It was quite the adventure in Rome last weekend! I left on Thursday and spent all day Thursday and Friday touring around on my own. I did the sightseeing tour bus, so I basically ended up seeing the whole city at least twice. My favorite was the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. I learned so much about art and history and it is hard to believe that the Vatican Museum has more art in it than the Louvre in Paris. The architecture of Vatican city is pretty amazing and I cannot believe that it is its own country and that it is the largest church in the world.
I also loved the Pantheon, which I saw early in the evening on Thursday night, the dark sky behind the granite building showed every detail of this Roman Temple. The baroque style of the city is so much different from the Renaissance style of Florence and the cities both have completely different aesthetics. What I liked most about Rome was how the modern attitude of this city just seems to move around all the ancient remnants. The Colosseum, the last remaining pillars of the apollo, and the old obelisks brought all the way from Egypt thousands of years ago-- just sit in the background of this busy place. Other monuments like the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain are hidden down narrow streets and each have a completely different style to design. I suppose this is what really makes Rome the Eternal city. On Friday, my friends Jamie and Chantal arrived and we went out for a fabulous Italian dinner. That night we met up with some other friends from Milan who were in Rome for the weekend and went out on the town. The night life in Rome is definitely wild, but after a fun night with locals at Pubs and Clubs, we still managed to wake up early the next morning and go to the Colosseum. We did a tour; however, I found the outside structure far more amazing than the inside. I think that the building pretty much speaks for itself, but we learned a lot about entertainment that went on there and it is pretty insane how many thousands of people could fit in there and how the tickets were free to all Romans.
The rest of the day we ate gelato and walked around and saw other monuments like the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. The Fountain is amazing at night and we all through in a penny to insure that in the future we would return to this spot. On Sunday I went back to the Vatican with my friends and we spent a lot of time in the church. We also went to the basement to see the sarcophagi of all the past popes. Vatican City is a Pretty interesting place, I think my favorite part of it is the architecture. I found it very interesting that the designers and artists were not allowed to sign their names on their work, rather they had to write the Pope's name of when the structure was completed. Bernini, designed the entrance to the Vatican and contributed to many of the statues around Rome; however, he name does not appear on any of his work. After the Vatican we had an amazing lunch on Piazza del Populo and worn out from all our site seeing we headed back to our hotel for a siesta and a relaxing night. Rome was an amazing city and I was sad to leave but I know that I will return to the Eternal city!!!
