The Italy Series: Ciao Roma!

The night before we took this picture, we ate fried flowers and pizza at a little, old, fantastic (regardless of its strange name) osteria called EST! EST! EST!*

There's not much more to that story, just that it happened.  And I had to make sure I wrote it down somewhere.  Well, and I guess it's part of this post since it was our last real meal in Rome.

Our real Roman finale (not cuisine-related) was to visit the Borghese Gallery, here.  Think of it like a personalized art Mecca for me.  It houses some of the most beautiful and important western sculpture, starring Bernini.

We weren't allowed to take anything (no purse, no camera, no nothin') into the galleries, but I was fine with that.  The only downer is that I have nothing to show you from inside--but even if I did, I'm not sure if I'd post it because it wouldn't do anything justice.

Apollo and Daphne?  Pluto Abducting Proserpina?  David?

I mean, how can you do justice to hundreds of so-thin-they-are-transparent, carved marble laurel leaves?  Or the look on David's face, mid-sling?  Or how stone fingers can sink into stone flesh?  Or the most complete devastation I've ever read on any face, alive or in stone?

I don't know, except to see it in front of you.

I've only ever gotten weepy in front of art twice in my life.  Both times on this Italy trip.  And this was the first.

It was all a perfect send-off and culmination of our planned tour through history--beginning in Ancient Rome, then through the Renaissance, and finally landing at the height of Bernini's baroque art.

One more walk through the Borghese gardens, and then we set off for the train station.

*I'm pretty sure this (actually, very cool, historic, classy) restaurant's name translated to EAT! EAT! EAT!   

The Italy Series: Squares, Forts, Temples, and Churches

Some of my best memories of vacations are always the days where we end up wandering.  Our second afternoon in Rome was just that--across bridges, through squares, into the Pantheon, around the city.  Eating a hunk of smoked mozzarella and finding the Roman flower market.

The Italy Series: St. Peter's Basilica

After four miles of world-class art and thirty minutes in the Sistine Chapel...one can feel rather, well, overwhelmed.  We had no chance to just decompress because, before we knew it, we were walking through the giant entryway of St. Peter's Basilica.

As a traveler's tip: most of the time, you have to walk all the way back through the Vatican Museum, around the outside of Vatican City, and then through a security and dress-code check to get back to St. Peter's.  However, if you're sneaky, there's a small door at the back right of the Sistine Chapel with a sign that says "For Tour Groups Only."  If you want to save your blistered feet a two+ mile walk, just hang around for a big tour group and simply tag along with them through the door for a direct link to St. Peters.

I don't feel bad about doing this at all.  First, because I had a blister the size of an acorn on my pinkie toe and second, Rick Steves told me to do it.  And, we all know that Rick Steves is omnipotent, omniscient, and the bringer of all good travel-things (hail Rick, hail).

"Tu es Petrus"

 

We saw the sights--rubbing St. Peter's toe and wondering in awe at
Bernini's Baldachin and stained glass window 
(the only stained glass in the Basilica)

St. Peter's is so, so incredibly huge.  It's a strange experience because, even though you know how huge it is  , it doesn't give you that initial impression.  You see the markers on the floor, noting where St. Paul's or Hagia Sophia are so much shorter, or you read that all the statues are 20+ feet tall...but still, it's all a play on the eyes.

But, really, just to give you an idea....  That bronze Bernini Baldachin?  That canopy-like thing over the high alter just above here?  

It's SEVEN STORIES TALL!  That unimposing alter canopy!

Do you see this?!

Yeah, so...

St. Peter's.

Go see it.  But maybe go see it first or on a different day than the Vatican Museum because it might not hit you as hard as it should if your mind has already been blown by Rafael and Michelangelo.

Plus, you'd get to see these guys sooner:

Signing off from Vatican City (three months ago),

H & P

The Italy Series: Museo Vaticano

Being the tourists that we are, we woke up our second day (yes, we're just on the second day) around 7am, ate our stale-ish nun rolls (staying in a convent), drank our Hawaiian Punch-like juice, and set off into Roman rush-hour to hit up the Vatican Museum.

To sum it up in one word?

 ART!

Oh, and architecture...of course.  

We can't leave out Michelangelo's dome even though we were really there to see his chapel.

We sat there for thirty minutes, craning our necks, overwhelmed.

Which wasn't all that surprising.  First, because the Sistine Chapel just is overwhelming.  But, second, because by the time we got there, we'd walked through four miles of this...

Augustus

Hall of Maps

I've loved this statue ever since I saw it on a college powerpoint.  The Laocoön Group.  Not only because, by that point, I'd become deeply obsessed with Greek mythology (reading Hesiod and Ovid during lunch just for kicks), but also because it's just...it's just such a beautiful piece of art even though it's showing such a horrific moment.  

Like Pliny said, this piece really is a "work to be preferred to all that the arts of painting and sculpture have produced."

