Roma

The morning of Thursday, March 27 we boarded a high-speed train on its way to Rome. The train took about 2 1/2 hours in which I continuously got my butt kicked in Rummy 500 to Jordan. So, just about the time I was about to become a bad sport we were there! Haha, talk about de-ja-vous! So, we did get off at the right stop this time but instead of walking the whole block and a half to our hotel we ended going about 8 blocks out of the way until we just happened upon the right street from a different direction. In our defense, the street signs were quite worn and a little wacky. Plus, we were kinda making a habit out getting lost when we first got to a city in Italy...so why stop in Florence, right?!

Our first stop--the Vatican, which was right by our hotel. The Vatican is a city-state that is surrounded by the city of Rome. At 110 acres and a population of 800 people it is the largest city-state in the world. It even has its own postal and calling codes. Even though it was a bit of a rainy day, it was still packed in the plaza. St. Peter's church is to the right in this photo. I can't imagine what it would have been like here on Easter Sunday!

Ah, there it is...well part of it anyway. You can see a tiny little platform a little to the left of the middle of this picture--that's where the pope speaks every Sunday.


Here's a close up of St. Peter's before we went in, take notice to the apostles along the top--you'll see them later. Eventually we'd climb to the top of the dome (cupola) on top of the church.

This is Michaelangelo's Pietà, which depicts Mary holding Jesus. I actually saw a replica of this sculpture in Copenhagen when I visited The Caste Collections on a field study where replicas of famous statues from around the world are held.

This alter was massive! It's where the pope speaks here when it isn't nice enough outside. Underneath lies the tomb of St. Peter.

More from inside the church, it's one of the largest churches in the world!

After waiting in line for a bit we were finally on our way to the top. First we took an elevator to avoid roughly 300 steps to the top of the dome inside the church. The alter that you see in this picture is the same as the previous one, but from above.

Another 320 steps and we were there! Here's a view from the top of the Vatican and the rest of Rome.

I had to get the famous shot of the Vatican vista (long boulevard)! It was overcast and a bit rainy while we were there, but it was actually nice because the weather was cool enough where you didn't get too warm walking but we weren't freezing either. Plus, living in Copenhagen where it can go from Sunny to rainy in the blink of an eye has given me a new appreciation for gloomy weather :)

Here's our first picture taken by another person at the top, and since this person thought it would be a good idea to get mostly skyline instead of the actual city in the shot...

...We took this one ourselves, and it's one of my favorite pictures of us from the entire trip!

Check out these stairs! At times we were slanted, but the stairs weren't!

These are the domes on top of St. Peter's. We were at the top of the taller one.

...And here's my dome :) I'm the one at the bottom of the picture, just in case you couldn't tell.

We're now standing on top of the main building part of St. Peter's, behind all the apostles' statues that line the top of it. This is a picture of the "rock band" part of the apostles...you can see the one with his guitar on the left and the one with his microphone on the right!

Here's the line of them...all 12.

And here's Jordan eating the Vatican...right before lunch too! Needless to say, he wasn't very hungry.

I finally got a shot of a smart car! These are produced by Mercedes and are seen all over Europe. Soooo tiny!

Here's the Trevi Fountain. The guide book said if you throw a coin in you'll find yourself in Rome again soon, but you had to throw it backwards and over your shoulder. I can't say I want to find myself in Rome again soon, but I will take Italy any day :) The hearts and lungs of the old popes are stored nearby too.

You can see a video of the fountain at the end of the post; unfortunately I can't post videos anywhere expect at the end.

From the Trevi Fountain, we made our way to the Colosseum. Along the way we came across some archaeological areas where they are studying ancient foundations of old buildings in Rome. Alex, my archaeological friend, these are for you!

And at last, the Colosseum! Completed in 80 AD after roughly 10 years of construction, the amphitheater could hold up to 50,000 people and was used for gladiatorial competitions for 500 years. It's like a historic Metrodome! haha

Unfortunately, it was closed when we got to the Colosseum, so we couldn't see the inside, but luckily Google Image did!


And, our last stop in Rome before heading back to Copenhagen, the Trattoria Pizzeria. We had delicious pasta here (like you haven't heard that before in these posts, right?!), tortellini with prosciutto and mushrooms! and it was great for Jordan because it was the place he and his mom ate the first night they spent in Italy and where we ate the last night we're in Italy, full circle. The next morning we were on our way to the airport to make our way back to Copenhagen.

That concludes the rest of my travel break, but not Jordan and my's trips...we still had Amsterdam (which will be the next post). Although we were in three places in one week, everything went really smoothly and we never felt rushed. We accomplished the things we wanted to see and the rest was checking out what we stumbled upon. Florence was our fav, with Nice second and Rome third. It was great seeing the historical sites, but the people in Rome were quite pushy and rude and didn't seem the friendliest of people, but we only had a day and a half there.

Here's the video of the Trevi fountain for you to check out:



Ah, right. I forgot, half way through the video turns sideways. Didn't realize that the picture didn't rotate when the camera did when it was in video mode.