La Citta Eterna

Buon Giorno!

Currently on day 3 in Rome, The Eternal City. I really like it so far - despite being a huge city, it does not feel big at all. There's no section of huge skyscrapers, no downtown, and a bunch of piazzas, making it a nice walking city.

I arrived late Monday afternoon, and just wandered around the area by the Termini (main train station). At night, I went to another hostel's bar to watch the "Brasil vs Cile football game", with a group of Brazilians from my hostel. They were all really enthusiastic about the team, and it was a lot of fun.

Day 2 was packed with activity. Me and a guy from my hostel room (from Houston) spent the day walking around and seeing all the main sights. And we saw pretty much all of them, besides the Vatican. First up was the Spanish Steps:



Then the Trevi Fountain (at which we kept with tradition and threw a coin over our shoulders into it):



We then walked through a couple nice piazzas, the Piazza Navona and the Campo di Fiori. It was then about lunchtime, and we crossed the Tiber River to the area of Trastevere to eat. We split our dishes with each other, so the final assortment of food looked like this:

Antipasti: Bruschetta
Primi: Spaghetti alla Carbonara & Lasagna
Secondo: Milanese Cutlet & Rumps with Potatoes
Dessert: Vanilla Custard & Fruit Salad

all for just 10 euro each (~12 USD), not including our drinks. It took over an hour and a half to eat, being one the longest (and best) lunches I've ever had. We filled up our empty soda cans from a nearby fountain, and headed onward (all running water in Rome is drinkable, so people are constantly filling up bottles at or drinking from the fountains around the city).

We headed over to the ancient city, and walked through some incredible ruins on Palatine Hill. Some of these dated back to before 100 AD, which is amazing to think about how they're still standing.



The final stop was across the street, at the Colosseum. After seeing so many pictures of it and hearing so much about it, it was amazing to actually be there.



We went inside and caught some great views from the ground floor, and the floor above. The bottom was exposed, so you could see the labyrenth underneath, in which the animals would be kept, or which they would flood for boating events.



Today was devoted to the Vatican. Last night, I found out that the pope speaks every Wednesday, so I would be able to catch that. So I got up early and got a good seat in St Peters Square. The pope entered and first rode around in his vehicle for a bit, circling through and waving to the large audience attending. Next, he said a prayer in Latin, and then acknowledged the many groups attending from different countries, speaking in many different languages (Italian, French, German, English,and Spanish, in that order.) I left towards the end of this.





I then hit the Vatican museums, in which there were some great statues and paintings. Of course, this ended in the Sistine Chapel, with the famous Michaelangelo cealing painting. The artwork was incredible, and while it wasn't as stunning as the David, the detail and perspective in the paintings were very impressive.



Also saw the largest church in the world, St Peter's Basilica:



Now I'm exhausted from two busy days, and planning to rest a bit before my Friday train to Barcelona!

Colin