when in Rome...

Where do we even begin? Our three days in Rome were packed with site seeing, fine dining, and street strolling. The weekend began with our 7 a.m. train ride to Rome. Collier had thoughtfully bought us the "fast" Eurotrain tickets so within two hours we had reached our destination. Bare with us, this blog is going to be a bit longer than the others. There is just so much to tell!

First stop, the Roman Colosseum. A brief history of this spectacular structure.... constructed in 80 A.D. during the Roman empire, the elliptical amphitheater could seat up to 50,000 people. That's quite a crowd... The structure's exterior was made of solid travertine while the interior consisted of brick, marble, and tufa. Spectators looked down into the arena to view gladiatorial combats and spectacles with wild beasts.
The arena was once made of a wooden floor covered with sand (used to soak up the blood). Today the floor is exposed down to the underground passages where gladiators and beasts awaited their fate. After spending a few hours touring the arena we headed across the street to our next stop, the Roman Forum...

The Roman Forum was a religious, civic and commercial centre of ancient Rome. Over time earthquakes, fires, and invasions leveled the buildings. It was until the 19th century that humans began excavating the area. After an hour or so of visiting these remains, we headed back to our hotel to take a quick "reposa" before dinner and visiting the Pantheon.The Pantheon. Simply remarkable, we credit the images in our history books for causing us to picture this building much smaller than it actually is. One simply can no predict or imagine the size of this structure. The combination of the coffered ceiling tapering upwards, leading your eye towards the heavens, and the beautiful marble floor alternating patterns along with the 30 foot wide oculus hole at the top made this structure one of its own. We'd have to say that this has been by far one of our favorites.The group stayed until closing time. After being kicked out we headed to pick up some supper and then off to our final stop for the night.. the Trevi Fountain. Just like the pig in Florence, Rome has it's own legend. Word on the street says that by throwing a coin over your right shoulder into the fountain, you are promised a return to this ancient city.
An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain every single day... geez louise that's a good bit of chunk change! We ended the night by tossing our coins into the fountain while making a wish. What a perfect ending to our first day in the city.

Day 2 in Rome: The Vatican Museum (Sistine Chapel) and St. Peter's Basilica. Early morning we headed over to the Vatican to see the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, and soooo many other magnificent artists. Saturday night... my oh my how Collier had us a special treat. Supper time or as the Italians say, Bon Appetito!! The meal, we would say, was about 7 solid courses. The food just kept on coming, and the vino... Octopus, sausage, calamari, squid, risotto, shrimp, prawns, fish, salami, bologna, these were just a few of the items up for grabs. We called it our own version of an Italian buffett with everything being brought to us on large platters for us to self serve. With so much food and wine, our group was beyond toasted and many lasting memories were created. Here are just a few: Our waiter kissing Duncan's (our teacher) head; Duncan busting out a mini rap and Joannah giving a toast to the group; The owner coming in every so often, lowering his hands and raising them up for us to all yell in unison; The waiter bringing in our final course with a smirk on his face yelling "Sprite, Fanta, and Coca-Cola Light" (it was more like extremely concentrated liquor). The night ended with all the ladies receiving a red rose, we had a quick photoshoot afterwards. Check out the photos below.





Day 3 in Rome: Church, Spanish Steps, and a littttle bit of shopping :)Sunday morning a group of us decided to get up a little early, jump on the Metro and walk a few blocks over to this "English-speaking" Presbyterian church. It was, by far, the best decision we have made on this trip, and for us a little piece of home... We were welcomed by the pastor from Edinburgh, Scotland (note the quote below) and by two men who passed us a hymnal and Bible. The choir surrounded the piano singing some classic hymns, people from every country and every ethnicity. We thoroughly enjoyed being half way across the world and worshiping with such a diverse group of people. The church was small, but delightful. With the windows open, we felt as if the streets were being filled with the sweet sound of our voices. And here in Europe, Father's Day was last week. The cute little children helped pass out little hankerchiefs to all fathers in the crowd.. After the sermon, we were all feeling refreshed and excited about exploring Rome the rest of the day. Below is a link to the church we visited and a few pics. Enjoy!

http://www.presbyterianchurchrome.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=34

We'd like to continue sharing a few more of the things Italians do quite differently in this country... here we go.
- In America, the waiters will kindly separate your checks for you so that everyone can pay individually. Not so in Italy, it's more like an act of Congress.. we don't even try to ask anymore. However, we have greatly improved our math skills tallying up the checks for everyone.

- Water here comes in 2 forms, natural or frizzled... You must specify that you want

- Most restaurants here put a "coperto" charge on your tab... the nicer the restaurant, the higher the coperto. This usually covers the food they bring out as an appetizer which is traditionally bread. It's also somewhat like an add on tip. In Europe you don't normally "tip" your waiter when paying your bill, guess this is their way of covering the charge.

Excerpts from our journals:
"I'm guessing you guys are from somewhere over the Atlantic. There's a small island over there, covered in oil I believe."

"When I wear these shorts, I'm going to look like a plumber." (Hannah in reference to the weight she has lost and the thug shorts she wore)

"If this was America, we would have a vending machine to get food for the koi pond" ( From the fountain pond in the Oldest Botanical Garden"

Tomorrow morning we are heading to Paris!!! the city of lights! Lots of territory to cover, as always, but we are soo excited about the weekend trip. Tons of good blogs coming soon, Eiffel Tower coming right up! Have a great weekend everyone and until next week....



Molto Amare,

Jack and Jenn

CIAO!!!