Roma

View from our hotel roof

Rome was too amazing for words. From the ancient ruins to Michaelangelo’s Sistene Chapel to the most delicious food I’ve ever eaten. I’ll start from the beginning with our airport arrival after another 5:30 AM wake up. We took a 45 minute bus ride to the city. I was awed by all the palm trees we passed and the beautiful Mediteranean landscape. It was about 70 degrees out and it felt so good coming from 40 degrees in Copenhagen. We arrived at the hotel around 12:30 to drop off our bags and rush out the door to get a walking tour in Centro Storico (the center city) led by our study tour professor, Thyge Bro. The day’s walk included stops at Piazza di Colonna, the Pantheon, Largo Argentina, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Ponte Sisto, Piazza Farnese, Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Navona, Arapacis, the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. It was amazing to actually see these sights, which I had only ever experienced through pictures and art history slides. 

Along the way we stopped for lunch. It was then that I had my first taste of real Italian pizza. It was so good! I don’t think I went a day without a different kind of pizza after that. The Coffee Cup and Harry’s won’t taste the same anymore. Afterwards we were introduced to what is now my now favorite gelato place with over 150 flavors! 

I was in heaven. The first day I got coconut and coffee crunch. From then on I always got coconut (my favorite!) with another flavor. I think the pistachio/coconut combo was my favorite. Captain Dusty’s will have a hard time competing here, although I didn’t see any flurries…

Dinner the first night was a group one on DIS. I got to know the other girls on the tour better. Coincidently only 14 girls signed up for this trip and no guys, so our male professor was stuck with 14 girls and the study tour assistant leader, a 26 year old girl. He did a good job putting up with all of us, though. Dinner that night was at Ristorante Pizzaria Carlo Menta. We started with an anti-pasta dish followed by a huge bowl of pasta carbon era. 

We were all very satisfied. The waiters then cleared our plates as we sat there thinking we’d have to be rolled out of the restaurant, when the waiters came back in carrying a huge plate of pork and ham for each of us. We couldn’t believe there was another course! In Italy people order an anti-pasta first, then a prima course, which is usually pasta, then a secondo course and then dessert. We all struggled through this dish despite how good it tasted and then came the dessert. It was some sort of flan, but it’s hard to say how many of us could actually fit this into our stomachs. We got back to the hotel around 10 and fell straight to sleep.

Breakfast was a 7:30 AM and we were walking to the Colosseum by 8. I have always loved the movie Gladiator. I think Daddy can relate. It was incredible to see the structure in real life and imagine the ancient gladiatorial fights happening, the crowds cheering and the emperor sitting in his balcony with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  Since the arena floor is now gone, you could see all of the underground structures. It was like a maze down there where they would keep the tigers and lions and the gladiators would emerge from to fight. There were trap doors and hidden passages here. After seeing the Colosseum we walked down the street to the Forum Romanum. The Forum Romanum is the ancient Roman Forum where most of the government buildings, temples and public entertainment happened. We did a few sketches of the Senate House, the Arc of Septimius Severus and the Temple of Vesta. The Temple of Vesta had a fire constantly burning in the center of the circular temple and the law was that if whoever stationed to guard it let it go out, they would be buried alive. The women of the Temple of Vesta lived in the House of Vesta, which was also in the Forum. Their house was only for woman and had a beautiful garden inside which is pictured below. The rest of the Forum is behind it. 

We then walked up the Palatine Hill, past the Arc of Titus (which I was assigned to research and give a little speech on), to the grand villas that the emperors lived in. Augustus’s house was also here. They were beautiful villas and surrounded by many amazing gardens filled with lemon and orange trees. From here we also had a beautiful view of the Colosseum and the rest of the City.

After walking for six hours, we were finally let loose for lunch. Thankfully we all ran to the nearest pizza place and vegetated in the outdoor cafes. We spent the later part of the afternoon walking through Baroque churches designed by Bernini and Baromini. We also happened to walk by the changing of the guard, which I know Mummy would appreciate!

That night we went to my favorite restaurant. I followed our professor to dinner every night, knowing he knew the best places in Rome. He was quite large and quite the eater, so I trusted his judgement in the food department. I got the most delicious spinach pizza I have ever had. It was just cheese (and lots of it) with spinach on a flatbread. We ended the night in traditional style: gelato.

