Spring Break Eur(Bro) Trip: Rome

The 2 weeks we had off for spring break may be the 2 best weeks that I've had yet in my relatively short life.  Rome, Prague & Berlin, each for about 3-4 days, and then back to Dublin on the 16th, just in time for Paddy's day.

Sunday, March 6th, Brian and I got up at 4am to catch a bus to our 7:50am flight, and we just made it.  I'd like to call it perfect timing, and I tried not to panic on the bus there, but who am I kidding, we were both a little freaked out.
We got to Rome just fine.  Flying over the Alps on the way down was amazing!  I need to find a way to get myself back there hiking/snowboarding at some point before I get too old to be able to actually do it.  The hostel, the Yellow Hostel, was a little out of the way, and we had some smelly people staying in the room, but other than that, it wasn't too bad.  The environment was really cool, there was a restaurant/bar downstairs where we met some interesting guests.  It was the same week as a lot of spring breaks in the States, so there were a bunch of Americans as well.
The first day we took it easy, conserved our energy for the upcoming 2 full days of touring, walked around a little bit to check out a few of the sights at night, which I prefer compared to the daytime.  The way that they light up monuments like the Colosseum, the arches, the forum, etc is really dynamic, and appealing to my inner photographer.  We ate at a place across the street from the hostel, and I think I accidentally ordered a pizza with anchovies, which turned out to be wayy to salty.  But the weather was amazing.  Rome is around the same latitude as Boston or Southern New Hampshire, but it's so much nicer this time of year.  It was about 60 degrees during the day.  It got a little chilly at night, but overall, compared to Ireland, it was fantastic.

Monument to Victor Emmanuel II

Arch of Caesar

The Foro Romano

The Pantheon

This picture really doesn't capture how massive the inside of the Pantheon is, hardly any picture does

Piazza del Popolo during Carnivale

 Oh, and did I mention that we were there during Carnivale?  The Piazza del Popolo, where the celebration was centered, was packed, as was the rest of the city.  There were kids walking around dressed up as if it was halloween, and confetti was everywhere.

The Spanish Steps

Trevis Fountain

The Forum at night

The Colosseum

Monday:  We definitely got a full day in today.  Brian and I took a hop-on-hop-off tour bus around Rome, stopping first at the Vatican.  The Most impressive Cathedral/building in general that I've ever seen.  The sheer scale of St. Peter's Basilica was unbelievable.  I guess if it's the center of the Catholic Church, it should be the biggest and most impressive.  The tombs of past Popes were directly below the chapel.  Pope John Paul II's was there.  It was eerie thinking that some of the most revolutionary Popes in history were in a tomb right in front of you- especially the main guy- St. Peter.  

attempted airborne shot in front of St. Peter's...fail

St. Peter's 

The inside of St. Peter's Basilica.  Maybe the most impressive cathedral I've ever seen

Swiss Guard.  Sweet uniform

 

Vatican Gardens/ The Pope's back yard

 We then went around to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel.  The Vatican Museum is a lot larger than I ever thought.  We must've walked close to 2 miles before we even got to the actual Chapel.  It was dimly lit, probably to preserve the paintings, and the Man & God fingertip painting that you've probably seen a million times was not as large or prominent as I would've imagined.  There was so much  going on on every single wall, it was almost overwhelming.

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel- this painting on the ceiling was not as big as I thought it was going to be

 That night we got an awesome dinner, wine and desert, with a free limoncello.  After some time at the hostel, we went out to explore more of the city at night.

Tuesday:  More tourism: Yesterday was Catholicism day, today is Ancient Rome Day:  The Colosseum, the Forum and Palatine Hill.
We slept in, sort of, until 9:30, had breakfast at the Hostel, and went to the Borghese Gardens in the northern part of the city.  Beautiful.  It's just the beginning of March and everything is already so green.  People were lounging around outside in the grass, kids were running around everywhere.  They must have had off for Carnivale (fat tuesday).  It's funny how people would be lounging around, eating a sandwich or a gelato, sitting on a piece of some ionic column that was now just ruins, as if it were a normal tree stump or piece of granite. 2000 years ago it supported part of the infrastructure of one of the greatest empires in history.

Overlooking rome, St. Peter's in the distance

2 Coins- 1 grants a wish, the 2nd promises that you will return someday, at least that's what they tell the tourists

 I've learned about this place, seen pictures, studied Latin language and culture since 6th grade.  Coming to Rome was the equivalent of an academic Hajj to me.  It is literally a dream come true.  I wish that I remembered more details from my latin classes, both language and culture, although I was surprised how much of the language is still with me.

The Forum at a glance isn't too impressive really, there isn't much still standing besides the arches and a few columns.  But the inferred importance of what used to be there, who used to be there, and what took place there was pretty cool.  Cicero, Pompey, Caesar, they were all there, giving a speech at some point 2000 some odd years ago.  And the Colosseum, well that was just amazing, I can't really say more than that.  By the end of the Forum, we were exhausted, so Brian and I went to get a Gelato by the Pantheon. No big deal, just eating a Gelato by the f-ing Pantheon.

Finally made it

On Palatine Hill

Palatine hill and the Circus Maximus (where they had chariot races)

The Forum

 That night we met up with some Holy Cross people studying in Rome at the Abbey Theatre Pub (yea, come all the way to Rome and we end up going to an Irish Pub).  It was nice catching up with them and hanging out for a bit.  Tomorrow we would be leaving to fly to Prague.