After flying all my flights on EasyJet or Ryanair where you
don’t get any leg space or water, this 2 hour flight to Rome on British Airways
felt like first class. I got water
and a can of sprite for free!
After landing, we quickly found a taxi to take us to the hotel. We took the scenic route and got a tour
by our driver. He explained a
bunch of important buildings and even stopped for us to take pictures! It was a very unique ride but we
eventually made it to the hotel.
That night we immediately went to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant (of
course. Did I even need to say that.) And I ordered pasta with a cheese sauce I
think. It was very good as I
expected. I left completely
stuffed unable to walk home. My
dad had real problems walking home since he had a little more to drink!
On our way home we stopped at the Trevi fountain. Even though it was nighttime it was all
lit up and still packed! I had small euro coins and gave everyone on to throw
in and make a wish. We took the
typical pictures and it was very pretty and a lot of fun.
{Throwing in our coins!}
In order to get to our hotel we had to walk the Spanish
Steps. These were built by the
French to honor their Spanish friends.
It was nice to see the steps and the area but I wish we didn’t have to
walk all the steps to get home!
{Me and Mom at the Spanish Steps}
We finally made it home and went straight to bed because
Thursday was going to be a busy day.
Most of the time I think one tour is enough but today we had
to see as much of Rome in one day and therefore had two 3-hour tours. We started the day at the Vatican. There was a three-hour tour seeing the
museum of the Vatican and it ended at the Sistine Chapel. I along with my brothers agreed that
the tour could have been one hour or even three hours shorter! I found some things interesting
though. First, we went through
many hallways. By the end they
started to blur together but a lot of them had optical illusions and the
painting on the ceiling looked 3D when in fact it was only painted. Then we went into the Rafael room where
there was a giant painting of what I learned about in school. Included in this painting is Plato and
Leonardo Da Vinci in the middle.
Michelangelo is sitting alone and Rafael hidden in the corner.
{Rafael was so impressed by Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel that he included him in his painting}
To end the tour we finally made it to the Sistine
Chapel. This was painted by
Michelangelo and it took him 5 years to finish. He was forced to paint it by the pope even though he didn’t
want to because he’d rather be sculpting.
In this painting he included himself showing the torture he went through
and his supervisor is painted in the bottom corner being wrapped in a
snake. When the tour ended we went
to St. Peters Square to take some photos.
Unfortunately the church part was closed because of preparation for
Easter.
{Typical picture at St. Peter's Square}
Unfortunately the tour ended late which meant that we didn’t
have time for lunch because we had to race to our second tour. We bought lunch on the go which was
pizza paninis and disgusting. We
also got gelato so I did have a good ending taste in my mouth!
Our second tour was of the Colloseum then the forum and a
palace. I tuned out after the
Colloseum because it was such a long day.
I found the facts about the Colloseum very interesting. It took 8 years to build. Had 80 arches and fit 80,000
people.
So much of the Colloseum had deteriorated or collapsed. There originally were 4 floors but the
last floor is gone. Also you can
only go to the 1st floor since the rest of the stairs are gone. The Colloseum is made of limestone,
brick, and wood. It was covered in
marble, which gave it a white shiny finish. But when the popes took over they removed all the marble to
make the Vatican. The other
interesting fact is how it got its name the Colloseum. The real name is Flavian Amphitheater
because it was built by the Flavian family. Next to the amphitheater was a giant statue of the King
Nero, which was called the Colossus of Nero. When people would say they were going to the amphitheater
they would say they were going to the amphitheater neat the colossus. People eventually started referring to
it as the colloseum and that’s how it got its nickname.
When our touring finally ended our feet were sore and we
could barely walk. But now it was
shopping time and I was in search for a leather purse. After about 2 hours, Sam had bought an
Italian soccer jacket, Justin bought leather shoes, and I went back to the
hotel empty handed.
That night for dinner we went to another Italian restaurant. We ordered some appetizers and each got
a pasta for our main meal. I got ravioli
and it was very good. My mom got
the same but hers was served in the pot when I got mine in a bowl. We found it funny that they served food
in the cooking pot. Were they
possibly trying to save some dirty dishes?
After dinner we headed home and packed since we are off to
Venice tomorrow afternoon. Luckily
we have a little more time for shopping in the morning and maybe my perfect
purse is in the foreseeable future.
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