Italy: Day 2 – Vatican City & Rome

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Apr 092011
 

Our second day started off relaxingly with a long breakfast and chatting as we planned out our day. It was our only real full day to see the rest of what was to be seen in Rome. Thus, there was no time to waste!

We managed the bus 810 straight to Vatican City, where we joined the throngs of tourists in St. Peter’s Square to take pictures and follow the smoothly moving line to get into the Basilica. While I have only an intellectual interest in Catholicism, my mama grew up in the religion, so I was curiously asking her questions. It’s quite an impressive sight to see.

As we neared the Basilica, I was somehow convinced to climb the 551 steps to the top of the Cupola (and back down!) to see the grand views of Rome and the Square below. Despite the sore legs and knees in the following days, it was worth the climb (though one might be willing to fork over the extra 10Euros to skip the first 236 steps).

Back on the ground, we toured St Peter’s Basilica, which was quite amazing.

Then, we headed towards the Vatican museum, which lets you in to see the Sistine Chapel and garden area. Words cannot describe the art to be seen. It makes one wonder where did all that talent go or is it still out there, but hidden?


Though already a full day, we still had a few more spots to see before we could say our visit to Rome was complete. So, after a pizza stop, we headed off to see the Pantheon. Though we got a little turned around, which was quite easy to do in this city, we managed to find it. The inside was closed, unfortunately, for mass, but the outside was impressive in itself.

 

After that, we made our final stop to see the Trevi Fountain. I often wish that I could just live the life of an artist and create such beauty as the marble carvings or paintings, but alas I would never make it! Instead, I must blog in hopes of someday making my millions with my words. ;D

Thus, ended our very brief tour of Rome. One could really spend a few days here and still have plenty to see, but there’s so much more of Italy to be seen and we were booked for our train to Florence in the morning.

*The following post will be a link to ALL of the photos taken in Rome and the Vatican City* 😀

Next up – Florence and Tuscany….

-T

Italy: Day 1 – Rome

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Apr 092011
 

Originally, my mama and I had planned to do this Italy trip as her 60th birthday adventure. However, my university decided to change the vacation dates to two weeks earlier and though we couldn’t celebrate her 60th there, we were still able to enjoy our Italian adventure!

Coming from opposite sides of the world, we met up in Rome with Giorgio there to take us to our B&B-style accommodations at Abitazione Pigneto. It was a cute apartment with the rooms rented out and a common area for breakfast, the Internet or a chat with whomever was there. The location was a bit outside of the center and catching  bus 81 or 810 to return at night was infrequent at times causing one to question the benefits of cost over convenience. Ultimately, though it was a nice place to stay and always interesting to see different parts of a city.

As for Rome…where does one begin?

First, it is a good idea to purchase a Roma Pass before starting your visit to sites. You can purchase them at train stations or information centers if you want to wait until you arrive. For 25Euros, you get free entry into two museums or archaeological sites and reduced prices for others over three days. You may also take public transportation freely. The booklet includes a map and information about places to visit. Considering that just to get into the Colosseum costs about that, it’s definitely worth the purchase.

As we had only about two days to see the sights, we wasted no time after settling in to hit the streets and see what we could see. The first stop was a small church of San Giovanni. The inside of these churches are amazing!


Then, we continued along to catch the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill where there were ruins of buildings with amazing architecture. All were very breath-taking and for me, put Egypt to shame despite my awe of the size of the temples there.

From jet lag, traveling and such, we were pretty wiped out after trying to take in all of this. So, we headed back to the hotel to rest up before taking in a late dinner (sadly no pictures of the first meal in Italy!).

Vatican City coming up….

-T

P.S. All pics of the various cities will be posted after all the trip information. 🙂 (There are a lot….)

 

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