S.P.Q.R.
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2010
1
21
Trip End
Aug 30, 2010
Where I stayed
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Hmm... Rome... It's a bit much to write in a single travel blog entry, don't you think? But I suppose I'll have to test the possibilities of humans and their travel blogs. Are you ready for history in the making? If not, then get ready, because here we go.
I love corny.
I also love Rome.
My trip to the world's largest museum began last Monday when I asked Mike what he wanted to do that weekend. I jokingly said we should go to Rome (while hoping in my head that he would say yes); little did I know, Mike had been looking up airfare prices to Rome the previous evening. That was it. Both of us had the will, so we met up that night and bought our tickets. That's why you all received my strange little entry last week. On Thursday, then, anxious for the trip to begin, we met up and discussed exact plans for the days ahead. We decided on a tour of Rome the first day, the Vatican on Saturday, and ancient Rome on Sunday.
My trip to the world's largest museum TRULY began last Friday morning at 5:30 AM, while the majority of you Americans were still living out your evenings. I chuckled to myself, because in the States the UW Huskies were playing they're last regular season game at 11:30 Eastern Time, which still hadn't begun by the time I was up and off to Rome. Har har har. Anyway, Mike and I left for the metro station, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We got to the metro quite early, so we sat there as I took the advantage to make a quaint little video of the start of our journey. Finally, at about 6:05, the metro whisked us away to the Athens International Airport. We arrived at roughly 6:45 and our flight left at 8:05, so we walked through security after a quick check-in (thanks to online check-in!), which was quite a joke. The security guy asked for Mike's passport, but never mine, because he assumed I was with Mike... Haha. It's times like that that make me wish I were an illegal alien. Anyway, we arrived at our gate about 15 minutes before boarding, where we saw my lovely roommate Ian collapsed on a row of chairs, sleeping and obviously not having the best of times. Apparently he had been up the whole night before and came to the airport at about 6, despite not having a flight until 2. Oh, well. Ian, if you're reading this, you're a baller.
Eventually, at a crazy-early 7:25, we began boarding 40 minutes before the plane left. We flew Olympic Airlines, so Greeks were everywhere. It was pretty exciting. When Mike and I got onto the plane, we saw that we had managed to reserve business class for no extra expense, and the stewardesses left a pillow on the middle seat in the row of three seats to reserve it "for our comfort". Seeing this, I sat in the aisle, while Mike grabbed the window seat. After a few minutes, however, it became apparent that the pillow was a mistake. A teenage Greek girl sat down between us, visibly confused. Apparently I was in her seat, and the pillow was in mine. Anyway, she sat down and began talking in Greek to her friend in the row ahead about the two "paidi" around her. That was us. I chuckled a bit. For the first hour of the flight she didn't say a word to either of us, and Mike and I only occasionally talked to each other, mainly to point out distant sights below us. After about an hour, though, the Greek girl leaned over to me and politely asked where I was from. I was a bit surprised, because I figured it was obvious... Heh. I told her that I was from America, and she got all giddy. Apparently she loves Americans. Apparently she loves me above all other Americans. She introduced herself to me as the 18-year old Michaela from Thessaloniki, and got even more giddy when I said I was a super-sexy 2 years older than her. For the remainder of the flight, she tried teaching me Greek that I already knew and convinced herself that I would visit her in Thessaloniki during our class trip to Northern Greece, despite lacking my full name, phone number, and every other sort of information about me. I sort of felt bad for her... Heh. I had a great time talking to her, though, and we had an interesting one-hour conversation, filled with lots of impossibly-incoherent Greek on her part and English on my part. Eventually, we got off the plane at 9:00 in beautiful Roma, ready to experience whatever was ahead of us.
We got out of the airport and began our search for the metro station, which looked like a giant metal tube on the map. Luckily enough, we found it with very little searching. When we got up inside of the big metal tube, however, we learned that the transport employees were on strike on this fine Friday morning, and the trains and buses were not running. Again quite luckily, we found a private shuttling service for 15 euro, only 3 euro more than the train fair. We jumped on the opportunity, and even got to share our ride with an American student from Temple University who was studying in Rome. He pointed out a bunch of information stops on our maps and gave us a bunch of insider information. It was the perfect free travel guide opportunity. Our shuttle dropped us off in the Vatican City, which means we got to enjoy countless sights on the ride. We saw the Colosseum and a bunch of the Forum, the Piazzo del Popolo, the Spanish Steps, and many other sites which we would visit later. After about 45 minutes of traffic and enjoyable talk with out American counterpart, we got off the bus, in the middle of beautiful Rome. As Mike and I left to find our hostel, we looked directly in front of us. I asked him if the building in front of us was St. Peter's Basilica, and he said he didn't think so. I then remarked that it looked an awful lot like a smaller version of St. Peter's. As we got closer, that small building got a whole bunch bigger, and, in time, revealed itself to be the world's largest church. The pillars were a dead give-away, I must admit. St. Peter's isn't very good at hide-and-seek. We took it in for a few minutes, but left quickly, knowing we'd be back the following day. We then quickly found the street that would take us to our hostel.
