Roman Holiday
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2012
1
16
23
Trip End
May 15, 2012
Where I stayed
Hostel Lodi
What I did
Rome, Latium, Italy
Friday, April 6, 2012
The next morning (7th) we enjoyed breakfast at our hostel and then headed out for the Vatican. We explored St. Peter's Basilica and sent postcards home. To keep in contact with my beloved niece and nephews I have been sending home postcards from everywhere I go.Being the day before Easter, they were about half set up with chairs and flowers. From there we waited in a very long line to get into the Vatican Museums. While the line into the museums were very tiring, we all got a boost once we got inside. The art was beautiful and the variety was impressive. I was most impressed by the facial expressions on the statues throughout the museum. I know it is silly, but seeing how the statues were more or less expressive depending on the time period was very curious. The Egyptians were very stoic while some of the Renaissance pieces looked like they were about to scream. I was also impressed by a very old map of the US colonies. I have seen old maps of my country before, but these were different because they were made for and by Italians, a group that was not central to the formation of the US. I guessed I had never thought about how a group of people hundreds of years of ago were keeping an eye on this group of English colonies that would become my country. To say the least I was impressed. I was also taken by the tapestries along the walls. I was mainly struck by their size and details. You would have to have a certain type of brain for that. Overall I liked Vatican City, although I still struggle with the wealth of the Church with so many needy throughout the world.
The next day was Easter (8th)! We started our day off with another line to wait for the Colosseum. That was well worth the wait. I just thoroughly enjoy being in places that old. We wandered around that for a while before heading to the Palatine and Forum. The Palatine is not much now, but back in the day it was a horse racing stadium. The Forum was the busiest part of Rome back in the day, but now it is just a ruin mixed in with gardens. I love ruins like this because there is no agenda, no tour necessary, just mumble around and see what you can find. We walked around for a while before we found a modern looking building with "Imperial Benito Mussolini" written across and the Nazi eagle. It turns out that this was Mussolini's summer palace. Don't you just love it when history pops up in daily life? From there we mumbled our way into an open field where we sat and talked for a while. I made a small wreath of flowers and then we continued on. From there Will, Ana and I headed back to the hostel for a nap break. We watched Glee in Italian and headed back out. We met back up with Joey at the Trevi Fountain and found dinner. We sat along the street during dinner and Will finally gave into the many rose sellers in Rome and bought Ana and I a rose. It was very sweet of him. After dinner we had our first cone of gelato and promptly a giggle fest from all the sugar. On the way back to the Metro stop, Will spilled some of his chocolate gelato on his pants. We picked on him the rest of the night for pooping his pants and that somehow turned into us trying to talk in Italian, but all that came out was "Excusi I poopi." We think we are funny.
While I had a great time in Rome, I had mixed feelings about being gone during Easter, again. Last year exams started the Tuesday after Easter and it was practical to go home so I spent the day with my roommate and her family. I have a big, close family and I hate missing big family events. Although I was thinking about them, I wasn't homesick until the day after Easter when I saw pictures and read messages from my family describing the day and how I was missed.
