After finding our hotel, we changed and ate a quick lunch before eagerly rushing off to see as many sites as we could in just a day and a half. Our first stop was the Ancient City ruins of Rome. There are only remnants of buildings and strong standing pillars that once held up large monumental buildings, leading the way to the stoic and mesmerizing Colosseum. After taking a look at what was once the greatest Empire of all time, we headed to our next stop, the Trevi Fountain. The fountain was awesome to see up close, and from what I had seen in pictures, I had pictured it quite differently than what I actually saw. In reality it is slammed in between buildings, in a small plaza. I had thought it would be in a wide open area, not surrounded by so many modern buildings. The plaza was extremely crowded with tourists, and with our group, four more were added. We were told by our hotel receptionist to throw coins in the fountain for wishes. One coin to return to Rome, two for love, three for divorce. Why anyone would throw three coins of any value to wish for a divorce is beyond my realm of thinking anyways, so I did the cliche, even amount of two, and wished for love.
(Pictured: ruins, throwing wishes, trevi fountain)
With four wishes made, we made our way over to the infamous Spanish Steps. We walked along a couple side streets until finally passing through a giant open plaza and seeing masses of people seated on the spacious stairs leading up to a church. This was the kind of openness and proper representation I thought the Trevi Fountain deserved. My friends and I found this place the perfect spot for a photo-op, and after sitting on the steps for a couple minutes resting our feet, we realized we had a time constraint of only a day and a half and pressed on to our final tourist destination of the night: the Pantheon. The Pantheon is free to the public, something I was ecstatic about seeing as I am completely flat broke. The large pillars that hold up the triangular roof leads the eyes to the big doors underneath the greek etchings in the forefront of the monument. It was dark at night, so the inside of the Pantheon illuminated a pathway of light through the columns and into the inside where the famous holed dome is. The inside is beautifully crafted, with such attention to detail it always makes me wonder how it was constructed in the time period it was, with such minimal materials and machines to do so. The dome, famous for its hole in the middle led me to wonder about when it rains. The pressure from the dome is so immense that when it rains, it actually repels the rain from coming in through the hole, and instead actually just mists inside. This is the one time I actually wanted it to be raining, because that entire concept was fascinating to me. The night ended with some gelato, to which I learned I appreciate the taste of real, American ice cream better, and we headed back to our hotel to sleep off the jet lag and get ready for the next morning.
After a good night's sleep, we woke up and were headed off to the famed Vatican City for a tour of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. We took a bus and walked around the perimeter of Vatican City for what seemed to be forever, before finding the entrance through a myriad of pillars, into a gorgeous cobble stone courtyard. The courtyard is beautiful, with a fountain in the middle and tons of Greek-esque sculptures of probably really important people lining the tops of St. Peters Basilica's limb-like column supports. We walked into St. Peters Basilica and I was even more amazed at the detail in every aspect of this church. It seemed as though not one single inch of stone had been installed or created without some reference to something important or relevant to the time. Architecture simply amazes me with everything I see, because I realize and maybe not even grasp the amount of time it took for someone to build such a monumental building. Following the Basilica, we moved onto the Sistine Chapel. I have seen pictures, and I even snapped one illegally (photos were not allowed to be taken inside) but pictures don't do it justice. To fathom the amount of time, energy and strength that Michaelangeo had to have to hand paint this entire chapel is something I can't even imagine. I can't even finish a paint-by-numbers puzzle my dad gave me when I was six, let alone think about an entire chapel. The proportions of the people on the curved ceiling were phenomenal and I sat there for a good 10 minutes just observing the elegance of the entire mural, I was for once truly speechless.
PICTURED: The Vatican, The pillars, St. Peters Basilica, inside the Basilica, Sistine Chapel ceiling.
After the Vatican, we made our last stop at the Colosseum. There are people lining the streets dressed as Gladiators, willing to pose with you for pictures and a tip. I obliged, being a typical tourist. There was an entrance fee to the Colosseum, but it was totally worth it. I can't really imagine what it was like to see the amphitheater completely whole and new, but from the ruins I saw it was magnificent. Though there was complete barbarism ensuing on the ground level, the brilliance of the construction of this place was insane. We walked around the edge, snapping tons of pictures. You can't see the ground floor anymore, just the underneath where they kept the lions, and the gladiators who fought to their deaths for sport and cheers. It was crazy to even think that someone would put their life on the line just to be loved by the public, when in reality they didn't care if you died or not in the end. The ruins of the stadium gave a taste of what the empire used to be, and how powerful it was to install such a large place for sporting events, regardless of their place on anyone's moral compass. It was a great experience to see the sites, and be engulfed in the historical city of Rome, it's given me a new appreciation for ancient history, and actually inspired me to watch Gladiator upon my return to Dublin.
CIAO!
No comments:
Post a Comment