Day 12 | Europebound

Oh Florence!

You treated us so well. Our art buckets are absolutely full. It’s still hard to believe that I had the opportunity to see the greats. Grazie Florence! On to Rome! I am very excited about heading to Rome. Before heading to Europe I knew Rome was one of my top destinations. Since I took Humanities in college, Rome has been on my radar. I was interested to see if it would be all that I hoped.

Taking in the titan of world history - Rome. Feeling closer to the past than ever at the Roman Forum, touching century old buildings, walking on the paths of the ancients . . . it was life changing. Taking in all that Rome is. At one point when Francesca was with us she pointed out a view from where we were standing (picture seen above). We could see several different structures side by side that spanned the decades. Some 2000 years old, some modern. She said to not compartmentalize Rome into time periods as Rome is all time periods in one.

Italy

Florence to Rome

May 16, 2013

Tour Day 12

Wow Moment

Food

For lunch we ate at an auto grill again. I had fruit and potato wedges.

For dinner I had a plate, that I can’t remember the name of, that consisted of thick spaghetti like noodles with a light red sauce with peppers and bacon. We also shared some bruschetta.

Travel Tip

It can be easy to get hung up on the little things. For example, I think I could have let dinner really frustrate me. Having authentic food is pretty important to me and where we ended up for dinner obviously was catered for tourists and less than authentic food. But I think of every event as an important part of my travel experience. Eating dinner at that restaurant ended up being one of the funniest experiences I had while in Europe. Mike and I still to this day joke about that night. Be careful because your expectations could rob you of some experiences that are just as important.

We arrived in Rome at about 2:00. We quickly checked into our hotel, set our stuff down, and then headed back out.

Francesca pointed out where the animals were kept, what the seats would have looked like, the workings under the stage, where the big wigs probably sat. She also described the intricate and complicated beauty of the structure that surrounded us in contrast to the horrific acts that occurred there.

Reid gave us a quick metro lesson and then we headed to the Colosseum. We got to our stop and started towards it.

It was amazing. It was huge, ancient, and intricate. I was just enamored by it. We met up with our guide Francesca who was phenomenal. She guided us through the Colosseum and was able to connect us to the past.

Francesca had a way of helping us to think as ancient Romans did. She discussed how when they were building the Colosseum they were building it to last the years. That is how they created and preserved memories. They didn’t have cameras so they built things that would last over the centuries. Afterwards we walked to the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum was the gathering place of Rome. Politics, religion, and business all convened at the Roman Forum. As we were walking through, Francesca would show us pictures of the current state of a building or site in the Forum and then would place an overlay showing what it used to look like. Just in one small area there were several huge buildings. One of the coolest parts of the forum was how accessible everything was. There are many areas without ropes where you can walk directly up to ruins and experience them first hand. Francesca also described how the forum was actually covered in dirt until the 1990s. I couldn’t get over how we were walking where people from thousands of years ago had walked. Up to that point I had never felt so connected to the past.

We continued walking and eventually reached the Pantheon. Wow! What an amazing structure. We explored inside and avoided the rain that had come through the oculus earlier that day. When I was there I was just amazed by the fact that the building was in such good condition for being built in 126 AD. Even now, looking back on my time there, I just shake my head in awe.

We then walked to Piazza Navona and joined a few other tour members for dinner. We were looking for a place to eat and a man caught our attention with “no cover charge, free bread.” Someone decided this was the place to eat. To make a long story short the rest of the evening was like buying a used car. He gave us bottled water when we asked for tap, we ordered one appetizer and he brought us two. We just had one funny experience after another with him. It could have bothered us but we were all laughing too hard to really care.

A funny experience...

After dinner we got some gelato and went on a night walk in Rome. We went to a few different places - all the while Reid pointing things out that we invariably would have missed. We ended at the Trevi Fountain. It was the perfect ending to our first Roman day. We definitely threw a coin in to return to Rome some day.