calling from some city...

Today we had planned on getting up at 7 am because we wanted to get an early start to the day. We also went to bed so early the night before I thought we would have no trouble getting up at 7. Wrong. Instead, Scott shook me awake at 9 am to say we overslept. Oh well. We went to the bar around the corner that serves us free breakfast as part of our hotel stay, so that was a nice start to the day- chocolate pastry :)  After that we took the bus to la piazza di san pietro. St. Peter’s is by far my favorite piazza in all of Rome. The combination of the two fountains, St. Peter’s Dome and Basilica, and Via Conciliazione (which is a really impressive wide street that leads straight into the square that Mussolini had built. Hey, at least he did something right because it’s awesome) just makes me smile every time i see it. We got in line for St. Peter’s which was quite long but it moved really fast. We immediately headed to the line to climb the dome. I had been to St. Peter’s before, obviously, but did not do the dome climb last time so I was excited. We decided to climb all 581 steps of the dome- it was the cheapest option- and because it figured to be a good workout. The first 200+ steps were fine- big steps and it went by quickly. But then we started climbing the last 320 stairs- and this was the hard part. The stairs are in really, really tiny corridors that spiral upwards very tightly. So it was really windy and hot and very few windows, plus people in front of you and behind you. Therefore, it was really claustrophobic in there. The stair case continues to get narrower as you move up as well, and at some point you walk along a sloped wall so you have to duck down. It was definitely an uncomfortable walk up.

But once you reach the top, it’s totally worth it- the views of Rome are spectacular. We walked around the dome and sat on the benches for about 30 minutes- both to catch out breath but also to appreciate the view in front of us. No building in Rome is allowed to be built taller than the dome, so we were literally looking down on everything in the city. After we signed our names on the dome (we felt kind of bad defacing the property, but so many other people had done it…) we headed down- and the walk down was just as worse as the walk up. I kept feeling like I would fall down. 

Nut luckily, no injuries on the way down, so we explored the basilica. Again, this was my second time there but it’s just as impressive and I was eagerly snapping pictures even though I already have a huge album of pictures. I just really love beautiful architecture- and St. Peter’s definitely fits that description.

After St. Peter’s we got pizza for lunch and the headed to Castel Sant’Angelo. The emperor Hadrian built Castel Sant’Angelo as a place for his tomb. Because Rome doesn’t allow tombs to be built inside the walls of the city, he had his built literally right outside the walls and made it a huge castle so that it was very noticeable. (Upon learning this info, Scott declared Hadrian a douchebag). So since then Sant’Angelo has been used as a tomb, prison, castle, and hiding place for the pope when Rome was under attack. There is an underground tunnel that connects with the Vatican. Now it is a pretty cool museum. It also offers awesome views of Rome- especially because St. Peter’s dome is included in this view. I hadn’t been to Sant’Angelo before so I enjoyed our visit. 

After we walked to Piazza del Popolo, then the Spanish Steps and finally to Villa Borghese. We decided to rent a tandem bike to ride around the park. We didn’t get one with a motor because it was far cheaper to pedal ourselves. Completely. Wrong. Decision. It was really hard to pedal and exhausting and Sara and Scott had to push the bike at points so we basically gave that up quickly and returned it and found a shaded area to just relax for a bit.

After showering back at the hotel we went to dinner at a restaurant nearby and then went to Scholar’s! This was the pub I hung out at 3-4 times a week when I studied abroad. Unfortunetely all the bartenders I became friendly with are no longer there. We got drinks and watched hurling on tv and chatted. It was really dead, which never happened when we went to Scholar’s last winter. Not sure why, but still it was nice to return there. We returned home at around 1 and went to bed. Really enjoyable day for me, even with the heat and crowds. I love this city.