Rome is...overwhelming

I arrived in Rome on Sunday afternoon. My first order of business was to find my apartment. I decided to rent an AirB&B for Rome, because I knew I would need to do laundry. I grabbed a taxi at Termini Station, and soon found my way to the Trastevere area of Rome.

My first experience with AirB&B was great. The apartment was small, but it was 2 floors, the ground floor had the bathroom, living room, and kitchen, then the bedroom was downstairs. The air conditioing worked great, and the bedroom was so dark I accidentally slept until after 9 one morning!

After finishing my laundry, I went to explore the Trastevere a bit. The Trastevere is kind of the hipster area of Rome, which is fine. I’m not a hipster, but the area was postcard worth. I found a cute place to have some dinner, then back to the apartment to lay out my plan.

I pre-booked a tour of the Vatican on Tuesday, but I had to be there at 7:30 Tuesday morning, using a public transit I was not familiar with, so the first thing I did on Monday was take the route I was told to take to get the the group meeting spot. Being from Northern MN I’m not really used to public transit systems, even with all my travels, and Rome’s public transit system is very confusing, and there is no printed map that will show you the different bus/tram lines. Luckily their website has a trip planner, so each night I planned my following day, and put my plans into the planner, and it told me which lines I needed to take. It’s very helpful if you ever plan to visit Rome.

So Monday morning, I traced the route I needed for Tuesday morning, and found the meeting point. It was pretty easy to find, luckily. Since this was my first day in Rome, I decided to take a bus tour to find my way around. I bought my ticket at a little kiosk, and walked to where the bus stop was. Now I’ve taken some fantastic City Sightseeing bus tours. Rome’s left something to be desired. First it never went to the other side of the river, so about 6 blocks was as close as it got to Vatican City, which is a bit of a rip-off. It also only had 8 stops. Now I know that part of that is because most of the areas around the big sites are off limits to vehicles, but I expect more for my money.

After riding the whole route for the sight-seeing bus, I took it one more stop and went to the Trevi Fountain. Legend says if you throw a coin in the fountain, you will return to Rome. But you aren’t supposed to JUST throw the coin in the fountain, you’re supposed to put our left hand on your right shoulder, and throw the coin over your shoulder. Well I did it all, so I guess another trip to Rome is in my future. After spending quite a bit of time people watching at te Trevi Fountain, I checked out my map and went for a walk, The Pantheon is nearby. Its a huge round church, with a hole in the top that lets light in. I was surprised that there was no line, and entry is free. It’s sites like this that remind you just how long Rome has been around, because it was obviously a pagan site before it was transformed into a Christian church. My next stop was Piazza Navona, where Bernini’s Four Rivers fountain is. This fountain was featured in Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. It was really cool to see something I’ve only read about up to this point.

Tuesday started really early, but I made my way successfully to the meeting point near the Vatican. We made our way to the line to get into the Vatican museums. When I booked the tour it was billed as entering the Sistine Chapel early, before it opens, this isn’t really true. We had to wait in line until it opened, but while we waited our guide explained what we would see when we got to the Sistine Chapel, because guides aren’t allowed to guide IN the chapel. She told us “in a few minutes you will hate me. Because after we get our tickets, we will, not run, but rush to the Sistine Chapel, trust me, we will come back to see everything we rush past.” So we enter and get our tickets and rush to the chapel. There are probably 50-some people already inside, but it’s not packed at all. There is one person inside whose entire job is to say “SHHHHHH” and “No fotos” But the Sistine Chapel is amazing, awe-inspiring, beautiful. It honestly made me want to cry.

We spent about 20 minutes in the chapel, before we left to go explore the rest of the Vatican Museums. Over 4 miles of hallways stretch out, to display over 1 million artifacts. A scientist/mathematician calculated that to look at every artifact in the museums, and look for 15 second, it would take you over 4 years to see everything. After walking through the museums, we went BACK through the Sistine Chapel, and it was packed! It was a completely different experience than the first visit, I’m SO glad I booked the tour I did. If you’re thinking about coming to Rome and touring the Vatican, book a tour. It’s a very confusing place.

After the museums, we went to St. Peter’s Basilica. It is the tallest building in Rome, and there is a law that no other building in Rome can be taller than St. Peter’s. After, I returned to my apartment for a nap and some AC, because I had had a very early morning and I was tired.

Wednesday, I left Rome to go to Ostia Antica, an ancient port city near Rome. Early in my life I wanted to be an archeologist (well Egyptologist), so visiting such an ancient, archeological site really made me think about what might have been.

Thursday, my last day in Rome, I spent checking out the other major sites I hadn’t seen yet. I started in Piazza del Popolo, visiting the church, Santa Maria del Popolo, which was also in Angels and Demons. Then I walked down to the Spanish Steps. When I got there, there was a military band playing ON the steps. There’s a movie that I love, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and in the movie they go to Rome, and are visiting the Spanish Steps, the female lead in the movie, walks over to the fountain that is at the bottom of the steps, and takes a drink of the water running out of the decorative spout. I’ve always watched this part and thought, “oh, ew, that’s gotta be treated or something” but no. All over Rome are drinking water fountains that are free and delicious, but the same water that goes to those fountains, goes to all of the decorative fountains, it’s all spring water. So many a tourist will fill up their water bottle from a decorative fountain, and it’s perfectly drinkable.

My last stop was the Colosseum. I didn’t pre-book a tour to the Colosseum, so I didn’t end up touring there. There are SO MANY PEOPLE, it’s insane. It’s definitely something I will do on my next trip to Rome, but I don’t feel like a missed out by not touring inside.

But now I am in Spain, where the temps are cooler, and there is a cool sea breeze ruffling my hair everywhere I go. But that’s stories for another blog. Hope you’re all healthy and happy, and I’ll write again soon!