Andrew and Donna's Road to the World Cup

The tour included all the major attractions: the Vatican City Museum which has the Sistine Chapel;

St Peter’s Basilica, the second largest in the world;

Castel Sant. Angelo (Castle of Angels) which was used by the Vatican as a tomb, fortress, and hideout and today is a museum;

the Pantheon, the ancient church with the hole in the roof that allows prayers to get to God;

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which had Michelangelo’s Risen Christ;

Piazza Venezia, which is the central traffic hub of Rome; in the piazza, is the Santa Maria Aracoeli which Henry James called “the grandest loafing place of mankind”; it inspired him to write the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire—we agreed though it only inspired us to get some gelato!;

the Vittorio Emanuele Monument which is known as the altar of the nation and looks like a giant wedding cake—we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards at the flame of the unknown soldier;

Piazza Bocca Della Veritá, which had three sites: the Santa Maria in Cosmedine which had the Mouth of Truth (you Latin readers saw this one coming)…we all tested our honor by sticking our hand in the mouth of truth and I’m happy to say we all still have two hands, ten fingers;

the two Pagan Temples, the Tempeo della Fortuna Virilis and the Tempio di Vesta;

from there, we went to the Colosseum (Steph and I went on a guided tour that was quite fascinating. It is estimated that over one million people died in a 200 year span for sport. The Colosseum has been used as a battle ground, a place to re-enact naval battles, a condominium, botanical gardens, a royal palace, and probably other interesting things I can’t remember.);

Arch of Constantine, which is considered to be the entrance to the Roman Forum;

Ancient Via Socra, thru the Arch of Titus into the Roman Forum;

in the Roman Forum, we saw the temple of Antonius and Fostina,

the Circular Temple of Vesta which was the shrine of the Vestal Virgins,

the Red Brick Curia which is where Marc Antony eulogized Julius Caesar,

the Arch of Septimius Severus, the last eight remaining columns of the Temple of Saturn,

and the Capitaline Hill where we exited;

our last stop was to see San Pietro in Vincoli or St Peter in Chain’s.

Whew, what a day.

As a bonus to our tour, we experienced public transportation. I say experienced because it was an experience for sure. After about 10 hours of touring Rome, we headed underground to take the metro to a bus station that would take us to our hotel. We all agreed the first train was too crowded to try to get into – then when the second train came and it was just as bad, we formed a bit of a rugby scrum and pushed our way on. Donna held onto me and Bonny simply leaned on me while I had one finger holding onto the train’s pole. I tried to snap a picture with the same hand and it doesn’t do the tight quarters justice.

Fortunately we only had to stay on the train for one stop before switching lines.

A second bonus was watching the rider of a motorbike crash while trying to avoid smashing into a pedestrian. Don’t worry, everyone walked away smiling. I’ve heard Andy talk about how crazy Italian drivers are, but I thought he was exaggerating. Now that I’ve experienced it first hand, I think he may have sugarcoated the problem. It is incredible. Bumper car drivers are more courteous. The motorbikes must be above the law because they weave in and out of cars, bicyclists, polizia, pedestrians, sidewalks and whatever else will get them where they want to be faster.

Back at the hotel safe and sound, no small feat in and of itself, we settled in for 15 minutes of rest before our farewell dinner with the Contiki group. Donna’s vegetarian dinner must’ve been an afterthought for the hotel because they brought her six slices of cheese. Apparently Italians don’t think much of the vegetarian diet. Our tour manager convinced the hotel staff to make Donna a salad and eggs though I think Donna would’ve preferred the cheese after sampling her second option. We hung out with our group for a few hours after dinner, said goodbye to Bonny and Steph (they are headed to Greece for some much deserved beach time), and then headed to bed.

Tomorrow, Milano – back on our own!

1 Comments:

 Thomas, at 7:02 PM  

Add a comment