When In Rome…

We have been Italy for only over a week but felt the need get some old fashioned American  food, so we found the only American Diner in Florence Thursday morning. It was our first morning to sleep in which felt nice, then we topped it off with some Milkshakes and Pancakes. There Milkshakes were even better here, I thought we had those down? Later that afternoon Elizabeth and I had a little date and went up the Piazza Michael Angelo to watch the Sunset. We crossed the river and went up numerous steps and finally could see all of Florence from this spot. It was so peaceful up there with little vendors around and older couples that you could tell have been coming up there for years. On Friday we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to meet the bus to Florence at 5:30, luckily I was able to sleep the whole ride there. Our first stop was Tivoli, Italy. We went to the Villa D’ Este where one of the richest Archbishops (whose name has escaped me now) lived. When visitors came to his palace they had to go through about 4 levels of gardens to get up to the palace. The gardens and palace have been kept up and made into a Museum. There are 51 fountains throughout his palace and gardens. He was very religious (his grandfather was a Pope) and had religious symbols throughout all of his paintings and fountains. It was incredibly green even this time of year and the fountains were absolutely amazing. When I visit this historical sites I can’t help but imagine how they were in their prime. After Tivoli we went to have lunch in the countryside where we had a HUGE Italian meal. We started off with bread with olive oil and olive paste on it-I’ve never had such delicious olive oil! Then we had polenta with bread, following was a pasta dish, then to top it off we had our meat dish. The food just kept coming and coming and was better by each plate! Dinner was very similar. I am still confused how Italians eat like this and still are skinny. We made it into Rome later that afternoon and explored some churches. One of which had a Bernini sculpture in a very Baroque style which was breathtaking. Then we went to the Basilica of Maria Degli Angeli that Michael Angelo designed which was on the land of old Roman hot baths. After another amazing dinner we went to an Irish Pub called the Scholar’s Lounge which was a blast! I am officially in love with Peroni beer. On Saturday we took in all so much of Rome’s history it made me dizzy. We walked over seven miles seeing the Coliseum, Pantheon, Fountain De Trevi, the Roman Forum, Capital Hill, Saint Peter’s Basilica, among other various Roman pieces of architecture. We started at the Coliseum, it consisted of four level the lowest being for the kings prime ministers and Vestal virgins. The flooring was originally made of wood and covered with sand. It could hold over 50,000 people. Some of the stuff that went on there was pretty twisted. The Pantheon was made of walls that are 18 feet thick. The whole at the top is open and remains open, rain or shine. It is now the housing of many king’s tombs. I tossed two coins in the Fountain De Trevi, the first coin so that I would come back to Rome and the second to find love. The Roman Forum was great, thanks to our amazing tour guide. Then we climbed up capital hill where two museums in the square along with a main wall and various statues. Michael Angelo designed this facing away from the Roman Forum to symbolize Modern day Rome. After our tour good pointed out other spots throughout Rome we made our way to the Vatican. We visited San Pietro’s Basilica. The circle outside of it was the site of where Saint Peter was killed. Inside was absolutely breathtaking. The basilica has one of the largest marble collections in the world. We were a bit rushed so I did not get to take in everything as I would have liked but I was able to say a prayer. We then made our way up the dome on top of the basilica- hiking up 320 narrow steps we reached a peak where we could see all of Rome. We made it just in time to see the sunset, which goes up on the record books for one of the most amazing ones I’ve ever seen. We had another fabulous dinner that night then went back to the Irish Pub where the Irish Folks were celebrating their victory over Italy! Today we had a nice tourist looking bus tour that gave us more history. I went to mass at the Basilica I was talking about earlier that Michael Angelo designed. It was all in Italian so luckily I knew what was going on. During the “Our Father” and older Italian lady squeezed my hand, I hope that was her way of applauding my effort to keep up and welcoming me. It was a beautiful but and definitely experience. This weekend was an amazing weekend to take in all of the History of Italy.