Rome, etc.

So it's been a while since our last post. I'm actually sitting in a very nice hostel in Nice, but one of us will cover that later. From Italy on 'til the end, we're spending about 3 nights in any given location, which gives more or less 2 solid days to explore that area (on account of travel taking up the majority of the other days).

This was still plenty of time to get to see Rome, especially since Josie could act as my personal tour guide. Honestly, my favorite part about the city was probably eating. We had some great dinners accompanied by excellent (and cheap!) house wine. There were also plenty of "bars" (translates to cafes) which offered some quick and delicious lunches. We also ate gelato at pretty much every opportunity.

Of course, there's more to Rome than food! Our first whole day there we attempted (and failed) to get up early, but that didn't really matter. We went straight to the colloseum and saw the surrounding ruins. You can pay money to get in to see the ruins a little closer, but just wandering around the outside gave some great views (pictures to come). The earth has gradually built up so that Rome is at a slightly higher elevation than what it originally was, so we were able to get somewhat of a birds eye view of the forum and where the senate deliberated. There's this giant white marble building with a pair of chariots on top of it that I really thought was cool. I have no idea what it's called (I'm sure Josie does). Apparently some soldier was entombed there and there's a guard umm guarding the spot at all times.

A great thing about Rome is that everything is very central. You could probably walk from one edge of the map that we had to the other in about an hour and see everything you would want to see. In fact, later that night we pretty much did this. We went to a restaurant favorite of Josie's for dinner and then to Campo de Fiori, a more American square that has quite the night life. It was Sunday when we went, so it was a bit subdued, but it was still quite the sight. There were several street performers in the middle of the square (for example, a fire dancer) and bars all around the outside. After we'd had our fill with Campo, we walked around the city to see some of the other famous areas of Rome. Like I said, everything was very walkable. We went from Campo to the Pantheon to Trevi Fountain. The fountain is gorgeous, especially at night which is when we saw it.

This all took us to about midnight and we knew we had to get up early the next morning so we headed in for the night.

After that, we visited the Vatican City. For pictures, see Josie's Facebook.

I was actually really impressed with all that we saw. From St. Peter's Basilica to the Sistine Chapel, it was definitely worth the hour long line. My favorite part about St. Peters was that we went there first, around 7:30am, so there was no line for that, and it was almost completely empty. As we were walking along the grandiose marble halls, we could faintly hear chanting coming from the basement below.

On the right hand side we were able to get right up to the glass to see the Pietra, the only work that Michael Angelo has ever signed. When you see it in person, it really is better.

Speaking of statues, there were some really cool ones in Vatican too. Though when we were walking through one of the rooms of statues, we overheard a tour guide telling her group that "this one is of the Roman emperor Commodus! You'll know him from the movie Gladiator." The tourists responded with a chorus of ooh's and ahh's... But little did they know that when Josie looked down at the label for the statue, it said it was of Hercules. Classic.

After that, we headed to the extremely crowded yet stunningly beautiful Sistine Chapel. Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures in there, but it was really incredible. Kudos to you, Michael Angelo. 10 years well spent.

And I think that concludes our time in Rome, because then the morning after that we left for the beautiful city of Nice, France, where I am now. But I think I hear a glass of wine calling my name. 'Til then, ciao!