ITALY: Part 3 Venice

Day 8

VENICE

First of all, this is how I feel about Venice:

In a word: SMITTEN.

Now that you have that little summary, here are the details.

After arriving on the train (March 11) and being confused at the map for a while, we finally found our hotel. We didn't realize that "streets" on the map translated into hidden, three-foot-wide alleyways, but that's how it is on a magical island with no cars. After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we set out to explore. Our only set plan for the day was to find our way to St. Mark's Square and to eat good food.

We walked all the way across Venice and found a scrumptious little sandwich place called Bar Verde. We ate lunch and a long-awaited canoli on a bench by the water. Then we entered St. Mark's Square and took some silly pictures. The top of the Campanile reminded me of a Christmas tree, so here I am putting the star on top.

St. Mark's is the square with a million pigeons, where everyone tries to get pictures touching them. It is disgusting. These pigeons have no fear. I almost accidentally stepped on them a few times, and had to duck more that once so they wouldn't fly directly into my face. Sick.

While we were standing in the square trying to decide what to do next, we looked around at our museum options and realized that we were both a little burnt out. More than a little burnt out. In fact, when we decided not to see any museums that day, and to just wander instead, we were both filled with such giddy relief that we kind of threw the rest of our plans out the window.

I mean, just look at all our museum stubs from the previous five days. That much high quality art and history crammed into a few days was total sensory overload. It was exhausting! (In the best way, of course.)

"Wandering" might not sound that great at first, but when this is what you see in every direction, it's  a pretty amazing activity.

Day 9

We woke up late, had breakfast at our charming little hotel, and went out to buy vaporetti tickets. We rode down the Grand Canal listening to an audio tour explaining all kinds of wonderful things about the beautiful buildings. I wish we could have seen Venice in its prime. It was the Vegas of Europe. As beautiful as it is now, I can't hardly imagine what it was like a few hundred years ago!

After the tour we found the Church of San Zaccaria, where we saw some art and the final resting place of John the Baptist's father. Later, we toured Frari Church, which features works by Donatello and Titian.

This was also the day that we discovered Venice's best gelato. One scoop strawberry, one scoop lemon, on a cone, from La Boutique del Gelato. I can only imagine how much more delicious is would be on a hot summer day!

How is it possible that I have not a single picture of us eating gelato? Especially when we had it twice a day? I must have enjoying it too much to think about anything else.

Here, I made Matt stand in front of some pretty apartments while eating his real Italian pizza. We were right outside a tiny museum that had a free exhibit on Vivaldi. That's the great thing about wandering. See something you might like to do? Go ahead! There's no schedule, just time.

The downside to wandering is sometimes you get lost. At night. Where no tourists go, and no one else is around to ask for directions back to your hotel. When you really really really have to pee and you're walking in circles because you can't think straight. That was an adventure. We eventually walked up to a place where we saw cars and roads (which we hadn't seen in a couple days), and were a little afraid we had wandered right off the island! But no, it was just the bus station, where people catch rides across the bridge to the mainland. Phew!

Before I finish with Venice, I need to write a little about the language. Italian spoken by Italians is so so so beautiful! If I could only speak Italian...I'm sure I could get anything I want out of anyone.  My words wouldn't even matter, just the sound of the accent would be enough! 

It was fun trying to translate the menus and receipts and artwork explanations into English. Matt's Portuguese helped a lot, along with some over-the-phone Italian grammar lessons from his sister Michelle. Add that to the bit I learned before our trip, and we got by alright.

I had never been immersed in another culture and language until this trip. (Well...as immersed as you can be in tourist cities.) There's something really exciting and romantic about it. Matt was the only person who sounded normal and familiar to me. Yes, there were plenty of American tourists, but the people we talked to were Italians -- hoteliers, restaurant servers, security guards, ticket agents -- all of whom spoke broken English (if any) with thick accents. That, combined with all the languages we heard from other foreign tourists, added to the magic. The magic of my husband and me being in our own little world surrounded by strangers.

On the other non-romantic hand, there was cigarette smoke everywhere. Like ev-er-y-where. I won't be surprised if I eventually die of lung cancer just from the ten days I spent walking the streets of Italy.

