Roma: Part II

Greetings from 30,000 feet! I'm on the plane to Venezia right now, so I'm not sure when exactly this will be posted; our hotel in San Marco does not have WiFi, so I am guessing Tuesday night when we're back in Paris. Until then, I can write about Rome so the entry is ready to go when we return!

Yesterday morning we were woken with the best thing ever: breakfast, delivered to our room and set up on the table on our balcony. It was fantastic; ResLife should look into installing balconies, and BCDS should starting delivering room service. We were served tea with lemon, some cheese, ham and salami, two types of yogurt, bread fresh out of the oven with butter and jam, wrapped pieces of toast-like crackers, some cookies and pound cake, plus orange juice and two hard-boiled eggs. It was pretty much heaven, and definitely made our first full day in Rome start beautifully.

Well-fed, we walked back to the Colosseo where we would catch our hop-on, hop-off bus. Headphones were provided, so we could listen to happy Italian music and hear fun facts about things like the Jesuit church we passed on our way to the Vatican, or the rose gardens that hold a competition for new varieties of roses every year. The way the route went, we only passed a few stops before we were pulling up in front of San Pietro's square and the Basilica in Vatican City!

Using a scarf to help adhere to the dress code, we wandered into the Basilica, where there are tons of paintings, statues and even bodies of past Popes. It was slightly creepy and only vaguely relevant to someone who is not Catholic, simply because I do not know the entire history of the Vatican or who all of the Popes were slash what they did. It was definitely interesting and awe-inspiring though!

From the Basilica we wandered in the Poste Vaticane, where you can send postcards straight from Vatican City. I have now technically been in 5 countries in the past week! The gift shop was similarly fun to poke around in, though obviously nothing humorous with the Pope on it would be found within the walls of the Vatican. While unfortunate, this was expected.

Before we could completely melt into Saint Peter's Square, we decided to walk to the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is located. I was excited to find the bas relief of the West Wind that is the air marker from Angels and Demons, centrally located around the obelisk in the center of the square. Clearly all of my knowledge of the Eternal City comes from the movie, which I saw less than a month ago. On the way to the museum who did we find but Walter and Dan and the rest of the group from the Venice summer program, Practicing Mortality! This was incredibly exciting for Maureen and I, since we had been trying to figure out how exactly to meet up with Walter in Venice, and so we made a few potential plans, gave him the address of our hotel, and continued our journey to the museum.

I had forgotten my BC ID for the discounted rate, so I had to use Maureen's card while she used her ID from Sciences-Po. It worked rather well, considering they do not check at all. Inside were thousands of statues, tapestries, paintings, pieces of furniture, pottery, sculptures...and people trying to reach the Chapel. After about an hour of winding along the hallways and climbing up and down stairs, we finally reached it. It was a huge room, covered in paintings, and the ceiling was absolutely gorgeous. I hurt my neck staring at it for so long, so I can only imagine how Michaelangelo must have felt painting the entire thing. The floor was just a sea of people slowly being pulled from one side of the room to the other, and finally we made it out, only to have to walk through another mile of hallways before reaching, as usual, a gift shop. Not even the Vatican is above trying to sell you postcards of the art you just saw.

After a slice of pizza at the Vatican cafeteria, we slowly walked back to the square so we could buy postcards, write messages on them, and mail them from the Vatican Post Office. Consider yourself special if you receive one. From there it was a walk to Castel San Angelo, the fortress that also features in Angels and Demons, before we would hop back on our bus. As were were about to cross the street to the castle, we once again bumped into Walter, who had broken off from the group! This time we commemorated the event with a photo, then talked about various things to do in Venice before he decided to walk with us to our bus stop. Such are the ways of Boston College; you can always find the people that go there!

I had a great time taking pictures of every single one of Bernini's angels on the bridge to Castel San Angelo, of which there are many. The bus took about fifteen minutes to arrive, so we stood across the street taking more pictures and discussing life back in Boston. When the bus finally did come, Walter headed back to his original destination, and Maureen and I got back on the bus, this time opting for a lower level seat to get out of the sun. We had been expecting to get off at the stop closest to the Trevi Fountain, but due to a Gay Pride parade about ten of the bus stops were closed. This was good news for us, because it meant our tickets remained valid for an extra 24 hours, but also not so good because it meant we were let off at a stop we were not expecting. C'est la vie.

Using the beautiful map of Roma that was given to us when we arrived at Ciampino, we made our way to the Fontana di Trevi, which is a pretty fantastic site. There were a ton of people around, but we still managed to throw our coins, make our wishes, and take pictures from every angle. Our route then led us past the Tempio Adriano, a rather amusing-looking fake statue who ended up being pretty lame when someone gave him money, and straight to the Pantheon. The crowd by the door informed us that it was closed for the 17:30 mass, so we wandered to Piazza Navona instead, where the Fontana dei Quattro Fuimi is. Being the water marker in Angels and Demons, it was pretty exciting to see, but didn't take up a lot of time. We decided to get dinner at a little place by the Pantheon as we waited to go in, and I ended up eating about 7/8 of a pizza. Italian food is by far the best of all the food in all the countries I've been to. You cannot go wrong with pizza and pasta.

