Europe Trip - Day 10 - Rome , Italy

We had plans to stay in Rome for 3 days so today was our second day in Rome. We woke up early to catch the train to the world famous Vatican city. 2 major attractions in Vatican city are the St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican museum. Vatican museum has free entry on the last Sunday of every month. Luckily we were at Vatican city on May 31st which was the last Sunday of May. Rick Steve's book mentions that if we try to get entry to the museum early in the morning there will be a huge line due to various tour groups trying to enter the museum early. As we reached the museum we could see an endless line. So as suggested we went to visit the St. Peter's Basilica first.

The Basilica

The grandeur and hugeness of the Basilica were beyond our expectations. The walls and domes of the basilica are adorned with paintings from great ancient artists like Michelangelo. We were awestruck looking at the beautiful paintings and the architecture of the building. The building is so huge that it can accommodate 60000 people standing inside it at a given time. We attended a beautiful mass in the basilica. Though it was conducted in Italian the chants and music was very soothing.

Inside the basilica

Luckily for us, the Pope addresses and waves at the visitors on last Sunday of every month from his apartment window. So we got a chance to see the Pope along with the thousands of visitors who were at the Basilica. Among all the cities that we had visited so far Rome seemed to have most number of visitors.

Check out the crowd that gathered to see the Pope

Pope addressing the crowd from his apartment

Us listening to the Pope

From the Basilica we went to the museum. Voila, there was no queue at 12:30. Thanks to Rick Steve's we had skipped the queue. The museum was huge and had magnificent art depicting ancient civilisation history, Egyptian mummies, huge paintings from artists like Michelangelo. It was just fascinating. 

Entrance door of the Vatican Museum

Model of St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican Museum

Rakesh posing with Mummies in the museum

One of the numerous exhibits in the museum

Check out the beautiful artwork in the ceiling

The most popular section of the museum is Sistine Chapel. The Chapel was beautiful. The Chapel walls and ceiling were painting with a great fresco (series of related paintings) called "The Last Judgement" by Michelangelo. This work is huge and covers lot of walls in the Chapel. It is a depiction of the second coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. It was closing time around 2 pm as it was Sunday so we headed back to the Termini station. For a change, we ate lunch at a small Chinese restaurant near Termini.

At the Sistine Chapel

Paintings inside the Chapel

Next we tool the Dolche Vita stroll which has streets with beautiful structures on both the sides. We also saw the residence of the President of Italy from outside. Next we walked to Camp De Fiori and Piazza Navona which were yet another beautiful piazzas. Loved the concept of piazzas in the city and we were definitely gonna miss them in Seattle along with the beautiful weather. 

Having fun in the city

Beautiful mall in the city

Piazza Navona

Walking further we reached the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is designed to bring water from the Salone springs which are approximately 20 km from Rome and supply it to the various fountains in the city. The sculpture in the fountain was very impressive and equally impressive is what it represents. The central figure of the fountain is the god of the sea - Neptune. He is riding a chariot in the shape of a shell, pulled by two sea horses.  One of the horses is calm and obedient, the other one restive which symbolizes the fluctuating moods of the sea.  Legend has it that if you toss a coin in the water in the fountain by throwing it over your shoulder (with your back to the fountain) you will return to Rome. We would love to visit Rome again so we threw a coin :).       
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Beautiful Trevi fountain

We were dead tired and headed back to our hotel. Rome had turned out to be quite intense with so much to see and hot weather which we were not used to coming from rainy Seattle. We complain about lack of sunshine in Seattle but I guess after spending almost 5 years in Seattle looks like we cannot handle too much sunshine and heat :).
Check out some more pics here.

Europe Trip - Day 9 - Rome, Italy

Next up on the itinerary was the magnificent city of Rome. Rome is the capital of Italy. We reached Rome's Termini Station around noon. We picked up our pre-booked Roma passes. Roma pass can be used to visit 2 monument sites and also you can use any mode of transportation for 2 days. Our hotel was located very close to the Termini station so we dropped off our bags and headed out to explore the city.

Train to Rome

First stop was the topmost attraction in Rome - The Colosseum. Colosseum is a huge amphitheatre which is located centrally in Rome and was built around 80 AD. It was used for entertainment and hosting fights between gladiators and wild animals. The Colosseum was a huge structure that depicted the grandeur and richness of ancient Rome. We spent few hours here reading the history and exploring the place. A big part of the structure has been destroyed due to fire, earthquakes and plundering. However the structure as is looks grand and you can feel the glory.

Magnificent colosseum

Inside the colosseum

Another view of the colosseum

We also captured a short video here. Check it out.

Very close by here is Roman Forum. The Roman Forum has the ruins of several ancient political structures from ancient Rome.

Standing near the ruins of the ancient buildings

Next we walked through the streets of Rome enjoying the wonderful city views. Rome is filled with ancient structures, buildings and beautiful piazzas. We kept on walking till we reached the Spanish steps. Spanish steps is a huge piazza/square which has a set of lot of steps. It was full of tourists and locals. The area was bubbling with crowds and lots of energy even late in the night. We settled down on the steps and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Spanish steps in the night

Then we walked to another famous tourist attraction The Pantheon. The Pantheon building is a temple of all ancient gods of Rome. We kept dragging our aching feet around the magnificent city and finally headed back to the hotel after having yet another wonderful Italian dinner.

Pantheon building in the background

Ready for dinner

On the way back we ate awesome gelato at 'Gilattori' which is supposed to be the best gelataria in Rome and we discovered it through Rick Steve's book. Loved the coconut flavored gelato.

Rome impressed us and so far was my favorite city in the trip.

Check out more pics here.