Also, since we're being unromantic, I noticed that Europe (meaning Frankfurt and Italy) has the weirdest collection of toilets I've ever experienced. I sat on a different kind of toilet every single day! What is with that? You'd think there was a competition to see who could make the weirdest shaped receptacle for human waste, with the flusher in the most hidden, obscure place possible. Like it was an art form. Or a strange game among janitors. Rectangles, ovals, circles, tall backs, no backs, seats, no seats (yuck), little flush/big flush options. What are they working on over there? Are the toilets just to distract us from something bigger? Only time will tell. I know, I should've taken toilet pictures.

Anyway...

Day 10

This was our last day. It's sad even to think about!

First thing, we caught a vaporetti out to the little island of Murano, where the glass-blowing factories are. Venice has a few islands in its lagoon -- one known for its lace, one for glass, one for its very old church, and one serves as a cemetery. We went to Murano hoping to see some glass-blowing demonstrations, but we went at the wrong time of day. So we ended up browsing the cute little glass shops and thinking about everything our boys would break if they were there. We left with a pair of earrings and that's all.

After the ride back, we entered St. Mark's Basilica. We had an audio tour for this one and it was incredible to learn about. The inside walls, ceilings, and floors are covered with gold mosaics and colored marble. It contains 4,750 square yards of Byzantine mosaics. The floor rolls like waves because its foundation has been warped over time from the water underneath. Over the body of St. Mark stands an altarpiece (Pala d'Oro) of the most vibrant gold, decorated in religious scenes and studded with hundreds of valuable stones like emeralds, pearls, sapphires, rubies, topaz. It was unbelievable! I think pictures were not allowed inside, so here are some from the outside porch.

The floor

After seeing the Basilica, we listened to another audio tour about St. Mark's Square while we stood and watched people try to take pictures with pigeons on their arms.

Those are my new glass earrings.

This is the Doge's (Duke's) Palace, which is connects to the Basilica. We didn't go inside, but it was very pink and beautiful.

I was really impressed with the clock tower in the square (Torre dell'Orologio). I like how the face has all twenty-four hours on it. That's also one of the world's first "digital" clocks up there, with its numbers flipping every five minutes.

3:00 in Roman Numerals

We decided to ride the water bus back up the Grand Canal and stop at the famous Rialto bridge and walk around. The bridge is bigger than most, with shops in the middle and pretty white arches.

We saw many many gondolas with their striped gondoliers (none of whom looked like Fabio, by the way), but didn't feel like forking out the cash for our own ride. Just having them around for ambiance was enough. We even got to see a big guy standing up in the boat singing opera for his customers! Which was cool, but I think it would've cost about 150 Euro. Crazy.

I couldn't resist taking this picture, for memory's sake. Every single building had laundry strung up somewhere. It just added more color and character and Italian-ness to the streets. I loved it!

After getting more gelato and Matt haggling for a bag of squishy splat ball souvenirs, we weren't hungry for dinner until late. There was a kebab place right by our hotel, so we ate those again and decided we should have been going there every day. A delicious way to end the trip!

Day 11 

On March 14th, we woke up at 4:00 am to catch the bus to the Venice airport and start our trip home. I watched Tower Heist on the airplane, listened to a beautiful recording of Les Miserables, read more of The Agony and the Ecstasy, and did a bunch of my nerdy little word puzzle games. Sounds kind of boring, but it was actually nice to be able to sit for a whole day instead of walking for hours and hours. My feet were tired. It was also my last chance to relax before returning to full-time motherhood. (Which I was actually really excited about, by the way. Vacations have a way of helping me appreciate my normal life.)

What better way to end a post about the beautiful country of Italy than with a cell phone picture of a real frankfurter in the Frankfurt Germany airport?

I know a better way...a cell phone picture of me gagging over a real frankfurter at the Frankfurt airport.

On that trip home, I cannot describe the excitement and anticipation we both felt to get home and see our boys. It really started to get intense when we walked off the last plane, waited to get through customs, waited for the shuttle to our car, endured the long 2.5 hour drive home, not even stopping for food because we didn't want to miss the boys, just in case they were staying up past bedtime to wait for us. It was silly, but we didn't want to waste a single minute!

