Alice in Switzerland: Rome

11/9/12 – 11/11/12

Rome is one city that I absolutely wanted to come to ever since I found out I was studying abroad. There was a group of 8 (Meghan, Tiffany, Kacey, Stef, Melanie, Sam, Cody, and I) of us that all decided to go and we got our own room in Alessandro’s Palace. We arrived around 4:45 in the evening and checked into the hostel. That night we decided to eat dinner at a restaurant right around the corner, because we had a discount from the hostel. It was not the best meal, but it was fun to sit outside with everyone. Afterwards we decided to walk to the Colosseum and then the Trevi Fountain. When I first saw the Colosseum, it did not seem real. I have seen pictures of it my whole life and actually seeing it in person was one of my favorite moments. Walking around Rome at night was amazing, because all of the buildings were beautiful and lit up. One of my favorite moments was when we were all falling asleep that night, because for no reason whatsoever we all just started laughing. It lasted for so long and no one knew what we were laughing about.

Colosseum

Trevi Fountain

On Saturday we woke up fairly early and went straight to the Vatican. The line looked extremely long to get into St. Peter’s Basilica, but it only took about an hour to get in. Once we got inside, we all agreed that it would be a good idea to get a tour. None of us knew what anything inside really was, so it was perfect to have someone explain the significance of it to us. The tour started around 10:30 in the morning and our guide’s name was Gabriella. He was a little bit difficult to understand at times, but I comprehended everything for the most part. It took 109 to finish the basilica and it is the biggest church in the world. The two fountains in the center of the Vatican were created by two different architects, but they look exactly the same. Gabriella also pointed out the Pope’s apartment and told us which window he comes out of every Sunday. There are five doors that enter into the Basilica. One of which is the door of death where all of the funeral processions got through and another very important one is the Holy Door. This door is only opened on a jubilee year, every 25 years, and apparently when you pass through you receive forgiveness for all of your sins. Inside of the Basilica, there is a piece of art work called The Pieta and it is the only piece that Michelangelo ever signed, because there was talk that another artist had done it. All of the artwork and mosaics in the Basilica are copies, because the originals are kept in the Vatican museums. After our tour, we went into the tombs and then up to the top of the cupola. When we were at the top, our group ran into Fan. He had missed the train yesterday, so we were not sure if we were going to be able to meet up with him. Of course, knowing the luck of our group, we met up with him in the Vatican. The stairs to the top and back down reminded me of the climb to the top of the Duomo in Florence, because they made me so dizzy! For lunch we ate at NOVA Café and then went into the Vatican museums as well as the Sistine chapel at the end. I did not expect the Sistine chapel to be rectangular, but the paintings were absolutely beautiful. After a long day of artwork and religion, I was exhausted and wanted to take a nap at the hostel. Most of us slept for a few hours and then we went to the Spanish Steps that evening. We spent time there for a while, but then came home and went to bed.

St.Peter's Basilica

Pope's apartment


Spanish steps

On Sunday, we got going around 10 and headed to the Colosseum. We waited in line for 30 minutes and then walked around inside for a while. It was amazing to just stand there and take it all in, while trying to imagine stands filled with 50,000 people. One of the most interesting “battles” I heard of was two humans versus a hippopotamus. I definitely think that this was one of the most amazing sights I saw in Rome. The inside is enormous and it is crazy to think that it was built almost 2,000 years ago. After a little while, we headed over to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. I saw some very cool ruins including a stadium and Augustus and his wife’s house. While we were on Palatine Hill, the rain stopped and there was a beautiful rainbow that was right over all of the Roman Forum. Our bigger group split off later in the afternoon, because everyone had different travel plans to get back. Stef, Cody, Sam, and I all went to see the Pantheon, which was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. In the center, there was a hole that looked as if it was covered with glass. I did not notice that it was open until I saw a large puddle of water in the middle of the building. We stopped by the Trevi fountain one more time on the walk back to the hostel. The walk home was absolutely miserable. It was pouring with rain outside and we all got completely drenched. I felt like I was walking in a swamp because my boots were starting to fill up a little bit with water and I could wring water out of my jeans. After quickly changing in the hostel, we made our way to the train station to catch our 6pm train.

Overall Rome was a very interesting city. There were just so many sights to see and one weekend was not nearly enough time to get to it all. However, I saw all of the things on my list, so I was happy about the trip.