Italy - Day 6 - Tour of Appian Way & Catacombs, Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Forum

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 6: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619623008734/

Thursday began much the same way as Wednesday, with breakfast at the hotel and then meeting Armando in the front lobby. We saw the following with Armando:

A church that had the chains that bound St Peter (or St Paul?) when he was held in captivity.
This church also had some amazing sculptures.

The church of Saint Clemente. This church was built on top of the ruins of another church. The ruins were later excavated and both the upper and lower churches are available to view. Additionally, during the excavation, another layer underneath the lower church (400AD) was discovered, which included a house and a mint (200 and 100 AD, respectfully). This was in the church of Saint Clemente. The house and mint had a typical roman road in between, which was about 1.5 feet wide. The mint had a natural spring in it, and a arched room to store the coins.
Church of Saint John – was used as a residence of the Pope before the establishment of Vatican City, before the Papal residence was built in the Vatican. There is a door made of bronze with Jesus on it, that is only opened every 25 years. The foot of Jesus on this door is all rubbed off, as faithful touch it for good luck and prayers.
That church had some wicked awesome mosaic tile in it. I'm sure Mike was hoping I didn't get any bright ideas for bathroom renovations once I started clicking away taking photos of it!

Jerusalem Stairs – the stairs that Pontius Pilate made Jesus go up in Jerusalem on the way to be crucified. They were relocated to a church in Rome and many devout go up them on their knees, praying.
Another 3500 year old Egyptian obselisk from Alexandria.

We saw the tiny church where Peter stopped when fleeing out of Rome, Quo Vadis, where Peter saw an image of Jesus and asked where he was going (Quo Vadis, in latin, where are you going?) and Jesus told him he was going back to Rome to be crucified again. Peter took this to mean he should go back to Rome and did so, asking to be crucified upside down b.c he wasn’t worthy of being crucified like Jesus was.

We also saw the Catacombs, where we took a tour of the Catacombs and Church of Saint Sebastian. We were given the tour by a Catacomb employee (required). She explained that the tombs were built by Christians who believed in the resurrection and wanted to be buried together for that day. She told us that the Romans knew about the catacombs and allowed them; the first tombs were roman tombs where the ashes of people were interred. She also showed us a feast room where funerals and day of the dead festivals were held. She showed us the church of Saint Sebastian, who died as a martyr – death by arrows! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics in the catacombs. Bummer, but they probably would have turned out poorly anyways, as the lighting was pretty bad.

The only intact circus from Roman days, a huge field where sports and races were carried out. This was the Villa de Massenzio.

Church of St Paul – 2nd largest church in Rome. They had the chains that bound Paul when he was imprisoned, and had medallian/pictures of each 160+ popes around the top of the church. There was a bright light illuminating the picture of the current pope.

Armando bought the tickets to the Colosseum and the Palatine for us, so we didn’t have to wait in a long line, and pointed us toward a restaurant for lunch. The day was super hot, and we trekked up a hill to a tiny trattoria off the beaten path. The boys got roast chicken and Mom and I got gnocchi with zucca and salsiccia (sausage), trying to figure out what the mysterious zucca was the whole time. It was orange, so we teased Dad that it was probably sweet potato. Later on the Lingo we realized it was pumpkin! After lunch we toured the Colosseum, which was massive and awe-inspiring. The pictures don’t truly do it justice, but I couldn't stop taking pictures of it. Again, I wished I'd thought ahead to buy a fish-eye lens before the trip!!

Then we took a hot and sweaty trek through the Palatine hill (the residence of Emperor Vespasius completed around 80AD), which was massive and included an auditorium and sport field. Then the forum, with relics thousands of years old.

After touring these amazing sights, we jumped on the subway (right across from the Coliseum, snapping another few shots) and headed back to the hotel for the good ol’ afternoon nap and another shower to rinse off the day.

For dinner Mom and Dad had found a restaurant on Frommers (Restorante Il Matriciano, Via dei Gracchi, 53) that they wanted to try out that was near Vatican city. We took the metro down two stops and hiked along looking for it. We decided we hiked almost all the way back to our hotel – on the way back it took us about half as long to get home as it did to walk there from the metro! Once inside the restaurant, a little old man named Stefano decided he was in charge of our restaurant experience. He told me I wasn’t allowed to have the cheese plate I wanted for an appetizer, and that we would be better off with a mixed fried platter. There were fried artichokes, the petals of which were crispy and salty, risotto balls, and many other fried delicacies. We had such a good time with Stefano, picking our dessert, wine etc. He was super sassy and a very good time – and we had a better meal because of his sass. We ended up taking a picture of him and Dad b.c Dad laughed so much at him!

Hey all!

Back from a fun weekend of Stratton family reunioning! I got to see a ton of my favorite peeps, including that silly booboohead Gracie

And after being terrified of it the first day, Gracie liked her pink tricycle OK the second day. I think watching the bigger kids play with it was a good influence!
After some AWFUL traffic on the way home, we are finally home to that beagle dog. I love this dog!

