Rome, Italy is without a doubt my favorite place that I've been on this trip, thus far. It is absolutely breath-taking. Throughout history, the city has been attacked, burned, and destroyed many times, yet the many of the incredible old buildings have remained in tact.
Though Brian and I are only here for two days, we've managed to see most of the amazing things that the city has to offer. We arrived yesterday, and after a long lunch (as usual), we began yet another one of our wandering expeditions. Some highlights include:
The Tuscan country-side. No matter how hard I tried, some sort of ugly structure managed to sneak its way into my pictures, so disregard that weird gray thing.
Within 15 minutes of walking, we found the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. This picture does not do it justice. This building is absolutely massive and made almost completely of shiny white marble.
We climbed to the top of the Vitorianno, only to find a beautiful view of Rome and the Colosseum.
We obviously headed there straight away.
Brian and I channeled America's Next Top Model and had a fun photo shoot throughout the Colosseum.
I'm so happy that we got to go in, and we didn't have to wait in line at all, which was fantastic.
We really wanted to watch Gladiator.
Bonjourno from Italy!
We went at a great time of day. It was about 7 o'clock at this point and most of the tourists had already left.
On our way to the Trevi Fountain, we got incredibly lost in a maze of alleys. Luckily, Brian is a master navigator and could figure out where we were.
I'm so glad you can't tell from this picture, but there were literally about a thousand tourists at this place. I managed to find a good spot for a picture, but this family kept ruining my shots. That is a face of annoyance, right there.
... But I finally got a good picture! This fountain is famous because people from all over the world come here to make wishes while throwing a coin into the water. Hopefully my wish comes true... I spent a whole euro on it!
After another long day of hiking around and tripping on the cobblestone streets (which I did literally 100 times), we had a nice dinner and went in for the night to relax.
And that was just the first day!
Brian and I have been staying in private rooms throughout our trip so far, but we decided that we should try out a real dorm-style hostel room at least once. We're sharing a room with two other people currently, and when we saw their bags when we checked in, we could only picture that they were going to be some weird old couple or some creepy other people. Luckily, that wasn't the case at all! We're staying with two 20-something year olds from Quebec, Canada, who are incredibly friendly and easy-going! We met them late on our first night in Rome, and chatted about our travels through Europe. They also recommended a great tour of the Vatican that they had taken earlier that day.
We woke up early on our only full day in Rome with plans to visit Vatican City. We met up with our tour group (consisting of other young tourists) and made our way to the Vatican. Our tour-guide was this nice girl named Monica, who was from Toronto and was very funny. She did a fantastic job on our tour.
That dome in the background is part of St. Peter's Basilica.
This is just one of the (seemingly thousands of) amazing marble statues throughout the Vatican.
I think the ceilings might have been my favorite part. They were all so intricate.
I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside the Sistene Chapel, but I obviously did anyway. Luckily no security guard caught me or I would've been kicked out. When in Rome...
The ceiling of the Sistene Chapel was painted by Michaelangelo over the course of four years. It is truly a sight to see. And this is a pretty good photo, if I do say so myself!
After touring the Vatican (for over 3 hours), Brian and I attempted to go inside St. Peter's Basilica, but the line was so long so we decided to skip it. I guess I'll have to come back here again. (I couldn't help but think of the Da Vinci Code while we were here. Fun book.)
Tonight, Brian and I may go on another walking tour of Rome. (Apparently, you can bring bottles of wine, so that should be interesting.) As usual, our legs are like jello so we'll see how it goes.
It's my last night in Italy. I might cry when I have to leave the pasta... I mean city.
Caroline
No comments:
Post a Comment