First Course: Rome

Rome, the big, bustling, filthy city in the central western side part of Italy. This was the first course of our Italian adventure. Yes, it was amazing and, yes, it is one of the most famous cities in Europe. But not all of us liked it. The flight was super quick and super cheap. Through the window, we could see the coast of cities and the wide ocean surrounding us. We also passed over the Alps, the ones bordering Austria, Germany and Italy. They were huge and all of us got excited for our time that we would spend there. We landed around 4:00 pm European time. As soon as we got to Rome, I instantly was uncomfortable. People were everywhere, selling us random things and smoking up clouds. When we got to the bus we were taking to the Termini Station, the bus driver was checking our tickets while smoking a cigarette. This was the first time I was happy that I was wearing my mask for it moderated the smell. After getting off our bus, we were confused on where we were going. Mom's phone was not working and the directions the lady gave us from the terminal were quite bad. We wandered a little before a very old man called to us in Italian. He did not speak English, but still tried to help. In the end, he did nothing but make us more confused, though it was fun to hear the Italian language. We did end up finding our apartment, where we met the less-than-reassuring host. He took photos of our passports and explained a lot of things that didn't need to be explained. When we were finally left alone, I cried, for I was overwhelmed; and the place was not quite a US hotel room. We took a break from the unbearable heat outside and watched some Italian T.V., old wild west movies and rhythmic gymnastics. There was great ac, very strong and cold. After a few hours of relax time, we went to explore the city and to find a place to eat. Luckily Rick Steve’s book of Italy recommended many yummy restaurants and we found one fairly close to us. We ordered our first Italian cuisine, pasta and pizza with Kiefer getting Soup. A woman came up to me mid meal, stood close to me, less than a foot away and stared at me. She wouldn´t leave me alone, even after the waiter told her to leave. She came back with a KFC balloon, and it freaked me out; so from then on, I was in high alert. Once we finished, we went to find a good gelato place. I chose Mango along with Mom. Everyone else got lemon or mint.

Then we headed back to the apartment for a much-needed night of sleep for tomorrow, it was Colosseum time. We left early the next morning, setting out for our 20-minute walk. Our tour was at 10 am and we needed to find a place to eat. As we were going, we stopped to get the boys a croissant and passed many large parks. Though it was only 8 in the morning, the sun was out and it was blazing hot. Once we got there, we had lots of time to find a supermarket for breakfast for mom and me, and to look at the colosseum from afar. It was a towering structure tall and wide with half of it gone.

The yogurt from the random tiny supermarket was fine, and the banana and apple were as well. We headed over to our tour guide, which was harder to find than expected. We had to ask more than a few people to get us there (partly because of the pathetic amount of Italian we knew). By the time we got there, all of us were sweating and practically dying from the heat and the 2 hours, completely outdoor tour hadn't even started! Giuseppe, our tour guide leads us and a few other families, into the Colosseum. Our first stop was quite amazing... THE BATHROOM!!!! From that beautiful sight, we were on our way. Giuseppe led us through the large arched doorways to a place in the shade, where we could look out onto the grounds of the Colosseum. According to him, the Colosseum had places to sit all the way up to the top and engulfing the arena entirely. There was the main floor, the fighting place. It was covered in sand to soke up the blood of fallen animals and people. But there weren’t just people fighting, there was actors as well. The Colosseum was meant for entertaining though the people's entertainment came from each other's hurt. Beneath the main level, animals and gladiators were kept, waiting for their chance on the "stage". When I say animals, this means from dogs to giraffes. They would get them imported from all over the world just to have them killed. Gladiators, whom were mostly slaves fought to their deaths trying to kill these animals, who fought them only in self-defense.

Now, the layers and layers of seating weren't just free grab-the-best-seat-you-can but really the opposite. The rich, fancy folk, including the empire got the best seats. Then the wealthy and on and on with woman and slaves on the top row, the worst seats. After learning, we were led back outside to start the short hike up to the platform, where you got the panoramic view of Rome. Again, it was super-hot and we bought plastic waters the day before to refill. The cool thing in Italy, is that water was free, just coming out of little fountains for people to fill water bottles. The fountains themselves could be big and beautiful or dirty and ugly though all the water was still the same, cold and refreshing. We found one on the hike and let the cold-water rush down our faces. We also filled the plastic water bottles back up, for drinking. Once we got up the panoramic view, it was beautiful.

Then we hiked back down. Giuseppe showed us some cool statues and ruins and the tour was over. We were starving, hot and tired but the tour was well worth it for we learned a lot and saw some crazy things. We grabbed some Powerade on the way out, found a huge, yummy sandwich shop and started on our way to the Pantheon. Its huge open roof dome was the first and inspired such buildings as Saint Peters Basilica. Here, we had to wear pants and sweatshirts to cover up shoulders and legs.

From the Pantheon, we went to the fountain of Trevi, which was my favorite of the attractions we saw that day. It was huge, beautiful, and packed with people. Police swarmed the area as well and they were unafraid to blow their whistle and yell at you. Mom got yelled at for sitting down! The statues of the gods were amazing! The water was clear, and the place was awesome. Again, off to the side was a small dinking fountain, which felt great to dunk our heads in.

On the way to the Spanish Steps, Charlie got a wooden cemeri sword and I got a swimsuit for Sienna, our next stop. The Spanish Steps were large, long and fun to walk up. You weren't allowed to sit on them or you will get fined. It was busy and we stopped to people-watch for a while.

