When in Rome...

Josh here. Ahhh...Rome. Today is the fourth of July and our last day in Rome. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had booked a fairly cheap room for two nights in fabulous Roma. Our only stipulation was that it have air conditioning. After sweltering humidity in Venice and our lovely experience with an air-conditioned room in Florence, we decided on it almost immediately. We had a little trouble on our train out of Florence...we arrived in the station and hopped on the first train for Rome. We didn't notice however that we were hopping on a "slow" train. They have these trains that are highspeed, which cost extra, but will make the trip in 1 1/2 hours, or regular trains that make several stops and arrive in 2 1/2 hours or slow trains which make nearly every stop, stop in random spots to let other trains pass by, and in our case that break down in random spots and make the trip in over 4 hours. We also just so happened to be in a hurry, for the room we booked had to be claimed by 4 pm or they would give it away first come, first serve. Upon arriving (already late) in Rome, we also had to book our train out of Rome, as it was an overnight train and required reservations. The line was long and hot and slow and the employees were incredibly rude. When I finally made our reservation, the lady gave me the wrong ticket and shoo-ed me away quickly. I had to stand in line for another 30 minutes before I could ask her to correct it.

Hugely frustrated, Val and I took a second to recoop and we agreed to have a better day from that point forward. Up until this point, everywhere we have gone, despite uncooperative weather and every other trying situation, Val and I have walked everywhere, never resorting to taking expensive cabs. On this occassion, however, we caved in and took a cab to our hotel. Once there, we cranked up the A.C. had a little rest and hit the city. If one were so inclined to see the sights of Rome, one could spend a lifetime doing so. There is so much to see. The museums are breath-taking, there is a building on every corner, seemingly thousands of years old, and the residents of Rome zoom past them every minute of everyday in a hurry, never stopping to "smell the roses" or "...smell the thousand year old artifacts" in this case. Nonetheless, Val and I took that first night and walked down through the ancient sight of the Roman Forum, which comes to a head at the most famous sight in Rome; the Colosseum. It was late in the evening, so we didn't take the tours, but we talked with some other travellers and vowed to educate ourselves a little bit about the sights we'd just seen before leaving Rome. It was all very amazing, and while we were walking that night, we decided to take a detour on our way home and see the Pantheon. The Pantheon was amazing too, and we sat and had some pasta for dinner right in front of it. It is the best kept building from the time period and it's dome was considered the greatest feat in architecture from The Roman times.

Not all of our motives for visiting the Pantheon that night were from a love for historical architecture...the guidebook we have been using, pointed us to the way of the gelatto shop with the most flavors in the world. We had to do it. Val and I had some pretty crazy flavors, and I think I may have discovered the best flavor I've ever tasted. It's a very icy, refreshing pineapple strawberry, and I would swim in it if I could. I'm serious, I could eat that for every meal for the rest of my life and never grow tired of it...okay, maybe not, but while we were here, I had to come back for more. We made it back to our room, excited to feel the cool sting from the wave of air-conditioning when we opened our door.

