When in Rome...

At the end of August, Sean had a business trip that took him to Rome, Italy.  While this was great for him, I realized he might have a hard time leaving me and being all alone in the big scary city.  I HAD to come along with him.  It was just the right thing to do :)  We made the arrangements, and then off we went!

When I arrived, Sean still had a day of work.  I had to take the burden upon myself to go explore the city for him, to be able to show him around.  :)  (He already had a few days to himself before I arrived, so I had to catch up on some sight seeing)  I had a couple goals in mind when I set off that day.  First, was to see the sites.  Second, go to H&M!  You see, there isn't that much shopping to be done in Albania.  When you are around familiar shops there's a great need to at least go there, if not actually buy some things.  On my way to H&M I stopped by the beautiful attractions of Rome.

First stop - The Spanish Steps

It was a beautiful day with dramatic clouds filling the sky.  Perfect!

View from the top of the Spanish Steps.

From the Spanish Steps, you have to walk down a street that are filled with shops that I will NEVER afford to shop in... Louis Vuitton, Hermes, etc.  Beautiful to look in the windows, but not my style.  I continued my search for H&M...

After the rich street, I turned onto one of the main roads in Rome, Via del Corso.  This is the road that H&M was supposed to be on.  Off this road was also the Pantheon.  Next stop I made was the Pantheon!

It amazed me to see these historical sites.  At the time, I was reading a historical fiction book that took place in Rome.  It helped me to picture in my mind Ancient Rome in all it's glory.  But even then, it was hard to imagine how times were back then.  When I saw these Roman centurions though, BAM, it was like I was there! :)

Inside the Pantheon.  Absolutely beautiful!  I think this dome was one of the first of its kind.  Pretty impressive, and the fact that it's lasted this long has got to tell you something about the quality of the architecture.

We went back later at night to see the sites - Very dramatic in the evening!

This isn't the Pantheon, but along the way, we passed by this other building with the huge pillars.  Roman architecture is amazing.

As I continued along to H&M on Via del Corso, I stopped in a few of the many cathedrals along the way.

The ceilings were amazing.  It just boggles my mind how they accomplished all of this back in the day.

I then hit the end of Via del Corso where the National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II is located on the Piazza Venezia..

This is the view from the top of the National Monument.  Rome is such a beautiful city!  

Seeing the ancient ruins among the city was pretty cool.

Below is the Roman Forum from afar.

Colosseum :) 

When I realized that H&M wasn't on this end of the street, I turned around and made my way back up the street.  But Trevi Fountain was on the way, so of course, I had to stop!

And of course, we went back later at night to see the beautiful fountain :)  I didn't realize how big it was!  Also, I didn't know that there are steps going down to the fountain, which is nice for pictures, cause there were a lot of people! Even at 11pm!  I thought it was at a big open square, but it isn't.  It's in this tiny square squeezed in between a few other buildings.  But beautiful!

Finally, after seeing Trevi Fountain, I continued up the street and there it was!  H&M :)  Perfect timing too, for it had just started raining!

When my shopping fix was complete, I met up with Sean and we took a taxi to Vatican City.  The museum was closed, but we were able to see St. Peter's Basilica.  It was lovely.   

St. Peter's Square

There were no lines when we arrived, but you can see the yellow ropes that comprise the maze where hoards of people stand.  We got lucky, it only took a couple of minutes to get into the basilica.  

The famous Swiss Guard

Inside St. Peter's Basilica 

Pieta St. Peter's

Please don't think less of us, but when we saw this, our first thought was, "Look, it's the very first Santa Claus!"  Then we realized that might be a little sacrilegious and felt shame :) 

As we were leaving the Basilica, Sean tapped my shoulder and told me to look at the monk on his cellphone.  It is funny when you see two worlds you don't expect to meet, meet.  I'm sure monks are perfectly open to modern technology, but it's just funny to see it.

When we realized we couldn't get into the museum, we decided to head to the Colosseum!!

There it is!!

It was pretty impressive to go inside and try to imagine it as it was.  As I said before, I was reading a book about the time period when the Colosseum was in use.  It definitely took on a lot more significance with the images of the cruelty fresh in my mind. 

It is a magnificent structure, and I loved taking pictures of it. 

One of my favorite things to see in Rome, were the trees.  They were beautiful!

Arch of Constantine 

The Roman Forum across from the Colosseum

It was still light out, and we wanted to see the Colosseum at night.  We decided to go get dinner.  An Indian restaurant was recommended to us, and off we went.  It was the most amazing dinner ever!!  We had both been missing Indian food, and this food was sooo good.  I even got teary eyed as we started eating. *sigh*  I love Indian food.  Too bad they don't have any in Albania :(

Back to the Colosseum!  

A view from the Colosseum up the street to Piazza Venezia.

The next day we went to the Catacombs of Priscilla.  They were about to close when we got there, but the lady who gives the tours was nice enough to take us down and give us a private tour.  We saw some of the first images of Christ, Mary, and other New Testament themes on the walls of the catacombs - they were painted only a few decades after the people themselves lived.  This was one of our favorite sites, though we were allowed to take any pictures.  Sure it was radioactive and cold down in the catacombs, but the history down there was amazing.

We decided to walk back to the hotel, and strolled through a park to get there...

There were beautiful sites all along the way

Sean had finally had it with me and taking pictures, so I went up the steps to take a picture while he waited at the bottom  :)

There is still an actual wall around the old city of Rome!

In the afternoon, attempt number two to get into the the Vatican City Museum finally panned out :)

Vatican City Museum

St. Peter's Basilica from the windows of the museum

                          Laocoon and His Sons

Apparently Laocoon was going to expose the Trojan Horse 

as a ruse, but Athena sent snakes to strike him down.                          Hercules

There was a hallway of statues and statue parts.  In one corner of an alcove, we saw this giant toe.  All I could think of when I saw it was..."Whoooooo stole my haaaaairy toe" from the child's scary story.  Apparently, the Vatican does :)

Again, those ceilings!!  Amazing!

Some other pictures from throughout the museum...

Okay, back to possibly being a little irreverent...

Can you find the very first Santa Claus?

This was a fresco whose symbolism stuck me . If you can't tell what it is, it is a statue of Christ on the cross in the background with a broken statue of a Roman god in the foreground.

On to the Sistine chapel and Michelangelo's most famous piece of art.  It was a neat experience.  Sean and I sat on a bench at the edge of the room and listened to Rick Steve's explanation of the room. (I highly recommend doing this.  It give the pictures and the room a lot more meaning)  While the guards hushed everyone every minute or some, we were able to take in the masterpiece that was before us.

The spiral stairs used to leave the Vatican Museum

When we finished with the museum, we went to the Piazza Novana.  This is what people usually think of when they here about Rome....

Beautiful architecture, obelisks, fountains, cafes and art.

As we were entering and leaving the plaza, we passed by this man.  He was a little old man shuffling about and lip singing/actual singing, not too loudly or with the words, to an Italian song with someone already singing.  It was pretty funny.  I had to give him some money and take a picture. :)

Our last morning in Rome, we walked around the city a bit more.  Hitting some of the sites again, but mostly trying to stay out of the rain, and just relaxing.

There were a lot of wedding shoots going on as we went around the city...

Piazza del Popolo

Gates to Borghese Park

We had a great time in Rome, and recommend it to all.  It was a beautiful city, with lots of interesting history.  While we missed our little man at home, we had a nice relaxing weekend away.  Thanks again Sean's work!