Day 3

On day 3 we decided not to set an alarm and take the day at a much slower pace. We woke up around 9something and made it down to breakfast. Then, we started making our way via train to Ostia Antica. This is another set of ancient ruins of a once bustling river port town. It calls itself “The Better Pompeii”, because it’s closer to more things and claims to be better preserved. We decided to go there because it was only about an hour’s train ride away whereas Pompeii would be a whole day trip. I really wanted to go to Pompeii for a few reasons. I’ve always been fascinated by the images I’ve seen of people perfectly preserved by the volcano. ALSO, a lot of my friends will remember the Frank Ticheli song we played in high school wind ensemble called “Vesuvius” all about the famous eruption. To this day I love that song and get really into it whenever I listen to it. Alas, it didn’t seem worth an entire day of our vacation, so we decided Ostia Antica would do. We also decided to do the Rick Steves free audio guide (which we downloaded on iTunes and loaded onto our iPods back at home) for this site instead of paying for a guided tour.

I think the mix of it being very hot and sunny, and us being completely ruin-ed out from the day before, made for not the greatest Ostia Antica experience. I don’t think the Rick Steves guide for this particular site was very good. We constantly felt overwhelmed and confused about what we were looking at. It was just more of the same- rocks! I honestly felt that people-watching on the train was a few notches more interesting than the ruins themselves. We didn’t take many pictures, but here is one of the toilet situation near the bathhouse.


You just sat down over this big trough, no privacy, and no toilet paper. Water was constantly running underneath. There is a little spot underneath for sponges on a stick that would be at each seat to serve as communal, re-useable toilet paper. This is one of the only pictures we took.There was a forum, several squares, a stadium, all the typical things a Roman town would have. Lots of places where business was conducted. There was also a bar/hangout that was very similar to the bars of today!

Once we had our fill of Ostia Antica, we took the train back. It was around 2:30 and kids were just getting out of school for the long holiday weekend. It was very interesting to observe typical Roman teenagers of today. They’re not much different from the teenagers of the US. Lots of texting, and definite “cool kids” and dorks with bulging backpacks. There was that air of “wahoo! long weekend!” as well. It was kind of cool to get to observe so many locals. There was a “tough” chick with a faux-hawk who looked very intimidating.

Once we got back to central Rome, we decided to make our way back to the Pantheon to go inside and see the famous dome. We had a Rick Steves guide for this site, too. But first, we grabbed lunch in the square surrounding the Pantheon. Ilya got a special that included a beer, bruschetta, and a pizza for 12 euros. Here is his bruschetta:


And I got a roasted veggie appetizer with mozzarella as my main meal, and it was pretty big so Ilya had to help me finish that off, too:


We forgot to take pictures of the pizza, but it was a yummy Pizza Margherita. I had a slice and I sprinkled on some of the red pepper flakes in a bowl that they brought out with the pizza. I mentioned to Ilya that they were really tasty, but pretty hot. He got intrigued and put some on. But he accidentally dropped a big clump of them instead of daintily sprinkling from the spoon. I told him he better wipe the majority off, but he said it was fine and took a bite. Cue big gulps of water and a case of the hiccups. It was pretty funny. Those were some hot pepper flakes!

Next we got some gelato and sat in the square facing the Pantheon while we ate it. I remember that mine was mint with big chunks of chocolate, and it was REALLY good. My advice to anyone visiting Italy would be to pretty much always get the smallest size cup or cone. They fill them up really well. Plus, you have to eat it every day, at least once per day! So the tiny cup is really plenty. Combining flavors also seems to be the norm.

Once we finished our treats, we headed inside the building with our audio guides in our ears. The dome is HUGE and quite impressive. There were all sorts of mathematical tricks inside this building. The light that comes through the hole in the top of the dome shines on different statues within the building on different times of the year which makes for some cool effects, and this was done on purpose. Here is a picture of the famous dome:


And this picture shows a lot of what the rest of the building looks like.


Around the perimeter are a few tombs of famous Italians such as Victor Emmanuel and Raphael. The audio guide for this site was really quite good, and we found the Pantheon experience as a whole to be pretty cool.

This is a picture of what the front of the Pantheon faces.


We sat underneath that monument when we had our gelato. Next we walked over to the Piazza Navona once more to see the St. Agnes Church and the Four Rivers Fountain by daylight. Here I am with the church and fountain behind me.

The square is very busy with people relaxing, and others selling artwork and caricatures. The square is lined with restaurants. Here is Ilya mimicking the figure behind him who is nervous that the church will crumble upon himself.


