Rome and Venice

I somehow lost all of my photos from the last 3 days in Rome, so words will have to suffice.  I flew out of Toulouse on Saturday morning (free from classes at last!) and finally got into the city from the airport about 2pm.  I checked into my hostel and wandered around the neighborhood for the next few hours, enjoying a pizza and all the terrific (free) views I could get of the coliseum and forum.  Since Rome is even further east than Tarbes, it got dark around 4:30 so I started heading back to the hostel kind of early to enjoy a free pasta dinner that they prepare there twice a week.  After that I just hung around the hostel getting to know some of the other guests.  I was super excited to get up early the next morning to go to the airport and meet my parents and sister, so I was extremely disappointed, not to mention confused from being totally asleep, when my mom called at 2am to tell me that they weren’t able to board their flight to Amsterdam because of some problems you’ve probably already heard about, involving Europeans not knowing what to do with snow, and therefore wouldn’t be arriving in Rome the next morning.

I decided to make the most of my extra day alone in Rome, so I still got up relatively early to tag along with a Canadian girl from my hostel to see a 2-mile-long market.  We took an impressively crowded bus where we both had to stare down some creepy pocket-gropers, and finally burst out of the bus at the market to join the crowd.  It was mostly crappy clothes, but it was still cool to see the longest market in Rome.  At the end, we crossed the river to start looking for a metro stop and stumbled upon the Rome farmer’s market and organic farm.  We walked through the market, didn’t buy anything, but got to sample tons of delicious cheese, salami, cookies, and olive oil, then we were finally on our way.  The Canadian, Heather, had to get back to the hostel to collect her things and head off to the train station, but the other guy with us, Sam, said he was heading over to the Vatican to see the pope speak at noon, and I was like “why not?!” so we went and saw the pope.  I don’t understand German, Italian, or Latin, the 3 languages he spoke in, but it was still cool to see him, along with about half of Rome, all crowded into Saint Peter’s square. 

We went back to the hostel so I could skype with my parents about their unfortunate situation, they told me they would probably be getting on a plane that night and arriving in Rome the following night really late.  Then Sam and I collected some of the other guys from the hostel and we headed out again to have a cappuccino and walk around to see more of the sights, including a really cool park across the street from the coliseum that has the ruins of a roman bath.  Then we started touring churches, of which I don’t want to forget the names:
-Santa Maria Maggiore: very large and impressive, with (allegedly) the remains of the holy manger that Jesus was born in, inside a gold and silver urn under the altar
-Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli: near the Piazza della Repubblica, this church had a lot of astronomical/astrological symbolism, including a really cool floor mosaic of all the different zodiac signs and an incredible stained glass dome right above the entrance with stars in different colors of glass.th
-San Pietro in Vincoli: has the chains that bound Saint Peter under the altar.  There’s some crazy story about a miracle where one church had them, then they were stolen and miraculously reappeared later.  Hmm…

After seeing those churches and taking pictures in front of various monuments which have since been eaten by my computer, we headed back towards the hostel, stopping at a little grocery store on the way to get pasta and wine for dinner.  We cooked and ate together at the hostel, then went to a medieval-themed bar after dinner to have a beer. 

Monday, I slept in then headed out with two boys from the hostel to see Trastevere, a cute neighborhood near the river.  We had awesome slices of pizza, then wandered around a bit, heading north towards the Vatican.  It was almost dark by the time we got there and starting to rain a bit, but there was no line so we went into Saint Peter’s basilica.  I didn’t even bother taking pictures; we just walked around in awe of the hugeness and importance of everything.  Afterwards we made our way back to the metro, and I left them to do more sightseeing while I headed back to the hostel to book a hotel for that night for my parents, who had finally made it to Amsterdam and were waiting to fly to Rome.  I spent the evening hanging out with really cool people at the hostel, making really good pasta, and drinking pretty good wine.  Then around midnight, I finally got the call from my sister at their hotel saying they were there!!!! And it was time for me to go and meet up with them!!!! Finally!!!!!  I practically skipped down the stairs with my backpack and suitcase, power walked over to the hotel, and we all had a giddy reunion and went to bed.

Tuesday morning, we packed up and got on a train from Rome to Venice, where we arrived around 4 in the afternoon.  We’ve spent the last 3 days walking around and getting lost in the city, trying to find alternate routes to avoid the flooded streets (it’s raining a lot. And the canals are in the “acqua alta” or “high water” phase), eating a lot of good food, and generally just enjoying beautiful Venice and each other’s company.  Yesterday we went to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, which is a bunch of really great modern art that she collected, displayed in her former home in Venice, on the grand canal.  Today’s plans are similar: try to see some important things, wander around and inevitably get lost.  Florence tomorrow.