Around 19:00 we tried to wait to get into the Pantheon again, but apparently the mass at 17:30 was private and the Pantheon would be closing when it was over. A little annoyed and knowing that our bus would not be stopping anywhere near the Colosium, we had to walk all the way back to our guesthouse for the next hour. We had been planning to go to some party in the gardens by the Colosseo that Dan had mentioned, which was going to be an opening for some new disco, but by the time we made it back to the guesthouse we were too exhausted and decided to stay in for the night. Rome may not have been built in a day, but we definitely saw most of it in one!

Breakfast was just as amazing this morning, and we packed up and checked out so we could go catch one of the first hop-on, hop-off buses, thanks to the extended 24 hours the parade gave us. The bus stop was super hard to find though, so we finally got on around 10:00. The entire route takes about 2 hours and runs backwards on Sundays, so we decided to kill time by riding it all the way around the city, taking more pictures, and then getting off at Termini so we didn't have to walk there. It was a pretty ingenious plan, and worked pretty well, minus the fact that every time the bus stopped, we would sit and melt in the sun from the upper deck. I definitely have sunburn, which has been a great thing to deal with when carrying my backpack. We saw pretty much everything we'd already seen, plus the Piazza del Popolo, where the chapel that held the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa was, the fire marker from Angels and Demons. In real life, the Ecstasy is in the chapel Santa Maria della Vittoria, which is not in the Piazza del Popolo, but oh well. So all we missed is the Chigi Chapel; I would have liked to see Habakkuk and the Angel and the Ecstasy, instead of just a bunch of obelisks. Next time!

At Termini we were able to figure out the self service ticket machine and get on a train straight to Fiumicino airport, which was awesome and air-conditioned. We are basically hoping that since Venice is on the water, it will be much cooler and not quite as ridiculous as Rome has been. I much prefer the rain that I'd brought to London, Paris and everywhere else. I guess we'll see.

Our flight was delayed, as usual, so we got to sit on the floor at the front of the line and wait for an extra half hour. We were all set to get great seats when they let us out to the airport, but instead we had to get on a bus and drive out to the middle of the tarmac to get on the plane where it was receiving fuel. Cheap flights are a joy. When we land we get to attempt to locate our "impossible to find" hotel, and potentially see Walter if he locates it too. There is much less to see in Venezia, so I guess we'll ride a few boats and do souvenir shopping. We shall see!

This flight is only 50 minutes, so we should land soon. I'm super excited for the water bus. More tomorrow!

Love,
Sam

Roma: Part I

Buon giorno! Maureen and I have finally arrived in Italia, and so far our first half a day has been great. But of course, I have to finish up with what happened yesterday, as the first half of my Paris adventure concluded! I can't believe it's already been a week since I left.

Maureen and I woke up early to head to a café to get hot drinks with her European Judicial System class. We both had chocolate chaud and spoke with two of the boys in her class, a Canadian named Nick and an Austrian whose name I never caught. The topic once again turned to the differences in the way French citizens and American citizens view their nationality; any citizen in France is French, their family is French and they have always been French. Yet any citizen in America does not have direct ties to the country, unless they are Native American. Therefore, Americans must assert their heritage, by stating whether they are 20% Irish or 50% Italian, or a complete European mutt, like I am (British, Irish, Dutch, French, German). Nick has apparently found it convenient to sometimes be American and sometimes be Canadian, since his accent does not give away his location. I'll have to remember to try that in the future.

We went straight from the café to Sciences-Po for the actual class on the European Justice System, where I zoned out and worked on the UGBC Communication department budget for the 2009-2010 academic year. When that ended at 12:30 we had to go to a different Sciences-Po building for her French class, which was a language class so I could understand it. Grades were handed out, and then 3 students still have to give exposés to the class. The first was on l'alphabet Coreén (the Korean alphabet), and even though the entire point of the class was to enjoy French food, since every student had brought in cheese or crackers or fruit or a baguette or wine (yes, wine), the presenter decided it would be rude if people were eating while he was presenting. He had a good presentation though, and I learned my name in Hangul: ㅅㅏㅁ. He did not seem to have a problem eating and drinking while the next two exposés were given, on baseball and universal allocation.

After a stop to the computer lab to print information for our trip to Italy, we headed back to Maureen's apartment. She wrote out a postcard, and we headed to the post office to mail her one and my four! If you requested a postcard, it is on its way. If you have not requested a postcard yet and would like one, please donate $1 or 0.85€ to my Paypal account (link is on the right) and comment with your address ;)

I still had to pack for Italy, so after filling the other half of Maureen's suitcase, taking a shower, and eating a delicious dinner cooked by Mo (<3) we headed back into the city for another happy hour with Kim. We stopped at a place called Student Bar on Rue Mouffetard and had a great time with Sex on the Beach, a marguerita, a Pink Lady, something with banana and a B52 which was lit on fire. Before getting a table some random guy invited us to the downstairs, but we played it safe and got our own place to sit. The only things missing were glow sticks.