Next we noticed a crowd in the square surrounding a street performer. It was a guy from Australia who had the audience put him in a straight jacket and chains and gave himself 3 minutes to get out.





He made it in time!

Next there were two guys who turned on their boom box and did some break dancing. They were ok...but I was distracted through most of their short performance by a girl across the way who looked strikingly like a cross between my friends Blair and Nichole, and was creepily trying to take a picture of her. I didn’t realize at the time that my camera was accidentally on a strange setting which was why they kept being blurry. Here she is, in the center in a red cardigan.


Here is a very pretty building. Not sure what it is.


Here is an enticing picture of a bakery that we walked past.


We found ourselves at Campo De’Fiori as the sun was setting and decided to sit at the monument for some people-watching. We had fun as the creepy dudes tried to sell their light-up flying saucers to passers-by. We saw a few sales, and it was really fun to watch people walk by, trying to avoid them. The guys will try to sell it to anyone but they know that kids are their best audience and really start to show off in front of them. Here are some kids with their dad playing with their new flying saucer.


At this point we decided to go back to our hotel and freshen up before returning to Campo De’Fiori for dinner. Jackie had studied abroad in Rome for a semester and told us that this was where all the hip kids came to hang out, and recommended Pizzeria Re for dinner. Here we are in front of the window in our room, about to head out.


Here I am on a Roman bus, like a real city slicker.


We ate dinner at Pizzeria Re. We split 2 appetizers- broccoli rabe and artichokes (which were mostly scarfed down before the pic) as well as a bottle of wine.


WINE!


Then we split a pizza with cauliflower. I guess we wanted to make sure we were nice and gassy on our honeymoon.



WINE!!!!


Here is a guy trying to sell a rose to the poor people who are just trying to eat dinner and ignore him.


After dinner we got gelato, of course, even though it was pretty chilly.


After this, we wandered around a bit, got a few drinks, and then made it back to the hotel.

Day 2

Welcome to a very long post about a very long day. On our first full day in Rome, we woke up around 7AM and made it down to the hotel’s complimentary breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised! I never took any pictures of it, but it was a pretty nice spread. We had read in the reviews that the coffee at this hotel was great. So, even though we’re not coffee drinkers, we were excited to try out the cappuccino machine. Hey, trying to get over jet lag in Rome is a great reason to become a coffee drinker. I had 2 cups every morning. Aside from the coffee, there were scrambled eggs, bacon, yogurt, cereal, fruit, lots of different breads and pastries with a large variety of spreads, and a nice tray of ham and cheese. With nice full bellies we made our way over to our meeting place for our first of three walking tours for the day. On our way, we spotted this sign, which of course made me think of Mrs. Landrum!

And here is a nice scenic view that we saw on our walk to the meeting point.

Our first tour was 3 hours and the main things we saw were: Colosseum, Arch of Costantine, Rostra, Temple of Julius Caesar, Senate, Temple of The Vestal Virgins, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Basilica Emilia, Basilica of Maxentius, Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Arch of Titus, Temple of Saturn, Arch of Septimius Severus, Capitoline Hill. You can read more detail about this tour here. The guide for this tour was Italian but spoke English very well. This was the case with all of our tour guides, fortunately. One of them was even an American who was attending graduate school in Italy. Anyway, I thought this first tour was a great first tour in Rome because it taught us about how it was founded and the basics of its history. Here is an example of what the majority of the ruins looked like: rocks.

It was a little hard to imagine all of the things the guide was telling us used to happen here when all you see are rocks. But, she had a pretty cool book that showed pictures of what the ruins look like today next to realistic drawings of what it looked like in its prime. It’s really amazing to imagine how people got the materials here in ancient times, let alone figured out how to build with them. The reason that there is so little left of the ruins, aside from them being ancient, is because when it was time to build new buildings they would just strip the marble and other materials from older buildings. This is the spot where Julius Caesar was cremated, and a temple was built here in his honor.


This is what’s left of where the Vestal Virgins lived:


I forget exactly what this building is, but I know Ilya took a picture of these doors because they’re the original doors and the guide went on and on about how they’re the oldest doors still in use on earth...or something. They’re REALLY old, is all I can tell you for sure. The guide also said that they can be locked and the lock is still kept by someone in Rome.


Here is an artsy pic of an arch:


We got to stop and take pics of the Colosseum from afar before going in! Being a part of the guided tour meant we got to skip the (very long) line to get in.


