Rome'n Around

Is there anything more romantic than a Valentine's Day long weekend spent in Rome frolicking in piazzas, indulging in nightly aperitivo and buzzing from shots of rich espresso? I think not.

In contrast, what do you think about hanging around in foreign hospitals? Albeit, different and less romantic--Also intriguing, right?...Due to a stint of pneumonia and an eye-opening tour of Albania's healthcare facilities, our Valentine's Day Rome-cation was only slightly postponed til Tyler's lungs got themselves together. But boy, was it worth the wait!

Not exactly the Rome-antic weekend we had planned.

Alas! We lucked out with a generous hotelier who offered to postpone our reservations, and our credit cards gave us a touch of travel insurance, making the flights easy to change. A month later, with a clean bill of health, we were off to live la bella vita!

FRIDAY

With only two days in the Eternal City we had a lot of first-timer Roma highlights to hit! After touching down and hitting la bottega for some libations, we rambled over to the Trevi Fountain and threw a few coins over our shoulders--One coin to return to Rome, two coins for a new romance and three coins for marriage! Even though we're converting Albanian lek(↓) to Euros (↑), we couldn't leave anything to chance! Fun little ditti about the Trevi Fountain; The coins are collected with a big vacuum a few times each week, sorted, counted and donated to a non-profit organization that provides aid for poor and homeless within Rome. (Although these numbers seem unbelievable, I can't seem to find info to contradict, so..) With 1,200 visitors stopping by the fountain every hour, the fountain does a little crowd funding to the tune of 1.4 million Euros each year.

Also, should be noted that those numbers probably seem a bit unreasonable to us as we visited the fountain at 11pm...in March. Not exactly the height of coin-flinging, fountain season. Nonetheless, I'd highly recommend visiting the fountain at an off-peak hour/month to be able to enjoy it without the reported throngs of people. For the rest of the evening we consumed piazzas, gelato, wine on repeat.

At the time my phone only took black&white photos--Luckily Rome lends itself well to monochrome!

SATURDAY

 

The next morning we woke up uncharacteristically early (unbeknownst to us, there's a time change from Albania) and headed to the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. Having heard that the lines would be long, and having totally flaked on the advice to buy the 'Skip the Line tickets', we were happy to join a relatively modest line. About an hour later, as we neared the security scanners, it suddenly dawned on us that we weren't totally sure what we had lined up for (the previous evening's escapades had left us somewhat dull). Whatever it was, we were pretty sure we wanted to see it. So we turned around to the person behind us and without shame asked a very friendly face, "What is this line even for?" To which they replied way nicer than they had to be, "Ughhh, St. Peter's Basilica?" Riiiigghhhttt.

So St. Peter's Basilica was a seriously impressive superstructure chocked full of mosaics, alters, statues, artwork, shrines and relics. As neither of us are Roman Catholic, it was certainly not a religious experience, however it is definitely a very impressive church and was worth the bewildered wait.

Next we made the short jaunt around the corner to the Vatican Museums. We waited in line fooorrrever (Again, BUY THE SKIP THE LINE TICKETS), and by the time we reached the doors we were feeling less than enthusiastic about the crowd we were being herded along with, thinking that we wouldn't have the chance to truly appreciate any of the artwork inside. But HEEELLOOO! The Vatican Museums! Wow. Since the Museums consist of about 1400 rooms, we were aiming to hit the highlights, but turns out there were so, so many! Among our faves were the Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts, the Gallery of Maps, Tapestries Gallery....and of course The Sistine Chapel.

A word about the Sistine Chapel. You are moved along by the steady stream of tourists into a big empty room in which you find yourself standing in the middle, all the while an oximoronic  loud speaker is very ungracefully reminding you to be quiet. There are security guards everywhere making sure people aren't taking pictures. All in all you are not generally feeling the air of an art appreciation atmosphere. Then, you look up and you see it!

☞ ☜

The sheer size and beauty, the details along with the over 'big picture'--the Chapel's ceiling is truly awe-inspiring (Please forgive my uneducated art review). What I mean to say is it was super. Really, really super. So altho, yes, we were feeling a bit icky and conflicted about financially supporting the Catholic Church (in particular to the Vatican) and their habits to embed and offer safe haven to pedophiles, it was definitely a spectacular collection.

So after a suffice amount of arts and culture we needed to satisfy the growing urge for an Aperol spritz, pasta, gelati, pizza, wine...You know the drill.

In pasta heaven!

SUNDAY

Sunday we headed to the heart of the Ancient City, the site of the Roman Forum. Where politics, business, trials, socializing, and the general hustle and bustle expected of the year 29 BC all went down. It was super cool to walk amidst the temples, ruins, markets, banks, bath houses ---- all the while knowing these were the very streets Julius Caesar took his afternoon jaunts. Coming from Canada (having just celebrating its 150 birthday, heyooo!) it is truly mind-boggling to be standing in a place that is 2000++ years old. Colour us impressed.

And of course the Colosseum, Il Colosseo, or the Flavian Amphitheater. Altho not really needing any explanation (you've all seen Gladiator), I offer you five fun facts;

1. To spice things up beyond the run-of-the-mill gladiator fight (boooorrrinngg), the Colosseum would be flooded to accommodate mock naval battles. Gotta keep the troops entertained!

2. While the most iconic Colosseum is in Rome, there are 230 Roman amphitheatres dispersed around the Roman empire. We visited another one in Pula, Croatia! These people liked to party!
3. It's one of the new seven wonders of the world (others include the Great Wall of China, Chichen Itza, Petra, Machu Picchu, Christ the Redeemer and the Taj Mahal).

4. Although one million animals and half a million people were killed there, the Colosseum is now used as a symbol in the campaign against capital punishment. It is lit up every time a death sentence is pardoned or completely done away with in a country.

5. The thumbs up gesture originated in the Colosseum--Meaning, it was time for the gladiator to die.   👍👍👍

With only two days in Rome, we hit the major-est of tourist attractions and did not even begin to scratch the surface of this beautiful city (but you've got to start somewhere, right?). With a flight to catch back to Albania, all we could say is 'arrivederci', and dream of our next Italian vacanza!