finished with st. peter's, we went outside and took our last views in of the vatican, and stopped for more gillato on the way home! this was one of the best that i had in all of italy - the falvor: chocolate. it was as dark as dirt! and sooo rich and creamy. i loved it. gillato is worth going to italy for. they even stuck a cookie in it- here it is:

for dinner than night we went to a place accross the street from hotel virginia, called the steack house (no spelling error). i had an entire sausage pizza. its funny, the pizza's a pretty big, but they are very thin, and its entirely possible for one person to eat all of it. the sausage was great - it wasn't fake or anything, it was real sausage, very delicious.i forgot to mention - one of the best things about hotel virginia was the free breakfast. it wasn't a little breakfast set up or anything, no, they gave you money voitures for a restaurant down stairs! they had great croissants there, and hot chocolate, which became our routine breakfast for the 3 mornings there.

anyway, that night we just walked around the city and took it easy for the most part.
didn't want to over do it, because in the morning michelle was going to dublin for st. patrick's day, and me and courtney and patrick were doing one more day in rome, and then going on to florence on friday.

so michelle left really early on thursday morning so when we woke up it was just us 3. we grabbed the usual breakfast and hot chocolate downstairs and then went to an internet cafe just to make sure we weren't missing anything. horrible news regarding syracuse basketball and my summer plans would ensue, causing the day to be not as good as it could have been. the day in general was extremely rainy, which was unfortunate, considering no one had an umbrella. i did have my rain coat, however. its really annoying, because those same idiots selling flowers were now selling UMBRELLAS. IN YO' FACE! SO ANNOYING! but we had fun with it! we actually out-annoyed them, because when they would stick one in our face, we would try and bargain with them to lower the price to some outrageosly low price, until they were forced to just walk away. it was our own little pay back to the annoyance that they are. anyways..

first stop in the rain was the trevi fountain. absolutely gorgeous! but i'm glad we went in the rain because this is one of the biggest tourist attractions, so there weren't that many people there. and legend has it that if you throw change into the fountain, you'll quickly return to rome in the future (its probably a money making scam). so we threw in our change, like everybody... i don't know if i'll be going back tho. the fountain was very impressive!

we decided that because it was rainign cats and dogs - we were going to walk everywhere instead of taking public transportation. we walked accross the city to the museum of the republic and the tomb of the unknown soldier. this is a humungus statue designed by michelangelo, its really impressive. on our way we stopped for more pizza.

we then went to this museum, more or less jsut to get out of the rain. lots of statues and a great view of the ancient ruins. plus lots of art and stuff, and most importantly a dry haven. there were some famous works of art here, but nothing that would be noteworthy in the blog. well, some caravaggio's and botticelli's. there.

from there we walked to the second biggest church in rome, and i can't remember the name, but it was very impressive. at first i thought it was weak, but thats because we were going in thru the side. this church was kind of more churchy and less of a tourist attraction, although there was some very interesting stuff in it. first of all, the church claims to have the actual remains of the actual st. peter and st. paul, which is really neat. they are located about 20 feet up, in a sort of tree house in the middle of the church behind the altar. they are inside some gold models of their bodies. very cool. also in this church is a piece of cloth that is said to have been from the table cloth where the last supper took place. the whole city is filled with amazing relics and religious stuff. here it is. the second shot is the tree house with the gold statues containing the remnants:

ok so its pouring now, and we walk down the street a few block to the coolest thing that we saw that day. we saw the holy steps, which are the actual steps from the palace of pontius pilate back when jesus was condemned to be crucified! the actual steps! they are covered in wood, with little cracks in them so you can see that there is marble underneath. and to go up them, you have to climb them on your knees. at one point this was considred to be the most holy place in the world. and again, legend has it that there is actually blood on the steps from that time period. i don't know if its true, but it was pretty cool to see the steps. it was a tremendously religious experience. same church had another jesus-relic. there was a "painting" or artistic rendering of jesus christ, dating back 2000 years, and its said to be authentic. it says that its not painted by human hands. it was very interesting to see. this was one of the coolest places we went to. here's the write-up by the stairs, i don't know if it will be readable, followed by a pic of the stairs that i smuggled:

the next place wasn't as cool - it was a church, and in the bottom was a catacomb that wwas open to the public, and all the bones were arranged as decorations! it was so freaky! there were skeletons of munks and friars, in the human form, with their brown robes and hoods on, which was crazy. everyone was a little bit freaked out by this one, we only stayed for a few minutes.

grabbed a little gillato on the way home, and this time the flavor i got was called "strachatella" which is basically cookies and cream. it wasn't as good as cookies and cream tho, in my opinion. there were little chunks of ice in it that made it seem really cheap. i'm not saying it was horrible, but it was probably the worst out of the ones i had. but i've heard that its supposed to be really good.

for dinner we went wandering to a little place off the beaten path near one of the many squares with a fountain in it. the meal was great, they had football on a big tv in the restaurant, and it wasn't too expensive. i believe that the square was called piazza nouvono or something like that. anyways, i had linguini in meat sauce, which is commonly found at all retaurants over there, and it was delicious. we also shared a white pizza for the table which was great also. after dinner on the walk home, we stopped at the pastry shop near our house, which is also the place we went to eat the first night - i had a conoli, and it tasted just as i thought it would. so that means the place in syracuse that makes conolies that we buy makes them just like they do in italy. bed time was early because we were taking the train to florence in the morning! and we had it all planned out this time, so we wouldn't be lost all over the countryside. here's the food, and the statue in the square:


we got up in the morning, grabbed our last free breakfast and headed to termini for our train... and thats pretty much it! too be continued when we arrive in florence......