ROME

So my wonderful husband decided to take me to Rome for my first time over the weekend. We left Friday afternoon. As we were driving Massimo was explaining to me some of the things to be aware of in Rome. Such as: be careful with your purse, don't trust anyone, be careful to the drivers, etc... Ya ya ya I said. If I have experienced Milan in rush hour I can handle Rome (I thought) So as we're driving we get stuck in a huge traffic clutter. Our 5 or 6 hour drive turned into a 9 hour drive. Our poor friends who we were staying with were waiting for us to eat dinner. We finally arrived at 9:30. They had dinner all prepared when we arrived. They are such a sweet and fun couple to be around. After dinner we prepared the bed and got ready for a nice long nights sleep. They said be ready for tomorrow we have a great day planned for you guys. The next morning after breakfast we headed out. Gabriele offered to drive, I thought that was nice of him so Massi and I could sit in the back seat and enjoy the sites of Rome. The second we pulled out of their street I thought we were going to DIE!!! There are absolutely NO RULES to driving in Rome. Now, you think that would be nice and great but no there was nothing nice about it. I was trying to look out my window to see buildings and such but the second I would someone would cut in front of us, blowing horns would start going off from every direction and every one starts yelling out their car windows.....and me white knuckled with a look of fear on my face! Massi of course just laughs and says "it's the music of Rome babe" If you don't know already Italians are peots when it comes to driving. In America I'm so used to the honking of A horn once and saying get out of the way or something like that. Well not Italians....Their starting line in the HOOOORN then a poem that goes along with it. It's about who ever made them mad and each family member that person may have and what's all wrong with that person and what they wish could happen to that person. Really no joke it's a 3 page poem!! So finally after my near death experience(s) we arrive to the subway. They all 3 say to me, "Michelle be careful these can be scary" UMMMM no the subways were probably where I felt the most safe=)

As we got off the underground and walked up the stares....There it was. Something I've ALWAYS dreamed about seeing and I was there standing right in front of it. The Coliseum! It didn't seem real to me, all the history I learned about in school I was finally there seeing it with my own eyes and with Massimo. Everytime there was something big to see he would look over at my face instead of the site. He said he loved to watch the first look on my face right when I saw something. We walked ALL around. We saw the Roman Forum, the temple of Antoninus & Faustina, the Coliseum, the temple of Vesta, Arch of Titus, the temple of the Dioscuri, temple of Saturn. We walked to the Capitoline square down to the Venezia palace where there is the balcony of Mussolini and where Hitler and him once stood. That was creepy for me to see. Then we walked to the church where a part of The Da Vinci code was filmed. That was beautiful to see and a lot bigger inside from what it looks on the outside. Then we went to the Piazza di Spagna and saw the amazing steps with the Barcaccia Fountain at the bottom. Then we walked to the Piazza del Popolo, where there are the two twin churches and the Flaminio Obelisk. We finally ended the day and went back to our friends house. We were all so exhausted, we relaxed for a few hours then we went to a near by resturant called Al Cantuccio where Massi and I had the typical Roman pasta dish, Spaghetti Cacio E Pepe. It was really yummy. It's just a spaghetti pasta with creamy cacio cheese with black peper. I didn't know what Cacio cheese was till I had this dish but it's a kind of soft creamy sheeps milk manufactured in Rome and is also called "caciotta" it has a very strong flavor and is really yummy!

Sunday we woke up, had breakfast and went to Vatican City!!! We went at noon to Saint peter's square to see and hear the Pope! It's one thing to see him on TV up in his window speaking every Sunday but when you're there looking up at him from the square he looks so tiny and has this little voice you can barely hear. It was pretty amazing to see him and all the people that go to hear him speak, there were sooo many people around and all their kids had balloons they'd let go up into the sky once the Pope came to his window. He said a few things in English I was impressed. The line to get inside the St. Peters church was so long and there were so many other things we wanted to see so we thought we'd come back later. We then went to Saint Angelo's Castle and walked all around there and stopped to have a coffee. There was an ice skating rink set up on the side of the road where a bunch of people were ice skating, It's so strange to me to see all the Christmas lights and decorations going up and still have no snow. It's really cold here but with out the pretty snow. I miss my Utah weather. We were really lucky with the weather in Rome for the 3 days we were there it was sunny each day till the day we left when it started pouring rain. So after the castle we walked accross the big bridge that goes over the Tiber river and to the Trevi Fountain. It is one of the biggest fountains in Rome and one of the most beautiful. Massi and I went down and each threw a coin and made a wish! We had to end our day there because there was a Roman Dirby that night and Gabriele is a Roman soccer fan so it was a very important event.... We went back to their house and ordered pizza and watched the match. It was so nice to have a relaxing night after all the walking we did. Italians are not only poets when they drive they are also poets when they watch soccer....They are crazy about the sport, I'm not sure which is more exciting to watch the match or the person watching the match. Thank goodness Gabriele's team won!!

