We started out by walking back to Trajan's Market and looking around there and stopping at the Piazza Venezia which is this huge monument that has the Roman Unknown Soldier. Then we continued on to find the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in! It was really pretty and not too crowded. Then we wandered and found the Pantheon! The Pantheon has been my favorite building since I first learned about it and and have always dreamed of going to visit it. It was every bit as wonderful and beautiful as I thought it would be!
We then walked around and found a square with dozens of people selling small paintings of all different places in Rome, I found one of the Pantheon and got it and then we went off to find some food. The last time Katie was in Rome, her family ate at a really great restaurant so we found it and boy was she right! I got gnocchi and it was the best thing I ate in Rome!
After we hit up those two big sites we decided to wonder over across the river. We found a castle and then all of a sudden someone was calling me name, it was David Pulju! He's studying in Rome this semester and we had planned on meeting up the next day to get coffee but we randomly ran into each other! What a crazy, small world.
By this time it was getting to be late afternoon so we started wondering back to our side of town. We tried to see Augustus's mosuleum but it was under some sort of construction. We went back to the church with The Calling of St. Matthew by Caravaggio and I got to see my favorite painting! It was so beautiful but it was on a weird side wall so you can't look at it straight on, which is pretty damn stupid. Then we got some gelato and ate it infront of the Pantheon! We talked to a woman from the Peace Corps for a while which was really interesting then we went back to our hostel so for the night.
Day 4! Vatican crashing!
On our last day we headed to the Vatican and of course got a later start than we wanted to. After getting lost a few times, we finally arrived at the very crowded Vatican City (can't even imagine what its like during the tourist season). I saw some girls from on of my classes (seriously, small world) and we wondered to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. On the way there we were absolutely harassed by people trying to get us to buy a tour. One of them started chasing us saying " I know you speak English" then when we started running away he chased after us saying "Oh it's a running tour, we can see the Sistine Chapel in under 5 minutes!" It was so funny, I was almost crying. We FINALLY got inside after the line and security and started wondering the huge museum. When we got to this outside courtyard we saw Sam, Kelsy and Rachel from our program (I have said "small world" right?) who were also in Rome the weekend. We went through the rest of the museum together and after going from a maze of ornate rooms we finally saw the Sistine Chapel. Now, I wouldnt say that I was disappointed but maybe a bit underwhelmed. That rooms you have to go through to see the chapel are so overwhelming that it almost makes you numb by the end. It was still very amazing to see Michelangelo's work.
Then we went to meet David for coffee and it was pouring! It was terrible and cold. But it stopped and we went to get into St. Peter's. We knew that it was going to be mass but we thought we'd be able to get in during it and see the Pieta. Then we asked and found out that you have to have a mass slip to get in. We were about to give up but then magically got mass slips from a nun! So we waited in the LONG line for like an hour but it was worth it to see the Pieta, right? Wrong. When we got in, the crowd was very controlled and Katie went to look around a bit and the Pieta was curtained off. Screw you Vatican. But we were so tired we needed to sit down... so we stayed for mass. Katie and I are NOT Catholic and do NOT agree with anything Catholic so we just sat there and laughed about how we were heathens, sneaking into Vatican mass. Unfortunately, St. Peter's doesn't have wifi so we were telling each other what we would have been tweeting and we were laughing so hard. We got dirty looks from nuns. It was hilarious.
(When we got back to our hostel we tweeted up a storm, here are some highlights)
"Went to mass at the vatican just so we could have a place to sit
"I guess I'm seeing the Pope instead of the Pieta.
"I see a clown, a butler and a conductor who s packing... what is this circus?
"Heathens pee outside.
Then mass started and we had to be more discreet with how funny we found this whole situation was. The pope was there and everyone was taking pictures and what not. I honestly just didn't care. He's just an old guy who has too much influence over too many mindless people. When we had to stand for the second time we left. Thank God we got out before the kneeling started. We waited for Ruth at a cafe (mass took another hour to finish) and headed back.
It was an amazing trip!
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| My AMAZING gnocchi, Ruth's pesto and Katie's pizza |
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| undercover in the Vatican |
Edit: Here's the final video from our trip!
Rome from Elizabeth Ortiz on Vimeo.
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