Ein Römisch Urlaub - A Roman Holiday

Rome is, by far, the most chaotic city I've visited during my time in Europe. At the same time, there was something so great about the Vespas whipping by the Colosseum and the intrusive street venders lurking by the Pantheon. Rome is also a city I know I will need to revisit. With all that happened there and so many thing's currently occurring, it was overwhelming.  Good thing I threw a coin over my shoulder into the Trevvi Fountain, which insures I will be back to visit.

The huge Trevvi Fountain aka tourist city.

While the chaos and dirt of Italy sometimes makes me crazy, I can't help but love the food. I took a train to Düsseldorf, a plan to Rome, and a train to the city center in order to get there, so when I found Margo in the main train station we naturally headed straight for the pasta. Margo is my friend from College of Charleston who also graduated in Arts Management, and the best part of traveling with her was our similar views on food! We ate as much as we could stand and it was fantastic. 

Italian's use stale bread to stabilize tables.

They gave me a heart pizza!

My pictures are out of order, so we can jump to Sunday! After a full weekend, Margo and I had seen so many beautiful things, but didn't quite have time to visit Vatican City. Bright and early at 6AM on Monday, I woke up and set out alone to take in the grandeur of the Vatican. It was beautiful in the morning sun, and have no lines to get into the Basilica made it even better.  I got to see Michelangelo's famous Pieta sculpture, and the lucky St. Peter statue.  The line to get into the famed Vatican Museum was not as fantastic, though, and I waited over an hour to get in. Once inside, I sprinted past all of the paintings, tapestries, and other artifacts older than America and made it to the Sistine Chapel. I had a few minutes to admire before I sprinted out of the Museum, took the subway, caught my train, made my flight, missed my train from the airport but caught the next one, and made it back Monday night. While sitting on the couch of my German home, it was almost unreal to think I'd been standing under Michelangelo's famed ceiling that morning. 

Walls of the Vatican with the St. Peter's Dome

Beautiful stairs in the Vatican Museum which I sprinted down
in order to make my train!

St. Peter's Basilica - Where the Pope does his thing. 

Now back to the rest of my trip. Saturday and Sunday were filled with the "musts" when it comes to Rome. We stood in line for the Colosseum and took an audio tour, followed by a stroll in the Roman Forum and on Palestine Hill where Romulus and Remus did their work in 100BC. The ruins in these places were from around 150AC, which is way too old for me to wrap my brain around. Margo and I did a free walking tour in the late afternoon of some of the main city center sites, and continued the tour Sunday morning with a walk to the Pantheon. I never got to see inside, though, so I guess the oldest Dome in the world will have to be visited next time. 

Margo and me in the Colosseum.

Ruins, Ruins, Everywhere

Rome loves it's Piazzas. 

We were lucky enough to get entrance tickets into the Borghese Gallery on Sunday afternoon. We read that sometimes you have to wait months for openings in the gallery's schedule, and after I visited I now see why. It was absolutely beautiful and I got up close views of some of the art I'd studied about in class. My two favorite pieces were sculptures both by Bernini. I felt nervous standing in front of his "David", which his muscles flexed and forward flow, because it seemed like he would let go of his slingshot any second.  The park surrounding the gallery was beautiful to walk through, and after going to eat gelato with our Australian hostel-mate later that night, I went to bed early, dreaming of pizza, chocolate, marble, and the time of gladiators and Caesar. 

My favorite place in Rome, Villa Borghese