2.5 Days in Rome

After a short one hour flight down to Rome Charlotte, Gina, Sheron, and I were ready to find our humble abode for the weekend and start exploring Rome.  We had an awesome apartment for the weekend that also turned out to have a view of the Colosseum.  How could I ask for anything more than good friends, exploring a new city, and a view from our inexpensive place for the weekend.

Friday night we decided to explore around our area and ate at a local small restaurant where I had pasta with meat sauce, french friends, wine, and bread.  A delicious and filling meal that was much needed.  We then decided to venture down to the Trevi Fountain and meet up with Emily.  It fascinates me that you can just be walking down a small side street look over and you have arrived at the Trevi Fountain, such a large and monumental part of Rome.  It was breathtaking and amazing to finally see this piece of artwork that we have studied and heard about in school.  Never did I imagine I would be able to see it in person. We were typical tourists and went and tossed coins over our shoulders and made a wish and of course took tons of photos!

To top the night off we grabbed gelato on the way to the metro and headed back as we had an early day ahead of us the next morning.

Saturday we headed to the Vatican City and to see the Sistine Chapel.  We came prepared and bought our tickets ahead of time so we walked right in.  The Vatican City is amazing and beautiful and I am so lucky to be able to walk into the city and explore all the thousands of painting that are inside.  The Sistine Chapel was much larger than I had imagined and was beautiful! The works of Michelangelo are a sight to be seen. After touring Vatican City for a couple of hours and walking outside to see part of the gardens we headed over to St. Peters Basilica. Here we were able to go inside the church and see all of the beautiful embellishments St. Peters was adorned with.  St. Peters was very grand and never have I felt so small in a place before until stepping foot into the church.  Sadly, a ceremony of some kind was going on that day and we were unable to go up to the alter, but every part of the church was decorated so grand it was special to be able to see inside the Basilica.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we didn’t want to spend much money or take the time to sit and eat, we headed to the spanish steps we were able to relax for a bit and people watch.  Rome is a very tourist and crowded city, but it has always been a goal of mine to go and see Rome.  If given the chance I will go back again as I missed so much of the city!  We then all ventured on to see the Trevi Fountain during the day, taking more pictures and eventually just wandering around the city for a while until deciding on a pizza joint for dinner.  I decided to join some of the girls and be adventurous and try a pizza with white sauce, shredded potatoes, sausage, and pesto.  Not the average pizza, but probably one of the best I have had in Italy, simply amazing as I ate the entire thing and never looked back.

Sunday was even more of an adventure as we got up early to go and see the Colosseum.  It amazes me that after all the years of earthquakes and storms that so much of the Colosseum is still standing and we are able to go and explore inside.  I loved being able to see a huge part of history and look 365 degrees around me and see something so large and ancient.  The stones are massive and what I can’t wrap my head around is how it was made with such excellence, and is still to this day so large.  We then ventured over to the Palatine Hill, which is a large area of old ancient ruins of the city that was once Rome.

We choose a great time to do all the outdoor activities because as we were leaving it started to rain.  It wasn’t too bad and we just decided to walk to the Pantheon.  I had been wanting to see the Pantheon my whole trip to Rome and was so happy to see something so beautiful as the ceiling.  It does not have any frescos or painting on it, but is a beautiful piece of artwork on the design alone.  We finished off the day with a 3 course meal at a little Italian restaurant near by and enjoyed walking around Rome for the remained of our day.

After running to catch our fight (we thought we were going to miss it) and then it being delayed and sitting on the runway for an hour we made it back to Milan!