Roma

Rome is GINORMOUS!! While it is a big city, I am not just referring to its population. I mean that literally every object is huge. The individual bricks, the individual buildings, the cherubs and gargoyles on the roofs and walls of buildings, the columns, the fountains, the monuments, the mountains of gelato…everything is larger than life. It’s an amazing city and there’s no other place like it! It was almost surreal to walk around the Colosseum and the Pantheon and the streets that used to belong to the biggest empire in the world. All of the places I’ve learned about in history class or seen in movies and on T.V. were right in front of me, and they were even cooler in real life.

The enormous Colosseum.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica looking up toward the more than 14 story ceiling. The letters on the gold are as tall as an average person. The statues are 3 times the size of a grown man.

The Pantheon columns are the largest, intact ancient columns in the world. Beau is 6'3" and see how small he looks!

Everyone knows the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, but Beau an I basically saw it in only one day! Obviously we missed out on some of the places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do, but we hit the must-sees. We got in late one night in the midst of a monsoon, so after a little exploring, dinner, and gelato (of course!) we called it a night. The next day was perfect weather for our sight-seeing blitz. We saw the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican museum, the Spanish Steps, Capitol Hill, the Arc of Constantine, Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. Whew!

Capitol Hill

The Roman Forum

My most favorite place in Rome was the Trevi fountain. It’s so big and so beautiful that it’s captivating. I could have sat there and looked at it, listening to the sound of rushing water all day long. We hung around it awhile while we ate gelato…I couldn’t have been happier!

Trevi fountain

 Of course the Colosseum and Vatican City, which includes St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum, were cool and interesting. The Colosseum was very different on the inside than I expected. I thought it would be pretty well-preserved, but once you step inside to where the stadium seating and gladiator arena used to be, you realize that you really are walking around an ancient ruin. We over heard a tour guide say that the arena of the Colosseum is ranked as on of the top single sites in the world where the most deaths have taken place.

Inside of the Colosseum

It’s amazing to me that Vatican City is considered a small, independent country with its own postal service, guards and radio station! The little country is completely surrounded by walls. When we walked through one of the entrances, I stood in awe. I found myself in the middle of a huge, circular plaza surrounded by columns with an enormous domed building at one end and cyprus trees on a hill in the background. I wasn’t sure where I was, so Beau had to inform me we were at St. Peter’s Basilica, a church that can seat 50,000 to 60,0000 people on the inside!

St. Peter's Basilica

After the basilica, we rushed to get in line for the Vatican museum before the last entry time. I’ve never seen so many marble statues and frescos in my life! (The Vatican museum houses 4 miles worth of art!) Of course, we saw the Sistine Chapel. While it was amazing, I was much more impressed by Michelangelo’s Last Judgement, which took up an entire wall at one end of the room. After seeing some many impressive painted ceilings, I think the Sistine Chapel lacked luster to me. Of course, it could’ve been that the chapel was smaller and darker than expected (unlike the open and airy cathedral of El Escorial with its beautifully painted ceilings).

There’s more to say, but I was trying to keep this short and sweet. I’ll end with saying that Rome is a city you can certainly visit several times without doing and seeing the same things. I definitely look forward to a chance to visit again! I LOVE Italy 🙂

XO