This past weekend I spent 4 days in the ancient and magnificent city of Rome! Andrea and our new friend Brodie have been planning this trip for weeks and it finally happened!
We flew out last Thursday obnoxiously early in the morning. I don't know how many of you have spent any time in Birmingham airport, but let me just say it is not a comforting experience. We were sitting there for around 3 and a half hours because our flight was slightly delayed and during that wait Brodie fell asleep numerous times, I had a crisis about the type of pants I wear, and Andrea panic-ally called her mother. Finally we did get on the plane and headed off towards Europe. We had a layover in Brussles which was not terrible. Many people who worked at the airport spoke English, and everyone who worked in airport security made sure they were speaking your language. They guessed Dutch for me the first time, then English the second.
After waiting around there we got on the plane that would take us to Italy. On that flight I got my first ever look at the Swiss Alps and the Mediterranean Sea. I hope I can see them in person one day and not just from the sky. We landed around 5pm in Rome Fiumicino (one of the two airports). From there we caught a cab and were driven to our hotel. Our hotel actually was not a hotel and was an apartment we had booked for the weekend. It was wonderful. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the most amazing shower I have ever experienced. The bed was not too shabby either. It was still early, so we headed out into the city. Our apartment was close to a couple big landmarks, so we went to see those. On the way we walked through the streets of Rome, which were gorgeous and full of life.
First off was The Pantheon. The Pantheon was first built around 14 AD, and then rebuilt in 118 AD ish. It was originally a pagan temple, possibly to the god Mars. It is one of the most well preserved ancient Roman buildings that exists.
I won't say too much more about it, because we went back the next day when we could actually go inside. At night it was gorgeously lit up. Its size was intimidating.
It has survived all these years because it has been on constant use since it was first built. There was graffiti on the outer walls that overlapped. I wondered how old the oldest piece of graffiti was. It is a little known fact that ancient Romans used to put graffiti just about anywhere, so many of the marks could have been from antiquity.
In front of the Pantheon was a fountain that was commissioned by some Pope in 1575. It's name is Fontana del Pantheon...aka Fountain of the Pantheon. Real original, I know. However it had some super cool sculptures on it that looked amazing at night.
After the Pantheon was headed over to The Trevi Fountain, the huge famous one that you are supposed to throw a coin in to make a wish. When we got there we discovered....IT WAS UNDER RESTORATION. The entire thing was covered in scaffolding and you could not see it at all. It was really disappointing, but I suppose that is what we get for going to Rome in the off season. We did, however, have the best gelato I have ever had in my life there.
After that we headed over to The Spanish Steps, which are apparently a big deal. The view from the top was gorgeous.
At the top of the steps was Trinità dei Monti, a church that was gorgeous on the inside even though the outside was also being restored. You were not allowed to take photos inside, like many of the churches we visited. The area at the base of the steps is a huge shopping area. Imagine every famous Italian designer you can think of, and they were there. To be honest all the clothes were saw in the windows were pretty ugly. I can't imagine how much everything cost. There was also quite a few stores for luxurious bath robes. Now that is something I can get on board with.
We had a rather unpleasant encounter at the steps, where a man followed me and Andrea around trying to give us flowers. It was super creepy and eventually Brodie chased him off. We were super careful from that point on. "No" is the most important word you can know and use in Italy. People are constantly trying to get you to buy stuff on the streets, and will get right up in your face if you don't tell them you are not interested.
After all this we went back to our hotel and went to sleep, ready for our first extremely long and packed day in Rome.
To be continued......
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