Two weeks ago (yes, I know this is a late post...I apologize) I took a few days off and we headed down to Rome. We found a fairly inexpensive flight on the European discount airline, Ryanair. I have heard several bad things about this airline from coworkers, but the two of us were able to fly for only 200 Euro. Once we boarded the airplane we quickly realized how they offer such cheap flights...they charge for everything and sell to you like a used car salesman. There are advertisements all over the plane and on the seat in front of you. They charge for everything, including soda and peanuts. As we boarded the plane, they play advertisements over the speakers telling you about the fabulous liquor, wine, and sandwiches that you can buy. The voice reminded me of someone on TV back home telling you about a monster truck show..."sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!!" Half way through the flight they even came through selling lottery tickets, we could be Euro-millionares!
Anyway, the flight was smooth and even landed 20 minutes early. We waited a good 40 minutes for our luggage, but it did show up which was a relief. The cab ride to the hotel in downtown Rome was an interesting and terrifying experience. The driver took us down the Via Appia, the oldest road in Rome, built during the Roman empire. There are still stone walls on each side of it, and ruins in the distance. It was a beautiful ride. However, we quickly learned that Romans pay absolutely no attention to lanes, stop signs, lights, speed limits, or any other standard rules of the road. People literally ignore red lights and proceed right through the intersection. After several months of driving in Belgium, I was feeling confident about driving in Europe and thought about renting a car for this trip. Thank God I didn't, I couldn't imagine trying to navigate Rome.
We arrived safely at our hotel, but we were too early to check in. So, we left our luggage with the concierge and started walking the city. Our plan was to find a place for lunch, then go back and check into the hotel...but as we found there was just too much to see. As we were walking, we saw a large marble statue at the end of the street and decided to just walk toward it. Along the way, we found a wonderful site with Roman ruins, as well as the giant white building you can see in the pictures. It was absolutely beautiful. After admiring the area for a while, we took a look at a map and realized that we were pretty close to the Coliseum, so we headed down that way. The walk there led us by the Roman forum, which is apparently the best collection of ruins from the Roman Empire. There isn't a whole lot left, but there was enough to give you an idea of what it looked like a thousand years ago. The whole time we were there we were in awe of what the Romans were able to engineer back then.
At the Coliseum, we were approached by a lady offering tours for 10 Euro. We weren't planning on taking a tour, but with the group you didn't have to wait in the 1 -2 hour line. We figured that alone was worth the 10 Euro price. Our tour guide was an eccentric little Italian lady who we found quite entertaining despite not understanding a lot of what she was saying. She told us all about the gladiators and the history of the building, and how the Catholic church stole all the marble from the Coliseum to build the Vatican. She told us this fact many times and made it quite clear that she is angry about it. Despite the missing marble and 1000 years of wear and tear, it's still an impressive structure....but it's no Lane Stadium. Inside the arena she wanted to demonstrate a gladiator match by using me and a British guy. We fought with rolled up paper fliers as Elizabeth and his wife laughed at us from the audience. She made jokes about how big I was and how skinny he was, which is apparently why she declared me the winner of the match....but I was told to let him live. It was during our duel that the other guy's wife leaned over and told Elizabeth what a "cheeky monkey" our tour guide was...I don't know exactly what that means, but I think it's a good description of her.
After this, we took the Metro to see the Spanish Steps...which was a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned. The surrounding buildings were under construction, and there were none of the flowers that you see in the pictures. It was really just a big staircase with a ton of people sitting on it. From there it was on to the Trevi fountain, which was absolutely amazing. Neither words nor pictures could describe it, you just have to see it for yourself.
At this point it was dinner time, so we found a little restaurant that looked pretty good. Here, in the heart of Rome, Italy is where we found the worst Italian food we've ever tasted. Uncooked pasta covered in salty, runny tomato sauce. Maybe it was just a tourist trap, but it was terrible. The house wine however was spectacular. After several glasses of wine we stopped by a gelato stand to get some of the famous Italian ice cream which, like the wine, did not disappoint us.
The next day we were off to Vatican City. We decided to take a tour here as well, which was led by an American lady who is just living and studying history in Rome. We were apparently extremely lucky this day. It was about 75 degrees and sunny Saturday, yet there was only a 10 minute line to get into the Vatican museums. I've been told by coworkers that it's usually at least a 3 hour wait. The museum itself was nice, but since we've seen the Smithsonian and the Louvre it wasn't extremely exciting. However, the tour ends in the Sistine Chapel, which completely lived up to any and all expectations we had. It has to be the most amazing piece of art I have ever seen. Strangely enough, you are allowed to take all the pictures you want anywhere in the museum except for the Sistine Chapel. At first this sounds reasonable, until our tour guide told us why. Apparently Nikon paid for the restoration of the building, so they now own all the rights to photos taken in the chapel. No, you can't take a picture if you own a Nikon camera. We thought this was ridiculous, so we turned off the flash and snapped a photo anyway. As you can see, it turned out nicely. After this, we took a nice walk through St. Peter's cathedral, which is the most elaborate church ever built. It even had bodies of previous popes behind glass...which was a little disturbing if you ask me.
My mom was due in to meet us before her cruise on Sunday morning, but unfortunately her flight was delayed and she missed her connection to Rome. We spent a lot of time on Sunday trying to track her down and weren't able to do much sightseeing. However, we did find a lovely little cafe with good Italian food, wonderful wine, and just an all around fantastic atmosphere. It was exactly what we were looking for the whole weekend. My mom finally arrived later that evening and we were able to have dinner with her and several of her friends that were also going on the cruise.
On Monday, my mom took the Vatican tour in the morning, and then we all went out for another nice meal. Here we got some authentic Italian pizza, which has a very thin crust and big chunks of toppings. It was probably the best food I had in Italy. After lunch we took a tour bus through the city and got off at the Coliseum again. Here we said goodbyes and Elizabeth and I headed off to the airport.
Unfortunately our flight home wasn't as smooth as the flight down there. Our flight was due to depart Rome around 9:00 pm, but ended up leaving around midnight. This meant that were weren't back home in Belgium until about 3:00 am...and I was up at 7:00 for work the next day. The trip home sadly left us a little bitter and detracted from what was otherwise a wonderful trip.
Last night we decided to take in some of the local culture and attend the Feux de la Saint-Jean (Fires of St. Jean) here in Mons. We had no idea what we were attending...a coworker just mentioned something about a "fire festival" in town. Sounded interesting enough to us, so we headed down to the Grand Place around 9:30 last night.
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