Monday Massi and I went out on our own. We went right to St. Peters church cause we wanted to get inside before a huge line started. As we drove down there we passed the Circo Massimo (The Circus Maximus) the old Roman chariot racing stadium and we passed the Terme di caracalla (The baths of Caracalla) both were so amazing I had to stop and take pictures. We finally made it to St. Peters church! As we were walking inside we saw the Swiss Guards, guarding the door into the part of the church where the Pope lives. First we went down under the church to the tombs where all the popes are buried. I had no idea there was so many popes...oops. Even though I'm not Catholic it was still an amazing thing to see and feel. Especially when we got to the last pope, Pope John Paul. There were people kneeling and praying in front of his tomb. You could just feel how strong their religion was to them. There was a guard on each side of the wall where he lies and wouldn't allow people to take photograghs of the area. People put flowers and letters to him on the ground, it was just a great thing to see. Then we went up into the church. WOW!!!! It is HUGE and so wonderful. My mouth just dropped as we walked into the door. The first thing I saw was the huge bronze altar with the spiral colunms right under the dome. The whole church was just amazing. I think we would of had to spend at least 2 hours inside just to see it all. We really wanted to go up to the top and see the view of Rome and the inside of the dome but of course there was ANOTHER huge line and we were both starving so we headed out. We went and grabbed some lunch a little cafe then headed to the Sistine Chapel. Massi and I really wanted to see the ceiling so it was an intense walk to get there. You have to go up a huge spiral staircase and go through several other rooms (which were interesting too) but we were both so anxious to get to the ceiling. Once we arrived to the room both of us were just silent and looking up and every single thing. We spoted the creation of Adam (the finger touch) right away, I had to take a picture of it, then we turned around and there was the Last Judgement!!!! All these amazing things and the workers there tell you "NO PHOTOS" and I'm not sure anyone listened to them. Once I saw someone else take a picture of course I started taking a picture. Massi says, "good job babe you're becoming Italian." It was AMAZING!!! Now I know I wasn't the best student in school and especially in History so to me a lot of this trip was a slap in the face for not paying more attention in school. Things sounded familiar but I wasn't 100% sure of all my facts. Massi was kind of the same so for us this was a History lesson up close. After our long day we were both tired and ready to head back to Gabriele & Manuela's house. We started walking back to our car and walked through the St. Peter's Square again. Seeing it at night is wonderful. The lights on the fountains, the lights on the church and you could see the light on in the Popes office. He's still in there just working away. We were one day short to see the BIG Christmas tree with all the lights on at night. They put all their Christmas lights and decorations up on the 7th of December and light them that night. We were leaving the next morning so we barely missed it in person. We arrived back to our friends house and they offered to make us a Roman dinner so we could relax and chat on our last night with them. They are such great people, we really enjoyed our time spent with them. The dinner was great and chatting all night was fun! It was sad to say good-bye to them. They woke up early the next day with us to have breakfast all together. We said our good-byes and we were off. There were two things we wanted to see before leaving town. The Mosè (The statue of Moses created by Michelangelo) and the Mouth of Truth....The Mosè was just amazing as well to see in person. It's one of those statues that looks like he's staring right at you even when you move. He was in the church of St. Peter in Chains. That was a cool thing to learn about that I never knew. They had the original chains that were used to chain St. Peter during his imprisonment in Jerusalem and Rome. The Mouth of Truth was in the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin. There wasn't a long line so we hurried and parked and got in line. According to a mediaeval tradition it is always ready to bite all those who tell lies as soon as they put their hand inside its mouth...We got up to the front of the line and YES Massi and I both put our hands in its mouth and took a picture...We each still have both hands.....ha ha.

That's the end to our Wonderful, Amazing, Historical Adventure. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to experience and see all the things I did. I am so grateful to have the husband I do who takes me to all these wonderful places in the world and shares my first time with me. On our way home when it was pouring rain, we saw 3 huge rainbows. It was a great ending to our adventure. We had such a great time seeing all the things we once learned about and learning about so many new things. Together we have so much fun. We already have a list of things to see the next time we go. There is no way you can fit EVERYTHING in 3 days so for sure there will be a trip back, Who's ready to go with us?