The night ended pretty much right after happy hour, since we had to leave the apartment by 5:30 this morning. It was hell. However, we made the 5:39 Métro, enjoyed endured the singing of drunken girls from clubs on the Champs Elysses, and were safe on our shuttle to Beauvais at 6:00. Everything was going according to plan until we actually got to BVA and our flight was delayed half an hour. What was even better was waiting in line behind a group of 5 or 6 people arguing with the girl at the desk, only to be told during our turn that we had to go to the Visa Check line. Eventually our bag was checked and we'd made it through security (the razor has still not been confiscated!), leaving us an hour to sit around in the terminal and wait for our gate to be announced. Maureen and I wandered through the duty free store, enjoyed the Calvin Klein summer fragrance, discussed the merits of Swatch watches, ate a muffin, played games, etc etc etc.

It was a long hour, but eventually our plane arrived and we moved outside to climb the stairs to our seats. I pretty much slept through the entire flight, missing the Alps that we apparently flew over, and landed in Rome Ciampino to weather that was about 10 degrees warmer. It was gorgeous. They packed everyone on the plane onto two shuttles buses, let us grab our bags from baggage claim, and then released us to the city without even checking our passports. It was super lame; I wanted a pretty stamp to prove I'd been to Rome!

We were luckily able to catch the 12:40 bus to the citta centro at Rome Termini (a bus station in the city center), and sat in traffic for about half an hour before we could head to our hotel. After a half hour walk wearing jeans and long sleeved shirts, we melted our way to Domus Caracalla. Maureen had us buzzed in, where we had to walk through the building, across the courtyard, and take the elevator in the second building to the top floor. The room is adorable, and we have both decided we will never come to Rome without staying here. There's a double bed, marble-esque floors, a cute bathroom with a shower head that rains down vertically, free WiFi, a TV, a wardrobe and a balcony with a table and two chairs for when they bring us breakfast in the door! It could not be better if we tried. Venice will be a step down, but at least we can take a few amazing showers in Rome before we have to share a common bathroom on Monday.

After a quick change and a call to Bank of America, we went off in search of a Deutsche Bank so I could withdraw money. Unfortunately, my debit card number has been compromised, so there's a hold on my account until I return to the States. Since I'm still in Europe, they gave me a number to call every time I want to use an ATM, and I had done so to give the instruction that I would be at an ATM in 20 minutes and the hold should be lifted momentarily then. When we finally found the Deutsche Bank, however, the ATM was "instructed" to return my card to me and tell me to call my bank. We had no idea what to do. We tried to use a pay phone at a Métro station to call Bank of America back, but the collect operator kept saying that all of the numbers we provided could not be reached. This is despite the fact that every time I call the number, an automated voice says twice that collect calls are accepted. We were both annoyed and upset, so we decided we had to head back to the hotel and call Bank of America again. Luckily, we decided to check the ATM one more time before we made the trek, and lo and behold Bank of America had just been ridiculously slow. Crisis averted.

We had the rest of the afternoon to wander and find a place for dinner, so we headed to the Coliseum and the Arco di Costantino. The Coliseum was fantastic, but it was too expensive to go inside. The Palatino, an archaeological site, is nearby, so we walked around the perimeter of that to see the forum before walking back to the hotel the long way in search of a good restaurant. We were back at Domus Caracalla before we found one, so we continued to walk back the way we'd come in from Termini earlier to stop at any good place we found. We ended up at Hostaria del Buongustaio, or the house of the connoisseur. We shared fried calamari and shrimp, and I got spaghetti with clams while Maureen got veal and potatoes. Thank god for carbs! With the bread and the wine, Italy definitely has the best food so far. We were even given some dessert wine that tasted delicious, but our real dessert was of course gelato. I may not be Italian, but I sure enjoy the food.

We made it back to the hotel for showers and relaxation; one of the owners asked why girls as young as ourselves were back so early! Hopefully tomorrow we'll be out later, since we have so much to see: the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, Palazzo Chigi, Piazzo del Popolo, Piazza Navona, Castel San Angelo, and anything else along the way. We're taking a hop-on, hop-off bus tour all day, which should get us everywhere, and when it ends around 20:00 we'll get dinner and call it a night! Sunday we head to Venice in the afternoon, but we have to check out of the guest house around noon and we don't know what we'll have time for in the morning. We shall have to see! I'm hoping for more gelato.

Something we get to look forward to at the Vatican: strict dress code! No cell phones, no smoking, no hats, no shirts with profanity, no shoulders or cleavage or even knees. In this heat, it might be difficult.

It's time to post pictures and this entry, since we have breakfast coming at 9:30 and our bus to catch!

Arrivederci per il momento,
Sam