ROME

We’re BACK!  Our European vacay was amazinnnnnnng! We had a ball -  We saw and did so much that we never could’ve imagined.  We enjoyed soaking up the different cultures and experienced all that we could.  I have never had such a fun filled week!  What a VACATION!

I decided to do this day by day and break it down into smaller chunks so I have more time to elaborate and tell side stories instead of rushing thru the whole trip and not documenting the incidental memories.

We arrived just before 8:00 a.m. and took 2 different trains and we exited out into the beautiful city of Roma!  We felt like we were in a dream or a Bourne Supremacy movie – it just didn’t feel real.  The feel of Rome was romantic… classy and DELICIOUS!

In all the cities we went to,  the cafe’s lined the streets like this -  The weather was cool, not cold in the mornings and evenings and perfectly warm during the day… not muggy like Houston.  I loved the colors of the towns it was so charming and all together surreal.

 

The Pantheon -  The entire trip I went back and forth calling it the Parthenon and Pantheon.. it was a bit of a joke by the end because I never got it right. ha ha!  Charles wrote a big paper in college on the architecture (specifically the key hole) at the top so he really appreciated seeing it in person.  I was amazed that this is open to the weather and the condition was still beautiful. 

Here is the outside of the Pantheon.  I took the picture this way since there was scaffolding covering the right side…

 

This main street in Rome was jam packed.  I asked someone if there was a festival or parade going on causing the crowds.. nope, just a typical Saturday night. We were standing on the Spanish Steps looking down.  Lining that street was Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, you name it.  We enjoyed “people watching” here and saw some pretty interesting trends that should be headed to the states.  by the way – the clothes were hideous in my opinion.  The only people that dressed classy and to the 9’s were the old people.. they were pimpin!  The elderly Rome population had some serious style.   The youth however were sporting MC Hammer pants.. remember those?  Let me refresh your memory -  stretchy flowy pants with a webbed looking crotch and tapered legs. barf.   They guys all dressed with something purple.. either purple tight shorts – low rise, I might add.  Skinny jeans with purple shoes, or purple scarves over their t-shirts.. something purple… Skinny jeans on men should be illegal… so ugly. The girls weren’t all that much better looking like they stepped out of a Cindy Lauper video – 80’s is coming back with a vengeance.. watch out!

 

After getting overwhelmed with the 80’s Charles and I took a Rick Steeves’ suggestion and had some wine and antipasti at Gabrielle’s.  This wine was sooooo good.  All the wine we had in Italy was wonderful.  Different from the wine we have here, very smooth, easy to drink and you could take down a whole bottle and not really feel it… could it be that it is just that they make it there?? who knows.

For those of you in the LC region – check out the D’Angelo’s sign in the background.. too funny – I didn’t even notice until looking back at pictures.  The guy that took this picture wouldn’t stop talking to us.  He was a former NY resident that decided to retire in Rome.  It was helpful that he spoke Italian – but really most places spoke English very well (except Florence).  Robert (the chatterbox) even took us around in the area to his favorite restaurants and introduced us to the owners.. it was a bit weird, but funny.  Our antipasti dish was delicious.. a sample of all the Italian goodness: Parmesan cheese to die for, some other yummy cheese that I have no idea what it is, Roasted red peppers, different olives, a slice of frittata, Salami slices, Prosciutto slices, a baguette and balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  We loved it so much that when our friends arrived the next day we went right back and had it all over again, same wine and same antipasti.  It seemed to be a trend (returning to the same place twice) in the future towns.

Went back to the Spanish Steps for more people watching.  Sorry I don’t have pics of the actual steps.. but picture just a LOT of light marblish steps… not much more to it than that.

This is me at breakfast – I might add that we didn’t even wake up until after 9:30.  The time change was 7 hours ahead so we generally stayed up really late and slept in really late… we were on vacation!

Shortly after breakfast we met up with our friends and headed over to the Colloseum.  I changed clothes b/c we weren’t sure about dress codes in some of the areas we were going into.. come to find out, the casual black dress would have been fine and much cooler! :)  That day it was pretty hot and we walked all over ancient Rome.  Lots of site seeing there and even though we aren’t a super site seeing kind of couple, we wanted to take it all in.  We all wished we would have brought a pedometer to see just how much we actually walked on the trip.  This day we estimated around 5-8 miles.. different people had different guesses.

Inside the Colosseum –so strange to think of all the lives lost here as ‘sport’.  it was chilling since you can imagine it and visualize it now that there are so many movies that simulate it. 

I cannot remember the name of this – but I do remember eves dropping in on a tour and hearing that the Romans built this in remembrance of of them defeating the Jews in a war. I know, I’m just not a huge history buff.  I probably screwed it up.

