When in Rome...

I showed up in Rome at two in the afternoon, and the hostel wouldn't take a credit card. For such a popular, well known place I was a bit surprised. I had a hell of a time getting cash, too, because a purchase I had made in Florence had put a hold on my account for a substantial sum. It was nearly the second time I was stuck in Italy without access to cash. But, an hour later, I was checked in and ready. I was tired from the previous night out in Florence, so I decided to rest that afternoon and meet people at the hostel.

The place was full of Americans. Which is okay, I had a good afternoon. I just didn't really come to Europe to meet more Americans. Later that night, I and a guy I had met decided to go check out the city at dark. Good choice. Rome is so much more beautiful at night. I got some great shots of myself doing a crappy thriller pose in front of all the famous places!

I woke up early the next morning – before everyone else – and took off by myself. I didn't feel like waiting for everybody else to get up. Rome was too big for two days and three nights already. My first stop was the Colosseum. The line was massive, so I bought a ticket at Palatine Hill and wandered around the Roman Forum for a while before heading down to the amphitheater. Though the Colosseum wasn't as huge as I expected, it was still impressive. The interior was incredibly designed, especially for something that was thousands of years old. The rest of the day was pretty chill. I wandered the Eastern half of the city until nearly eight, did some laundry, took a nap, and woke up again later to go hang out in the Yellow Bar with a Frenchman.

The second day was reserved for Vatican City. I took one of the two metro lines (really, only two metro lines for all of Rome?) over to the square and immediately jumped in line for entry to St. Peter's Basilica. The line must have been two hundred yards long, but I was up to the door in six minutes. I timed it. I was fairly churched out from spending the previous day going through every basilica I passed, but nothing could prepare me for the awe inspired by St. Peter's. It WAS (and still is) the most beautiful church I've seen. And that's saying something. I've seen a stupidly huge number of churches recently. After the basilica, I took a walk through the tombs of the popes. Seeing the place where John Paul II was laid was a fairly intense experience. I always get a chill when I stand in front of the resting place of great people.

Next: the Vatican Museum. I was fairly museumed out, too, and all I really wanted to see was the Sistine Chapel. I wandered through the museum admiring the building when I finally came to the chapel. I need a bigger vocabulary for all the things I've seen, because awesome doesn't work for that little chapel. I sat for half an hour admiring the paintings on the ceiling. And, yes, I took a photo. Even though I wasn't supposed to! After the Vatican, I hit up all the rest of the famous things in West Rome, which is mostly just the Pantheon, the only complete structure from the Roman times still standing. How they could create such a structure back in those days in beyond me.

The night ended with meeting a great girl from New York (who I MUST visit!). We walked to the train station for tickets, spend the night at the bar and crashed in the room around 2. The next morning I spent teaching her how to shop at the supermarket (LOL!) and we walked to the train station together. It was a good, slow paced ending to a rushed two days in Rome.