Spring Break part 1: Rome

We wanted to go to Rome primarily for the history.  I (Tom) especially pushed for it; I wanted to see where the Caesers ruled, where the early church had pivotal moments, and where the most powerful city in the world at one time transformed in to a modern capital.

In the Forum

So we took an overnight train from Paris to Rome.  The train really wasn't so bad, apart from a lack of palatable, affordable food.  We shared our cabin with two teachers leading a trip of French high school students and an older couple who uttered a handful of sentences the whole time.  Sleeping on the train was a fun new experience for me.  It wasn't perfect, but it was better than camping, for example.

There are fountains EVERYWHERE in Rome.  Margaret is drinking from one here.

Our hotel in Rome was near the Vatican, so we walked around that area and Saint Peter's the first day.  St. Peter's is very inspiring.  It truly feels like man's greatest attempt to show and praise the glory of God on earth.  It's enormous, and every single part and detail shows the effort of being handcrafted and intentional.  It hit me at one point when I ran my hand over one (of the thousands) of the blocks of marble.  I don't think I could ever construct something as beautiful as that block, and it was just a brick in the columns.  St. Peter's showed the effort of countless artists offering their skill to their faith, and because of that it managed to seem worshipful in spite of the presence of crowds of tourists.  Which cannot be said for many of the cathedrals and churches we have seen in Europe.

The interior of St. Peter's

Jesus & the 11 Disciples on top of St. Peter's

In St. Peter's Square

We really enjoyed our hotel in Rome.  It had a balcony/terrace on the third floor where we were, and we spent an hour or two each evening sitting out there, having a snack, a glass of wine, and/or dinner.  It was next to a really good gourmet food store, so we had an easy place to buy snacks, drinks, and gelato for Margaret.

A view of St. Peter's from the Vatican Museum

While planning our sightseeing in the days before we left Paris, we found a really exciting surprise.  Our visit coincided with Roman Cultural Week, which meant that, apart from the Vatican, all of the museums and historical sites were free!  We took full advantage of it by wandering in and out of the Roman Forum, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill on multiple days.  Ancient Rome did not disappoint, in terms of stimulating the imagination.  It was easy to see why the Caesers and Senators had their palaces up on the Capitoline and Palatine hills.  It became very obvious why all of the movies make it seem like Imperial triumphal parades go through a canyon-like city: the hills really do surround the forum.  And when you found a calm corner somewhere, it was easy to picture the glory of Roman times and the desolation and abandonment of the Dark Ages.

A picnic with the Palatine Hill as a backdrop

Looking down on the Roman Forum towards the Colosseum

The Roman Forum Ruins

Rome is very much a city you experience on foot.  It is relatively small, but we still walked a LOT (the subway doesn't really go through the city center).  It made for some very nice surprises. There are fountains everywhere, and some very nice piazzas.  But to me, central Rome was ultimately disappointing.  It's small, it's dirty, and it doesn't really feel inhabited by real people.  There are hordes of tourists in the day and empty streets at night.  Romans have virtually no parking restrictions, and cars and mopeds were scattered everywhere.  When they weren't stationary, they were barreling down streets barely wide enough for them, forcing pedestrians to press flat against the walls for safety.

After 20 min of noticing their Goretex and trail runners, we realized that this couple was about 100 steps ahead of us on Rick Steve's do-it-yourself podcast tour of the Roman Forum

But there was still some cool culture.  We had dinner one night at an apertivo in the Trastevere neighborhood.  This is a sweet deal (especially for grad student budgets) where you buy a drink at a bar and then have access to a buffet of free food.  The pizza was definitely good, though maybe not great and not the image of Naples pizza that I had in my head.  It was more doughy and cut in to square pieces, with all sorts of creative ingredients.  And Margaret gave a thumbs-up to the coffee and the gelato!

The Pantheon

All in all, the history of Rome did not disappoint.  Perhaps the most shocking moment was seeing the Pantheon for the first time.  It is a building that is 2000 years old, smack in the middle of the current center-city.  So we were walking around amongst Renaissance streets and buildings that feel pretty old, and then came around a corner to have the Pantheon staring straight at us.  It makes the buildings around it feel brand new.  It is unmistakeably ancient.  And yet, it was the largest domed roof in the world till the 1900s.

So Rome was inspiring for sure.  It was tiring, and it was crowded.  But we were glad to have gone.  We left on Wednesday evening and boarded a flight to Barcelona...

At the Trevi Fountain

In the Colosseum

To Be Continued...