Trevi Fountain!  I was surprised at how massive this was. It looked so cool and refreshing, very tempted to jump in.   We were constantly taken back at the ability of the Romans to build this stuff so long ago… it was amazing.

don’t know.. just cool pic.

some of the ruins from ancient rome.  We saw one site that was dated around 100 B.C. woah!

After touring all the sites here, It made me wish I had done my homework before going – I didn’t know what I was looking at half the time and it would have meant more to me if I would actually know the history.

 

CHEERS!  Site seeing was done and it was time to “chillax” a word we used often on the trip.. when all the going and doing was done and we wanted to chill out and relax a bit.  we went back to Gabrielle’s for antipasti and vino rosa. (red wine)

I wish I had more pictures of this dinner.  Our waiter was HILARIOUS.  He just sang constantly. I have lots of it on video.  he even sang the (American) National Anthem!  We ate zucchini flowers here.  That’s right, the yellow bloom that grows on the zucchini.  They serve them as appetizers and they fry them in a tempura batter. Very good!!  We also had gnocchi that Megan described as “fluffy white pillows.”  Everything was very good.  When we got to the end of the meal we went to pay the tab and to our HUGE surprise, the table next to us picked up our bill!  They were a sweet American family that we visited with shortly.  We all agreed that at some time and place in the future we all will pay it forward and do the very same thing for others on vacation.  We were shocked and all very touched by it.

 

This day ironically was a total mess.  We got up early and caught the subway to the Vatican.  We got in line not really knowing how long the line actually was since it wrapped around the building we couldn’t tell where it actually went in.  After waiting almost 2 hours we finally bit the bullet and paid more than double the entry price so that we could skip the line and go in with a tour (we should have done that at the very beginning – but we had no idea that we would be waiting that long).  We were in a bit of a rush since we had to catch the 2:10 train to Cinque Terre.  We finally entered the Vatican at 11:40ish and made it a crazy mad dash (not really doing it justice, but we didn’t have time).  Literally we were running thru the beautiful hallways and mosaic floors that were just INCREDIBLE… the whole place was stunning, seriously.

Here are just some tiny snapshots of ceilings, walls etc..

 

Ok. Whew. after running thru and bumping in to everyone.. (the Vatican was PACKED – jam packed shoulder to shoulder) we finally got to the spot we really wanted to see: The Sistine Chapel.  they had no video and no pictures signs, however, everyone was doing so – so I took a couple of quick pics.

This one is Michelangelo's painting of the final judgment.

 

Incredible… how in the world did he do this???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^^this was the back wall opposite of the altar area.^^

below is the ceiling – the famous finger-touch image of creation is at the top..

 

We took a short cut out of the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica.  MASSIVE is the only word to describe this. It was very ornate, intricate and extremely detailed.  I was overwhelmed at the thought of the time and money it must have taken to create a space such as this.. it was amazing.  too bad we only had about 10 minutes

 

.. it was now after 1:00 and we had less than 1 hour to catch the subway across town to our hotel, find our husbands that we lost way before the Sistine Chapel, pick up our bags, and get back to the subway to get to the main Termini station to catch our train to Cinque Terre.  Since our walkie talkies didn’t work in the Vatican.. assuming they scramble other radio frequencies for security reasons.. we texted back and forth with them and all the messages were misinterpreted buy the guys.. shocker!  so we ended up going to the hotel and waiting for them to show up and grab their bags… after a little waiting we threw on our backpacks AND the guys backpacks and RAN towards the subway stop.  Imagine me with about 55 lbs of bags strapped to me.. I’m around 5’2” the other girls are 5’10” – one little tap in the wrong direction and I would have looked like a turtle on it’s back!  We got lots of stares and totally looked like we were on the amazing race.  The good news was that the guys bought train tickets when they were in route to meet up with us, The bad news, they got tickets for a later train.. I don’t blame them.. once you buy the ticket, if you miss it it is a waste.. you have to buy a whole ‘nother ticket.  They were hoping to buy the later (3:45 ticket) and if we made it in time then just jump on the earlier train… too bad it isn’t the way it works.  Much to my disbelief, we actually made it in time for the 2:10 train with time to spare, I still don’t know how that happened.  However, we weren’t able to get on the train early and we hung out and waited for the next one.. all that rushing for nothing! :)

Us running towards our hotel to get the bags

Britni and Megan with double packs on.

Bye Bye Rome!

Just a side note: Two very different cars we saw in Rome:

a Smart Car and a Ferrari

 

Stay tuned for Cinque Terre.. the most BEAUTIFUL!