June 28, 2011
We were able to experience our first Ryan Air flight. This meaning that the airport was a pain to get to. We had to get up at 5, to be on the metro at 5:30 (that was interesting to see business people and people that were just going home from their partying all night). We got off in the middle of nowhere and had to follow some people to actually find where the bus stop was. It was 30 Euros for the both of us to get to the airport. The bus would not leave until EVERY single seat was taken (extremely obnoxious when there are lines of busses for people to get onto). It took an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport (of course in the middle of nowhere). We were lucky that we only had backpacks b/c the guy didn't even bother weighing them (any carry-on can only weigh 10 kilos). We got through security and had no idea where to go. We finally figured out that they post your gate on the tv (but they do it right around the time you're suppose to board). It was a mad house up to gate D when it was posted. Luckily, we were in the front of the line. Ryan Air is like Southwest in the fact that you don't have assigned seats, so being at the front of the line is a wonderful thing. We arrived in Italy a half hour early. We bought Roma passes for 16 Euros for a week at a kiosk at the airport (it was a wonderful thing, considering that everyone else was trying to charge us 20-25 Euros for 3 days). We also bought a little pass to get us from the airport to the nearest metro stop (luckily, it was only about 15 minutes). For whatever reason both Zane and I thought that our hotel was near the Colosseum, so we went to that metro stop first. We got off and immediately upon exiting this guy pounced and talked Zane into a small private tour inside the Colosseum. We forked over the money (which I was upset at the time b/c the Roma pass will get you in for free) and waited for the entire group. With in a couple of minutes we had surpassed the 1-2 hour line and were in and having a guided tour (so it ended up being a wonderful thing, especially with how hot it was there). It was incredible to see everything and learn a little more about the history. We split for 45 minutes for us to look around on our own before meeting up for the second half of the tour.
Waiting for the tour to begin... isn't it beautiful?
Where the stage crew would hang out under the stage.
After visiting the Colosseum we wanted to get to our hotel and drop off our back packs. We went to the info booth inside the metro station and the lady said she didn't know where our hotel was (I thought that was a bad sign, either it was super shady or we were in the wrong place). So we asked her where a McDonalds was and she told us to go to Termini. We hopped back on the train. We found a Mc Donalds, but sadly it was the first city that we haven't been able to connect to free wifi. We ended up going to a "internet cafe" and paid 50 cents for 15 minutes. We read that our hotel was near Cornelia. We got back on and were sad to see that it was the second to last stop. We got off and were looking around and asking several people if they could tell us where to go. A nice elderly woman told us we could take a bus up near it and that we needed to walk past a main square with a lot of trees. We decided to walk it (and it was one of the worst decisions we had made). It was hot, we were already tired and our back packs were starting to get to us. It took us about 45 minutes to find the hotel (after asking a couple more people to make sure we hadn't passed it) that ended up being in the middle of a neighborhood. It was a really nice hotel (and it should be for being a 4 star- Pineta Palace- it was really cheap! It was cheaper for 4 nights including breakfast than our 2 star hotel in Paris). We cooled off (yay for air conditioning!) and ended up eating at a pizza place down the street (Zane learned not to get "white pizza" b/c it is literally just the pizza dough that's baked with absolutely nothing on it).
June 29, 2011
We wanted to find the Trevi fountain, so the concierge told us what direct bus to get on that would take us into the main part of town.
Right around the bus stop was this beautiful building- Supreme Court
A really cool fountain that we found on our hunt for the Trevi fountain.
I am just in love with this square. It was always buzzing and full of people and incredible artists.
The Fountain of the 4 Rivers
The Pantheon
Yay! We found it! It was much more incredible than I expected. We were able to find a shady place on the steps to cool off. Zane went and got up some delicious Gelato down one of the alleys (a lot cheaper than the places right off to the side of the fountain).
Egyptian Obelisk
Spanish Steps! I couldn't find Tyra anywhere!
June 30, 2011
Zane allowed me to go shopping today. We were trying to find a mall (b/c the shop around the Spanish steps were clearly not for people that are poor--- Gucci, Armani, Prada, Coach, etc.-- we did find some sweet cufflinks, however), but all of the malls are actually on the outskirts of Rome and are bit difficult to get to if you don't know your way around. The concierge said that there were shops near Vatican City that were much more affordable, so that's where we headed b/c it only took us about 20 minutes on the bus the day before to get all the way to the end, which was about 5 minutes from the Vatican. While we waited for the bus, I counted the stops that it took to get there. Not before long we were getting off around a bunch of stores, but not close to where I thought the Vatican was. We were going in and out of the little shops. We found Zane some nice Italian leather shoes for cheap. We started to get hungry and stopped into one of the pizza places and got some of my favorite pizza that we tried while we were in Italy.
It doesn't look like much, but it was delicious! Who knew that I would like salt on my pizza?!
After lunch, I found another bus stop and realized that the words under the stops were adding more stops, so we had gotten off too early. We decided to walk down (the busses tend to be few and far between) towards the Vatican city. It actually didn't take very long and the next thing we knew we were in the smallest Sovereign state!