Day 5 - Rome, Classic Rome Walking Tour

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 5: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619572769024/

We began the day with the free hotel breakfast and a walking tour of Classic Rome. Our tour guide Armando, picked us up at our hotel and a driver took us to Piazza Navona to start the tour. We walked through the piazza, Armando showing us the three fountains, the Brazilian Embassy, and telling us that the the Piazza was built in the shape of the stadium that had been in the same spot and used for races and sport. The central fountain included great rivers of the continents: Nile (Africa), Ganges (Asia, India), Danube (Europe, Germany), and Rio de la Plata (South America).


Church of Saint Ignacio, where we saw paintings by Carvaccio (sp?), who painted dark and moody paintings and had to flee rome after killing his friend during a tennis match. He didn't do this ceiling, but I thought it was pretty.
These plaques on the wall of a church show how high the Tiber had flooded in the past.
The Pantheon, which is built to be earthquake-proof. The dome was completed in one pour and is one giant piece of concrete, melded to the walls. Thus the building is like a glass set on a table during an earthquake; the whole thing moves. In this building Rafael and the first and second presidents of unified Italy were entombed

Churches so numerous, that I don't even know where we were half the time!

This church was painted with a fake dome, and was so realistic that the real dome was never put in.

Me, doing as the Romans do (pose hilariously for photos... somehow I still don't look as funny as they do when they strike a pose!

Trevi fountain (tossing coins over our shoulder so that we would have to come back to Rome). The plaza it was in was very small and the fountain took up much of it. What small space was available was crowded with tourists of every language and country, taking pictures and excitedly throwing coins.

The Spanish steps, which had a “sinking boat” statue in the road in front of it, made to seem as if it was lower than the road and thus, sinking

We also saw several Egyptian obselisks, brought from Alexandria in Roman times with an age of about 3500 years. One was placed on top of an elephant and the artist who made the elephant positioned the butt of the elephant towards a nearby monastery who had complained about the statue!

The shopping area trident of three streets together and the adjacent artist area with museums and artist community. These three streets jutted off from the Piazza del Popolo.

The tomb of Caesar Augustus (which was the Caesar who required a taxation and census which brought Mary and Joseph to Jesus’ birthplace)

We also saw:

• Helical column that told of Marcus Aurelius’ adventures
• The Italian senate and parliament buildings
• House of the prime minister
• Roman stock exchange where massive Roman/Corinthian columns were incorporated into a newer building.

Armando also showed us multiple times how the buildings from ancient roman times were a good 20-30 feet (and at times as much as 45 feet) lower than current street level. This is because when old buildings were razed, they were usually just filled in and the new buildings are built on top of the rubble. So over time, the street level gets higher and higher.

After a four hour walking tour (thank goodness Armando walked slower than Silvio) in the sun, we were pretty beat and Armando pointed us toward a local restaurant for lunch, named ‘Gusto (near the tomb of Caesar Augustus). The place had a buffet (or boo-fet, as Armando said) of multiple mixed salads or you could get pizza. Mike opted for the pizza of course, and the parents and I wolfed down marinated veggies, friend rice, meat, and mixed salads. The bread was good, and we decided that we should first try the bread at any location and THEN decide if we were staying for the meal as our litmus test!! After Gusto, we decided to head back to the hotel b.c we were hot and sweaty from all the walking.

We opted for a quick nap which turned into a massive nap, making it too late to see the Colosseum and the Forum this day. We finally dragged ourselves from bed and headed out to dinner, at a place near Piazza Navona called L’Orso 80, recommended on Frommers and by an online forum we consulted. Dinner was good and although we didn’t know enough Italian to score some risotto balls, we had wine, appetizers (marinated veggies, meat, and cheese), and entrees. After dinner we walked through Piazza Navona, which was a much different sight than at 9AM. All the restaurants had sidewalk seating out, there were street artists and vendors, and crowds of people. A girl we saw later at our hotel almost got ran over by a horse, and I saw a kid in an Ohio State tshirt. Mike dared me to say O-H, which I did, and the kid whipped his head around looking surprised and responded with I-O! Always fun to horse around with Midwest peeps.We grabbed a cab home to reserve our feet for the next day, and hit the hay.

Day 4 - Rome, Vatican Tour

The pictures I've been posting are the low-resolution versions of what I actually took so I don't kill the blog. The big guys are located here for Day 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/72157619514317248/

Our first full day in Rome, we had a tour scheduled around 1:00-ish to see the Vatican in all of its glory. Since we didn't wake up until around 9:30, we didn't have a whole lot of time to get out and about and see stuff in the morning. We meandered a bit around a couple shopping areas, and found a pizza place that had long square pizzas. You showed them how much you wanted of the pizza, they cut it off where you pointed, then you paid according to weight. It was awesome! I got 4 Formaggi and the cheese was so tasty, plus it was only 13 euro for all of us to have a quick bite to eat for lunch before our tour.

