Roma

There is so much to see and do in Rome! And, for some reason, we only allotted ourselves four days here so we have been busy from 8 am to 11 pm every day trying to get it all in and it was oh-so-worth it! We arrived in the afternoon from Cinque Terre, checked into our hostel, and then took metro to the Colosseum. It's huge and spectacular just due to it's sheer size. Really extraordinary. We didn't check out the inside as we wanted to be able to take our time. We did see the Pantheon, which is another amazing Roman structure that has been very well preserved. It was originally built in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa whose name is still above the door and it's now a Catholic Church. It is also the home of Rapheal's body. Accidentally, we found the Piazza Novana, where sits the Fontana dei Quatro Fiumi or the Fountain of the Four Rivers. Unfortunately, it was partially covered for restoration.

Next day, we went to the Vatican Museum which has an ancient Egyptian section where we saw a mummy from 1200 B.C. and preserved bread from 1300 B.C. Holy shit! The mummy was an older lady with henna died hair (yes, she still had hair and skin! and she had a covering over her left eye socket because that is where they pulled out her brain before mummification!) and her face, hands, and feet were exposed. Mike wanted to take a picture but he felt kind of weird about photographing the dead. In fact, I am not sure that this lady would have been all that pleased about being on display but apparently the Catholic Church was not worried about that! Ha ha! We saw many other really old, amazing things as we wandered through the museum, including many frescoes by Raphael, Pintoricchio, and Michelangelo. There were also many maps that were painted on the walls in the 1500's and huge tapestries from around the same period. After wandering through this magnificent museum for a couple hours, we were finally able to see the Sistine Chapel. We both were open-mouthed at the beauty of Michelangelo's frescoes, Creation and Last Judgement. They were breathtaking! Everyone should go and see this place! After a light lunch and much discussion about the chapel, we made our way to St. Peter's Basilica. The Piazza di San Pietro (in front of the Basilica) is huge, with columns, fountains, an obelisk, and steps for admiring the square. This is also one of the places that the Pope gives his weekly address. The Basilica itself is also amazing with a huge dome designed by, guess who, Michelangelo, and it houses his famous Pieta statue (the guy was a bad ass!). It was completed in 1590. And, of course, St. Peter is buried here...astonishing. We were able to to climb the gagillion steep, tiny, little steps with the roof curving in to the cupola of the building and catch 360 degree views of Rome. After all of this beauty and more church related funness than you shake a stick at, we decided to get some gelato and call it a day on the sightseeing end of things.

Don't worry, though, because the next day was also filled with excitement because we checked out the inside of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The pictures of the Colosseum speak for themselves. It was spectacular. The Forum is next to the Colosseum and used to be the center of Rome's government and social scene. As another tourist put it, it is a graveyard of Roman buildings and monuments, some of which date back to the 9th century B.C. This is also the place where Ceaser's body was burned and people are still leaving flowers on the rock pile marking it. We also wandered around the Palatine, the hill above the forum and the Colosseum where wealthy Romans and emperors used to have their houses. We also managed to squeeze in seeing Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains church), where they have the chains that bound St. Peter on display and where we saw another of Michelangelo's famous statues, Moses. Both impressive. Interesting bit, if you want to have any light shed on the statue of Moses to get a better look or a better picture, there is a machine in which tourists put money and the light shines for 2 to 3 minutes before turning off again. Brilliant way to make money! Next up we saw the Fontana di Trevi, a fountain that literally seems to burst forth from the front of the building. We did follow custom and threw in two coins each, backwards over our shoulders, one for our guaranteed return to Rome and another for a wish to be granted. A beautiful site to see at night all lit up! We then stopped at a store for a couple of beers (my idea!) and, after much searching, we finally found the Spanish steps built in 1725. We sat on the steps, enjoying our beer and drinking in public!

Our last full day in Rome we went out to Via Appia Antica, a road that was constructed in 312 B.C. We were able to tour one of the catacombs, The Catacombs of San Callisto, which were used from 170-400 A.D. At one point there were as many as 300,000 bodies in these catacombs alone and there are a total of 65 separate catacombs around Rome. None of the catacombs are used anymore and only a few of them have even been partially restored. In the San Callisto Catacombs there were four levels with nearly 3000 rooms. We only got to see a small portion of the first level but it was really interesting. There were little holes in the walls, almost like multi-level bunk beds where the bodies were sealed in with lime and other chemicals to reduce the smell and speed up decomposition. There were two sarcophagi, one which held the body of a mummified 12 year old boy and the other the body of a woman. However, all that was left of the boy was the outer cloth used to cover the body and there was only one recognizable bone left of the woman, the rest had already turned to ash. After our dark, cold adventure, we were blessed by our tour guide, also a priest. We then wandered back down the road and decided to rent bikes for the afternoon (Mike had to feed the monkey on his back). It was warm and sunny and really fun to cruise down the ancient road. Some of the road was made of large cobblestones, which made for a bumpy ride on our cruiser bikes and we were both pining for our mountain bikes. All the while, we were passing Roman ruins just lying about. A fantastic way to spend the afternoon. After returning the bikes, we had a coffee and then took metro to the other side of town to find the Piazza del Popolo. In the piazza, we found an amazing artist who "painted" with spray paint. But instead of mere graffiti, these looked like paintings done with a brush. We are very used to street performers and beggars of every kind at this point but this guy was awesome! He kept our attention for a full 20 minutes and we did give him some money since we couldn't buy one of his masterpieces-worth it. At the other end of the piazza, we climbed the steps to Pincio Hill, where Keats, Mussolini, and Ghandi liked to stroll. We were just in time to catch the sun setting behind St. Peter's Basilica. We then ate dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant where we had wine and strawberry tirimisu to die for. A wonderful way to end our time in Italy. The next morning, we flew to Athens, Greece.

Photos, HERE.