That night, this is what we found waiting for us on our garage door. Not Josh -- he was asleep already. But he made these precious welcome home signs that just about made me cry.

The next morning, when the boys woke up and all four of us were snuggling together in Josh's little bed, I felt complete. I felt a level happiness that could not be achieved anywhere or with anyone else. And that's really saying something, considering I just came from the best vacation of my life with the man I love more than anyone in this world. 

What I'm trying to say is, even seeing all the amazing things we saw in Italy, being in those beautiful cities that I've dreamed of visiting for years, and being together 24/7 with my soul mate for the longest continuous stretch of time since we've known each other, there's actually something even better. The feeling I had when I came home and held my whole family in my arms after a long absence topped every experience from the last ten days. Honestly. There is nothing better. It gave me a good dose of perspective, of what my job is in life and why it's more important than anything else I could be doing right now.

It's good to know that I would not be happy spending time away from them. It's good to get a reminder of how much I love them, as hard as my job is sometimes. It's good to know that I love my husband enough that I don't get the least bit sick of him after spending eleven days together, rarely being more than an arm's length apart.

Everyone, you should go to Italy. It's good for the soul. Maybe not so good for your lungs or your belly pooch or your bank account, but good for everything else.

ITALY: Part 2 Florence

Day 5

After three nights and two days in beautiful Rome, we pulled our sore bodies out of bed and headed for the train station. We were actually excited for the chance to sit for a few hours and look out the windows, rather than walking and standing all day. Site-seeing is hard work, people!

We caught the train in Rome and pulled into Florence on March 8th, which happened to be a holiday in Italy -- Women's Day. Everyone was carrying or selling little bouquets of yellow baby's breath flowers. I should have got some for my sister, because it was her birthday.

We found our hotel, checked in, and wandered through the Central Market on our way to the Duomo. This is a big building with a bunch of meat, cheese, fish, and produce vendors. Everything was closing up when we got there, so we looked for lunch elsewhere. 

This turned out to be an excellent choice because we discovered the most delicious lunch of our trip, which surprisingly was not Italian food. Middle Eastern KEBABS. They were so, so good! And much less than half the cost of almost every other meal we ate. I did not take any pictures in the shops, but I found some online so you can see what they were like.

With satisfied tummies, we mosied past Santa Maria Novella on our way to the Duomo. That cathedral is unbelievable. The outside is a masterpiece by itself. We climbed to the top of the dome, which was one of my favorite things. Something about the narrow stairways, low ceilings, cement walls, and prison-like windows gave me the biggest rush. I thought about Michelangelo and Brunelleschi and all the people who had climbed inside that dome so many years ago and was just excited every minute of the way! We were able to get really close to the frescoes on the inside of the dome and see how enormous each figure was. And once we reached the observation deck at the top, the view of Florence took the rest of our breath away. (You know... the little breath that was left after climbing 463 stairs.) I could not get a picture to do it justice.

After that amazing experience, we headed toward the Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David. We stopped at Gelateria Carabe and I discovered that pear gelato is probably the best thing ever created. When I'm old and dying, I'm going to request it for my last meal.

Outside the gelateria on a street vendor's cart, we saw some really funny boxer shorts for sale, printed with a special portion of the David statue in a strategic area. Almost got them for my brother.

I got into the Accademia free because it was Women's Day. Now that I think about it, those Florentines are onto something. What better gift could you give women on their special day than a free pass to see the world's most anatomically perfect man sculpted in the nude? By the way, I saw this ad online and had to share it.

Seriously though, this gallery was amazing. David is the first piece of art that made Matt actually feel something when he looked at it. Michelangelo was only 24 when he carved this. As a teenager he had illegally dissected bodies to understand their structure and movement. He saw the human body as God's greatest masterpiece. He studied it and reverenced it, and it shows in his work. Along with the David we saw Michelangelo's Prisoners, which are half-finished figures that look like they are trying to escape from the stone. It was all so realistic, life-like, spiritual, full of feeling.

Here Matt is ringing some kind of water basin bell. You dip your hands in the water and rub them on the handles until it vibrates enough to ripple the water and make a loud, low ringing sound. We took this before we knew photos weren't allowed.

