Italy Week: Rome

Rome was AMAZING! There is a lot of really cool stuff in today’s post, so be sure to move your cursor over the photos to see the caption!

Since Reid was a little kid, he has loved history. Since I was a little kid, I have loved art. We have both been familiar with and shared a love for the art and history of Rome for as long as we can remember. On Saturday, September 20th we were finally able to step foot in one of the greatest cities on earth, one that we have dreamed of visiting for years.

After a whirlwind of a week, we were VERY happy to be staying in one city for 3 whole days! There was still plenty of walking (when I say “plenty” I mean walking until our feet nearly fell off), but at least it was without our suitcases! Rome was the hottest city we visited, so our hotel’s pool really came in handy 🙂 Speaking of our hotel, it was INCREDIBLE! We stayed at the Crown Plaza St. Peter’s (as in St. Peter’s Basilica). You would think that means it was really close to St. Peter’s, but Rome is such a big city, it was still a 15-ish minute taxi ride away. And speaking of taxis, those guys know how to get it done! Forget speed limits and yellow lines, they have somewhere to be a you had better get out of the way! Ha!

On Saturday we took a tour of the Coliseum and Roman Forum! All I can say is WOW. Knowing and then learning more of the history behind these places made it so surreal to actually be there. Once our tour of the Forum was over, we went to Mamertinum, the prison where Peter and Paul were kept. I kept hearing Paul’s words “To live is Christ, to die is gain” over and over in my head as we walked through the prison. Knowing that he was persecuted for telling people about his Lord, yet he sang songs of praise and wrote joyful letters to his friends, which are now in our Bible. How cool that we got to walk where he walked!

On Sunday we got to see another one of the 7 wonders of the world! (at least it was at one time, the list keeps changing!)- the Pantheon! I think I was more excited about seeing Reid see the ancient dome than I was about seeing it! This was the thing he talked about looking forward to more than anything on our trip and it made me so happy to see him see it!  After the Pantheon we walked to the Trevi Fountain, which was one of the things I was most excited about. Don’t laugh, but ever since I saw the Lizzie McGuire Movie (yes, I LOVE that movie!) I have been dying to go to the Trevi Fountain to toss my penny and make a wish! If you remember on Monday I mentioned that St. Mark’s Basilica was one of the many beautiful things we would see covered in scaffolding…. yep… the Trevi Fountain was COMPLTELEY covered in it and the sky-blue water was DRAINED OUT. I may or may not have cried about that…. Anyways, I took a picture of it so you could share in my dismay. Maybe we will go back some day and I can make my wish!!! Next we walked over to the Spanish Steps, people-watched for a while, then went to hunt for a good place for lunch. We even made it to the Laundromat with all of our dirty laundry that afternoon!

Monday was a big day for me because I finally got to see the “piece” of art that I have admired more than any other since I was a kid: the Sistine Chapel! We took a tour through the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, and ended at St. Peter’s Basilica. We were able to take pictures of everything except the Sistine Chapel, which is actually okay with me though because they wouldn’t do it justice! It is remarkable. That night we asked our concierge what local restaurant we should go to for our last night, and he recommended the most charming little “off-the-beaten-path” place. The food was phenomenal and the atmosphere was just like what we Americans think of when we think “Italian restaurant.” After dinner we took a taxi to a lookout point where we could see the whole city lit up. It was an AMAZING last night!

 

That’s the end of our time in Roma! Tomorrow we’ll head south and show you some gorgeous landscape complete with a pretty famous volcano!