Full Day in Rome

A Day of Rome, Sunday April 18^th

We started the morning early, wake up at 6:15, then down to breakfast by 7:00. Our continental breakfast at this hotel was better than I had expected based on what I read. We had eggs, although Suzanne wouldn't have touched them...slightly runny, bacon and other typical American continental breakfast type things. I have fallen in love with two things while here. The first, cappuccino, was available at our hotel in the morning. Yummmmy!

The first place we went this morning was St. Peter's Basilica. We met our local guide, Franca, who would be with us the rest of the day. I should note here that we have decided to take all the optional tours. We wouldn't have seen very much if we didn't take them, but it make for a very busy day. Seeing St. Peter's was pretty cool, just because of the history of the thing. I am a sucker for anything with columns, and well, that has a few. I love the contradiction of the Egyptian obelisk , (the tall pointy thing like the Washington Monument) in the middle of the Catholic church's most important place. One thing I have been blown away by in Rome, and this was no different, is the size of everything. Especially considering how long it took them to make such big buildings. Everything is HUGE!!! Walking inside the basilica was pretty amazing because of the size of the thing. I took pictures of statues of popes without knowing who they were! :) Since it was Sunday morning there was a mass going on. It was nice to hear the music and the language as we looked around. There were also some babies there getting baptized. Now that would be a story to be able to tell for the rest of your life!

After St. Peter's we went to the Colosseum. This tour was suppose to visit, but not go inside, the Colosseum. I was determined to find a way inside. Well, as will become the theme of the day, we were in luck. April 21^st is the anniversary of the founding of Rome. This week is a celebration week. So the entry to the Colosseum was free, which served us in two ways. One, it was free for us, but more importantly, the line moved quickly because no one had to pay, so we had time to go in. I split up from Claudia, Richard, Lynn and Daniel at this point. I wandered the Colosseum, taking pictures for almost an hour. It was amazing. I could totally picture where the marble seats would have been. After that experience anything else we do on this trip will just be icing on the cake. I was so happy!

After the Colosseum we went on our first optional to the Ancient Christian Rome. We went to see St. Paul's cathedral outside the walls and the Christian catacombs. Seeing the catacombs was pretty cool. Daniel and I noticed how short the spaces were where they had removed the bodies. The guide told us that in those days if you were 5 ft. tall, you were very tall.

After the catacombs we went on an optional walking tour of Rome. At this time we were all starting to drag, but the walk was worth it. We saw a ton!! The whole time we were with a local guide who used a headphone system. There we were, in a big group, with our blue earphones hanging out of one ear, following the red scarf up ahead. Classic tourist. If we weren't seeing all we were seeing I might have been appalled! We saw the Spanish Steps, well, I can only believe that they were the Spanish Steps. What I saw were a ton of people sitting. I can only imagine that there were steps beneath them. There were a ridiculous amount of people there. If the Colosseum had crawled with that many people I might have cried. Here it was comical. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain. It was pretty amazing. Huge! I threw in my coin and found the other new love there. Gelato! The local guide recommended a flavor for me. Nocciola, hazelnut. I combined it with chocolate. It was heaven. We continued on our walk, saw lots of things. The other highlight for me was the Pantheon. Again the tour advertises that we visit, not go into, the Pantheon. We got to go in. I got more chills walking into that temple than I did at the Vatican. I studied that temple pretty extensively in college and knew most of what the guide was telling us. It was amazing to stand inside and look up at the huge hole in the ceiling. Of course, all the original art work has been replaced with Christian ones, but the structure of the building is there, and blew me away!

By this time in the tour we were exhausted. We ended our day in the piazza Navona. We had an amazing dinner at a restaurant on the square. We ate outside in the beautiful weather. The five of us shared a bottle of wine, and laughed so much. I knew I would enjoy this trip with this group, but I had no idea how much fun we would have together. We have laughed so much and this dinner was the perfect example of that!

After dinner we were off to our hotel to pack up for our next days journey down to Sorrento.