By then, it was almost dinner time and we were going to head back to the place for a break. We walked a lot, about 10 miles and our feet hurt. After watching more Rhythmic Gymnastics, we tried another one of Rick Steve’s recommendations, Target Ristorante. The walk was short, and we passed a few delicious looking gelato places. Once we got there, we knew it was fancy for there were lights strung around the tables and waiters swarming around, getting orders though we got there early. It was delicious, and we got pasta, pizza, and soup again. After that great meal, we backtracked to find a Gelato place we had passed earlier in the day. It was very yummy though not as good as the day before. Then we went home to sleep in the freezing AC room. The next morning, we headed out early because we booked a tour for 8 am. We got yogurts and croissants on the way and found our tour guide quite easily. (The yogurt was pretty bad). We were a small group of 10 with us being the only kids unless you count a 16-year-old. When we got into the Vatican, we were in a different country. It is 45 acres big, and it has its own city, post office, police department and fire department! Our first stop, again, was the bathroom but while we were waiting, we met this guy who worked for Joe Biden. Then we were off. We first went outside so our tour guide could share some information with us before we entered the Vatican. She mostly talked about the Sistine chapel because she was not allowed to explain let alone talk, inside it. Then we stepped into Vatican Museum. Our first room was full of sculptures, tombs and fountains made of marble. The second was what I like to call the one of many golden rooms. All the frames were gold and because it was a huge room, long but not wide, completely covered in paintings, there were lots of frames. Our tour guide explained some of them but then let us wander for a little bit.

Then we met up at the end of the room and went into a map one. This one was my least favorite, though it was quite amazing. Very old maps of Italy and Rome covered the walls. The next room was made of humungous carpets, woven to make pictures. The colors were vibrant, and that was hard to do because the minerals to make blue and green were hard to find. You had to pay a fortune for one carpet and the Pope had more than 20. Then we walked across this balcony thing, where we could see the police and fire departments. The Raphael Rooms were cool but looked very similar to the rest of the painting in the Vatican Museum. The only one who really recognized the paintings greatness was Dad, who would verbally gawk at the each and every painting. Finally, it was time for the Sistine Chapel! We did walk by some modern art pieces on the way. We head 15 minutes in the chapel to stare at the paintings on the ceilings and on the front wall. This room was created by Michelangelo. It took him 5 years to do the ceiling and 4 years to do the main painting on the wall. This painting was huge, with a self-portrait of Michelangelo. His skin was pulled off his body and was drooping down. In the bottom right corner, there was a portrait of the Pope’s secretary, who disliked Michelangelo because he painted nudity. Michelangelo portrayed the secretary by having a snake bite the male anatomy. On the ceiling, there was the famous painting of Adam reaching out to God, their fingers not quite touching but reaching for each other. Next to that was another image of God who was supposed to be the sun and moon, with his naked back side as the moon and his clothed front side as the sun. This was again, revenge against the Pope, who didn't pay him. After the Sistine chapel, we got free passage down the fancy staircase to get to St. Peter's Basilica.

The large building was in the plaza, whose large columns surrounding it had statues on them. When we walked into the building, all of our mouths fell open. paintings covered the large domes on the ceiling. Large statues of gods and people were built into the walls.

A service was happening and the choir was beautiful sounding! The caskets of famous people were everywhere, with stone or plastic replicas. The humongous dome was created because of the Pantheon. After Saint Peters, we went into the gift shop, to buy a post card. We also got the stamp, wrote a little note, and sent it.

Its cool because that means we just sent a postcard from the smallest country in the world. After the Vatican, we walked to Compo de Fiori, where the boys got T-Shirts and a bobblehead. We ate lunch, then began the super long walk home. The Vatican museums alone consisted of 3-mile walk. Then, Father, who was trying to get us home ended up getting us lost, adding to our tiredness. When we got back to the "hotel" we watched more gymnastics, took a break, and finally went to dinner. We ate at the restaurant Leonetti’s, which was quite delicious. Then we got gelato, did a night walk, people-watched and saw the Victor Emanual II National Monument. Then we went to sleep. the next morning, we packed up and walked to the National Museum of Rome, which ended up being closed, which caused us to go into the Basilica next door. then we wandered before going back into Termini, finding our train, waiting for quite a while, and then boarding. Our Rome adventure was over! Sienna, here we come...

Well done, Scouty girl!!! Yowzers!!! I told you people you were in good hands... Yes, Rome was a bit of a shock to the system for all of us, especially when facing the initial contrast between my unmitigated hyping of all things Italian and our first hotel room--you know, the room next to the bustling train station, behind the graffiti doors, 100 meters from a street corner literally teeming with rats. Yea, that one. And right on the heels of our jet-lagged adjustment to an unfurnished new home in Berlin. Yikes, Charlie, Kiefer and Scout must have thought Suzy and I had lost our minds. "Isn't Europe great, kids?! What fun, don't you think? Yaa!!!" (Only Kory's response to kimchi could have been less thrilled.) But the three are troopers, as you just read for yourself, and despite the rough start (which, I think, in the end, turned out to be the perfect way to plan our Italian trip), one thing in Rome did make our list of favorites for the whole adventure: the Sistine Chapel. The final votes (two per category per family member) awarded the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as the second best art piece we saw in Italy. Of course, you're not allowed to take pictures of it, so that's why you have only a picture of Saint Peter's. But to be sure, my friends, the women do come and go, talking of Micheangelo... Okay, as Scout said, Siena is next, and so are more top vote-getters. Stay tuned.