My companion for this trip was my friend from college, Karen. Karen and I share several interests, including art, religion, nature, and history. Rome seemed a perfect destination, at least as far as history, art, and religion goes. This is a pic of her from early on, counting her riches. I wish US coinage was as cool as Euro coins.
Karen's flight arrived on Easter Sunday, so I made sure to wake up early to visit her at the airport. Following a quick rest, her and I went out and explored the city. Surprisingly enough, Rome wasn't terribly busy on Easter sunday. I'm sure, had we been near the Vatican, it would've been a bit more hectic. Our hostel was not far from Termini station, so most of the city was a short walk or train ride away. On our first day there, we explored the Roman Forum. The forum was great, though we were also drenched at least three times by sudden showers that day. From what I remember, by the end of the first day, Karen had run out of dry clothes.
That night, we went to a place that was rated really highly in my Lonely Planet book (unfortunately, I can't find the book and don't remember the restaurant name). This place remains among my favorite meals ever, and was the only night we really ordered more than a main course. I started with some sort of pumpkin-flower dumpling for an appetizer, a margherita pizza* as my main dish, and tiramisu for dessert. We washed everything down with a liter of the house wine (* So, chances are if you're reading this you know me, and know that I generally don't like pizza. I still rarely, if ever, order it. This attempt at trying pizza since a shameful kidnergarten incident at the Chuck-E-Cheese, and it was excellent.) This rates in the top 10 meals I've had while traveling. The place had almost an hour's wait, but it was worth it. Of course, most of the rest of the meals we had were good - there were really only a couple of meals that I didn't enjoy. We also had gelato at least once per day.
We continued to explore Rome over the next couple of days, visiting the Trevi fountains at night. The Colosseum, of course, is mandatory to at least walk by when visiting Rome. A couple of the noteworthy places we visited that didn't allow photography were the BONE CHURCH (or the crypt in the Santa Maria della Concenzione dei Cappuccini), wherein the bones of members of the monastic order are plastered on the wall in intricate designs, and the Church of St. Clemente, at which a rather innocuous chuch is built above a rather extensive pre-christian shrine to Mithra.
Given that it was Easter, and that we were in Rome, we could not pass up visiting the Vatican. The Vatican is, of course, beautiful. The Sistine Chapel is a wonder, as is St. Peter's Basilica. Honestly, though, much of my visit is colored negatively by the crowds. The Vatican museum has tons of artifacts that I would have enjoyed having a couple more seconds to look at. I took to heart the guard's constant (and usually futile) cries of "NO FOTO!" so, unfortunately, I have no pictures from visiting either place.
My favorite place in Rome, however, ended up being Ostia Antica. I love ruins. I love climbing over them, exploring the nooks and crannies, and running along the tops of the worn down walls. This meant, of course, that I was yelled at in rapid Italian within five minutes of entering Ostia Antica. I blame my sister for this. She had recommended Ostia Antica to me by saying that "you can climb all over the walls." This is a lie, unless the woman who was yelling was telling me that I was allowed to climb all over the walls. Anyway, we explored the ruins for several hours, until the sun started setting.
About an hour or so outside of Rome by bus is Cerveteri. We visited it to tour the Etruscan necropolis just outside of the town. This was another of my favorite destinations. The grounds were filled with barrows. All of them had been excavated, and many were open to the public. Several of the barrows were flooded (I can't imagine any place in the US to just allow random tourists to walk into a flooded cave without warnings or some sort of barrier. Stupid pervasive fear of liability lawsuits).
After several days, we left Rome for Florence. In Florence, we visited the Duomo, the Accademia to see the David, the Uffizi, and the Giardino de Boboli. We also wandered around Florence quite a bit. I ended up climbing the stairs to view the mural on the Duomo's ceiling, which was notable mostly for its hellfire depictions of what happens to sinners on the day of judgment. My favorite part of the Boboli gardens was probably a grotto with sculptures of people all encrusted with stone. That, or the naked Bacchus riding on a turtle.
So, a little bit of background to this trip that isn't evident in any of the pictures. For much of it, Karen and I were sick as dogs with some sort of flu. Chances are the long flight, being soaked several times the first day by storms, and walking to the point of exhaustion caught up to us. To top this off, Karen's knee began bothering her several days into the trip. I had had a similar problem in my first trip to Japan. We ended up visiting a pharmacist twice, during which Karen mimed her various ailments or we picked up things that resembled lozenges. Impressively enough, she didn't allow either of these things to hold her back. Consequently, despite enduring the plague, we ended up having a great time. I have pretty fond memories of visiting Rome and Italy, and highly recommend such a trip to anyone who is looking to travel.
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