The Duomo Museum was our next stop. We couldn't see Ghiberti's famous doors for the Baptistery because the exhibit was closed for restoration. (The doors currently on the Baptistery are copies.) That would've been a big highlight for me, so it was sad. For dinner, we had some pretty good pasta carbonara with truffle oil at Trattoria Za-Za. We tried to go back to that shop for more gelato, but it was closed, so we headed home.

Day 6

In the morning, we walked a few blocks to the Church of San Marco and its museum. This is an old monastery, where we saw Fra Angelico's Annunciation and the cells of Pico della Mirandola and Savonarola.

After that, we stopped at Grom for gelato on our way down the main drag. We saw the Piazza della Republica, the church of Orsanmichele (with Donatello's St. George), and stopped in the Mercato Nuovo to rub the nose of Porcellino, a statue of a wild boar, to ensure our return to Florence.

We saw the Museo del Bargello, with Donatello's David and more by Michelangelo. That was on our way to the Church of Santa Croce, where we saw the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and others. We ate at a pizzeria in the piazza before heading over to catch our reservations at the Uffizi Gallery. We passed the Palazzo Vecchio and hung out in the Piazza della Signoria, the main civic center of Florence. This is where Savonarola was burned at the stake. 



Pizza in the Piazza of Santa Croce

The Uffizi Gallery had an amazing collection of paintings by Giotto, Raphael, Carvaggio, Rubens, Titian, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, Filippo Lippi, Uccello, and one of my favorites, Botticelli. It also had an amazing view of Ponte Vecchio and the other bridges crossing the Arno River. Looking out the windows was like looking at another beautiful painting. After that, it was feeling like a really long day, so we ended it.

I realize I just typed a bunch of names and places that might mean nothing to you, since most of them meant nothing to me before this trip. Sorry. Have to record it all for journaling puroses.

Day 7

After breakfast at the hotel (which we never missed because complimentary breakfast one of my favorite things about hotels in general), we walked to the south end of Florence, across Ponte Vecchio. At Santo Spirito Church, we saw the beautiful wooden Crocifisso that Michelangelo made to thank the Prior for letting him dissect and learn about bodies in their dead room when he was only seventeen. Next we entered Pitti Palace and toured their Palatine Gallery and Royal Apartments. Impressive collection, but not my favorite stop.

We had lunch at a yummy place called Borgo Antico. Overall, the food was the only somewhat disappointing part of the trip for us. (Minus the gelato, of course. Scrumptious!) We were expecting to have our minds blown with delicious, secret-recipe Italian masterpieces everywhere we went, especially since we were mostly eating at places recommended by locals or our guide book. However, it was all kind of the same. Lots of bread, lots of pasta, lots of weird meat. It got to the point where we'd wander around looking for good places and have trouble choosing a restaurant because we just wanted something different that at least smelled yummy. That's why this place, which had yummy food at reasonable prices and actually filled our bellies, was a relief to find.

After eating, we walked back up toward the Church of San Lorenzo and shopped for souvenirs at the outdoor market. On our way back to the hotel, carrying bags of scarves, ties, and jewelry, we stopped again for our last gelato in Florence. That night we did the most expensive loads of laundry ever at an Italian laundromat so we'd have some fresh clothes for....

VENICE!! Coming soon...

P.S. I was just realizing how few photos I have to represent all the awesomeness we saw, and I think I should explain why I don't have pictures of every minute of the trip. There was a time in my life when I would have, but I did not bring my big nice camera to Italy for several reasons:

1) because I'm not great at working it yet,
2) because I didn't want to carry it around everywhere, and
3) because I wanted to be in the moment.

I'm not very good at multitasking with my big camera -- it's more of a distraction. In Italy, I wanted to absorb everything. I wanted to be able to look around myself and not through a viewfinder. I've had a problem lately of missing "moments" because I'm too busy trying to get a great photo of that moment and fumbling with my camera. I wanted to come back from Italy with a head full of memories, as well as some decent pictures to remind me of those memories. If my photos weren't good enough to convey to others the magic of the experience, I could always look up a postcard or travel magazine picture online. That was my thinking. Maybe if I ever get good at photography I will change my mind, but for this trip, my little old point-and-shoot and Matt's cell phone camera were perfect.