We also noticed that every Italian apartment building seemed to have like 4,000 tv antennaes on it. Maybe they haven't heard about cable yet?

We met our tour guide, Silvio (although it could have been Silviano, who knows) and away we went on the Vatican tour. And away it was. Silvio walked with PURPOSE and his steps equalled like three of mine. The dude was F-A-S-T. We headed past the lines and throngs of tourists, and headed up an escalator to a main lobby-ish area. Silvio explained that this structure we went past on the escalator was either designed or inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. Kind of cool.

Once in the main area, Silvio used a display to explain some basic things about the Vatican.

And we proceeded to run all over the place, checking out random things and listening to short history lessons from Silvio. At one point he got all fired up at another tour guide for hogging a display, and called a guard over. They were SCREAMING in Italian, he was saying in English that he would meet her outside... we were in a small courtyard where all 1,000 heads looked our way. We were so embarrassed. But hey, it's a great story! (Our guide the next day, Armando, told us that Silvio was "not a soul at peace".... hahahaha)

The place was teeming with tourist and history. I guess alot of the statues and works of art that used to be all over Rome have been moved to the Vatican over time. So there is a ton there. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Hey, check it out. All roads DO lead to Rome. At least the ones around Rome, anyways.

At the end of seeing a ton of halls of art and statues, etc, Silvio led us into the Sistine Chapel and told us to "let Michelangelo speak to you. I'll meet you in the back in 10 minutes." The Sistine chapel was amazing - there is a part that got knocked off from an explosion in a nearby ammunition room and no one will dare repair it for fear of messing up Michelangelo's work. We weren't allowed to talk OR take pictures in there, which kind of stunk. But it was amazing all the same. Kind of surreal, like, is this really happening?

After that we headed into St Peter's Basilica. Which was massive and awe-inspiring. We also got to go down underneath it where a lot of Popes (including Peter and the most recent John Paul) are buried. No pictures allowed down there either!

Walking out into the square, we stopped to get more water. "This is way better than your water back home," said Silvio "Straight from the old aqueducts!" Dad decided that it was holy water, since it was from the Vatican!

At this point, I decided I needed a fisheye lens, b.c I couldn't get all of St Peter's Basilica and the square in the same shot. It's HUGE.

It's also got some optical illusions. Like, when you're on the edge or outside of the square it looks huge and impressive, but when you're in the square the basilica actually looks rather close "it brings you in" - Silvio said.

After the tour we hit up a happy hour with some snacks and white wine with Silvio and got a new victory sign to do, as Silvio pumped his whole arms up and down to celebrate a successful tour. We walked across a super old Roman footbridge to get to the wine bar.
Dinner was near the Colosseum where I took the pic in front of it that I posted right when I got back. It was again awe-inspiring to be eating minestrone right across from such a huge piece of history!!

Day 3

On the 3rd day of our Italian adventure, we had a 12:00-ish train out of Venice. We woke up early and were going to walk around a bit. Dad proposed that we walk to the train station, as it looked to be about a 30 minute walk. We thought, OK, sounds fine... I think we made it up the stairs of one side canal in the 90 degree heat before realizing that walking to the train station was a BAD idea. Seriously, I cannot stress enough how it's just not very doable to drag suitcases through Venice - there are tiny footbridges over all the side canals, so there are stairways every 50-100 feet. It's crazy!

Instead, we decided we had to try the waterbus... I mean, we cannot miss a mode of transportation. So we walked over to the nearest station (still sweating our butts off) and purchased tickets. It was actually a pretty cool and not expensive way to see much of the city, since it goes in a huge loop!
Once we got to Rome, we took a cab to our hotel. which was right by the Vatican. I was fascinated by the parking. I mean, people just parked WHEREVER. Plus I totally want a smart car so I can park perpendicular to the curb like this!

We did a little walking around on the way to find some din-din. This is the door to the Vatican Museum. It was massive!

This is a pic of some Vatican walls... Pictures don't do it justice. The guys were super impressed, saying "Hey, it would be awesome to toss some boiling water down these at your attacker!"

Another crazy huge awesome Vatican door. The Pope is for Realz about his security, yo.

We finally found the place that the hotel had recommended for dinner and sat down for a meal. Dad didn't like his creme brulee (it's so weird over there, like the color of sweet potatoes or something), so the guy brought him some panna cotta. Ding ding, we have a winner!

We stopped at a Gelateria with a line out the door on the way home and got some gelato. I got Nutella, which was amazing, and Mike got about three flavors with a massive pile of whipped cream on top. These guys weren't messing around, the gelato was AMAZING!

Mike and I started missing Milly at this point (crazy dog! How does she drive me crazy and make me addicted to her all at the same time!?), so we made up an "International sign for Beagle" and started doing it in pictures. Good times!