Nice - vieille ville

2010-06-15

When In Rome....

Jared, Sarah and I decided that we wanted to take advantage of the proximity of one of the great cities in the world and take a little weekend trip to the ancient city of Rome. The sheer volume of history and sights is quite overwhelming to any first time visitor and frankly, without the help of an amazing travel book Rick Steve's Italy we would have been totally lost and missed out on seeing many amazing sights. It really proved to be an invaluable resource to us on our little trip and I would heartily recommend it to any would be Roman travelers. We began our trip by seeing the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. All three were in impressive not just in the size and scope but in the history that they represented and in the fact that nearly 2,000 year ago civilizations flourished and constructed such architectural wonders is simply astounding. All though these sights are very "touristy" no trip to Rome could be complete without them you simply have to see them and stand in their structures to appreciate the glory of the Roman Empire. We then went and saw some lesser known sights and Rome is amazing for lovers of cathedrals and art because there are more 900 catholic churches in Rome and many of them are incredibly spectacular in their history and architecture. Many innocuous looking churches in the area house veritable masterpieces from Michaelangelo, Bernini, and Caravaggio its simply amazing to walk around a neighborhood pop into the local cathedral and be able to see a Michaelangelo statue free of charge. For our second day in Rome we visited the Museo Nazionale di Roma which I really enjoyed for it's collections and size which was large enough to see plenty but small enough to enjoy it in just an hour or two. Of particular interest were the mosaics extracted from ancient roman villas that had been marvelously preserved and some really great early roman and greek statues. My personal favorite exhibit were two bronze statues that were discovered buried underneath a local building and were in incredible shape. The musuem also houses the largest collection of roman coinage anywhere in the world which is kept in their bank vault basement. We capped off saturday's activities with the England vs. USA world cup matchup at a popular irish pub which was filled to standing room only and split pretty evenly between fans of the two countries. It was great fun and friendly patriotism and competiveness abounded on both sides which saw the USA pull off an unexpected draw with the mighty English. Sunday was my birthday and we spent the day visiting different churches and the ancient castle of St. Angelo on the Tiber river home to Popes and Italian kings. We strolled through the the ancient streets of Rome on a casual night walk where we spent some time in the Piazza Navona gazing at the famous Bernini fountains and enjoying the displays of artists and street performers who entertained crowds and sold their wares. Tbe day ended up like any good birthday should with birthday cake this cake however, did not end up lining our stomachs but rather in an all out cake fight on the hotel lawn which would require a good twenty minutes clean-up in the bathroom, when in Rome lol. Monday the last day of our Roman Holiday was not some lounge around go to the airport day we spent our last day visiting the vaunted Vatican Museum with its 4 miles of exhibitions culminating in our visit to the Sistine chapel to see Michaelangelo's masterpiece. Later we passed through St. Peters Basilica to see the largest church in the world and meander through its amazing sculptures and works of art not to mention its awe-inspiring architecture. All in all a busy and hectic but fun-filled weekend getaway and I haven't even begun to mention the food, amazing, and could spend a whole blog post on alone the stories and stereotypes about Italian cuisine I am very happy to report are all true.

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