ITALY: Part 1

Are you ready for this? This post has turned into a monster, so I am splitting it up into separate parts. Here is Part 1, covering the beginning of planning through our stay in Rome.

Let's start at the beginning...

Before I met Matt, I was not well-traveled. Until I was seventeen, I had never been east of Utah, north of Oregon, or south/west of California. That was my world. After getting engaged and married, Matt and I experienced more of America than I ever thought I'd be able to see (or live in) in just a few short years. It has been wonderful.

But, aside from the States, I had a wish list of international vacations, in prioritized order. The number one place I had wanted to visit, ever since the morning of my first Humanities class in college, was Italy. ITALY. Specifically Florence, Rome, and Venice. Matt has known that for more than seven years, and has worked hard to be able to take me there.

Last Christmas, my dear husband surprised me with my dream vacation. He had arranged everything -- the flights, hotels, trains, travel dates, childcare. He even got a travel package with the exact cities I would have chosen, for just the right amount of time. Not at the height of tourist season, but warm enough to enjoy being outside. Close to our anniversary. It was perfect.

I spent many many hours researching about Italy in the weeks leading up to our trip. I borrowed books from the library, got tips from friends who had made the trip before me, took basic Italian lessons on my computer, dug up my old Humanities text book from college to review, and bought the ultimate Italy guide book by Rick Steves, which I will recommend to everyone. He has books for different vacations in all kinds of places and he is extremely detailed, helpful, and well-organized. If you take a big trip like this, you will be happy you read one of his books first.

So basically, I did a lot of prep to make sure we wouldn't have to spend time figuring stuff out once we got there. I brushed up on my art history. I planned out each day of our trip, just in case we felt like following a schedule and maximizing each hour. It was so helpful to be prepared so we weren't backtracking around the city, so we knew what sites were close to each other, when they were open, how much they cost. Almost every restaurant was chosen after reviewing it in the guide book first. Before arriving in each city, I knew about train schedules and bus routes. I had studied maps of each city so we wouldn't get too lost.

In writing this, it sounds like a lot of work to prepare, but I would never call it WORK. This stuff was SO MUCH FUN for me. I loved learning more about my favorite things and my favorite places. And once we got there, I felt like I knew enough to be able to lead Matt around semi-confidently, making the most of our trip. Playing "tour guide" was my little way of thanking him for getting us there.

Okay, enough. Let's get to the good stuff!

Days 1-2

Travel lesson #1: Never let go of your passports.

We woke up really early to drive the 2.5 hours to the Detroit airport. Matt's mom flew in a few days before to stay with the boys during our trip. We caught our flight to Dulles (DC) for a long layover. We spent a few hours wandering through different terminals, killing time, looking for good food (found Five Guys Burgers and Fries...mmm). When it came time to board our direct flight to Rome, the unthinkable happened.

We could not find our passports. Anywhere. 

We had used them to check in in Detroit, so we knew they weren't at home. We took apart every bag in our search, retraced our steps throughout the huge airport, but had no luck. This happened to be the exact day that Continental and United Airlines merged, so every employee was running around like chickens with their heads cut off, unfamiliar with the new computer system, not wanting to work together (unionized vs. non-unionized workers), and sending us away to different desks every time we tried to get some urgent help. When the clock showed that we definitely missed our flight, Matt had to keep me from bursting into tears, while I had to keep him from throwing punches at ridiculously unhelpful airport personnel.

We went to six different desks before finally finding a couple of really nice airline employees who took time to actually help us. They located our last plane and had someone check our seat back pockets for the passports, called security at the Detroit airport, checked with lost and found, made a bunch of long phone calls on our behalf, and told us how to get the embassy in DC if we needed to get new emergency passports the next morning. They were SO helpful. Eventually, we learned that someone in Detroit had found our passports there. They must have fell out of my bag going through security and we had gone hours and hours without realizing they were missing. Ugggggh.

The next step was to put our passports on a plane heading to Dulles so they could get to us. Which they did, exactly three minutes before we supposed to board the last flight of the night that left for Europe. Matt picked up our passports from the flight attendant and raced through the huge airport to our gate so we could catch the plane to Germany, where we'd have another long layover before flying to Rome. It was such a long, stressful, agonizing day.