Though, as you may guess, there are a couple Bernini's that may tie... (Apollo and Daphne, anyone?)

Apollo Belvedere

Hall of Maps

And yes, that is Rafael's The School of Athens

Which, I should say, was painted as if the philosophers were all inside St. Peter's Basilica while in-construction.  Which is really cool to look at since that was precisely where we found ourselves after leaving this incredible, gorgeous museum...

The Italy Series: A Night Walk through Rome

Trevi Fountain

or...a post that could be called "Mostly the Trevi Fountain"

Because that thing is really quite the loveliest, most gigantic thing to come across on a night stroll through an ancient city.  

We had just finished our first "real" Italian dinner of pasta and artichoke hearts.  We had just wandered through a maze of back streets lined with gelatto shops and men shoving roses into Paul's face: "BUY FLOWER FOR LADY!"  

And then, you hear this rushing water.  And then you turn a corner into a tiny, crowded, hidden, little square. And there it is!  The Trevi Fountain.

Throwing a coin over my shoulder into the fountain
--promising I'll come back to Rome
(and look weird in a picture)

The Spanish Steps with groups
of teenage hooligans

We also ended up walking to the Spanish Steps, but soon realized that one should always start with the Spanish Steps because when we got here we sort of were like...mehhhhh, wanna go back to the fountain?

So, we did
And, of course, got our "couple picture" for the record

The Italy Series: Capitoline and Other Miscellania

WaaaBAM!  Capitoline Hill in your face!

Sorry, I'm a bit excited about the fact that we'll be walking around in 80+ degree weather tomorrow (Athens), so the world is all neon orange and fuchsia beach-drink-umbrella colors for me right now.

But, anyway, to finish our first Roman day, we hiked up the stairs to the Capitoline Museum.  Our mission?  To see this....

Exhibit from the Secret Vatican Archives

And, I'll be straight with you, it was pretty rad.  

Ever wondered what a 350-year-old letter written on birch-bark from the Iroquois looks like?  

Well, I don't anymore.  

Ever wondered how many wax seals were at the bottom of Henry VIII's letter to the Pope?  

Well, I still do, because I didn't take the time to count.

Oh, and on top of that, we saw some fancy statuary. 

What's left of Constantine from the Basilica Novo

Paul and Cicero

Goat and Paul, both rather excited about grapes

Then, skirting around the hill heading back to our convent/hotel, we took a quick glimpse into Trajan's Market (i.e. The Roman "Mall of America").   

And finally, one last stop...

St. Peter in Chains church to see Michelangelo's "Moses."

(Sorry, Buonarroti, but the neon colors were just going to happen no matter what on this one.  Because...I mean...Athens you know?)

The Italy Series: The Roman Forum

Basilica Nova

Once upon a time (good lord, it was almost ten years ago...TEN!), I took a humanities course wherein we spent two and a half hours learning about this single building.

Read "The Roman Forum as Cicero Saw It"

Once upon another, very similar, time, Paul took a "Golden Age of Rome" course wherein he spent an entire semester reading Cicero.

Home of the Vestal Virgins

Therefore, there's a 99% chance that we were the two most excited people within a fifty mile radius of the Roman Forum on the day this photograph was taken.  Also, this post is really difficult for me to create without typing out very, very, very long, explanatory (with links!) captions to everything.

Temple of Vesta

It's physically painful for me, actually.  I want to tell you all the things!  But I won't.  But....I might still include links (in the photo captions)... I need some kind of outlet, people!

Temple of Caesar (where Julius Caesar's body was burned)

Because, you know what? The Roman Forum was awesome.  And I'm not saying that in a surfer-dude kind of way.

The arch of Septimus Severus (remember how we saw his palace on the Palatine Hill?)

and the triumphal Via Sacra (think of it like the Macy's parade route of the ancient world...but instead of balloons there were, like, thousands of captured slaves being forcibly marched in front of battle chariots? So...fun...right?  ...)

The Italy Series: Palatine Hill

Sara has inspired me with her post on her trip to the Cinque Terre to resume our glacial review of our own Italy trip (and hopefully, someday, update you on our latest trip to Bavaria).

Also, my life feels less like I'm about to die from deadlines every two seconds, so breathing is now an option (and, consequently, blogging).

Aaaand, now we'll continue on from the Colosseum....

Palatine Aqueduct

If you ever happen to find yourself at the Colosseum and you think, "Well, I don't really feel like going to the Roman Forum yet...."  Just take a stroll up to the Palatine hill!  

There you will find the great symbols of Rome (or, what I always think of when I think of Rome):  Aqueducts, Umbrella Pines, and Emperor's Palaces.

Palace of Emperor Septimus Severus

And, as a nice topper to our walk around the Palatine, we found ourselves wandering through an orange and lemon tree-filled garden overlooking the forum.

Plus, it had one of the best ancient drinking fountains we saw in Rome (they're everywhere--thank you, smart Romans!)

So, all I'm really saying is, you should check it out.