When in Rome...

One of the best weeks of my life happened in December 2007. My good friend Shane let me know that he would be in Europe for work, so I convinced him to take a week off so we could travel around a few places. We both wanted to see Rome the most, so we made plans for that and rest took shape over the next few weeks.

Shane flew into Dublin, check that…Shane was SUPPOSED to fly in to Dublin on a Thursday night. As it turned out a connecting flight was delayed and he missed his ride from London to Dublin. I didn’t find this out until I was already at the airport to meet him. For those of you who don’t live in Dublin, it’s a real pain in the ass to get to the airport, especially if you don’t have a car. My phone rang just as I stepped off the bus at the airport. It was Shane explaining what happened. So I went home. Annoyed.

The next day Shane managed to get to my apartment and I found him waiting in the courtyard when I got home from work. We had about enough time to change clothes and then we went out on the town. We walked around some of the highlights of Dublin, ate some food, and then met up with some friends of mine in Temple Bar, that part of town with a ton of pubs. We had a few drinks there, made a bit of a pub crawl, and ended up at one of my favorite spots called Café en Seine. There were a lot of corporate Christmas parties going on there and we had a blast. If you’ve heard my story about the time I “won an impromptu dance contest against a fat chick to Footloose,” this was the night that happened. (Maybe I’ll blog that later.)

We partied til about 3 and had a flight at 730. We’re idiots. But, hey, we made the flight.

Part of the thrill of the adventure was that we made very few plans. We had a plane ticket from Dublin to Rome and a room booked there for two nights. The next place we had to be was Baden-Baden, Germany 5 days later where we had another room booked as well as our flights home. Everything else in between was by the seat of our pants. We decided Venice would be nice, so as soon as we got to Rome we booked a train ticket to Venice two days later.

Rome overtook Paris as the coolest place on the planet that I have been to. We were lost as soon as we got off the train but we managed to find our hotel within an hour with only a few wrong turns. As soon as we checked in we found a restaurant and had what will go down as one of the best Italian meals of my life. It was here that we got our first taste of the gelato and we were immediately hooked on that for the rest of the trip. Rome became, essentially, us eating 5 meals a day and having gelato at every famous place in town. When we finished, we hopped on the subway to go to the Colosseum, which was not far from our hotel.

The Colosseum, like the Eiffel Tower the first time you see it, completely overwhelms you. It is absolutely enormous. It was getting late so we didn’t go in, but we walked around the outside and marveled at its scale and beauty. There is a lot to see in this area, so we walked around a bit, had another gelato, and headed home. The next morning, we went straight back to get inside. If you ever go, you will most likely be approached by an English speaking person offering you a tour for €20. It is well worth it, take it. That fee allows you to bypass the enormous line to get in and you get a tour guide who takes you through the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Overall it lasts about 2 hours and is extremely interesting. For the entire tour, Shane and I barely spoke. We were in awe the entire time. Something about being in a place that is 2,000 years old makes you realize that you don’t really have anything important to say. Plus, you can’t stop thinking and looking and taking pictures. Construction began on the Colosseum in the year 70AD. Think about that. That’s 37 years after JC walked the earth. Our tour guide was a very animated lady who told a few stories about the gladiators and the way things went in the arena. After that she turned us over to a man who took us through Palatine Hill and showed us the Roman Forum.

Palatine Hill is one of the Seven Hills of Rome and used to be a palace for the emperors. One side overlooks the Roman Forum (more on that later) and the other side overlooks Circus Maximus, famous for the chariot races. It was big enough to have an Equestrian arena inside. It was difficult to get a grasp of exactly how big it used to be since most of it is in ruins, but the guide was able to describe it pretty well. It sounded like it would have been as luxurious, if not more so, than any mega mansion built today.

The Roman Forum was the town center of ancient Rome, sort of like a Main Street in a small town is now. There were many temples and markets, even a prison. Like most of Rome, it is in ruins, but there is plenty left standing to put you in awe again.

From there, we walked through this part of town a bit more. It seems like everywhere you look there is something interesting to look at, some old and some new. We had a meal and of course some gelato. We eventually made our way over Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps which are both worth a look. As we were walking around in that area we wandered into a cathedral where a choir was singing Christmas carols in Italian. They were VERY good. It was a great setting for Christmas carols. After that we sat at a nice Italian place for a few hours drinking wine after our dinner.

Now backtrack a little bit. Our first night in town, which was Saturday night, we decided to check out the nightlife. My guidebook had reviews of some hotspots, so we decided to go to the most recommended one. The nightclub was wild. The center of the dance floor was occupied by men in drag that looked like professional wrestlers. Drinks where a whopping €15 a piece but it only took two to give us enough courage to dance with the non-cross-dressing crowd. It was a fun night. We met some interesting people and ended up staggering home pretty late after unsuccessfully attempting to “borrow” a Vespa.

For our last day in Rome we decided to take the open top bus tour. I highly recommend these for any city you go to. They are well worth the money and you get to see everything with commentary. The main thing on our list was Vatican City. Unfortunately, we got there too late for the Sistine Chapel. If you go, get there before noon (grr.) We were able to go into St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the burial site of St. Peter, who was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. Much of it was designed by Michelangelo and the thing I found most interesting was a marble sculpture by Michelangelo called Pieta, which shows Mary holding Jesus’ body after the crucifixion. He was very young when he completed it, and many people suggested that it was the work of someone else, that no man so young could create it. When he heard this, Michelangelo went back to the sculpture and carved his name into the sash that Mary wore. It is the only thing he ever put his name on, and he later regretted it.

Once we were done at the Vatican, we finished the bus tour and it was time to head to the train station to go to Venice, which I’ll cover in the next blog. (Cliffhanger: we almost get arrested!)