We were originally banking on sunnier weather while in Rome. Unfortunately, it reminded me a little too much of London weather and rained 3 out of the 4 days we were here. We had planned on traveling out to a nearby beach on our Friday, but the cold rain kept us in Rome, as opposed to spending money on transportation. I was set on seeing the beach, but I know I'll get my chance in a couple of weeks when I travel to Spain. Pete and I are planning a weekend in either Alicante or Valencia on the Mediterranean. I think I can wait until then.
We intended on seeing some museums and mostly staying indoors on this day, but many of the museums were closed or had ridiculous prices and booking policies. Museo Borguese for instance not only was outrageously priced but required advanced bookings. Boo. Coming from London, where most museums are free, Pam and I were not happy with this discovery. So instead, we spent most of the afternoon walking around and seeing some of the sights we had missed earlier, such as the Piazza del Popolo, the Castel Sant’ Angelo, the shopping area Piazza Navara where Pam and I each devoured our own delicious 12” pizza (All the walking worked up an appetite! What can I say?), and the Pantheon.
Piazza del Popolo. We didn't get a chance to go in the twin churches because they shut down for afternoon services.
The Pantheon was really cool since it’s a mix of both pagan and Christian origin and it really has withstood the test of time, unlike most of the other Roman structures built that long ago. It was originally a temple to the Roman gods, but was converted to a Christian church in the Middle Ages. Currently, it’s used as a church and has some kings buried there as well as the famous artist Raphael.
The Pantheon.
Honestly, the sightseeing was really fun. We covered a lot of area and learned a lot during our adventures. The only bad part was that since I anticipated warmer weather, I left gloves at home, and thus my genetically poor circulation to my hands lead to a really painful afternoon. By the time we sat down to eat our pizza my hands were so numb that I could hardly hold a knife and fork, let alone slice my pizza.
Sorry, I digress. We ended our excursions back at Piazza del Popolo, where we visited the church Santa Maria del Popolo. This gorgeous church transported me into Dan Brown's novel, "Angels and Demons," which made me happy. There is a ton of religious significance at this place. It's walls are lined with famous little chapels including the Chigi Chapel, which was designed by Raphael. On the floor of the chapel is a mosaic called the Kneeling Skeleton, which is pretty famous. Unfortunately, we couldn't see that or most of the chapel because of what else?--scaffolding. But there were a lot of other cool chapels, including Cybo Chapel, which is totally made of marble. It was absolutely stunning. Sorry, there are no pictures from this part of the excursion. My batteries were dead. But if you want to see some good pictures, copy this link: http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/rome/popolo/popolo.html
Our long day of walking in the cold left us once again exhausted, but Pam and I toughed it out and had a really fun late night at the hostel’s bar with a few of our roommates. The hostel had free sangria hours and good happy hour specials all throughout the month ,and a lot of the visitors like to come down there for the evenings, so it made for a really fun time every night we were there.
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