It was ridiculous. The streets I walked on that first day proved to me that Rome is nothing more than the world's largest open-air mall. Every single store I saw was some high-quality, renowned clothing store. It absolutely blew my mind. After walking by Coach, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci, and countless others, we finally got to our hostel. It was a quaint little thing, that I would come to enjoy a bunch. We dropped off our bags and suited up for our walking tour of Rome. We hit up a ton of sights that first day. Here's a list:
Piazza del Popolo was first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_del_Popolo
Then the Villa Medici:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Medici
Then the Trinita dei Monti:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinità_dei_Monti
Then the Spanish Steps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Steps
Then the Trevi Fountain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevi_Fountain
Then the Quirnale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quirinal_Palace
Then the Palazzo Montecitorio:
http://translate.google.gr/translate?hl=el&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Montecitorio
Then the Monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Vittorio_Emanuele_II
Then the Church of St. Ignazio of Loyola:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_Sant'Ignazio_di_Loyola_in_Campo_Marzio
Then the Pantheon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome
And finally the Palazzo di Guistizia:
http://translate.google.gr/translate?hl=el&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_di_Giustizia.
It was an absolutely breath-taking day. Each and every one of the sites was as beautiful as you'd expect Rome to be. My favorite aspect of the day, BY FAR, was the Trevi Fountain... I couldn't believe it. It literally took my breath away and stopped my heart when I first saw it... We were walking around, presumably lost, through some of the smallest alleyways Rome had to offer, when suddenly we emerged in a crowd of hundreds of spectators, with the massive, impossibly intricate fountain towering over everyone. It stopped in my tracks with my jaw on the floor. The fountain is just unimaginable. I knew it was famous. I knew it was beautiful. But I couldn't comprehend what everyone spoke of until I finally saw it... And the water... It was a gorgeous blue only matched by Crete's Mediterranean. Eventually, I shook myself free of the majesty and managed to take a few pictures before enjoying the water. There was a nearby spigot to drink from, so I took the opportunity before casting my lepto into the fountain to make a wish. After probably a half-hour of amazement, Mike and I headed off to even more sites. We eventually stumbled upon the huge monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II. While we took it in, it began raining a tremendous downpour. After snapping pictures of the site and climbing as high as we could, we set off for the Pantheon, cold and wet, because we heard seeing the Pantheon in the rain was one of Rome's most promising sights. Tromping through puddles in flooded alleyways we eventually reached the Pantheon, just as the rain was letting up. What luck, eh? We managed to get inside for free, though, which was tremendous. So many people had pushed inside that the guards couldn't possibly ask for tickets. We just stuck ourselves in the crowd of wet, beleaguered masses and got inside to enjoy what is now a basilica. I was bit upset to see the Vatican's stranglehold on the site, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. I took my time to imagine the pantheon of gods and goddesses lining the roof and beheld the mist falling from the ceiling. After seeing the countless Christian statues and enjoying the artwork from the Renaissance, Mike and I took off to head to the hostel and dry off. While walking, we past by the Tribunale building, which was wonderfully beautiful. Eventually, soaked and frozen, we made it to the hostel. I quickly took off my wet clothes and climbed under my blankets to warm up. Mike and I ended up napping for an hour or so until we woke up for supper. We had some delicious pizza and a ton of water to offset the activity of the day. Eventually, at the wonderfully early time of 9:30, we made it back to the hostel. Not quite ready for bed, Mike read for a while, and I watched Saw 6 before falling asleep. Nothing like a horror movie in one of the world's most gorgeous cities.
That was my first day. This entry is ridiculous. I just realized that I've been writing this for almost an hour, though, and I desperately need to get some work done. I'll be back later to write about my second and third days. For now, I'm posting this to emails and Facebook and Twitter, and I'll do the same when my entry is fully completed. Prepare for one ridiculously long entry and 800 pictures. Can you handle it? Can Travelpod handle it? I'm not entirely sure.
Enjoy, everyone! Await the next pieces with bated breath! I promise not to take long Everything will be up by tomorrow afternoon!
Comments
I just want to say that I am glad that you watched Saw 6 before going to bed. I still haven't seen it yet. I need to.
The story was wonderful and the photos were even better