All in all, it worked out okay. We got to Rome Monday night, about ten hours later than we would have. This means we missed the whole day of sight-seeing, but honestly we were so ready to have a real night of sleep after 32 hours of travel that we were happy to just get to the hotel and finally relax.

Day 3

First Day in Rome

We woke up and grabbed free breakfast at the hotel. By "breakfast" I mean juice and rolls with an assortment of butter and jam. We had a charming little walk along back streets, down a big hill, through a park, and then suddenly out of nowhere, we saw it...

The Colosseum. What is amazing about Rome is all the ancient art, much much older than the Renaissance art in Florence. We're talking BC in many cases, and AD 80 for the Colosseum. It is breathtaking to see these enormous, calm, ancient, ornate buildings rise up in the middle of noisy streets and busy sidewalks filled with people from all over the globe. It's like worlds colliding across time.

I felt very still in the Colosseum, considering the things that happened and the lives that ended there. It's hard to imagine a world where people killed each other for sport. Matt felt like a gladiator in there, and requested this silhouette picture in one of the doorways.

Next we passed the Arch of Constantine, which marks the battle that led to the legalization of Christianity, a major turning point in history. We toured the Roman Forum (with the help of my guide book), which was the civic center of ancient Rome. It's like a neighborhood of ancient temples, basilicas, arches, and government meeting houses, all in ruins. The Temple of Saturn blew us away when we learned it was built in 497 BC. That is so old! And part of it is still standing!

We saw the spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned after his assassination, where people still come to leave fresh flowers in his honor. Before leaving the Forum, we hiked up Palatine Hill, where all the emperors used to build their palaces within view of the Circus Maximus. 

Here's a picture of me standing in the House of the Vestal Virgins, who tended the sacred flame in the Temple of Vesta. These virgins served 30-year terms, starting before age ten. If they abstained through the end, they were given huge dowries and allowed to marry. If not, they were strapped to a funeral car, paraded through the streets, taken to a crypt, given a loaf and a lamp, and buried alive. Maybe I shouldn't be smiling here...

Then it was time to head toward the Vatican to catch our museum reservations. We walked up to a metro stop and found the Church of Saint-Peter-in-Chains on our way. This church displays the chains that held St. Peter, and the famous Moses statue carved by Michelangelo.

We made it to the neighborhood of the Vatican a little early and stopped to eat lunch. It took too long to get our food, so we grabbed it and ran, trying to hoover our weird, not-so-great salads while speed-walking up the big hill and around the wall to the museum. (The Vatican is actually considered its own city/country, so there's a huge wall surrounding it.) Don't worry, we made it.

The Vatican Museum was amazing and endless. Highlights for me were the Egyptian mummies, the Laocoon, Raphael's School of Athens, and of course the Sistine Chapel. Most museums don't let you take pictures, so sorry for the lack thereof.

Next we walked back around the long city walls to St. Peter's Basilica. The square is massive. I should've taken more pictures while we were standing in line to enter the basilica, but it was a little rainy. Once inside...it was so enormous that it was hard to believe we were actually inside. Amazing. I only wish we would've stayed longer and come on a warm sunny day to see what it would look like in that lighting. 

We admired Bernini's seven story bronze canopy (made from bronze taken from the coffered ceiling of the Pantheon), which sat directly over St. Peter's tomb. We saw Michelangelo's Pieta, one of my favorite sculptures ever, behind its thick bullet proof glass. I wish I wish I wish they would let people get closer to Michelangelo's work. Well maybe not everyone, but definitely me. If you haven't seen this sculpture, look it up and stare at it for a while. It's a spiritual experience.

That spiral ramp/staircase was in the Vatican Museum. It was crazy long, and they had a bunch of funny signs cautioning people not to fall down the stairs. I took a picture for Josh.

On our way back toward the center of Rome, we tried withdrawing more cash and realized that both of Matt's debit cards were expired (great timing), and mine were back at the hotel. Good thing we had just enough left for dinner and gelato. I was the sugar mama money bags for the rest of the trip, and I quite liked that. :)

Anyway...on the way back, we walked by Castel Sant'Angelo and a handful of beautiful bridges along the river. We saw the Ara Pacis (Arch of Peace) through the museum windows, because we're classy like that and don't pay to enter unless we have to. We ate dinner at a nice yummy place called Gabriello's, and stumbled upon a film set in the back streets while waiting for the restaurant to open. 

