we spent 2 days and 3 nights there, so we were able to do more exploring than in any of the other cities we visited. So perhaps that made Rome extra spectacular.
well, first of all, our hotel was GREAT. i absolutely loved it. ...i kept walking around saying, "i could live here! i could live here!"
my sis and i had an open concept 'bachelor' apartment, and my parents had a 'one bedroom'. both had fridges, sink, stove, couches, a balcony, and kitchen table.
both the kitchen and coffee tables were made with glass. and i realized that i love see-through furniture!!! :D
the place had a simple off-white and dark brown thing happening. it was fun. and i thought it'd be a great place to live for an extended period of time.
this picture doesn't really do it justice..but oh well:
alright, so our first day there, we got to the hotel around noon, and my sis and i left to go do some exploring.
the funny thing is, we didn't have a map with us.
the cruise ship gave us a map that pinpointed important areas and places to shop...but i left that in the hotel room.
the hotel had also given us two maps of Rome, but we forgot to get one of those from our parents.
hah, so we went outside and somehow we found the metro with no problem.
i was a big fan of the metro.
first of all, from the street, you go down a flight of stairs, and then an escalator.
and then another escalator,
and then down ather escalator.
at this point my sister was like, "Where are we going?!! the centre of the earth?!!"
finally, we get to an area where we can buy passes. down one more flight of stairs, and we're at the platform.
i loved the metro.
it's SO much better than our subways!
the colours are white and bright orange, so it looks very clean.
there are television screens that show the ads instead of having print ads.
and they also had screens that show the upcoming stop and which side of the car the platform will be on.
so. because we had no idea where we were going, the plan was to get off at the same time a lot of other people get off.
i think we got off a stop too late.
but it worked out b/c we took all the escalators up to the surface, and saw this:
a big random beautiful church.
notice, there aren't any tourists in the picture, so while i was taking tons of pictures of the place, my sis thought that we weren't in the 'main' part of town yet.
so we walked and walked...did a little shopping, saw this graffiti:
yes, it does say 'Canada'! we were so excited!!! ...it doesn't really make much sense though. ..Canada is Noise? and it says 'Squeen' at the bottom... what's that?
so we continued walking.
and we eventually ended up by all these super old buildings:
and while we were walking around that area, look what i spotted at the end of the street!:
The Colloseum!!
so we headed in that direction, and it turned out that it was Culture Week, so we got a tour of the place for half price!
apparently the place is a lot smaller than what it was shown to be in The Gladiator. i thought it was pretty huge though.
i saw a group of Segway riders who i was jealous of. ...those things look like so much fun!!
so i think that was about it for day one.
- Day Two:
My sis and I headed out, map in hand, to go see Vatican City.
we got there around 11am and stood around, taking pictures and whatnot.
eventually, it started to get pretty busy:
my sis was convinced that something was going to happen, b/c there were just lots of people milling around, and people had their kids with them and stuff.
i kept telling her that they were just 'soaking it all in' like we were... but she wasn't listening to me.
and then like 20 minutes later, a marching band appeared on the other side. so i figured that was what everyone was here to see!
they eventually came right by where we were standing:
and then they eventually stopped playing.
again, my sis observed that everyone around us was facing a certain direction. ...we were of course, looking all over the place.
so we turned to look the same way everyone else was....
and then around 11:45 a blanket appeared in a window and everyone cheered.
we were going to be there for church! hah!
it was then that i noticed a camera guy:
and here's the Pope:
thank you 12x zoom!
it was mostly in Italian, so we had no idea what was going on....
i did notice that the camera guy had a friend join him:
eventually the Pope started doing, what my sis called 'shout outs', in different languages.
so we understood the one where he said, "To all my English speaking people ...."
one of the highlights of the service was near the end when he sang/chanted the "Gloria Patri" chorus.
I was so excited, "I know what he's saying!!!"
Gloria Patri is a song we sang in choir in grade nine!
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
after the service, we headed into St. Peter's Basilica.
in one word: Extravagant.
from the marble floors to the crazy ceilings..
the fun Swiss Guards:
alright, so after that, we went to see various other important areas... like some fountains, and the Spanish Steps.
we stubbled across The Tomb of the Lost Soldier:
and we had lunch at a cafe that, we didn't realized until after lunch, was across from this fortress built in 159AD. ...complete with moat and everything!:
and the last story i'll tell is from when my sis and i went to the Spanish Steps to meet our parents for dinner.
the plan was, meet here, and then walk to a nearby restaurant.
we arrived on time, but figured they'd be late, so we bought some gelato and sat down on the steps among the multitude of tourists.
they ended up being half an hour late. ...thankfully we were able to entertain ourselves.
after we finished our deserts, my sis noticed a peculiar fellow.
which brings me to a game i like to call, Spot the Paparazzi:
if you didn't see him, here's a hint:
and another hint:
it was SO weird!
he was just standing there for 30 minutes, taking pictures in our direction!
it was fairly annoying, so that's what we eventually started taking pictures back at him. :)
we figured that the person sitting behind us was his target, so we took a picture of him too... :)
anyone recognize him?
after our parents arrived, we got up off the steps and the guy behind us left as well. ...and so did the Paparazzi.
it was odd.
so here's the mandatory alley picture:
and that was Rome in a 2-day nutshell!
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