The next morning, we awoke to the sounds of the caws of seagulls outside our window. We got ready early and made our way to see the world's smallest country and home of 'Il Papa' (The Pope), VATICAN CITY. Now, I'd like to let you in on something, before I explain my excitement for our Vatican visit. Since I've played soccer, we've always played a game at practice called "World Cup" where teams of two fight to eliminate each other for the last spot and the title of World Cup Champion all while screaming the name of their country. When you play, you pick a country and you are 'that country's national team' in the competition. Josh Illig and I always used to be Vatican City, as it is the smallest country in the world. I have told people that if they would let me, I would move to Vatican City myself and take a team of bishops and priests to the world's most watched sporting event, the World Cup and so it's for that reason that I feel uniquely tied to Vatican city. Anyway, we got there early and after seeing the Forum and the Colosseum the night before without knowing anything about them, we decided to rent these little headset things that educated you about what you were seeing as you walked along. Very informative. Very cool. We took an informative tour of St. Peter's Basilica, and it was so elaborate. Lots of sacred relics and such line the expanse of the overly ornate church. The way its set up is like several corners that look like churches in and of themselves set up in an even bigger more elaborate church. It really is awesome. You just stand there and look for hours and you're still just as amazed when you leave as when you first walked in the door. Val and I next proceeded to hunt for the entrance to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. It's kind of humorous; when you approach the Vatican, there is a huge plaza designed by some amazing artist, with giant sculptures and it welcomes you right into St. Peter's. However, what most people come for, and what is much harder to find is through a much smaller entrance around the back somewhere. We found our way in and spent several hours browsing Egyptian museums, Etruscan Museums, museums housing tons of Raphael's work, a room of ancient maps, tapestries and all kinds of incredible works of art; all before arriving in the Sistine Chapel. It was incredible: not how I had imagined it, but incredible. It made you take a step back from the brilliant artistic side of it to realize that what Michaelangelo and the other artists had accomplished was astoundingly difficult and too spectacular to capture in words. How the heck do you paint that sort of perfect perspective and that sort of brilliant work of art when you're that high in the air? I can't understand painting it and understanding what it will look like from way below. That is beyond me. Anyway, it was incredible. It was cool to think about God in the mix of it. The story he wanted to tell through it and everything. What an experience. After the Vatican, we found a gellato stand that was supposed to be the best in the city. It was good, but questionably the best in the city. We then retired from the intense heat to our freezing room, took a nap and woke up to go and explore for our last evening in Roma.

That evening for dinner, we stopped at a grocery store and grabbed some rolls of bread, a bit of cheese and some fresh fruit and planned to picnic by some old Roman ruins. I also grabbed a "mystery drink" while we were at the store. It's a sort of custom of mine to grab random things to eat or drink that I've never seen before or that I can't read or even guess what it may be made out of or made to taste like. Usually, it leads to a pleasant surprise and a "cultural experience", but this drink was not having any of that. It tasted like eating something rotten and on fire. Uggghhhh...I can't explain how disturbing the nature of the aftertaste was. Gross. Oh well, better luck next time. We ate our picnic by the Roman Forum and read a little bit about the history behind the sight and some of its ruined buildings before heading north to see the Spanish steps. It was just like I had imagined: a long set of stairs built to honor someone at some time...1700's maybe...I can't remember. It was a long day. We made sure to stop by that one gelatto place on our way back to our room, as we knew it would be our last evening in Roma. One of my favorite moments happened that night. I had been looking for a Vatican country patch (these patches are everywhere: many people collect them from every country they visit) but I couldn't find one anywhere. That night, though, while walking down a back street, I had almost given up hope when Val spied one. We walked around a small souvenier shop for 15 minutes and as we were stepping out the door, she saw it. I was overjoyed. Even though the shop worker, like literally every shopkeeper we met, tried to up the price(which was clearly stamped right on it), we told him that we would pay only the price marked. What a perfect end to a perfect day. When we woke up this morning, we packed up our heavy bags again, checked out of our room, had another delicious breakfast of croissants, fruit and cappuccino as we made our way toward the train station. We tried to buy bus/metro tickets, and the man working the little newsstand again up-ed the price of an all day metro ticket. We didn't care though, and we paid it. Once on the bus, we noticed that he sold us the one way one EURO tickets for 8 EURO. I must confess, we were a little pissed, as that is the way we've been treated while here, but we talked about it and came to the conclusion that it's just how they live and that's that. Take it or leave it. So, we used the internet, saw a really cool fountain that I read about recently, and now we're hopping on an overnight train for Paris. We are staying at some friends-of-a-friend's house, and they are going away for the weekend. We can't wait to see Paris and we'll update you soon. Love and miss you all. Remember, we are still updating all of the pictures for you to see on: http://www.stockworldtour.shutterfly.com/

Talk to you soon. Oh, and when in Rome...I've been saying that as much as possible.