Rainy Roma

I'm back from Rome (and finally dry!). Megan and I got up incredibly early Friday morning to catch a taxi to Orly airport, where our Roman adventure began...we arrived in the middle of the pouring rain surrounded by people speaking a language we couldn't understand at all (a new experience for us). After getting a bus to Termini station and walking to our B&B, the owner didn't answer the buzzer to let us in, so we had to call the company and have them call her while we waited outside the building in the rain. She turned out to be a very nice elderly Italian lady named Anna Rosa, who immediately noticed my Italian last name, asked where in Italy I was from, and commented on my "bella capelli" (beautiful hair). The B&B is basically her owning a few apartments in an apartment building near the Colosseum and renting out the bedrooms.

We started out our weekend by going to another country, aka taking the metro to Citta del Vaticano. Since it was so rainy, we decided to start out at the Musei Vaticani and see the Sistine Chapel. We got there with an hour and a half to go before closing. Luckily, the path to the Sistine Chapel takes you through most of the museum, so we got to see a great deal of artwork on our way. A lot of ornate ceilings, paintings, sculptures, frescoes. No wonder the Vatican is so rich. Just as we were starting to doubt the existence of the Sistine Chapel, it finally appeared. It is really incredibly beautiful. It's impossible to believe Michelangelo actually painted that entire ceiling--it's huge!! The sign said no pictures were allowed, but everyone else was taking them, haha. So we spent awhile gaping at the ceiling before we left. Lunch was at a restaurant my guidebook recommended, which was cheap AND delicious. Basically, there was a glass case with three pasta dishes and a meat dish, you chose which one you wanted, and they cooked it fresh. Megan and I chose a pasta that looked like penne cut in half that was in a tomato sauce with spicy peppers, and it was delicious. Next was strawberry gelati, then on to San Pietro! There was a long line for security to get into the basilica, and of course the downpour began again. But once we got inside, it was gorgeous. We saw Michelangelo's Pieta, which was wonderful, and it's just a really huge, ornate, beautiful church. The square in front is pretty big too, which I guess it needs to be with all the people that show up when the Pope is around! After that, we went to the north of Rome to the Villa Borghese park to see the Galeria Borghese, an art museum. First we couldn't find our way out of the Spagna metro for awhile, then once we did, we found out that Villa Borghese is the creepiest park EVER, dark and creepy and full of crows and other ominous birds. The Galeria Borghese is also the museum with the most rules I have ever seen. You not only are not allowed to take pictures, but you have to check all handbags and cameras. Art history IDs are not accepted from non-EU citizens, and entrance tickets are only valid within a certain 2-hour period, which in our case began 40 minutes after we arrived. Fun. Once we did get into the museum, though, it was gorgeous. It is the private Borghese collection, including a lot of Bernini and Caravaggio works, which were beautiful. We finished up the night with pizza near the Spanish Steps before finally getting to bed (after watching some really funny Italian TV).

We woke up the next morning well-rested and ready to start our day of Roman ruins! (Friday was our Roman art and church day) The sun was out at first, so we started off to Palatine Hill, less than a 10-minute walk, and along the way caught our first view of the Colosseum. Palatine Hill is one of Rome's 7 hills, and also the city's birthplace (according to legend it's where Romulus and Remus were nursed by the wolf). It's more or less a gigantic archeological site, where you walk around among the ruins. It was really nice and cool to see. After an hour or so, we wandered over to the Colosseum (where the rain immediately started again). The Colosseum was magnificent, especially once it stopped raining. It was huge, and so close to our hostel. We walked around the whole thing and bought a few souvenirs before having paninis for lunch and proceeding to the Jewish Ghetto--we thought going to the Jewish neighborhood in Rome would be funny, and it definitely was! We saw the synagogue, which has a really strange square dome, and is right by the Tiber River. After that, we headed into the center of Rome, passing the wedding cake along the way (aka the monument to Vittorio Emanuel II), and walking through the streets, stopping at the Pantheon (which was very wet on the inside due to its open roof), the only building from ancient Rome that has survived intact. Then we saw the Trevi fountain, which is really gorgeous. We both threw coins in because legend says if you throw in a coin you're destined to return to Rome. Next was the famous San Crispino's gelati, which lived up to its delicious reputation. After that, the Spanish Steps, home of the MOST OBNOXIOUS souvenir sellers in the world. Then we walked around the center of Rome for awhile and looked at the designer stores. At that point a clown pulled a curl of my hair and said "bella capelli!" again...I really thought my hair would be more normal in Italy, but apparently not! We walked around a little bit more before having dinner (the most delicious penne all'arrabiata) and gelati and heading home, but not before walking right into the middle of an anti-Israel demonstration, or I guess more pro-Palestine demonstration, which was really looooong and loud.

This morning after a huge hassle of airplanes and airports, and a creepy walk after a huge thunderstorm, we made it home by 2:00 and ate lunch, yay! All in all, I don't love the city of Rome (although I liked it better once the sun came out!). The sights were beautiful and the food was delicious, but the city was really dirty and sketchy. There was graffiti everywhere, even near the historical stuff, and the men were very aggressive, and it just really did not feel safe. Although it was nice to have 60-degree weather! Anyway, time to go readjust to Paris life. I'll put pictures on Picasa tonight!