St Peter's Basilica
We sat and rested on the steps inside Vatica City. We went to a few of the shops around the small country and found really cheap suits that we wanted to get Zane in one of the stores that were closed. We decided to wait until they re-opened (they close for lunch). We ended up getting some gelato and going to a lot of little tourist shops. Finally, just after 4pm, the store re-opened and were able to find one suit that they could tailor to Zane. We got it for 79 Euros! And they told us to pick it up the following evening. We went back to the hotel for the night (keep in mind I was sick for all of this and was super weak sauce).
July 1, 2011
We got up early to try to beat the crowds for the Museum of the Vatican. We got off the bus right around where a group of people had started to line up, but Zane thought that we wanted to get in the huge line we saw the day before that was just inside the walls. We went there and there were barely any people in line. It ended up being the line to take us into the Basilica. I am so glad we went there. It was free and we were probably the only people that weren't worshipping as dressed up as we were. It was absolutely beautiful and it was so huge! We saw the memorial/shrine (don't know the proper term) for St Peter's grave. It was gorgeous. They had candles lit up around the stairs that led down to it.
We didn't want to use flash inside to be respectful, so this was one of the only pictures that turned out well. The details are super intricate and just incredible.
After leaving the basilica we went and got back into the line that we saw earlier (that probably doubled) and waited a little over an hour. Zane was able to get a discount for being a student which was nice! (they unfortunately don't except the Roma pass here). We enjoyed the beautiful art, but after an hour we were already at the Sistine Chapel. We took Pam's advice and got seats along the side as quickly as possible, so we could sit and stare at the beautiful artwork of Michelangelo! I swear he painted in 3D! It was nuts! (sadly you can't take pictures inside the Chapel). We didn't realize that after you go into the Sistine Chapel that you can't go back into the musuem, you must exit afterwards. So we ended up getting out.
One of the hallways in the musuem at the Vatican
Statue of Bruno
The 4 Rivers Fountain all lit up (the square is just as busy as it is during the day... I love it!)
July 2, 2011
Sadly it was our last day in the beautiful city of Rome. We had a wonderful time and were able to do most of the things that we wanted to (minus the trips outside of Rome...next time we'll come, we will have the money to venture out a little more and hopefully I won't be hacking up a lung either!) But my absolute favorite thing that we ended up doing on this entire trip was the morning of our last day. We owe it all to Zac too! Before leaving for Europe, Zac had told Zane about booking a reservation early to get to go to the catacombs under the Vatican Necropolis-Scavi. I would highly recommend anyone that goes to Rome to do just this! It was probably the coolest tour that we've been on! There was a whole city underneath the Vatican. The tour groups are small, so the guide doesn't have to talk loud and you can still hear them. We were able to see different roads, homes, graves/ashes, etc. It's two levels underneath the basilica and you can see where they built on top of each level. The end of the tour is led to the "graffiti wall" where you can actually be guided to see one of St Peter's bones from his grave. It was just such an incredible experience!
The Swiss Guards we had to pass to get to our tour
After our tour ended we walked through a room full of tombs of the past Popes that led to the exit across from one of the entrances to the Sistine Chapel. We were able to pick up our back packs (they have a drop off to leave your stuff, b/c they don't allow big bags into the tour; which definitely worked to our advantage). We left the walls for the last time and headed towards a metro stop. Along the way we stopped to get some lunch, while Zane got another pizza, I decided to branch out and have dessert for lunch...
It was delicious! And very refreshing
After lunch we walked around and found some different shops along the way and had fun looking at different things. We finally found a shop that actually sold cannoli (who knew it would be so hard?) Zane didn't like it b/c we've been spoiled with Zac's delicious cannoli, so I had to double up on it.
Around 3 we were all shopped out and decided we were just going to head to the airport and hang out there and maybe watch a movie or something. So we hopped on the metro and went all the way to the end. We had just missed the bus, so we sat and waited, we had time to kill... so we thought.
Killing time at the bus stop
We got to the airport and pulled out our itinerary to see what flight number we were and realized that our flight left at 6:30 (we thought we were leaving at 9! We were so lucky that we decided to go to the airport early). We hopped in the huge line and were able to make it through that and security quickly. We stopped in at a few of the shops (it was much nicer than the Beauvais airport!) and found things I wish we could take back with us. We were able to be second in line to wait for the flight. We were wondering why no one was coming to the gate to let us in at 6. Then at 6:15 a flight leaving at the same time as us was moved to the desk that was shared with our gate. I was wondering how they were going to have 2 planes leave at the exact same time that were right next to each other. Then we saw busses pull up outside of the gate and realized that they actually take us to the plane that's off in the middle of nowhere. Then they made an announcement saying that our gate had been moved to the one kiddie corner and behind us (except it was in Italian, so it took a minute to figure it out) We went from being in the front of the line to being shoved in this mass hysteria of people. Finally, Zane and I were able to get on the 3rd bus and ended up getting decent seats considering the situation. Around 7pm it seemed like everyone was on board, but we still weren't leaving. Finally at 7:30 they announced that one of the passengers wasn't feeling well, so that's why we hadn't left (if they would have just mentioned that earlier, I don't think so many people would have been upset and irritated, us included). We finally left and ended up landing around 10ish. We finally found the right bus to get on. We were some of the last people to get on, so we were split up. They of course waited another 10 minutes to fill up the last 4 seats before we could leave. We finally got back to the metro around 11:30 and had to manage to get to apartment (that we had only been to once before) in the dark. Finally, made it just after midnight.
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