| Adventures In The Eternal City |
It's amazing what a person can get used to. Before this trip, the thought of walking 10 miles everyday, wearing socks and underwear three times in a row, not using moisturizer every morning, and trekking around with 40 pounds on my back for two months may have seemed more like torture than travel. But these days, I almost crave the long days of walking in the big cities, clean laundry doesn't seem nearly as important as it once did, moisturizer couldn't be more unnecessary with the amount of sweating that I do, and the weight of my backpack just feels like good exercise. I wonder if my newfound tolerance for a life with less creature comforts will stick, or if I'll cave under the temptation of being able to wash my clothes at regular intervals and keep a wide array of skin care products lined up neatly in my bathroom. Either way, it's exhilarating to know that I've pushed my limits in ways I may not have expected I could handle and come out relatively unscathed on the other side.
 Speaking of ten mile walks, Rome has proved to be quite the sprawling city. Since it's difficult to sneeze in this city without hitting some ruins, we rarely hop on a bus or ride the subway for fear that we might miss something of tremendous historical significance. Reading through guidebooks for Rome, the list of must see Basilicas and Piazzas and not-to-be-missed staircases and fountains seems like a mile long. But the truth is, after 2700 years of history, there really is that much laying around here that's worth taking a look at. 
We began our tour in earnest on Tuesday afternoon, grabbing some lunch from a supermarket and heading on foot towards the Coliseum. We took a break to eat our food on a breezy hillside overlooking the ruins, chowing down on salty delicious prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and Italian bread. We walked everywhere, seeing the Roman Forum, the Arco di Constantino, the Campidoglio, the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, the Piazza Navona, and the spectacular Pantheon. In the evening, we strolled through Piazza del Popolo, walked down the Spanish steps, and tossed a coin into the Fontana di Trevi, a huge and beautifully lit fountain mobbed with tourists but spectacular nevertheless.
 It was after nine, but we were still up for more Italian culture, this time in the form of food. We spotted a restaurant on a quiet street with a menu somewhat within our budget. The truth is that any sit-down restaurant more or less puts us into splurging territory, given our $30-40 per day budget, but we feel that just as the museums and monuments are important to experience, so too are the Montepulcianos and the rigatonis. We sat outside, enjoying tasty cuisine for nearly three hours until all the other restaurant's patrons had gone home and we were eventually asked by the manager to move along. The guy was pretty nice about it, suggesting a bar nearby where we could continue our conversation. We ended up walking back to Termini station and catching a bus home instead, tummies full of delicious food.  The last two days have been completely devoted to touristy sightseeing. We got a late start yesterday, heading to the Vatican around 2. We ate some lunch there and watched people wandering around St. Peter's Square. Eventually we got in the long line to enter the Basilica and made our way inside. The place is huge, incredibly ornate, fabulously gorgeous, and generally amazing. I read somewhere that you could fit the Statue of Liberty, upright, under the dome with room to spare. I can believe it. In the afternoon, we walked through the Trastavere neighborhood, enjoying delicious homemade chocolate gelato and further honing our ability to ignore gypsies. We're getting quite good!  Today we went back to the Vatican to see the museum, part of which is the Sistine Chapel. As we were walking towards the chapel, the lady on the audio tour recording was talking about how it's one of the most recognized places in the world. I felt a little dumb, since I really had no idea what it looked like. Also, calling anything one of the most recognized places in the entire world is setting the bar pretty high, so I have to admit that when I walked in, I found the whole place a little underwhelming. It's dark, there are a ton of people inside, and at first glance, it isn't nearly as breathtaking as some of the other, more decorated rooms we've seen in Europe. And compared to St. Peter's Basilica, the place seemed as big as a shoebox. But the truth is, it takes a little more time to appreciate the Sistine Chapel. I listened more to the audio tour recording, which explains in detail the significance of nearly every square inch of art on the walls and ceiling. Craning my neck upwards to see Michelangelo's masterpiece, I began to understand why they call this the emotional and physical center of the Vatican.  We had to go pick up our laundry before hopping our night train to Venice this evening, so we took the metro and a bus back to our neighborhood and walked toward the lavanderia. Off in the distance, the sky was getting dark, but this has happened everyday since we've been in Rome. Sometimes it thunders, sometimes there is lightning, but it doesn't ever seem to rain on us, so we weren't too alarmed. Perhaps we should have been.
 We collected our neatly folded laundry and started heading back to the hotel when the wind began to pick up and a bit of rain started to fall. As the raindrops grew bigger, the three of us reached for our umbrellas, which we've learned to keep at close reach. I had mine open in no more than five seconds, but by then the storm had turned into a full-on downpour. We started walking briskly in the direction of our lodgings, hoping to make it there before things got worse. Much to our dismay, we hadn't walked for more than 30 seconds before the rain began falling in sheets and our umbrellas started turning themselves inside out from the stiff wind. We were getting pretty wet so we picked up the pace, breaking into a slight jog. We crossed under some Roman arches that seem to traverse the whole city, stopping in hopes of taking shelter for a moment. There was already a small crowd of people gathered, also trying to weather the storm. We soon realized that when rain is falling sideways, you have little hope of remaining dry without finding shelter indoors, so we decided to make a run for it. First Alex, then Marc, then I, all broke into a sprint, running down the sidewalk in an futile attempt to reach our hotel and get inside before we were totally soaked. I had the laundry under my arm and I was doing what I could to protect it from the drenching shower we were getting, but it really was no use. I was getting rain in my eyes while simultaneously being pelted with large marble-sized hail as we ran like madmen down the street. I lost sight of Alex and could barely see Marc through the squall when I saw the wind wrench the umbrella from his hand and send it flying into traffic. Lighting was flashing and car alarms were going on when finally, I spotted the entrance to our hostel. I ran inside, soaked head to toe, and was greeted by an equally damp Marc and Alex, who already had a bit of an audience of confused and slightly amused onlookers. We stood there, dripping wet, wondering what we should do next. As hail pelted the front windows, we caught our breath, eventually pulling the wet cell phones and money from our pockets. My shoes were squishy, my shirt was clinging to my body, and even my underwear was wet. It felt like I had walked right into the shower with all my clothes on.
After that adventure, the three of us took showers, put on dry clothes, and have been hairdrying the dampness from our belongings for the last hour or so. Tonight we have a sleeper train reserved that gets us into Venice at the bright and early hour of 5:30am, when we will continue our adventures!
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