All Saint's Week - Rome and the Vatican

Ray, Virg, and I got off the airplane at Ciampino, picked up our bags, and then bought bus tickets to the center of Rome. We were pretty surprised how warm it was in Rome compared to how cold Paris was. It was a nice change. BUT, then we had the worst bus ride ever. It had no airconditioning whatsoever and none of the windows could be opened. Everyone was sweating and the traffic was worse than in L.A. Then, I asked Ray, who had already been to Rome, "why didn't you warn us that Rome looked like Tijuana." I was surprised how different from France it was. Then we got to the Termini train station where we had to catch the metro... where it took us about twenty minutes to figure out how to get to our destination. Then when we tried to get on the metro everyone was really rude and kept shoving their way in and not letting more people on. I was really confused as to why people rave about Rome...

But then we got off the metro, walked down Via Nazionale (a shopping boulevard) and then we turned onto Via Firenze, where our hotel was. This part of town was like another world compared to the outskirts of Rome and the Termini train station. On Via Firenze, we passed a hotel called Hotel Paris, which was funny to see since we were just in Paris earlier that day. We checked into our hotel and thank goodness our room was really nice. It even had a statue carving on one of the walls. We ventured out for lunch (I had a yummy calzone) and to the Spanish Steps. It was about a 15 minute walk away from the hotel but we ended up taking a longer route since we were distracted by all of the amazing buildings and the churches that were everywhere left and right. We stopped in front of one of the Catholic universities, where Ray chatted away with one of the priests about who knows what... I had never seen so many priests and nuns walking along like any other pedestrian. Even as the priests passed by restaurants the waiters would try to get their attention, "Padre, un cappuccino?" We finally got to La Piazza di Spagna, we climbed the Spanish Steps and I felt so relieved at that point that Rome really was beautiful.

It still took me a while to get over how different Italy was from France. The buildings were in lively colors, or many of them were rustic, others were classical in style with huge columns. It also took me some time to get used to how Italians are much more friendly and easygoing than the French are. Italians can also be less formal than the French are... which I liked because at times the French try to be so formal that they become rigid. I also really, really liked that no one looked at me with squinted eyes when I spoke to them in English or Spanish mixed in with a little bit of Italian. The French look like they're going to die when you make a few mistakes or you throw in some English.

Later on our first day in Italy we saw the Trevi Fountain, we all made a wish, and then we had Gelato (which you can't get anymore this time of the year in Bordeaux... for obvious reasons). The next day, we saw the Colliseum and the ruins that lead up to it. There was a pretty big student protest going around that time... it was actually the biggest protest I've ever seen and it was interesting to hear them chanting because it almost sounded like they were Roman gladiators, which went well during our visit to the Colliseum.

The following day we went to the Vatican. Naturally I knew that I would really enjoy my visit... but it actually ended up being quite an emotional visit for me. I grew up Catholic and I'm not sure whether I believe in God or not anymore... but while I was there I really felt something special. It was also overwhelming to see Pope John Paul II's tomb under St. Peter's Basilica... it really irritated me that the tourists wouldn't remain silent. After seeing the tombs of the popes that had passed, we climbed up to the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica. It was 534 steps (if I remember correctly) to climb! It felt like we were in Alice in Wonderland as the walls started to curve in once we were near the top. Then the view from up there was unbelievable... the Vatican's gardens, the columns in front of St. Peter's Basilica, Castel Sant'Angello a few blocks up ahead from those columns...

We closed our trip with a visit to the Pantheon. Seeing the sister city of Paris was truly amazing.