We jumped forward about twelve centuries and into another country on the third day. We were in the Vatican City all day, which is in fact it’s own country. We had a guided tour of the Vatican Museum, which held the last millennium of Popes’ private collections. We saw many statues, which had been nothing more than art history slides to us before. The tour ended in the Sistene Chapel. We spent twenty minutes in there just sitting and reflecting on the beauty of Michaelangelo’s work. Below is one of my favorites by Raphael, "School of Athens," which is a fresco in one of the Vatican rooms. 

Lunch was sponsored by DIS at a nearby restaurant, Terno Secco. We had before us about ten different plates of anti pasta dishes plus pizza, which was all topped off by a bowl of fruit and vanilla ice cream. We hardly starved on this trip.

The afternoon was on our own at St. Peter’s Basilica. We climbed the 560 steps to the top. There were a lot of people on this staircase, which was very narrow, low and even slanting at times. It was hot and stuffy and I was getting quite clausterphobic in there. The only thing that kept me going was a little Irish girl behind me that kept say “I see the top!” and “only ten more steps! This is it!” She was very cute and made me feel better. There were a billion tourists in Rome last week. I don’t know if it was because it is Easter week or what, but it was insane getting anywhere. You could barely walk through the Vatican Museum by noon. I was also amazed by the number of people who spoke English and American tourists I heard. It was actually very comforting hearing so many American accents.

The view from the top of St. Peter’s was incredible and I decided it was worth the panicking claustrophobia I felt the whole way up.

Afterwards two of the other girls and I went into the Basilica. I couldn’t believe how ginormous it was! I had absolutely no idea it was so big. I thought it was about one eighth of the size it actually was. The architecture and design were incredible. I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of gold, marble and ornate design. It was the biggest display of power and wealth I had ever seen. We then discovered that there would be a mass at five. We jumped at the opportunity and sat down. We then experienced mass in St. Peter’s Basilica during Easter week. Despite the fact that the entire service was in Italian, we could still follow it. It was not any different from church at home, giving peace, reciting prayers and receiving communion. The three of us were speechless walking out, not knowing what to say.

Public toilets

Day four was my favorite of all: Ostia Antica. Ostia is an ancient city south of Rome, about 45 minutes by metro. We got there at nine in the morning, before all of the school tours came. It was preserved much like Pompeii, but instead of being covered by volcanic ash, it was preserved by the river mud of the Tiber. It was a port city, where all the grain that went from Egypt to Rome went through. Once Rome started to decline, though, the city was abandoned and over a forty-year period the river overtook it. The mud ended up preserving most of the city. You could walk through and experience life as an ancient Roman. It was the kind of place Lexi and I woud have loved as kids. I still loved it, but this was a place where you could take your imagination and really run with it. You could run through the houses and their different rooms and levels, the baths, theater, temples and even pretend to serve food at the public bars or sit on the ancient toilets. I was in love with this place and could have spent the rest of the day there even though it had already been six hours. I think being in the 75 degree sun all day also contributed to my love of the place.

The bar

House of Cupid and Psyche

Thyge, our professor, on the right telling us all about the ancient Roman baths as we sit inside the bathing room

That afternoon I tried to go for a little run. My back had been hurting the previous week but I thought I would test it out. It didn’t feel great but I went twenty minutes anyway. Half way through, though, I was doing a lap around the Colosseum, dodging tourists left and right, when I tripped right over the leg of a railing and went diving into the pavement. My knees and hands were bleeding the whole way back and are now very bruised and cut. I figured it was only appropriate, though, running past the Colosseum with blood running down my legs gladiator style.

Cemetery for the non-Catholics

 The last academic day was another walking tour through the city led by the one and only, Thyge Bro. We saw the Aurelian Wall, which is the outer city wall, the Pyramid of Sestius, Monte Testasio, Circus Maximus, Forum Boarium, Campedoglio and finished at Castel Sant’Angelo, where we had a beautiful view of the city and St. Peter’s. This is the castle the Pope would retreat to in case the Vatican came under attack. He would run across the elevated passage, guarded by the Swiss Guard. Even if an enemy got inside, it would be almost impossible for them to reach the Pope in the center because the passageways had so many trap windows with hidden snipers shooting from above, below, right and left. The castle stopped being used for this purpose in the late nineteenth century and is now a museum and place for tourists to see.

Castel Sant'Angelo 

The Swiss Guard

From the top of Castel Sant'Angelo with St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican City in the background

The last night’s dinner was on DIS and this time we knew to pace ourselves through the meal, expecting at least four courses. It was delicious and a great end to our week in Rome. The next post will relate my experiences from here on out.