Italia Part 3: Conquering Rome

The last leg of my trip was in Rome. We arrived in Rome late on Wednesday night by train and I finally got to live my dream as Lizzie McGuire (for those of you unfamiliar with The Lizzie McGuire Movie- I recommend you watch it, Cody would not agree). The next morning we woke up early ready to conquer Rome. One of our hostel reception people had told us the bus we needed to catch to get to the Coliseum the night before. It was supposed to be 70 that day so naturally I broke out the tank top and flip flops after months of bitter cold. As we tried to make our way to the Coliseum and quickly realized that A. Rome transportation is awful and very confusing and B. we were being targeted as tourists whether it was the tank tops or my blonde hair I don't know so we tried making our way back to grab some jackets. Turns out the bus system is very illogical in the fact that it picked us up on a totally random street than where it dropped us off. Thanks to the help of some nice Italian people, they helped us find our way back.

Once we got back the new reception hostel guy helped us out, giving us the load-down on Rome- how the transportation works, what we should do each day, where to buy tickets without lines, where we should reserve tickets online, good places to eat and much more. He was EXTREMELY helpful and I could not be more grateful for his help because he saved us a lot of time and money. Hostels and their workers can definitely make or break a visit to a city. After regrouping, we set off to conquer Rome once more and were much more successful this time around.

We started off getting our tickets at the Roman Forum only waiting about 2 minutes in line (instead of the 2 hour long ticket line at the Coliseum) which included both attractions for a two day pass. Not only did we miss the line, but we got free tickets because we are studying at the Faculty of Arts.... not a bad deal if you ask me!!

 We started off at the Roman Forum which used to be the center of Roman political and social life. Its basically a bunch of ruins, so without a guide or map I think it would be hard to get as much out of it.Rick Steve's gave us a nice walking tour around the Roman Forum and we got to see the sites where the senate met, where the lawyers worked, the site where Julius Ceasar was buried, and much more. It was a great tour!

 

We then headed over to see the Coliseum. It reminded me of Death Valley in Clemson except it was the real death valley. It could seat up to 70,000 people if my memory serves me correctly! I can't even imagine living in that time and watching the events that took place there. They have part of the bottom of the arena exposed to show the dungeons and trap doors down below.

After the Coliseum we headed over to Capitol Hill which is massive as well and reminded me of the white house except cooler.

Once we saw Capital Hill we made our way to the Pantheon. It was originally built after a victory and then was converted into a church and now just seems as though its a tourist site. The opening of the dome in the Pantheon has an open hole where sunlight and rain comes directly in. When it rains all the people flood in to watch the rain come down (see what I did there :) ). After the Pantheon we saw some of the other little sites our hostel person pointed out to us such as squares with music and some restaurants. It was an exhausting day, but we got to see the big sites!

The next day we made our way to the Trevi Fountain and unfortunately it was under construction :( I still made a wish and threw in my coin- guaranteeing my return to Rome.

 We went to the Spanish Steps which really aren't anything special except a lot of steps, regardless they provided a great place to take a rest. We then made our way to the Vatican. We reserved tickets online so we didn't have to wait in line for 3 hours to get in. The Vatican museum is massiveee, 59 museums in 1, with over 4 miles of museum to see. At first I was really trying to look at everything, but after awhile it just became exhausting. As Rick Steve's said, a short visit in the Vatican is about 2 hours and a long visit could be a week! I think art buffs could spend years in that place. It was awesome to see regardless of the length, but it was always crowded. At the end I felt like a zombie, so we decided to see St. Peter's Cathedral on Saturday and we spent the rest of the day strolling along the river and relaxing.

 

St. Peter's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the world! The atrium itself is larger than most churches including mine back home. I was glad we were able to see it. We stood in the square where the pope and hundreds of people had been one week earlier on Easter! Our plane left in the afternoon so we had to start making our way back, but it was a great end to the trip. I got to have my favorite meal one last time..

Rome is an exhausting and crowded city, with a lot to see and do. I think spacing things out and getting out of the touristy areas would help to break it up a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed my week in Italy and I was sad to leave!

 

Ciao Italia!