Buongiorno! I'm closing in on a week here in Italy, and I'm happy to say I'm settling in well (as if a country that lives off gelato and pizza WASN'T going to be my fav ;).
Anyway, while here in Viterbo, I'm taking a class called Pilgrims, Tourists, and Grand Travelers: Perspectives on the Lure of Italy where we'll be exploring what has made Italy such an attractive destination to many for years. And as part, I've been challenged to think of myself as a type of "pilgrim" here and evaluate my goals and plans as a traveler.
So to start things off, I get to share about our field trip to Rome this Friday and the many incredible sights I got to experience there. Be prepared for lots of pics - I swear it was part of my homework to capture myself at all these places!
Picture yourself kinda tired after getting up at 6:30am and taking a 1 hr 45 min train followed by a metro ride. You're excited to get to stretch your legs and maybe try to wake up. You step out of the station and -
I'm not even kidding you - it's the Colosseum stop in Rome. You get off and this is literally what you see. It. Is. Incredible. Easily my favorite thing of the day. It's somewhere I've always wanted to see and it did NOT disappoint!!!
And we got to walk all the way around, enjoying the views and soaking in the history. It's wild to think about such an imposing structure still standing after thousands of years. Plus all the history that has taken place there like gladiator fights and the execution of hundreds of Christians.
There were tons of people everywhere (and it was a pretty hot day) but for all that, the Colosseum was still indescribable. Pictures don't do it justice at all compared to seeing it in person with all its textures. It's so cool that you can tell how old it is even by the rock.
So we spent a while at the Colosseum and our tour guide gave us plenty of time to walk around and be basic with photos. I'm calling it doing homework (I mean I was told to take selfies in Rome for class so...).
Our tour guide was also absolutely hilarious. At one point, she was trying to take a group picture for us and started yelling at people who walked in front of her with the camera. One guy just kinda sat himself in the way to start taking his own pictures of stuff, and she straight up walked up to him and tried to put her hand in his photo. It was wild, but we were cracking up, and you can bet we got our group shot.
The amazing thing about Rome is it's such an ancient city, there's literally stuff EVERYWHERE to visit, and it's all super old. As we walked along, we passed by several different ruins of Roman forums. It amazes me how they built things like this so many years ago! It's all so impressive, even in various stages of decay currently.
Besides Roman buildings, the other main category of sights in Rome is fountains. There are so many of them. Everywhere. And they're beautiful. Take a look...
The pictures in the leftmost column and upper right corner are all from the famous Trevi Fountain. This place was PACKED, and you literally had to shove your way in to get photos. Totally worth it though. It's so pretty and massive!
The other pictures are of another fountain in Rome that we just passed by on the road. I've never seen such intricate sculptures and carvings in fountains, but it's really cool to see.
And if you think they take their fountains seriously, you should see the churches. Enormous domes with towering columns, frescoes all over the walls and ceilings, and artistic flourishes everywhere you look. You could spend hours in here and still not fully appreciate the beauty all around you. It was also interesting to see all the tiny "chapels" the church had off of the main room. I'm not really sure why they do this, but each one was dedicated to a saint/church figure and had its own style.
Besides all of the awesome views, I had a pretty delicious pizza for lunch and a lemon and pistachio gelato later on. All in all, a great day in a great city! There is wayyyy too much to capture in a day, so I hope to go back. For now, I'm glad to have seen a few of the highlights and share them with all of you.
Arrivederci from the gang!!!