ROME
GALLERY
"Better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times." ~Asian proverb
City Highlights:
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The Vatican City
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St. Peter's Basilica
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Sistine Chapel
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The Colosseum
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The Forum
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Trevi Fountain
Tips for Rome:
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In order to purchase subway tickets, you need cash--specifically small cash, as it only takes certain denominations and will return a bunch of coins upon purchase.
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Do the math if you are planning on using the subway. If you use the subway more than three times in a day, you will want the all-day pass.
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Wear light and airy clothes! Rome was brutally hot when we were there. Your clothes constantly stuck to you and the heat was intense!
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Always carry a water bottle with you. There are quite a few places to fill up your water bottle for free throughout the city.
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When headed to Rome, we would recommend booking tours through Walks of Italy. This group can get you passes to see the Sistine Chapel before it opens to the public and passes to see the Colosseum after it closes to the public. A mom and daughter in our group did this and said it was amazing. This is incredibly expensive, but worth it if you only have a short time in the city and want to see these places minus the masses of tourists. That being said, the Rick Steves app has a ton of great walking tour audios that can do just as nice of a job.
The importance of staying in a hotel that makes each city walkable...
Journal Highlights:
Friday, July 29, 2016:
(Note: The Holy Door is open at St. Peter's, the door on the right hand side. Walking through this door cleanses your sins away. This door is open only four times in one hundred years.)
We arrived at our hotel in Rome a little after 4pm. We dropped our bags and went off to explore. We hit up an ATM real quick to grab our last little bit of cash (only our third ATM withdrawal--two of which we had to do in Paris) and were on our way. Our first stop was the Victor Emmanuel Monument. A beautiful building with some fantastic views, and also the home of the tomb of the unknown soldier where two guards stand by it day and night.
Next we walked around the Forum since we didn't have time to explore it this evening. We then headed off to the Colosseum before walking the Dolce Vita stroll (a Rick Steves guidebook recommendation). This walk took us to Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.
After viewing all of these sites on foot, walking over 5 miles, we were beat. We decided to walk back to the hotel, freshen up, and then head out to dinner.
In trying to walk back to the hotel we got a little turned around when trying to cut through a subway station. It took us to a part of town I wasn't quite comfortable being in, so we turned around to walk back through the subway station in order to retrace our steps to our hotel. Of course, once we got back to our hotel and looked at a map, where we had ended up on the other side of the metro was about 100 yards from one of the most beautiful churches in Rome. Bummer! Oh well, off to dinner we went--a pizzeria close to our hotel that was listed in the guidebook, Pizzeria Ricci, Est est est.
After dinner we headed straight back to our hotel so that we would be ready for our early morning in order to get to the Vatican City in time for our morning appointment to see the Sistine Chapel.
Saturday, July 30, 2016:
This morning we woke up early in order to get over to the Vatican City. Originally we had planned on walking to the Vatican, but decided to take the subway instead, which ended up being a great call.
We met up with our guide and group of about 20 and started walking around the Vatican Museum. There were tons of artifacts and artwork from various countries and the history behind a lot of it was fascinating to hear. J and I mentioned that it was interesting to hear the historical perspective from an Italian as it was very different from the stories we heard growing up.
The biggest issue with the Vatican Museum was how crowded it was. It was like herding cats, with no room to go anywhere except the direction of the masses. This is how we were entered into the Sistine Chapel as well.
The Sistine Chapel was pretty incredible to see; however, to be honest, it was not as magnificent as I had been expecting. (Note: You are not allowed to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, so I will simply have to describe it.) The paintings were impressive and you could see the progression of Michael Angelo's work, but there was nothing ornate between the paintings to tie them together as you see in other beautiful cathedrals. The other part that was a bit of a letdown was again, the sheer number of people. You really didn't have the opportunity to look over all of the artwork to enjoy it or appreciate it. This is one of those things that we are glad we did to say that we've seen the Sistine Chapel, but it is not something we would pay money to see again.
Next we saw St. Peter's Basilica. Now this was impressive, massive, and ornate. It was pretty awesome to also see the balcony where the Pope says mass to the public.
After all of this, we headed back to our hotel (via the Metro) to grab some lunch from a grocery store and clean up a bit. We went to the grocery store across from our hotel and actually ended up buying milk and cereal. I guess you could say we were ready to start getting back to our normal. We then washed up in the hotel after lunch and then took the Metro again to see the Colosseum and Forum.
We did not pre-purchase tickets to the Colosseum and Forum (which come as a single pass), and our line actually seemed to move faster than pre-purchased online. I'm not sure if this is always the case, but we felt good that we didn't have to stand in line too long.
Once we got into the Colosseum we pulled up the Rick Steves Colosseum walking guide tour. It had a lot of historical information that was fun to listen to. Overall it was so impressive walking around and seeing things that were so old. A definite highlight for us!
Next we headed to the Forum to walk around. Again we pulled up the Rick Steves walking tour and are glad we did. The Forum can be a bit confusing in terms of finding things, so it was helpful to follow the tour so we had a better understanding of what we were looking at. We also climbed up Palatial Hill before then returning to our hotel to shower (as it was another blazing hot day!) and take a nap before meeting our group for dinner.
Overall we had a productive day. We had mixed feelings on the Vatican tour but really enjoyed the Colosseum. Though we ended our sightseeing early, it was a good day and we had fun at dinner. Tomorrow we head back to the States! A great vacation, but we are ready to be home and can't wait to see Kaya!
Sunday, July 31, 2016:
This morning we woke up early, finished packing, ate breakfast, then caught a cab to the airport (we shared with mom and daughter duo Karen and Olivia). Miles told us we needed to experience Roman taxi drivers, and let's just say it was an experience. Nothing like going 95mph (150km) and noticing that all posted signs are merely a recommendation. Wow. Scary! Just thankful we made it to the airport in one piece. The airport was another story, but fortunately we made our flight back to Toronto, found our car, then made the drive back to Michigan, all in time to get ready for work the next morning. All-in-all what a fantastic vacation!
