family fun, days 4-7: roma!

Day 4:
We arrived in Rome mid-morning, had some trouble finding our hotel, and then we had even more trouble getting in. It was a B&B, and no one was answering the phone. Praise God for providing a nice young Chinese lady nearby who was willing to help call them for us (our B&B, funny enough, was in the middle of a Chinatown-type neighborhood, lol) and also someone who walked out of the building, allowing us to get inside and find the hotel. We finally found it, got settled, and set out. After a quick lunch of sandwiches and pizza (eggplant is not the best topping, I found out), we walked to the Colosseum to check out Ancient Rome. For the first time (of many), we saw the potable water fountains that are so common in Italy :) Walked through the Colosseum, Imperial Forums, and Palatine Hill.
I loved seeing the Colosseum! Especially after doing the Ancient Rome touchcart a few years back at HMNS (Ecoteens, anyone? <3 ) and learning about the Colosseum and Roman roads and togas. Mm, good times. It was cool to stand there and just imagine a roaring crowd watching a lively, albeit grotesque, show. It's really quite neat to walk back into history like that. :)
After Ancient Rome, we headed back to the hotel, and then we went to eat out at a restaurant nearby. We tried to go somewhere our hotel-keeper recommended, but she didn't give us a restaurant name, so I'm afraid we picked the wrong place. Either way, we all had different types of pastas that were just okay and a bit pricey, but it's okay. It happens.

(You know, I'm thankful I grew up on milk and cereal (or bread/bread items) every day for breakfast, because that's essentially the diet of hotels/hostels here.)
Day 5:
We took the Metro (one of their two lines, lol) to the Vatican! We went to the Vatican Museum, which was huuuge and so marvelous. Of course, the masterpiece was the Sistine Chapel :) I loved it. Michelangelo was such a beast. I kinda wish we'd stayed there a bit longer, but it's okay. I hope to go back there someday and just stare at the ceiling for a while. It was neat to recognize a lot of the scenes from the Bible :)
We then headed for mid-afternoon lunch, and we wound up (unfortunately) at a bar with a tourist menu. Probably our second to worst dining experience, mostly because we had to wait nearly an hour for our food...bleh. However, their French fries were decent, and I kinda liked my margherita pizza, haha. No more lunches off a tourist menu, that's for sure!
After lunch, we walked over to St. Peter's Basilica, which is ginormous. So astounding in size and architecture. In the end, though, I feel like (and I think Michelle was the same) I admired it more for its architecture than anything else. Seeing all the churches (not just St. Peter's, but in general) and other buildings made me want to learn more about two things: (European) architecture and Catholicism. So many questions and things I don't know...but then I know I could just look up a lot of those things online, and I don't/haven't. We'll see, I guess.
One thing that was a little heartbreaking was when we were in St. Peter's, our mom told Michelle and me to quickly pray a prayer in the center of the church, since that may be the only time we go there. I was caught off guard, and I guess she meant well, but it broke my heart to see how little she understands of the faith. We tried to briefly explain to her that prayer isn't limited to any time or space...at the moment, I just prayed that God would open her eyes (and my dad's) to who He really is. Ongoing prayer request for sure.
After resting a while in the square in front of St. Peter's (speaking of which...it was FILLED with chairs! Probably almost 1000...crazy o.o I guess it's for when the Pope comes out on Wednesday mornings?), we Metro'd over to the Spanish Steps, which we climbed, took some pictures, and then headed back. Due to our late and filling lunch, we just had apples and gelato for dinner :) and walked for a bit in the plaza next to our hotel.

