Rome in 2 days

My first destination for our week long travel break was Rome. I took a train to Rome on Friday night (11th) and arrived in Rome a little after 9pm. My friend, Kate Strittmatter, met me at the train station. She has been studying at John Cabot University in Rome for the year -- we've been friends since elementary school and just happen to be studying in Italy at the same time. Our adventures together in Rome began Saturday morning as we ventured to find "Tre Fontane Abbey" or Three Fountains Abbey. We were looking to find the Church of St. Paul of Three Fountains which was the place where St. Paul was rumored to have been beheaded by the Emperor Nero. Legend says that Paul's head bounced and hit the ground in 3 different places where fountains sprang up. Later on a church was built around these fountains. The bus ride took forever but we finally came to our stop and had to ask for directions to the church so at first we were led astray by 3 Italian men who argued over where it was in a Tabacchi shop but Kate and I eventually found our way to the church. It was truly amazing to see. We saw the column upon which Paul's head was placed before he was martyred and the 3 fountains inside of the church. On either side of the church of St. Paul were "Our Lady of Martyrs" church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and another dedicated to St. Vincent and Anastasius. After taking our time to look around, we sat at the cafe near the Arch of Charlemagne at the abbey entrance and had cappuccinos before going to Piazza Navona.
Piazza Navona is one of Rome's many squares. This one is particularly notable because it contains the Fountain of the Four Rivers which, if you have seen the movie Angels and Demons, is where the 4th cardinal was almost drowned.

Later on we had lunch at osteria pizzeria Margherita and ate some great pasta. We then strolled over to the Pantheon and peered through its great oculus. I think we looked in some shops and got some gelato before arriving at the Trevi Fountain which is ridiculously large and beautiful. The fountain is dedicated to the god of the sea, Neptune who is riding a chariot pulled by two sea horses (one calm and one wild representing the moods of the sea). It is tradition to throw a coin in over your shoulder to insure your return to Rome...so of course I did.

We then walked by Capitoline Hill and the ruins of the Roman Forum on our trek to the great Colosseum. It was just beginning to get dark so with the sun setting, we were able to get some great pictures outside the Colosseum!

We walked over to see the Holy Stairs which were located in the praetorium of Pontius Pilate when he was governor of Judea. That means, on the day Jesus was condemned to die on the cross, he ascended and descended these stairs. The actual stairs are protected by boards so visitors can kneel on them and make their ascension to the top. We also crossed the street and took a look inside St. John's Basilica. The sheer size of the churches of Rome absolutely amazed me. How a structure could be so large, decorated in detail, and gorgeous puts me at awe.

On our way to see "La Bella e La Bestia" we dropped into a few more churches including the Basilica of Saint Mary Major and then we stopped and ate some dried zucchini flowers and pasta at a restaurant before going to the theatre.

At some point in the morning we decided we wanted to go see "La Bella e La Bestia" (Beauty and the Beast) that night. Kate and I went to New York together for a Business Professionals of America trip during our junior year of high school and we saw the broadway performance there so we thought it would be neat to see it performed in Italian in Rome. We both thought it was fantastic! Overall it was a jam packed and fun filled day. On day 2 in Rome we ventured to Vatican City!

Sunday morning we went and saw St. Peter's Basilica which contains the famous "Pieta" sculpture done by Michelangelo. If I was amazed before by the size of churches, this one put them all to shame. You could spend a whole day going through this church and still miss something. Sunday mass was going on at the time and it was getting close to noon when the Pope was going to give his blessing to the people in the square outside so we admired the interior of the church and then headed outside to see the Pope pop his head out a window and address the crowd.

We went and found a restaurant for lunch that ended up being extremely fancy and it was hilarious because melodic music was playing and kate and I were one of the only ones in this restaurant. But we had some beautiful pasta dishes, I tried some of Kate's octopus in her pasta (which I did not enjoy), and we headed on our way to Piazza del Popolo, another large square in Rome. Unknown to us, a huge riot was going on at the time with many women protesting President Berlusconi's recent sex scandals. Later we found out from Kate's mom that over 100,000 people were gathered there. We fought our way through the crowd and walked up the hill to some gardens at the top and sat by a fountain and watched the protesters for a little bit (and Kate switched shoes with me cuz I was getting blisters--Thanks Kate!). Then we wandered over and walked down the Spanish stairs.

I had such a great time in Rome and saw so many amazing sights! I will definitely be going back later in the semester to do some more in depth touring.

Piazza Del Popolo