We landed in Rome today. From the moment we landed in this
country my heart has been happy. I’ll be honest…I didn’t love Barcelona. It’s
not that I didn’t like it. I just didn’t love it. It made me feel homesick,
because it was too similar to San Diego. The beach was amazing, the Gaudi
architecture was “wow”, the food was yummy, but there was something about the
lack of “old, romantic, Europe” that kept my heart form falling in love with it
like I did Portugal and France. But now I’m in Rome. And I have certainly
fallen in love.
Maria and I had some things to take care of as soon as we
landed. Check-in to our hostel, make it to the Vatican by 3pm (per our museum
pass instructions), and then pick-up tickets for the Pope blessing before
6:45pm. What a crazy few hours! We were on this metro and that metro and this
street and that street. We got lost, we almost got ran over (um…people weren’t
kidding when they warned me that Italian drivers literally stop for no one). It
was nuts! But we figured it out, saw all the beautiful artwork at the Vatican,
and then finally settled on taking an evening stroll to some major monuments,
as recommended by Rick Steves.
The evening stroll was more than I ever could have asked
for. We saw the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Forum, and
the Colosseum. We’ll be back to the Coliseum tomorrow for the real visit, but we
wanted to see it all at night. And we walked to EVERYTHING! I’m not sure how
far it all was, because we took a few detours here are there (ya, detours,
that’s what I’ll call it, we weren’t lost at all), but it felt like a good
solid walk. Good enough to deserve a home-made pasta dinner!
With each step I took tonight on our walk, I could more and
more renewed and restored. Each Metro ride brought so much confidence back,
just as I felt that first night in Paris. Have I mentioned how much I love the
Metro? Weird, I know. But I love it. It’s smelly, it’s dirty, it’s filled with
interesting characters, but I love every bit of it. You get to see the real
part…the real people…of the city when you ride the Metro. The Metro is the
heartbeat of every large city. Underneath the houses and the restaurants is the
ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum of the wheels turning – keeping the movement of the city
going. It’s somewhat overwhelming at times, but when you finally push through
the people and are holding on to that germ-filled pole as you ride to your next
location, it’s a great feeling.
And the stairs…I feel so alive walking up the old steps of
Rome. Maybe it’s because I had knee surgery just a few months ago and spent the
evenings crying myself to sleep because I couldn’t walk up stairs for a much
longer time than was expected so I really really REALLY appreciate the ability
to walk up and down them, but for whatever reason, stairs bring me joy. And
thinking that over 1,000 years ago Roman soldiers walked up those same steps is
just a little cool too…just a little. ;)
Sigh! This is such a random blog tonight because I’m just so
filled with joy and exhaustion all at the same time. I’m happy to be in a city
of love, of romance, of history, of something BIG. Tomorrow is a big day
(climbing the St. Peter’s Square cupola, Pope Blessing, Colosseum Forum and
other sights after that, and then we’re meeting up with Maria’s friend who
lives here and is going to show us around) and it’s 11pm here, so I’m off to bed.
Enjoy the pictures!
Vatican
Our evening stroll lead us to the Spanish Steps...
The Trevi Fountain
The Pantheon
And finally the Colosseum
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