July 10th, 2012

Day 52: Rome, Italy

For our first full day in Rome, we thought it would be a great idea to take one of the guided tours offered by our hostel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the free Sandeman’s ones we’ve been on in most cities, but we thought it’d be worth it anyway! We were rushing around to grab breakfast and make it to the sister hostel where the tour was starting by 10:30 (when our hostel said they would be leaving..even though the sign said 10), and it turns out we missed them. No worries, though, our plans just changed a bit!

Instead of doing the Ancient Rome kind of sight seeing for the day, we decided to go to the Vatican instead. That meant we had to go back to the hostel and change (no knees or shoulders can be exposed), and then we were finally off!

We passed by the Roman Forum, stopping to take in the sheer age of the structures that are still preserved. Some of the structures that make up the forum date back to the 8^th century BC and there are still columns and platforms standing to this day- simply incredible. The forum was the center of the Romans’ lives back in the day, and also the center of rhetoric. Criminal trials, public speeches, political debates, etc. all went on here. It was awesome to think about the fact that I was standing on the same ground that Cicero once did. AHHH! I was giddy with excitement; like a little kid in a candy store.

After we left the forum, we passed a huge monument called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It’s a monument dedicated to the memories of all soldiers lost in war- much like the monument we visited while we were in Berlin. It symbolizes the loss and severity of any war and the victims that it may take.

From here, we went on to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was used as a monument to the Roman Gods back in the 2^nd century, and is incredibly well preserved and still used for special events today. It also still holds the record of being the largest unreinforced concrete dome. Seeing the sheer size of this building begs one question- how the hell did they do that back then? With none of the technology or building tools we have now. It’s just crazy to think that this building has been standing for almost 2,000 years in such good condition, and at the same time we have buildings, bridges and other structures that fall down every day, even with modern advances in technology. Maybe we should just stick to the pulley systems and hand mixed concrete /marble/whatever it was that the Romans must have used.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city to various piazzas, window shopping and of course, eating. We stopped at a small pizza take away shop on a side street to sample some of the cuisine. We got a few pieces to share between us- one slice of potato/onion, one of plain margherita, and one with mozzarella and mushrooms. We also each got a rice ball- mine with tomato and cheese and Stephen’s with spicy salami, tomatoes, cheese, and peas. DELICIOUS. I love eating, and I love Italy.

After lunch, we decided to head to the Vatican, passing the Ponte Sant Angelo on the way. We had pre-reserved tickets and printed them out so that we had an ‘appointment’ and could cut the line to redeem our tickets. We spent a few hours in the museums, amazed by the artwork,-the statues, the mosaics, the sculptures, the tapestries- it was all incredible. So much time was spent on each individual piece of work and you can tell that being an artist was an incredibly prestigious title to have back then. It makes me wonder about art now- the Romans preserved daily life events, ceremonies, and told stories through their artwork. They relied on art to preserve their past. While I’m not so well versed in modern art, it makes me wonder about what one would find in our artwork thousands of years later. Would it do our society justice?

We finished up our time at the Vatican museums in the Sistine chapel. Michelangelo was a genius. His work is mind blowingly impressive, with so much attention to detail- you can tell that he truly cared about his work. I was convinced there were curtains along the walls of the chapel until I got about 2 feet from them, when I realized that they were painted on. They looked that real. The paintings of the people both on the walls and ceilings were incredibly detailed as well, with the colors, shadows and depictions of movement just right. I was in awe at his talent. Unfortunatley, no cameras allowed in the chapel, but Stephen snapped a few photos from his iPhone so check em out! (http://stephenmarsden.tumblr.com/)

Before heading out, we visited St. Peter’s Basilica and square as well, and couldn’t help but point out the places where Tom Hanks stood during the filming of Angels and Demons/The Da Vinci Code. I guess Hollywood will do that to ya.

We made our way back to the hostel to freshen up (it was 90 today!), made some friends in our room, and then made our way downstairs to the free pasta party hosted by our hostel! It was a great way to meet a lot of the people in the hostel, and it was free! We ended up signing up for the pub crawl later that night as well. We changed and headed out to the sister hostel to ours to get started!

We stayed at the other hostel bar for a bit enjoying the open bar and then hopped on the metro to another bar across town. Following that was a visit and free entry to a club. Overall, it was a really fun night and we were back on a bus home by 3!

Favorite part of the day: The Vatican- it’s an incredible building (and another country, technically!) and it really piqued my interest and made me want to learn more about ancient art and artists.