Rome

ROMA!

This Rome extension of an already amazing Europe trip was a significant headache and source of stress for several months before! But I'm so glad it came together and some awesome people made it happen! Just 8 of us from our original group of 16 headed to Rome after Barcelona. Since our actual entire original tour group had been like 48 people, it was really really nice to finally only have ourselves to worry about and be in a small group!

The crazy part of our Rome trip was that we were completely on our own! No tour director or big group any more. No one that spoke the local language!! Turns out Spanish is similar enough that in a few situations Collin was able to communicate what we needed with Italian speakers. But other than that none of us knew what the heck anyone was saying or what anything said! 

We used Air B&B and rented out an apartment for the 8 of us to stay in. In London, Paris, and Barcelona we had stayed pretty far out of the city, so we had a 45-ish minute commute in and out of town each day. But our Rome apartment was seriously a 5-minute walk from the Colosseum! It was awesome. A great change!

Something awesome that happened in Rome was that as soon as we made it from the airport to our apartment and got inside, we all immediately started checking the place out, turning on all the lights, plugging in phones and laptops to charge. We blew the fuse for the entire apartment! Stupid Americans. It was so funny later once we realized how dumb we had been in bombarding the electrical system. But at the moment we were like, what the heck?!? Thankfully that was one of the situations where Collin's Spanish/hack Italian bailed us out with one of our neighbors who was able to help get the circuit reset. And from then on we took turns charging phones and kept most of the lights off!

Another thing that was sooo nice about Rome was that since we were on our own, we could decide when we wanted to leave each day! We actually got to sleep in until a reasonable time! We had all had enough of getting up at 5:00, 6:00 am, that's for sure! So we were better rested which was great!

The first half day we were there, after we got settled, we did a little bit of exploring, mostly in the ancient area nearby our apartment. And of course checked out a church, because well it's Rome!

First view of the Colosseum, right by our apartment!

Michaelangelo's Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli

The chains that bound St. Peter during his imprisonment by the Romans are also housed in this church

We spent a while at the Roman Forum. Very amazing. Very OLD! 

Rain at the Roman Forum

I don't have any memory of what this building is. But I put this picture in purely for Cheryl and Hailey's benefit!

I had thought that I loved Barcelona's beautiful narrow, winding streets... but nothing compared to Rome's! I was so in love. Everything was so.....Italian! Gorgeous and so beautiful.

We were starving by 5:00 and most of the ristorantes and trattorias we were finding didn't open until 7:00! We finally found one.... and Collin and I each got our own pizzas! And you better believe we finished them! Ahhh, pizza in Italy.....

Our first of way too many gelato stops! In our defense, there were literally gelaterias on every single corner.

Our first full day there, we set out on a big adventure! Our goal was to make it all the way to the Vatican, which was across the main part of touristy Rome. Almost a 3 mile walk I seem to remember. We had the grand idea to stop at a few places along the way to break it up, but things didn't quite turn out how we were hoping! We first made our way to Trevi fountain, which I was SO excited to see. And we found this!

Completely fenced off and covered in scaffolding! Not even any water!

Boo!

Even with the scaffolding pretty much completely covering it, I still loved looking at the sculptures. I can imagine how breathtaking it must be when it's not under construction. It was gorgeous even in the state it was in.

Our next stop was the Spanish Steps. Lo and behold:

ha ha ha! Seriously, you would think I'm joking, but I'm not! Thanks, Italy. ;)

We still hung out at the top of the Spanish Steps for about an hour. 

And Cheryl and I got pooped on by pigeons. So awesome. Our morning really started out great! 

Via dei Condotti - very very ritzy shopping at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Trying to get a decent picture without scaffolding in the background

We then headed to the Vatican. It was the hottest/ longest walk of the trip to me. Probably because I was just already annoyed that we had found nothing but scaffolding that morning, ha. Plus we were on a schedule to make our ticket reservation so we had to hurry. And it wasn't through a particularly eye-catching part of town, so it wasn't really enjoyable. But we survived!

The Vatican Museum was PACKED! Literally wall-to-wall people. This picture is an awesome example of how we seriously moved through the entire museum. We just kind of got pushed along with the crowd. It probably would have been more enjoyable if someone could have translated the Italian for us! I didn't know what anything was. We are so awesome, we would linger near tour groups and listen to what their tour guide was saying, then relay the info to whoever we were with. So we gleaned some info. The cheap way!

