I know I've posted already about Firenze and Milano, but now we're going back to our first day in Italy for a moment, before fast-forwarding ahead to our post-northern-Italy Roma adventures.
Our first stop, while incredibly jet lagged, was The Vatican.
Together for the first time in 2 years!
We hired an Uber to get there and back to Mom and Dad's, and I gotta say, the rumors are true: Italian drivers are crazy. They were super nice, though.
We did a guided tour so we wouldn't have to think.
Pictured here is our tour guide and a statue who could breastfeed the entire group.
There was a lot of cool mosaics, tapestries, paintings, and sculptures.
My favorite was probably the statue of Urania, Muse of Astronomy. It's not pictured because... I didn't take a picture of it. I blame jet lag.
But, as tired as we were, Loradona still looks lovely!
I don't look too horrible, either.
After the Vatican, we went back to Mom and Dad's and finally slept... then, of course, we went to Firenze and Milano before coming back to Roma.
We came back to Roma, and got to actually spend some time with our parents. They took us to see real Roman aqueducts.
Yeah, that's right: I touched real Roman aqueducts!
It was amazing to see something so old and manmade still standing. There's nothing like this in Canada.
Also not many parrots chilling in trees in Canada...
Loradona and I were looking forward to Sunday, the day of glorious rest. It was so nice to have a day to relax.
Church was interesting, being in Italian. They're used to having English speakers, including senior missionaries, so they have ear pieces for anyone who needs them. One of the missionaries translates into a tiny microphone for all of us. It works fairly well, although sometimes the speakers said a whole lot of Italian words, and the translator only a few English ones. I wonder what we missed.
Another good Sabbath day thing we did was going to see the Rome Temple!
Mom made us an appointment for a tour of the visitor's centre.
The missionaries were adorable and excited to lead us around and teach us about the building and discuss the gospel.
I love this statue and the little lonely sheep in the mural behind. The light still reaches him.
This stained glass represents all the parables, miracles, and stories about Christ in the New Testament. It was pretty cool to look at.
While in Roma, we let Mom and Dad work for a couple of days and explored the city a bit on our own. We adulted so well, taking Roman public transit all by ourselves!
Colosseum was on our to-do list, obviously!
It is such a huge monument - it's bigger in person - right in the middle of New Rome. The ancient at the modern, mixing and intertwined.
Oh, and we stopped for lunch at a gay bar.
We wandered around Palatine Hill a bit, taking breaks in the shade to drink water when we could.
It was so blasted hot (I'm starting to get what I think is heat rash at this point), but we lucked out majorly: right before our tour was set to begin, the clouds came and covered the sun, giving us a little respite from the heat. We did a tour of the underground of the Colosseum and got to see the action under the floor.
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| Original flooring! |
All the lifts and preparation areas: this was all quite the production, full of pageantry and pomp. They weren't fights, they were theatre shows!
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| Old school vandalism, ever classy. |
I hadn't really realized before that the Colosseum, complete with its marble seating, had been built using the resources, money, etc, the Romans got from plundering the temple in Jerusalem. Such a wonderful edifice with such dark origins.
I slowly got better at taking selfies as the trip went on. I didn't have much experience prior to this. Haha.
And of course, when in Rome, you have to check out the stereotypical sites!
We went to the Spanish Steps.
They were pretty cool, and we were there early enough that it was fairly quiet.
Just don't sit on them!
There were only a few more people at Trevi Fountain.
Not nearly as many as I've seen in some pictures for sure!
Loradona and I both threw a coin in, which means we should return to Rome someday. Maybe we will, maybe we'll go someplace else together.
It was really fun to sit and think about how long the people of Rome have been served by fresh water at this location. It's a tourist trap now, but a thousand years ago, it was life.
After the fountain, we headed to the Pantheon. It has been a church for two thousand years. First to Roman gods and later dedicated to St Mary.
Entry is free (although we paid a little for an audiotour) and very, very, very much worth it.
It is absolutely beautiful. The craftmanship that went into it, its dome, and walls standing for so very long, it's remarkable.
While standing inside the Pantheon, I was struck by the sheer number of prayers that must have been uttered there over the years. These prayers of faith and devotion, the pleadings and gratitude and the power of the people who said them... their faithful devotion makes it a holy place.
Gelato! We had gelato many times, but this one might have been my favorite combo:
watermelon and pineapple, both made with real fruit.
During the heat of the afternoon, it was wonderful to head into the Capuchin Crypt.
Dude, it's a little weird to decorate and make art with bones.
The time it must have taken to put all those designs together... a little macabre, but right up my alley. I loved it.
Except leaving my sunglasses behind. I suppose it's my offering to the travel gods. After all, things have gone pretty smoothly so far...
We got to see where Mom and Dad work, before we stole them away for a few days.
They don't share an office, in part because my Dad talks to himself.
I'm pretty sure I take after him.
With Mom and Dad, we headed to the seaside town of Ostia. Of course, we had to walk out and touch the water. I've forgotten the world of non-public beaches exists, though.
I love Oregon and its beaches. There was a pretty cool statue of Neptune in the waves.
After lunch, we went to the archaeological site in town. The ruins at Ostia Antica are fascinating.
The city used to be a harbor with 100,000 people, but slowly declined after the river changed course and other ports became more popular.
There were some pretty impressive things remaining, though!
Including some pretty cool floor mosaics.
It was so nice to spend a few days with Mom and Dad, and it'll be even better to have them take time off to go to Napoli with us!
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