Ciao Stranger,
After 10 long strenuous days of travelling around Europe with my brother (Eddy), I am finally back in Rome. Oh how I've missed this place. It may sound silly since I've only been here for two months (and half the time I haven't even been in Rome) but this city really feels like home to me now. After two weeks of living in the same room and sharing a bed with my brother, the responsible older sister role has finally come to an end. Time to get back to the Erasmus lifestyle! I have LOTS to update on, so bare with me. In the next couple of days, I will try to type as much as I can and share all my stories with you. Some may be a tad boring (like this entry) but trust me, the good stuff will come. So be patient with me and come along on my Europe travels...with my brother.
On Sunday, we just walked around the centre of the city, being typical tourists. It felt kind of good being a tour guide for someone, talking as if you know everything even when you know zip. I was quite surprised at how much information I obtained in the weeks I've been here. I guess I have been paying attention, even if it wasn't for school. Trajan's Market, exactly as the name says, used to be a marketplace for the Trajan's back in the 100 AD. It's right across the Forums and I've walked by here a gazillion times by now but this is the first time I stopped and took a picture.
Taken in the Monti area, my favourite part of Rome. It's even more magnificent at night, with the moonlight glimmering overhead, the dim street lights casting shadows...oh damn it, where's my date?!
Since I knew from the start that I would be having my lovely family member join me in Rome, I saved the two biggest attractions: The Colosseum and The Vatican. I had read from another blog that you can pre-book a special tour of the Colosseum where they take you to the bottom of the arena, where it's usually closed off to the public. It's 10 extra Euros and you have to call in to buy your tickets first but it was worth every penny. First off, you get to skip the line, which usually takes about 2 hours (on a good day), and you get a guided 1.5 hour tour of the whole place. You're going to see one of the 8 wonders of the world, you might as well do it right.
And the view from the top. TADA!!! Best view of the house. I won't bore you with the history of this place, because if you ever go to Rome, you're bound to come and check this place out for yourself. If I hadn't gone on the tour, I wouldn't really think much of this place. Ruins of stones...yay...but once you learn about the history, you'll see it in a different light. This place may look like a wreck now, but try to imagine it in white and coloured marble, with 80,000 fans standing around, cheering for the gladiators fighting below. Crazy.
If you buy a ticket for the Colosseum, you can go into the Forums as well, which is what the center of Ancient Rome used to look like. Obviously now, it's just a scatter of ruins everywhere. It's definitely something you see once, and won't ever want to see it again (unless you're into old decaying buildings).
You do get a nice view of Rome at some of the higher points of the Forum. It's quite big and Eddy and I got lost in it numerous times, walking around in circles, just trying to get out.
Our typical routine was to grab a gelato whenever we wanted a break from walking, and then get up, see a church, go in and stare at the ceilings, then repeat by hitting up another gelato shop. I don't think you can tell from the picture below but the painting on the wall is done so that it looks 3D. It's too hard to describe, just...nod like you know what I'm trying to say. At night I took Eddy to Momart (the awesome apertif restaurant) with the Singaporean boys and we stuffed ourselves until we all gained 5 pounds.
Last Monday I left Eddy at home all day while I went to school and then off to the immigration office to get my fingerprints done for the stupid residence card. It took me 2 hours to get to this place because it's in the middle of nowhere. I'm just glad I didn't have to wait in a line because the office was closing by the time I got there. What am I going to do with this useless card? Absolutely nothing. But it cost me 150 Euros and 3 days of my life. Biggest waste of money. Nonetheless, I got it all done with and now I will never have to deal with Italian bureaucracy again...at least let's hope not.
Tuesday afternoon we went to The Vatican. Yay for the smallest state in the world! Only about 100 acres in total, and half of it is the garden in the back. After seeing how amazing booking tickets beforehand was, I did the same for the Vatican, and even got us another guided tour. Once again, my mentality of "I'm only going to do this once so I might as well do it right" set in and I handed over the money unwillingly.
According to our guide, this is the best view of St.Peter's from the Vatican Museum. Tip for those wanting to go into the museum. Go around 3pm and you'll realize that the place is essentially deserted, and you get to wander around without fighting with all the other tourists.
The museum is massive, and you could literally spend all day inside. I got a neck cramp just from looking at all the ceiling artworks. This one below is 100% painted. So the stuff that resembles a white side panel? Yeah, painted. All these 3D looking paintings is really messing with my brain.
More examples of the crazy ceilings. Get me a brush, my room's ceiling is looking a little too white!
And now onto the reason why everyone flocks to The Vatican Museum: The Sistine Chapel, where the decision of electing a new Pope takes place. Now I would definitely take a picture of the Sistine Chapel but due to copyright issues (a Japanese company owns the right to all the pictures inside the chapel until 2016) I will just steal one from the internet. These are Michelangelo's greatest masterpieces. It took him 4 years to do the paintings on the ceiling, where he painted standing up, day and night. I was complaining after looking at for 10 minutes, I can't imagine what it must have been like doing this for years. He must not have had very good posture, that's for sure. Then in his 60s, he spent 6 years painting the blue backdrop wall, known as the Last Judgement. How he managed to do everything is beyond me. This guy is pure magic, I applaud you Michelangelo. If you don't have a guide telling you beforehand what you're seeing, all of this may be overwhelming and you won't be able to appreciate its true beauty, so please, do yourself a favour and get a tour guide or pay for an audio tour.
And to end it right, we went into St. Peter's Basilica, where underneath the church, lies St.Peter's tomb. The church itself is famous for its dome, designed by Michelangelo to be similar to the Pantheon. They say if you've seen St. Peter's, then you would've seen the Colosseum as well as all of the big churches in Rome. This is because in order to build St. Peter's, a large amount of marble had to be used, so people simply recycled materials by taking them off other structures. Once you see this church, you'll understand why this had to happen...it's simply too grand, with every corner of the place covered in marble. We also wanted to climb the outside of the dome and get a view of Rome but the staircase was closed by the time we got there. Pity. I guess I'll just have to do it another time. Maybe next time I'll get to see Papa Francesco (the Pope) as well. Wait for me!
Once you exit St. Peter's, on the right hand side, you'll see two Swiss army guards. These guards are all under 25 years old, and can't work for more than 2 years at The Vatican. But I can't take them seriously because their uniform just reminds me of jesters.
That night we all went to M&C's to have a movie night. Originally, we planned to watch The Godfather, a classic Italian movie but due to a slow internet connection, we ended up watching a chick flick of Crazy, Stupid, Love. Nonetheless I'm pretty sure all the guys loved it :) And that's a wrap for my time in Rome last week before I left for Paris. I'm sorry for the dull entry, but since all my brother and I did were the typical touristy things, I really couldn't make this more interesting.
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