Saturday morning we had to meet at the train station at 6:30 am! Early, but necessary since the train ride is about 2 hours. We dropped our overnight bags at our hotel in Rome, then headed out immediately for our tour of the Vatican. Last time I went to Italy the Vatican was my absolute favorite stop (closely followed by Florence :) ), but this time our guide was terrible! We had trouble with the radios they give you, the guide had a really bad accent, and he didn't speak very clearly. And even when I did understand what he was saying, the information was not very interesting. I was really disappointed because there is so much history, and the stories behind the art and artists are incredible! Luckily, another girl and I are really into art history and we shared some good stories with the rest of our group. Also, the tour felt rushed, and we skipped some of the most interesting places like the Stanza della Segnatura! I didn't get many good pictures inside (it's very dark, and you can't stand still very long), but here's a few highlights.
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| From Days 10-12 |
Courtyard with lots of antique art and this one modern piece in the center. I think it's the only piece of modern art in the Vatican? It's supposed to symbolize the whole world, i believe. I wouldn't know though because our tour guide didn't talk about it.
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| From Days 10-12 |
A little cut off, but you get the idea. lots of statues.
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| From Days 10-12 |
Pope Leo XIII?
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| From Days 10-12 |
Frescoed ceilings!
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| From Days 10-12 |
Florence in the room of the maps!
Hall of tapestries
Look at that crowd!
Inside St. Peter's... Michelangelo's Pieta! Did you know this was the only work he signed?
Ok, this is kind of creepy, but this is the actual body of Pope John XXIII, whose body never decayed! It's considered a miracle and a mystery.
The front of St. Peter's Basilica!
Me at the vatican! Unfortunately, nobody is able to take pictures with my camera, so the only pictures of me are typically out of focus or dark. This one isn't too bad.
Unfortunately, Saturday I was also not feeling so well, so after our tour of the vatican, i spent our free afternoon in the hotel. As I e-mailed my mom while I was sick... good thing i didn't really like Rome anyways!
I did, however, make it to our free dinner
Chloe and Natalie, two girls who live with me
Me and my roommate Chloe!
Sunday I was feeling a little better, and got up early for mass at Santa Maria degli Angeli, apparently the go-to church in Rome before the Vatican. That afternoon we toured the Colosseum and Roman Forum... unfortunately with the same tour guide from Saturday!
Alexa, Maria, Natalie, Chloe, Jessica, and Melanie preparing for our Colosseum tour
Me with the Colosseum!
Sitting on a Corinthian capital in the Colosseum. It was funny, there were giant column pieces lying around everywhere randomly, like it's no big deal.
The middle area. I wish I knew more about this, but I have no idea what our tour guide was saying.
Natalie and me in the colosseum. There's a whole series of pictures like this with different groups in this same pose. Unfortunately, while we were snapping photos, our tour guide left us! We thought he was just around the corner, and left moments later while we finished up, but then we couldn't find him! We had hardly been in the Colosseum long and didn't even go to any other levels, but we finally figured out he had left, and since we were next to the exit he made a quick escape and we lost him. Even though we (about 10 of us... out of a group of almost 30) had our earpieces in still, he wasn't saying where he was, where to go, etc. Then again, we couldn't really understand him.
Finally, we reconnected with him and the rest of our group (only about 8 had stuck with him. the rest caught up after us or turned in their radios and left). Nobody was really happy at this point, but we still had a tour of the Roman Forum left!
I took some Glamor shots while we waited for the group to reconnect.
We finally started walking!
Our guide said something about the green door here... I wish I knew what it was...
Daniel and Kelly resting in the shade. They actually are with GSE's 3 month program at the University of Florence (I'm at Lorenzo de Medici) and just had their finals this week! They're leaving tomorrow and we will miss them!
This used to be somebody's garden
This place used to be thriving!
Our bored group
Our really bored group
What I did since I was too bored to listen
Finally our tour was over! A group of us had lunch, then began our own casual tour of the city.
This building is dedicated to everyone who's served in the Italian military i think? It's actually really impressive in person.
Alexa has an elephant tattoo on her ankle (which we tried to include in the picture also, but that just didn't work), so it was only appropriate that she got a picture with the elephant statue.
Alexa, Natalie, and Maria on the way to the Pantheon!
Welcome to the pantheon! Unfortunately, they were don't restoration on the outside, so it looked like a construction sight...
Athena, the goddess the temple was originally dedicated to. My art history knowledge was handy here too, and our group named me the tour guide.
Mary, who the temple is now dedicated to.
Next stop.... Trevi fountain!
Me throwing a coin in and making a wish!
The rest of the afternoon we spent very casually wandering into shops, eating gelato, and taking our time. Luckily, everyone in the group was on the same page and wanted no agenda. Actually, our agenda was simple: pantheon, trevi fountain, and anything in between. We had 5 hours. It was a perfect day though, and we all had a lot of fun. I like Rome much better now.
We still had some time to kill after we had wandered back to our meeting point, so we stopped at a cafe for some drinks.
And then our weekend in Rome was over! We took the train back, and life resumed in Florence.
Fabulous! And awesome pics. Glad you figured out how to make them work. :)
ReplyDeletethanks! me too :)
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