We did know enough to keep our eye on the prize--keep following the signs for Cappella Sistina

A spot to SIT! Hallelujah!

Another good example of what it was like heading through the museum. Room after room after room in what seemed like a maze!

We did make it to the Sistine Chapel! So amazing. You're not allowed to take pictures in there. But it was fabulous. Beyond words!

St. Peter's Basilica----- mind-blogglingly huge and ornate. 

(see the heavenly light behind me)

Vatican guards

The Vatican Square / front of St. Peter's Basilica

A hot, long walk to make our reservation that morning, then a couple of hours of going with the herd through the Vatican...... we were exhausted. I am sleeping in this picture! We grabbed some gelato after this and got revived!

Our walk back from the Vatican was SO much more beautiful!

One of our favorite things in Rome was that there were free, cold, fresh drinking fountains everywhere. Those Romans, they thought of everything! ha ha. Seriously though, it was really cool. Not USA-style fountains, but pretty ones!

Could not get enough of the gorgeous streets.

Piazza Navona--a place we spent a good amount of time! I loved it. 

After spending some time at Piazza Navona, we made our way to the Pantheon. It was such a cool moment when we stepped out from a narrow street into the Piazza of the Pantheon. Like, oh yeah, we just stumbled across the most complete ancient church. no big deal. The Pantheon was AMAZING!

Pantheon dome

Italian food was amazing. Of course. Italian is already probably my all-time favorite, so being in Italy, oh man I was in heaven. I'm not exaggerating when I say we stopped for gelato 3 times a day! And besides that, the pizza, and pasta! divine! 

This ah-maze-ing bakery was a block away from our apartment. Needless to say it got a lot, lot of business from the 8 of us! Like, that's where we got breakfast each day. Everything was just as divine as it looks in these pictures!

My favorite gelato combination, thanks to Cheryl's discovery of it: Coconut and dark chocolate. I had like 4 of them!

On our way home after an amazing day of sights (albeit started a little slow with the whole everything-under-construction thing), we headed past Santa Maria Maggiore - to see a pretty huge crowd gathering, and a big setup with a mic'd choir singing. Turns out the Pope was going to be there in about 30 minutes! WHAT!! Insane! So--this is a picture I took of the Pope in person. We got to see him. It was a huge, huge crowd and a long procession that I guess happens once a year. We lucked into that big time. Perfect ending to an amazing day.

On our way home we saw a couple of pizza joints packed with priests! Not something you see every day.

Our last day we didn't have a huge itinerary, since we had ended up hitting almost all the major sights the day before. But we did head to the Colosseum first (we had tickets, thank goodness. The lines looked like they took at least 2 hours), then to Trastavere, then back to the historic heart and our favorite, Piazza Navona.

Musei de Capitolini

The Colosseum!

So incredible. And also, I would not want to be anywhere near it during an earthquake. Or even a windy day.

Our tour director had recommended we check out Trastavere--but we didn't find much there. We did walk along the river though, and also finally figured out the bus system, AND Larry Judy and I hit up an Italian grocery store, so it wasn't a total bust.

Collin and the girls bought some knock-off Ray-Bans, "Rye-Bons" as the seller pronounced it

Oh Cheryl I am sure you will kill me for posting this. But it's worth remembering that we waited for a bus for EVER. Then when it came we squished on like sardines. No joke.

The pictures don't justify, but they were about hanging out the door.

And I was smashed against a plastic window. Another moment worth a laugh for sure.

I loved the street signs. So much more romantic when it's "Via de" something, not just "Welford Street!"

Come on guys, one more day!

We tried to find some decent shopping but failed. So we ended up back at our new favorite, Piazza Navona. A sight for sore eyes! 

Our last Italian meal. Italy was playing Costa Rica in the World Cup during our dinner at this Trattoria. So our server was super distracted! But it was fun to be surrounded by Italians during the excitement.

Piazza Navona

We also made one more stop at the Pantheon on our way home. So breathtaking.

And we stumbled upon Sant' Ivo alla Sapienza just as it was closing, and got some great pictures.  

The Colosseum at night! Astounding!

Ciao, Roma!