We didn’t have any trouble getting our bags, finding our driver or getting to our hotel. The hotel had been advertised as being near the Vatican and other famous sights, but in reality, it wasn’t near anything of interest. That wasn’t a big deal, though, as there was a subway stop about seven minutes’ walk from the hotel. Not wanting to waste any time, we put our stuff down in the hotel, didn’t take showers or anything, and then went out so that we could start seeing the sights.
Our first stop was the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna), which is apparently a very popular place to hang out in Rome. I had seen the Spanish Steps in movies, and they looked infinitely cooler in the movies than they did when we found them with 908723958623 tourists sitting on them. Still, the general area was very picturesque, with its brightly colored buildings and cobblestone streets. We quickly discovered that much of Rome is like this, and when you’re from the US, that’s pretty exciting.
Spanish Steps:
Nearby area:
We decided before we left the US that we wanted to try as much foreign cuisine as possible, and our first opportunity was near the Spanish Steps. Becca decided she wanted to try gelato (which is really just ice cream, despite the fact that everyone that’s not from Italy seems to think it’s something else), so we went in a small shop near the Spanish Steps and got a large cone. We didn’t ask what the price was, and were shocked when we went to the next counter to pay for it: $23. That’s right—US$23 for a friggin’ ice cream cone. Now, admittedly, it was incredibly good ice cream, but it wasn’t worth $23. Knowing how things are priced near tourist attractions, I hadn’t wanted to do it anyway, but I decided to let Becca have the sticker shock experience. This would become a theme throughout the trip. With the dollar being as weak as it is against the euro, everything was fairly expensive, especially near tourist attractions, where we usually were. We didn’t go in a single high-class, highfalutin restaurant while we were on vacation, and yet lunch was always like $30-50. Anyway, we later saw this $23 price for a large cone in a few other shops, so we didn’t feel like we had been completely ripped off, but it did mean that that was our last large cone of the trip. We did have gelato again, but always small cones…and never more than one at a time.
Yours truly eating the blessed gelato:
Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi), which turned out to be one of my favorite things in Rome. The pictures of it that I had seen prior to going there didn’t do it justice. The fountain is quite large and incredibly beautiful. We spent a little time there, just hanging out at staring at it. It’s a place I’d definitely like to visit again, preferably in the off-season when there aren’t tourists everywhere.
Our next stop was the Pantheon, which was originally a temple built in the first century BC and later improved in the second century AD by the emperor Hadrian. From the seventh century AD on, it was used as a Christian church, so it has been very well preserved by the Catholic church, and is now the oldest domed structure in Rome. The interior was beautiful, and not ostentatious like so many of the churches we would later see on the trip.
Fontana di Trevi:
The Pantheon:
Our next stop was the Piazza Navona, which is the largest square in Rome, if I remember correctly. It was pretty, but there wasn’t much to do there other than take pictures, walk around or just sit and hang out. I guess that’s what all piazzas (squares) are for, but since we don’t really have them in the US, the concept is a bit foreign to me. Anyway, after walking around for a few minutes, we found a small pizza restaurant just off the piazza and had dinner. We ordered one piece each of three different kinds of pizza, and each was very good. At just over $10, this would be one of our cheapest meals, but it was still great. The crust was very thin, and the cheeses and sauces all tasted very fresh. Interestingly, the pizza was sold based on weight, not on slice.
Piazza Navona:
Our first meal in Rome:
We had walked quite a ways from the subway, and it was getting dark, so we decided to find our way back to the subway and head back to our hotel after dinner. Our room was adequate, nothing great. I had watched enough travel shows before coming on this vacation to know that unless we paid a ton of money, we weren’t going to get anything spacious or extra comfortable, and this turned out to be true. Still, our room was clean and in a decent enough hotel, so that was just fine. Of course, “just fine” also cost $210/night, which would get you a fairly awesome room in most cities in the US, but again, this is all part of the European sticker shock experience.
We set out for the Colosseum early the next morning. I had pre-ordered tickets a month before our trip, and this turned out to be a really good idea. We didn’t have to wait in line and were able to get our fill of the Colosseum before the crowds got crazy. It really is an amazing place, one that everyone should see before they die—-pictures and TV just don’t do it justice.
Outside of the Colosseum was Constantine’s Arch (if you don’t know your history, Constantine was the emperor that built Constantinople and legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire early in the 4th century AD), which we walked by as we made our way to the Roman Forum. Like the Colosseum and the Fontana di Trevi, the Forum was one of my favorite sights in Rome, if not our entire vacation. It used to be the center of life in Rome, and is full of the ruins of temples, meeting places, arches, churches, and homes of wealthy people, including Octavian (Caesar Augustus). Nothing I could say about any of this would do it justice, so I’ll just post a bunch of pictures.
Constantine's Arch:
Inside the Forum:
As we were making our way to another sight, we stumbled across some kind of police anniversary celebration being held in one of the piazzas, and a bunch of police cars from different European countries were on display. This Lamborghini police car, from Italy, was my favorite:
Our next stop was the Castel Sant’Angelo, which was originally a mausoleum for the emperor Hadrian, and later many other Roman emperors. It was later converted into a fortress. It offered some really great views of Rome, so I’m glad that we visited it.
St. Peter's Basilica, as seen from Castel Sant'Angelo:
The Tiber River:
Castel Sant'Angelo:
We didn’t do much else that day, other than wander around. Sometimes wandering around can be a lot of fun, especially since I like to see how the locals live and where they eat and shop. With so many tourist attractions in Rome, it can be a little difficult to find normal life, but I’d like to think that we saw it here and there. Certainly there were lots of little things that we noticed about Rome (and many of the other places that we visited:
- Pharmacies always seemed to be called out by neon green-colored crosses.
- The cars are much smaller, on average, than cars here. Smart cars, and cars in similar shapes, were very popular in Rome.
- If you've studied Spanish, you can understand a fair amount of what you're reading. Italian is very easy to get the hang of, and the more Romance languages you've studied, the easier getting around will be for you. That said, most people seemed to know at least a little bit of English.
- Using little Italian phrases like "thank you" and "good morning" seemed to be appreciated. Using even more seemed to surprise some people. Becca had me do all the talking everywhere we went, so I tried to use as much Italian (and later Greek) as I could during the trip.
- There are tourists from all over the world in Rome, as one might expect. In addition to Italian, I had opportunities to use Spanish and French to communicate with people as well.
- Italian men tend to dress in a way that might be described as "metrosexual" here, but seem to be able to do it without coming off looking like they're gay...most of the time.
- I've never seen so many nuns, priests and members of Catholic orders. Of course, one should expect this the closer one gets to the Vatican City.
Becca tried to document every meal we had on this trip, so here are some more pictures of food we ate in Rome.
Gnocchi and cannelloni (if I remember correctly):
Dinner in our hotel (pizza, risotto with rabbit, and a lamb dish, I think):
Pastries and milk for breakfast:
Rome was great. I would definitely go back. There's so much to see that it's mind-boggling.
Since the Vatican City is technically another country, I'll write about that in a separate entry.
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