After dinner, we walked up the Spanish Steps and met up with Erica, one of my oldest friends from kindergarten, who is finishing up grad school in Rome. With Erica, we found our way to the Trevi Fountain, making sure to throw a couple coins in for good luck. I learned that those coins are collected daily to feed Rome's poor. Too bad we threw in two American pennies, which doesn't even equal the amount of the smallest coin they have in Europe. That'll help.

Next we went searching for a good gelato place and tried one called San Crispino. It was probably the most expensive, most unsatisfying dessert I've ever bought. We really tried to like it. I think we picked the exact wrong flavors, because after that we were seriously worried that we were freaks of nature and that our whole trip would be ruined because we apparently didn't like gelato. Luckily we tried a different place a couple nights later and fell in deep, passionate, eternal love for the stuff from then on. Phew! Trip saved!

We also stumbled upon the Pantheon that night. It was just sitting in the middle of a square surrounded by a bunch of restaurants and apartments, hidden away until you turned the right corner and then BAM! What a sight. It was beautifully lit at night, but not open, so we went back the next day. 

After a very long day of being on our feet, we took the bus back with Erica, who surprisingly lives only two blocks from where we were staying. It was so fun to see her!

Day 4

Last Day in Rome

After "breakfast", we started off walking through Trajan's Market and Forum, another area of ruins, including the famous Trajan's Column. We took some pictures in front of the Victor Emmanuel Monument, sitting in the square where Mussolini used to give his speeches. The Romans call this monument "the wedding cake" or "the dentures". It's newer for Rome, built in 1870 to honor Italy's first king, and locals don't like it. It has the largest equestrian statue in the world, the king's moustache being over five feet wide. It offers some nice views of the Forum and the city. Here is Matt wishing he could have a five-foot-wide moustache too.

We walked up Michelangelo's grand staircase to Capitol Hill, where we went through the Capitoline Museums. Highlights were the 13th century She-Wolf with little Romulus and Remus, Marcus Aurelius on horseback, a bunch of amazingly old, well-preserved letters/documents from all kinds of historical figures, and the massive broken chunks of Constantine that used to stand in his Basilica in the Forum. You can imagine how huge the basilica is just by figuring how tall this statue used to be when it was in one piece.

I hear you, She-Wolf. Some days you feel like you're suckling all day long and are never free to run!

By the way, there are approximately this many scooters/motorcycles everywhere you look in Rome. I had to stop and take this picture for Josh.

For lunch we stopped at a pizzeria on our way to the Pantheon. Of all the massive, ornate, ancient, beautiful buildings we saw on our trip, this was probably my favorite. So old and solid. So symmetrical. Such an incredible feat of engineering. It was built for people to worship from all religions (hence the name), and because of this accepting nature it was left untouched when barbarians sacked Rome. Matt and I were both kind of bothered that the Christians filled it with a bunch of their own statues, when it was made for non-specific religious purposes. Does that make sense? Even though we're Christians ourselves? Anyway, I could talk about the Pantheon for a while, so I won't. If you can, go there. And learn its history first. We listened to a free audiotour that we downloaded from Rick Steves before the trip, and that's the way to go with a lot of these sites.

Can you tell we got tired of taking normal pictures really fast?

From there, we walked up a lot of hills all the way to the Borghese Gallery to catch our reservations. I could have stayed and stared at Bernini's sculptures for much longer. Especially his David and his Apollo and Daphne. Really beautiful and lifelike and emotional. (Again, no pictures allowed. Sorry.)

We walked/bussed back south to Piazza Navona, where we saw some beautiful fountains lit up at night, and had a good dinner at Ciccia Bomba. I was too tired after that to walk around looking for Giolitti's famous gelateria, so we decided to take the bus home and try the gelato Erica recommended by our hotel. We got there too late, and it was closed. But remember, we weren't too disappointed because we still thought we didn't really like gelato. We were willing to give it another chance, but it wasn't urgent. (Wow, that almost sounds blasphemous to me now!)

And with that thought, I will leave you. I think that's already way more than enough for one post, so I'll save the rest for later.