Rome...part two

Although we were exhausted from a very long day of being tourists, we wanted to avoid the long lines to get into the Vatican Museum by joining a tour. So we had to be at St. Peter's Square by 9am. Originally, we had wanted to avoid the Vatican on Wednesday because there would be a Papal Audience (the Pope comes out, rides around in his Pope mobile and gives a speech). We thought that the crowds would make it a little too busy. However, the following day (also our last day in Rome) was a free day and there would be no tours available. Anyway, we attended the Papal Audience and there were thousands of people there and I was not tall enough to get more than a couple glimpses at the Pope. Andy did manage to take a few pictures. You'll have to search the pics (Waldo style) to find the Pope. Here we are at the Papal Audience.
The Vatican Museum sure was impressive. The collection is absolutely HUGE!!!! Even the ceilings were ornate. The ceilings of the "Map Room" were particularly impressive.
The highlights of the day were Raphael rooms, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The Raphael rooms were cool because they were practically empty and the walls were the works of art. We saw the "School of Athens" as well as a fresco with Sylvester Stallone in it. Take a look...here's a hint, he's the guy on the left.
The Sistine Chapel was, of course, a masterpiece! It was so cool to see it in person. We were not allowed to take pictures there because a few years ago a Japanese firm had paid to have the chapel cleaned in return for the rights to any pictures taken there. You'll just have to go there yourself.
St. Peter's Basilica is...huge. It's hard to appreciate the scale of the building until you realize how many people are there and how small everyone is. We did run into some LDS missionaries at St. Peter's, so that was cool. St. Peter's Basilica is the home of Michelangelo's first masterpiece, the Pieta. One thing we were unable to find was something our tour guide said we could find in some of the nearby giftshops. Try as I may, I could not find the coveted Pope Soap on a Rope.

The Vatican is it's own country and is protected by the Swiss Guard. Apparently they have standards similar to missionaries but are also trained to kill people with practically anything. Be it as it may, they have funny uniforms!!
After the Vatican and St. Peter's, we headed home to rest. We wanted to be somewhat functional for our last day in Italy. All we did the rest of the day was find something to eat and then we ventured out to the Colosseum to get some night pictures. (See the previous entry for those pictures.)

For our last day in Italy, we took the time to walk around to places we had not yet seen like the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. The Trevi Fountain was very cool and very big. The tradition is that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the Trevi Fountain, you will return someday to Rome. We were certainly down with that!! Of course, I insisted that we use American pennies because they are worth less than euros. :-)

We then went and saw the Spanish Steps. In all honesty, I couldn't tell what the big deal was about the Spanish Steps. There were certainly a lot of tired-looking tourists trying to muster up enough energy to make it to their next destinations. But there was a big advertisement at the top of the steps obstructing the view. In one of the guidebooks I read later on, I found out that the area surrounding the steps is a really expensive shopping area...kind of like a Rodeo Drive. So that explains why our lunch at a nearby restaurant was overly expensive (and skimpy on the portion sizes). They even charged us a 2-euro-per-person cover charge. Lame.
At that point, we had seen everything we really wanted to, so we went to a cathedral in the area where we saw another one of Michelangelo's statues, "Moses". That was very cool. We polished off our day by having our last gelato and doing a little souvenir shopping. That night, when we went out in search of food, it was POURING rain!! We were so fortunate to not have had any rain our whole trip and we never had to change our plans because of the weather. In fact, we had EXCELLENT weather the entire time!! Anyway, we went to a restaurant near our apartment (which is very far from all of the touristy things in Rome). Aside from getting totally drenched, the atmosphere and food were excellent!

We had a WONDERFUL time in Italy and I highly recommend going there. Just going to Italy was educational and very beautiful. This was my first time traveling in Europe and I must admit that I LOVED it!!!

Rome...part one

On Monday morning we set out for Rome. For whatever reason, we had problems purchasing two second-class train tickets and ended up getting two first-class tickets. It was quite a bit more comfortable and a lot cleaner than the other train rides we had been on, but it was significantly more expensive. At least they served us a snack.
The first thing we did after we found our apartment/Bed and Breakfast was to check out the Colosseum. It was really cool to see it. We bought tickets for a tour of the Colosseum and Palentine Hill. We learned so much. I walked away from the Colosseum with similar feelings as when I visit the Great Wall of China. There's such an amazing sense of history! The Colosseum was built in 80 AD and most of it is still standing. Our tour guide told us many interesting things. You're probably aware that the Colosseum was used for competitions between gladiators. Gladiators were typically prisoners and they would compete with one another or against animals like lions, wolves, etc. We learned that the losing bodies of the gladiators were drug off stage where they were quartered and their blood was drained into vials which people would buy and drink thinking that a person's power was in their blood (not their spirit). We also learned that one of the emperors thought to flood the Colosseum so that competitions on boats would take place. The boats would ram into each other and the gladiators would be hanging on for their lives because not only would they be risking their lives by drowning, but there were alligators in the water as well.
While I certainly don't agree with the practices that went on at the Colosseum, it was humbling to stand there and take it all in. How could a civilization take so much delight in the death and slaughter of other people?
We did, however, get some cool pictures of the Colosseum at night.
Our guide mentioned that contrary to popular belief, Christians were not killed at events at the Colosseum, but under the rule of Emperor Nero (he was a crazy little emperor) Christians were executed and burned at Circus Maximus where they would hold horse/chariot races. There's not much left to Circus Maximus now...it just looks like an open field.
Palentine Hill was where some of the emperors lived...quite extravagantly, I might add.
From Palentine Hill we could see the Forum which is where all the political events took place. Here's a picture of the Forum with the Colosseum in the background.
The next day, we started early so we could make it to our Angels and Demons tour. It was really cool. If you don't know, Angels and Demons is a book written by Dan Brown and most of the action takes place in and around Rome. We spent the morning walking around the "Path of Illumination" and learning a variety of things about the area. We saw Andy's all-time favorite statue, the Ecstasy of St. Teresa.
Our tour took us to the Castel Sant' Angelo, the Pantheon, St. Peter's Square and Santa Maria del Popolo.
We had scheduled another tour called "The Dark Heart of Rome" for Tuesday evening, so we just walked around Rome and went in a ton of Cathedrals that I can't remember the names of and tried to save up energy for the tour. I will say this, the cathedrals in Rome sure are ornate!!!
On our night tour, my favorite story was that of Bruno. Bruno was killed/burned at the stake for speaking out against the church. He claimed the Christ was just a magician. He later became a symbol for freedom of speech. I thought his statue was really cool looking with the moon behind it.