Anywho, I last left you before we met the wonderous Fe, who saved our trip to Rome! Or something way less dramatic...she was just a really good tour guide. But a good tour guide can make all the difference, don't you think?
So Jennie and I marched outside the Colosseum and were immediately greeted by a thin, blonde, incredibly bouncy middle-aged British woman (Fe!). She led us up the stairs to Palentine hill, where the Roman nobles had lived. She showed us where Nero's infamously grandiose palace had once stood, along with various other palatial ruins. The hill afforded an awesome view of Rome and the Circus Maximus. Guess who also decided to build his palace up there?!? Good ole Mussolini. Just in case anyone wasn't catching on to his whole "we were the greatest once and will be again" campaign.
Making our way to the Roman Forum, we walked through citrus and olive groves. A group of really weird folks on our tour (more on them later) tried the olives and spit them out immediately. They were apparently "not ripe yet" (or soaked in brine...duh). Fe told us an interesting tidbit - apparently citrus is a natural mosquito repellent. So besides being attractive and nummy, ancient Romans planted citrus groves to deter pests. (This information had me applying orange peel to my skin for days.) Of course, thanks to the Americans and DDT, mosquitoes have been almost eradicated in Rome.
The Forum itself is crazy. I mean, based on looks alone without a guide its not that impressive. But once its explained, the Forum is amazing. Buildings around 1500 years old still stand, despite being buried for hundreds of years. That's right - buried. Before excavation, the Forum was a cow field, occasionally broken up by the upper halves of buildings and monuments. Remains of temples from the earliest days of Rome mix with medieval churches, while plots of land indicated as granaries and markets vie for space with the skeletons of giant palaces. The Forum was the center of Roman life for centuries; consequently it's mind boggling to think that the Italian archeologists had no clue what they were unearthing in the late 19th and 2oth centuries.
Throughout the tour, Jenn and I had both noticed a very strange family touring around with us. At first it was not readily apparent they were a family, instead it looked like 3 couples traveling together. But as time went on, we came to realize that it was a set of parents with two adult children, one boy and a girl, and their significant others. The didn't seem weird in the beginning, just overly physically affectionate. Then we began to notice the kids and parents sharing cigarettes (hand-rolled at that, though that is pretty popular over here in general) and later a couple of giant beers. But the kicker was when we watched them take large swigs out of what appeared to be large juice boxes. Closer inspection revealed, however, that it was actually wine from a box. These people had been drinking and smoking and canoodling for 3 hours in the middle of the afternoon on a tour. To top it off, the Dad used my head to steady his camera for a picture. I know I'm short but seriously??!! You should at least ask someone before using their head as a tripod.
Luckily, after the Roman Forum, the tour was over. Weird British families aside, it had been very informative and fun. Fe thanked us for our attention and then told us that she would be giving a tour of the Vatican the next morning. Well, I jumped on the opportunity -- we already knew she was great, and Jenn had previously let me know she was not really interested in doing the whole Vatican thing and I was reluctant to go alone...here was the perfect solution! Excited about my future Vatican adventures, Jenn and I bid Fe adieu and headed out to complete Jenn's ambitious Roma checklist.
Next stop on the Rome train?! The Pantheon. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I seriously think it was my favorite thing we saw. I hadn't known much about it previously, but inside I was enchanted. It was so BIG, and SPARKLY, and...ROUND. AND the oculus...I don't know why it made such an impression, but it did. I could have stayed there forever looking at that giant marble eye, but there was more to see so we left, albeit grudgingly.
The next few hours were a blur of sights: the Trevi Fountain (yes I did throw a coin in), the "Wedding Cake", Piazza Popolo, countless designer stores. By the time we were done, it was very dark outside and our feet were very, very sore. We decided to call it quits, feeling quite proud of ourselves. As a reward we treated ourselves to a Chinese dinner. Sounds strange but hey, four weeks of any food, even good food, can get really monotonous. We also, inadvertently, were staying in the Asian section of town. When in Rome, do as the Chinese...??
Next up - Courtney meets the Pope! I am totes serious...if by "meets" you mean "watches on a street with thousands of other people". Whatever, same difference.
Buona Sera!
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