Rome

From the desk of Katie:

We were really exhausted the last few days, which is why these posts are after the fact. Sorry.

We arrived in Civitavecchia about 7AM and had an 8AM start for our tour, so it was another early morning. We met our driver, Stefano, right away and were off to Rome, which is about an hour away from the port. There are lots and lots of vineyards and olive groves along the way. It was a really warm and sunny day, about 75 degrees.

When we arrived in Rome, our first stop was the Forum. It's really odd, because you're driving through the middle of the city, and then there are ancient ruins right in the middle. After that we went to the Colosseum. We had to wait in line longer than expected, but finally we got in. It's really big, and used to seat 50,000+ people. It was pretty cool. Next we went to the Pantheon, which is really gorgeous inside. It doesn't look like much on the outside because like all the other ancient buildings, the marble and such have been re-used in other buildings. The original bronze roof is now the bronze altar in the basilica. The murals inside are really amazing. After that we had some lunch, and tried some great Roman pizza, which we really liked because Roman pizza has really thin crust. Next we visited (and climbed) the Spanish Steps, and threw a coin in the Trevi fountain. Then we were off to the Vatican.

We met our guide for the museum, Rafaella, just outside the walls and went in. We couldn't believe how much art is inside! Each room is just full of ancient statues, mosaics, paintings, etc. Our guide told us all sorts of interesting information about the things we saw. After that we went into the Sistine Chapel. Most people know Michaelangelo best for painting the chapel, but he actually didn't really like doing it because he only liked to sculpt, not paint. Another interesting thing is that the face of the devil in the Last Judgment painting is the face of a Vatican official at the time who had made Michaelangelo angry. After that, we went into St. Peter's basilica. It was really beautiful, and huge! There were 20 foot tall statues that looked tiny. The inscription along the ceiling looks small, but the letters are actually 10 feet high! It was a really awe-inspiring place.

After that we had some time to walk around on our own, but it was cut short. The Pope was going somewhere, so they were starting to block off the streets. So we had to leave earlier than we would have liked since we didn't want to get back late and miss the ship. Luckily we got on the road in time and didn't have any problems. Once we got back to the ship we were really exhausted so we got the pictures off the camera and that was about all we had the energy for.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Alandovos/Rome