Day 6:
Having hit all of the major must-sees in the first two days, we decided to take a walking tour of another part of Rome. We headed out, passed the intersection with four fountains, looked around the Palazzo Quirinale (Rome's government building, I believe), and then stopped by the Trevi Fountain. It's so big! And pretty. And crowded, lol. Then we wandered over to the Pantheon (which I think I had confused with the Parthenon in Greece...fail), which has a cool dome with a beam of sunlight coming through--neat! Piazza Navona was also really pretty; I especially liked Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers (the Nile, Danube, Ganges, and Rio de la Plata); it's so creative! They're depicted as river gods with different poses :) Then we split for lunch--our parents munched on calzones, while Michelle and I tracked down one of the restaurants recommended by Rick Steves (oh yeah, how could I forget to mention him? He was like our fifth companion, and we referred to him as such, for the most part. Whoohoo for a borrowed 2009 edition of Rick Steve's Italy! Haha. His books were everywhere...no joke).
We found the place (Osteria di Marco, I think?) and took a seat next to a strange Italian man. When our waiter (who was highly amusing and who I really liked--he had a very "Italian" nose, as Michelle put it) came to take our orders, I think he made some joke referring to us and the man next to me, and it thoroughly confused us. What was even weirder was that the man reached over and tugged slightly on my purse, then looked at me incredulously. Talk about confusing body language. I was so confused...but he left us alone for the most part (other than another instance where he did some weird hand motion in the air...lol). We wanted to ask him what he recommended, but he didn't seem too friendly. We ended up getting two yummy pasta dishes, and it was a good time :) I kinda wish I'd taken a picture with our waiter...oh well.
Afterwards, we walked over to Campo di Fiori (Field of Flowers), which is just a market plaza, and then we crossed the Tiber River to Trastevere, the neighborhood on the other side of the river. We rested for a while in the Church of Santa Maria della Trastevere, which was pretty beautiful itself. Not knowing what to do (and emptied of suggestions from Rick Steves), we ended up finding our solution on our dad's map of Rome that he'd bought right before coming: climbing Gianicolo for one of the best views of Rome. It was quite a climb (and there was tons of PDA at the top), but it was worth it! We could see pretty much all of Rome, and St. Peter's was pretty close as well. Yay for a good photo op!
We descended the hill, headed back to Ancient Rome area, and then split again. Our parents went back to our hotel area for Chinese food for dinner, and Michelle wanted to go back and re-climb the hill for a view during sunset, so off we went (with apples for dinner once again), after stopping by Capitol Hill. The climb was still pretty hard, but the view was nice (and we saw a newlywed couple taking pictures!) with the glow of the sun. Best of all, we got to catch up :)
Before the night was over, we swung by Giolitti (one of the best gelatos ever) for chocolate and mango gelato (so good!), as well as the Trevi Fountain to see it at night and throw in a coin each to assure our return to Rome :P per the tourist custom. We followed it up with more gelato (hehe) from San Crispino, and then it was rushing back to the hotel for bedtime.

Day 7:
Last day in Rome! We checked out and then headed for the National Museum of Rome, not knowing where else to go. However, we decided at the end not to go (I think our parents were kinda museum-ed out for the moment, and we still had at least two big ones to visit in Florence), so we wandered into the Church of St. Maria of Angels and Martyrs (I think?), which ended up being pretty neat. They had a Galileo exhibit temporarily up, which was pretty interesting, and we also got to see the organist play a mini-concert, which was awesome! Free music and a shady place of respite :)
Afterwards, we headed over to a shopping mall near Giolitti that we'd seen the night before, and then headed back to the Pantheon area for lunch. On the way, we saw a ton of people wearing pink jerseys and waving flags that proclaimed "Palermo." We eventually figured out (from one of their t-shirts) that Palermo is a soccer team, and they had a game that night. Yay for football spirit :) Per Rick Steve's recommendation, we got a granita di caffe con panna (coffee slushie with whipped cream) from one of the bars near the Pantheon, and it was amaaazing! Yum. We had pizza for lunch and Giolitti for dessert. Yay :)
We walked back to the church from the morning to take a slight siesta before heading to the train station and hopping on the train to Florence.
After a couple of hours, we got to Florence and found our hotel (after my faulty directions made us take several unnecessary turns, lol), which turned out to be right on the Duomo Square--neat stuff! We split again for dinner, and Michelle and I found a self-serve cafeteria (lol) from Rick Steves' book, where we had the simplest dinner I think we had during the whole two weeks. But sometimes that's what you need :) Minestrone and tortellini and a bowl of cherries for 10 euros? Perfect. Afterward, we wandered around the nearby plazas (I love Florence for its charm and walkable-ness! :D), and Michelle discovered the joys of crema de Grom at a gelateria called Grom. She cannot get over that flavor, haha. XP


Whoo! Another update done. In the meantime, my classmates downstairs are taking the weirdest "purity test" ever...talk about awkward.