The next
morning we woke up around 9am and had a nice breakfast. Emilia had shown us how to make lattes in the
coffee machine and the Italian coffee was superb! Hildy was a fan of the Zweiback, which she
ate happily and Jessie sat in her usual dazed morning state.
We were soon
joined by our neighbours who were a couple from Boston. Although they were a little different, they
seemed nice enough and provided company for us in the kitchen. We packed our bags and headed out for a day
of touring around 10:45am.
Our first
sight was passing through St. Peter’s Square.
We didn’t know it at the time, but the Pope was making an appearance and
the crowds were unbelievable. I later
asked a priest and he estimated that there was at least 30,000 people in the crowds! Hildy exclaimed that she had never seen so
many people and I could tell it made her quite nervous.
Navigating
through the crowds was a difficult task and by the end of it, my patience was
wearing thin. Although I had experienced
similar situations in Asia, I felt ready to kick and push people out of my way
(although I resisted the urge). We
finally made it through the thick of the crowds and the streets began to clear
up.
Jessie was
our navigation specialist and she did a good job at directing us with her
map. She led us to the river and we
walked along it for quite a while admiring the scenery around us. Many of the houses had potted plants hanging
from the windows and gardens on the roofs; Hildy would voice her admiration of
these on a regular basis. The trees were
dropping copious amounts of pollen into the streets and we all suffered from
constant sneezing, however thanks to the huge amounts of Kleenex Hildy brought,
we were well prepared.
After 20 or
30 minutes of walking, Jessie realized that we had been walking in the wrong
direction. We had to retrace our steps
and head back but eventually we were back on track. I think Oma was a little weary of her navigational
skills at this point, but she did redeem herself. During
this time Hildy also decided to take out her new camera and attempted to take
some pictures. She had a bit of a
difficult time learning how to look at the picture on the screen, instead of
seeing her reflection, but she was doing a pretty good job at learning the new skills. Eventually she demanded that I take the
pictures for her, but I tried to encourage her to use the camera herself.
Once we had
crossed the river, we made our way to the Piazza Novona. Here there was a beautiful fountain with
beautiful sculptures. There were also
many artists selling impressive paintings and landscapes. As we were walking around, we found a
cathedral with opened doors. We decided
to go inside and look at the interior of the beautiful building. When we entered, there was a section for
tourists to stand in order to observe the mass that was taking place. We were able to observe the communion and
heard a beautiful voice singing along with the organ. The interior of the cathedral was
breathtaking. The walls and ceilings
were covered with ornate paintings and sculptures depicting romanticized
depictions of Christ and the Bible.
Everything was covered in gold and rich colours. Once the service was over, we were able to
walk into the sanctuary for a closer look at the surroundings; it truly was a
magnificent place.
After we
exited the cathedral we made our way through the narrow winding streets to the
Pantheon. This was also bustling with
tourists but once inside, we made our way around the building and saw the
various artworks inside of it. We were
able to see Raphael’s grave and read the biography on his life. I was surprised to learn that the hole in the
top of the building still hasn’t been filled with glass, but has been left
open. There was a section of the floor
below which was roped off because the rain had come in. It’s interesting that it is being preserved
in its original state.
Following
the Pantheon we were on our way to the Trevi Fountain, however we decided to
stop for lunch along the way. We found a
lovely little Italian restaurant that looked both tasty and charming. We went inside and ordered wine, bruchetta
and three spaghetti meals including mom’s recommendation of Spaghetti con
Vongeli . Unfortunately, the food wasn’t
as tasty as we had expected and was too heavy and salty, but the experience of
dining in an Italian restaurant was quite nice.
Once we were
refueled, we kept on route to the Trevi Fountain. When we arrived we were once again bombarded
by the immense crowds. There were so
many people that we couldn’t make it to the fountain in order to throw a coin
in. I was able to stand on a railing and
snap a few photos before we decided to head out of the craziness of the crowd.
On the
upside, Oma wanted to treat us to a gelato, so we found the highly recommended
gelato stand right next to the fountain (where Amy, Jessie and I got gelato on
our first trip to Rome) and we ordered a tasty treat to share. We found some space on a nearby curb and ate
our gelato in peace. Hildy commented
here that she would never sit on a street corner to eat ice cream in Kitchener,
but that she can manage it in Rome. I
thought that was a cute admission from her! Sitting on concrete is typically a
big no-no.
Our
navigator Jessie kept us walking as we continued along the mapped route and we
soon arrived at the Column of Marcus Aurelius.
For some unknown reason, the police had cordoned off the area to the
public but we were able to view it from the street corners. We were also approached by two women from
Texas who were wondering about the significance of the column. Jessie impressed all of us by giving them a
history lesson on both the reasoning and the significance of this column. Clearly her art history classes have been
paying off!
The next
stop was the Parliament building and we admired the strong architecture and beautiful
carvings surrounding it. By this point,
we had been walking for quite some time, so Hildy suggested that we take a
little rest at a nearby bench. I was
happy to comply because I had worn new shoes and was getting blisters on my
feet. We found a nice marble bench which
offered a cool rest to our hot feet and tired bottoms!
Continuing
on we were making our way towards the Coliseum. We took our time and admired the ancient
ruins around us as we walked. Hildy was
entranced by all of the beautiful flowers and so we stopped along the way in
order to admire them. At one point, a
gladiator came up to us and was trying to get us to take a photo with him. I politely declined, but he kept on urging
and said he would take it for free since we were such ‘pretty young
girls’. Hildy and Jessie stood in the
photo with him as I worked my photographic expertise. He said goodbye and gave us all a kiss on the
cheek. I later found out that Hildy
slipped him a couple of Euros so slyly that we didn’t notice…. Who would have
thought that Oma K could be so stealthy!
When we
finally arrived at the Coliseum, it was so huge and alive with energy. There were hundreds of tours operating around
us and we tried to navigate ourselves to see various parts of the historic
structure. By this point, we were all
getting tired and it wasn’t too long before we decided to start making our way
back to our home base.
We walked
along the ancient chariot racetrack as we headed home, but didn’t have the
energy to soak up the history because we were so hot and tired. What we thought would take us about 20
minutes to get back home ended up taking over an hour. When we finally arrived at B&B Emilia we
realized that we had been walking for over 7.5 hours…. That’s quite a long
journey in the hot sun! But considering
that we only had one full day in Rome, I think we made the most of it.
Due to the
fact that we had such a large lunch, we weren’t particularly hungry. We purchased some fresh fruit on the way back
and ate that as a snack when we got home and then we all had a little
rest. A little while later, Jessie and I
decided to go out to try to find the train station for our journey to
Civitavecchia for the next day. We also
thought we might try a restaurant Emilia had recommended. Hildy said that she wasn’t hungry and just
wanted to rest, so we left her at home and went on our way.
The station
was easy to find, and we felt confident that we had all of the necessary
information for our journey the next day.
This left one thing on our to-do list: dinner. We went to a restaurant and ordered two
things: one was homemade gnocchi in a tomato sauce with basil and mozzarella
cheese, the other was a crispy artichoke on top of a buffalo mozzarella wheel,
which was on top of a potato pancake; this was all drizzled with a sweet
balsamic and wine glaze. Both dishes
were phenomenal! This meal was
definitely the best meal in Italy to date.
Upon
returning back home we realized that Hildy was beginning to worry that we had
been abducted, although it was only 9:30pm.
We were both tired and our tummies were full, so we decided to head to
bed in order to be well rested for the next day.
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