Here is a pic of the inside of the Colosseum. You can see the oval outline of what used to be the stage, and all the galleries underneath where gladiators used to hang out before the big show.


Here’s proof that Ilya was inside:


The Colosseum was the last stop on this first tour, which ended around 12:30. We had until 2 to grab lunch and get to the meeting point for our second tour. We just made a quick stop at a tiny pizzeria and sat out on the sidewalk with our loot: a slice of pizza with mushrooms and another with potatoes.



On our way to our next meeting point, we stopped off at a nice park to relax. Here we are relaxing on a bench:


Our second tour started around 2PM. The main sites covered on this tour were: Domus Flavia, Domus Augustana, Stadium, Aula Regia, Triclinium, Fresco of Apollo the Citharist, Statue of the Magna Mater, Farnese Lodge, Farnese Gardens. You can read more detail about this tour here. I must admit, and I think Ilya would agree, that by this tour we were on the brink of ancient ruin overload. It all kind of starts to look the same, and we were a bit tired, but we did our best to pick up some interesting tidbits about ancient Rome. Here was our meeting point, and we entered through the center arch.


This is where the emperor spent his free time hanging out with family and friends, though they’re not quite sure what the set-up was for specifically.


Here is a nice view of Rome from a high spot on the tour:


And another nice view of the ruins we saw in our first tour:


And a cool shot of the Colosseum:


After this tour, we had a couple hours to kill and decided to walk back to our hotel for a bit to relax. On our way, we saw this ad for the McItaly burger:


When we got back to the hotel, we laid down for “just a minute” and ended up falling asleep until just about the time we needed to leave for walking tour number 3. I scarfed down a granola bar and we were on our way.

The third tour was definitely our favorite tour of the day. It was called “Rome at Twilight” and the main sites that it covered were: Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, Hadrain's Temple, Propaganda Fide, Piazza Navona, Piazza Campo dei Fiori, Piazza Farnese, Piazza S. Eustachio, Pantheon. You can read more detail about this tour here. We learned about the very interesting “rivalry” between architects Bernini and Borromini, and saw some great examples of both of their work and their rivalry in action. None of the pictures from this tour do these structures justice, but we did our best. Here is a shot of the Trevi Fountain:


We took a shortcut through this fancy mall with columns! Not something you see in NJ.




This was one of my favorite churches, the St. Agnes Church in Piazza Navona.


It’s very pretty in person. Our guide told us that Borromini was the main architect for this church. Here is a better picture of it that I found online. We were taught that the fact that the dome is so close to the front of the building and thus easy to see from outside was a big architectural statement at the time. The statue of St. Agnes is off to the right, and is facing left instead of straight ahead, which was also outside of the norm. Directly across from this church is the Four Rivers Fountain by Borromini’s rival, Bernini.


Legend has it that this figure, who faces the church directly, was designed by Bernini to have his hand up to shield himself from the poorly designed church across the way that he assumed would crumble down on him. Behind him and to the left you see the back of another figure with his head covered in fabric, to shield his eyes from the hideous church. This is also believed the be the reason why St. Agnes faces to the side and not straight ahead at the fountain.

Next we walked over to the Pantheon. We didn’t get to go inside on this tour, but we did another day. Here is a cool picture of it:


The tour ended at the Victor Emmanuel Monument, also known as “the wedding cake” or “Mussolini’s grin”. It’s generally regarded by the locals as big and ugly, though as tourists we didn’t think it was so bad.


In the very bottom center you see two soldiers guarding the tomb of an unknown soldier. The huge statue of Emmanuel on horseback above them is the largest statue of a horse on the planet. We were told that when this monument was erected, 20 journalists had dinner together inside the horse as part of the celebration.

We were pretty far from our hotel, so we asked the tour guide about our options for taking a bus back to our area, and where we could get tickets, and where the buses stop, etc. He was very happy to help, but once we were set off on our own we quickly gave up on the process and decided to just walk back. Hey, what’s another mile or two? If I had to guess, we walked at least 10 miles this day, maybe more. Once we got in the vicinity of our hotel we had our eyes peeled for a place to get dinner. It was about 9 PM at this point and we hadn’t had a meal since our 2 PM pizza. We were so happy to see a table outside at this cute little restaurant and quickly snagged it.


This was probably the most well-deserved meal of our lives! I got a salad and Ilya got the roasted potato appetizer which we shared along with a bottle of wine.


We were too busy eating to take pictures of our entrees, but I got pasta with meat sauce and Ilya got pasta with salmon in a cream sauce. We got gelato on our way home, of course, and then headed back to our hotel to call it a night.