Thursday, March 24, 2011

Conquering Rome

This past weekend our entire program ventured off to Roma! We took an hour and a half fast train on Friday morning and arrived at our hotel, which was located right between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The hotel was oddly split in half by an outdoor terrace, but the side that I was on was filled with only us JMU students, which was very nice for the entire weekend.
On Friday our first tour guide took us the Vatican Museums, where we had to wait on a longgg 2 hour line filled with tourists. Rome was so filled with people, tourists filled every location that we entered. Vatican City is an entirely separate city from Rome, quite interesting history actually but I won't bore you with that stuff. Once we finally got into the Vatican Museums we walked through rooms and rooms of art work, sculptures, etc. The journey was very tiring especially since we were on the move from the early morning. If you go to Rome be sure to wear something with sleeves when you go to the Vatican because they won't let you in with only a tank top on, not that I know from experience but just a tip I heard before going. At the end of the Vatican Museums is the Sistine Chapel which was jam packed with people but it was cool to see the artwork of Michelangelo that we had been studying in our Renaissance Art History class.  After the Vatican Museums we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is right next door, which is a huge, breathtaking church. St. Peter's Square was also a gorgeous scenery, probably one of my favorites of the day after art OVERLOAD.
St. Peter's Square
Saturday morning we were greeted by our second tour guide, the son of the older man from the first day. Lorenzo, who hilariously entertained us for the entire day of "conquering rome." First we walked over to the Roman Forum, all the ruins of Rome which was incredible to see. There is so much history of Julius Caesar and the creation of Rome is such contained area. Our tour guide got a little bit into the history for all of our interests, but to see that these remains and that the Romans had a perfect drainage system to prevent flooding way back then was quite impressive.
Roman Forum
After the Roman Forum we went on to conquer the Colosseum and the Pantheon. First we enjoyed the amazing view from outside of the Colosseum before entering, and had time to take our classic touristy pictures, but no one stands out in Rome since there are just so many tourists. Our school group was able to bypass the long line to enter the Colosseum (score) and then we climbed to enjoy the view from the inside. The history that fills that building is endless and the fact that it is still standing is hard to even wrap your mind around. Next we went to the Pantheon which is a church that was much more interesting to me than the others. Rather than being pretty inside, it is filled with interesting architecture which displayed the Romans knowledge that the Earth was round, and their belief that Rome was the center of the world. Never thought I would be interested in architecture!




On our own time after the tour ended on Saturday we went to the markets and to see the amazing site of the Trevi Fountain. Yes, we all wanted to make our wishes, which we did, but I did not expect it to be as incredible as it was. I was expecting a small, dinky fountain, but it was huge!! Although it was jam packed with people there as well we managed to make our wishes and capture pictures of it too! :)

 We went out on Saturday night to have dinner in Campo di Fiori, a really cute Piazza with bars and restaurants and such. Then in the same area we went to a bar, The Drunken Ship, which was a fun place with alot of Americans, I recommend it if you head to Rome! Lastly on Sunday we were on our own with no tour, which was really nice for the final day. There just so happened to be a marathon in Rome that day so all of the streets in the center of Rome were blocked off, but it didn't cause any trouble until we had to walk 45 minutes to catch our train back to Florence. Me and some others went to see the Spanish Steps, but on our way we stopped at Zara to do some shopping. Why not, when in rome, right?! We then got a nice lunch at a Trattoria in Rome and then headed on our way back to the train station to return back to Florence.
Spanish Steps
This weekend, aka in 10 minutes I am leaving to go to the Almalfi Coast with 9 other girls on my program. We are going through Euroadventures and we will be staying in Sorrento!! I am so excited to enjoy the beach and the gorgeous weather. 
PS. It was 70 degrees today and has been in the 60's all week, there isn't even a need for a jacket during the day anymore!!! :) Sorry for those of you with snow at home!!

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