April 27th – 29th Rome—we arrived in Rome in the afternoon of the 27th, with our back packs strapped to our backs we hiked from the train station to our hostel, freed ourselves from our luggage and headed straight to the nearest Italian restaurant. This small family style restaurant was the beginning of out amazing journey through Italy. The atmosphere was perfect; brick arched vaults over our head, wine flowing from bottles at every table, typical loud wildly gesturing Italians surrounded us, and the food, oh the food. I could feel neck craning over the tops of heads to find out what the wonderful smell coming from the next table was. It was so had to choose between the many tasty dishes available. It was here at our small table that we planned the next few days in Rome. The plan pretty much consisted of us getting up at 5 so we could be out the door at 6 in order to go see the big stuff before the crowds came.
The next day we started with St. Peter’s Basilica, wandering through the most immaculate space ever, larger that life and gleaming at 6:30 on a Friday morning. Beautiful, just beautiful the work of some of the most noted architects, sculptors, painters, crafters, of all time, all there right in front of my eyes, all just an arms length in front of me. I was floored, soaking up every inch (well, when in Rome…millimeter) of this amazing space. Thank goodness I hade the most amazing history professor in the work my first and second years of college. Because facts I though I had forgotten came spilling from my memory. Stories of the architects struggle to design the most perfect church, different behind the scene stories and specifically imbedded symbols and what they meant. It was all there. We hiked up to the top of the dome and gazed upon the city and stared in amazement that we were here, here in Rome. Charney (my history professor) always said when you see… and it was finally here we were seeing all that we had dedicated so much time learning about and from.

st. peter's squarest. peters nave (sorry it is blurry)

more of st. peter's nave looking out to st. peter's square from the room of the cupola

We climbed down from the cupola and mapped out the rest of our day, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, the pantheon, piazza Navona and may other churches and monuments. From about 10:00 till abut 6:00 we spent this time sightseeing getting lost, getting frustrated by the crappy public transportation system and snapping pictures. I would have like to see an aril diagram of our path that day because I am sure at some point we were just going around in circles. After several wrong turns and what seemed to be a such for a mirage we finally came to the Pantheon. With it very simple geometric geometry it was one of the most beautiful buildings I have seem in my life. We walked in side and the space was overwhelming. Even though there were wall to wall people I didn’t feel cramped or claustrophobic. I looked to the coffered ceiling and saw light pouring through the oculus overhead. It was just like all the pictures I have ever seen. It was a pretty cool feeling being in a space that has throughout time been such a landmark. I mean common it was even in the Di Vinci Code! But soon we found ourselves being over taken my tour groups of elderly German, so we felt it was time to head out. We continued out journey to the Trevi fountain which Mack and I but our backs to, reached in our pockets found the lowest nomination of coin we could find, made a wish and tossed the coin behind us in the fountain. And with that we turned to each other and commented “So I guess that means I will be back.”

pantheon

pantheon ray of light trevi fountain

Next stop was the Spanish steps, and well that is what they are, steps. We walked up them and then we walked down them, and that was pretty much it. No one really knew much about the steps and we couldn’t fine much written about them in our tour book so we moved on. We walked from the Spanish steps back to our hostel across the city, stopping at a few various places to take pictures, gander at and try and relocate ourselves on the oversized map. By then it was time to call it a day.

spanish steps filled with flowers

roman forum, "it wouldn't matter if i stepped on the grass, i mean i'm not going to ruin anything, they are already ruinins"

thee guessessIn our second day in Rome, after a brief (five hours) visit to the Vatican to see the Sistine chapel and about a million other things, we ventured to the other side of the city where the coliseum, the roman forum, the capitol, the tomb of the unknown solider, and San Maria Maggiore. It was really awesome to be able to walk through the ruins of the Roman forum. It was just unbelievable the scale of some of the columns and the reaming structures. All built before the time of steel and modern technology.

um covert picture cool modern religious art, by...by...i have no idea

Ok back to the Sistine chapel, we waited in a line that wrapped around, what seemed to be the entire 10- sq. mile Vatican city. I felt like I was at Disney world, every time you thought you were nearing the end of a line, nope. The line would turn a corner and there again would be standing like 4000 more people in front of you again. But after close to two hours of standing in a line we finally gained entry into the Vatican museum. We were wove our way through the exhibits of the Vatican, different pieces of art work from Raphael time to Salvador Dali’s time. After about two hours of following signs to the chapel we made it, and it was amazing. The paintings were much different then I was expecting. I can’t even tell you what I was expecting but it just seemed different then I had always imagined. People were packed in like sardines and the guards were on a strenuous alert mode watching for people trying to take pictures, talking or behaving out of order. And I admit it; I broke the rules and took a picture very or the ceiling, woops my bad. The painting we pretty large but full of detail. I can’t imagine looking up for that long, painting the ceiling of what would become possibly one of the most famous rooms in the world, my neck was starting to hurt after 30 minutes. But it was beautiful, and after that we descended the stairs and turned and went out the door.

sweet stair way out of the sistine chapel

Aside from walking though a bunch of Roman ruins we stopped by San Maria Maggiore on the way back to our hostel. We mush have arrived just before it was closing time because you could see the stress that entering visitors caused on the door man. We walked in anyway and admired the golden ceiling made from gold leaf mosaic and took pictures of all that looked familiar from class. Soon we were shuffled out as they were preparing for mass at 5:00. It was a beautiful church but the plastic chairs (the kind you see at a banquet hall) looked a bit out of place in the marble and gold clad interior.

san maria maggioreinside of san maria look at all that gold!

On Sunday we packed our bags up and headed to Florence by train. From there we would stay one night then head to Castiglion Florentino for just one night. But that was the most anticipated night of this whole trip. I couldn’t wait to see my friends from school, who had been studying in Italy since January. It was going to be exciting to see these kids, especially since I hadn’t see them since December.