April 2, 2010
Day 3
Definitely feel the burn on the feet from today. Today was a day with a lot of "to do's" to check off including moving hotels and reserving train tickets. So we got up (with difficulty on my part. I could have slept another 2 hours.), ate our breakfast of Melba style toast with jam and cream cheese, chocolate croissants and some sort of pastry as well as choice of hot drink and fizzing orange/lemon juice while looking at the awesome view, and then caught the bus/train/metro to our new hotel. We were now in the heart of Rome (or at least pretty close). It took us a while to get in contact with our B&B people (we're actually staying with people in their own apartment), but they finally came. They're a super nice older couple. Very limited English which makes it all that much more authentic! And then we were off. Today we decided to explore the National museum of Rome (which gives you access to 4 sites as a combo ticket). One of the sights wasn't open today and I am so thankful it wasn't. I don't think my feet could take anymore today. After we booked our tickets at the Termini (which looks like an airport) we went to hunt down the museum. First we stumbled upon a church called Basilica Santa Maria Degli Angeli E Dei Martiri which turned out to be super cool. There was a sundial meridian thing on the floor of the church that at certain times each day will have a beam of sunlight hit it and tell us what time of year (what day) it is! Super cool. It had gorgeous decorations (mostly paintings) and a lot of information on Galileo and the church. Then we headed to the first museum which had a ridiculous amount of typical Roman statues and pillars. It had a beautiful courtyard and some of the statues were outside. It was really neat. The next museum was close by and had a lot more heads of statues (it's as if it's rare to find a whole statue. They either have a body or a head, but not both). There was also a huge coin collection dating as far back as the 2nd century! They also had a collection of beautiful tile mosaics. Unbelievable! After seeing all the museum had to offer, it was off to find the third museum. We ended up at the Spanish steps on the way there. They're amazing and the amount of people there was just incredible. Right in front of the steps is a street with designer store after designer store. We're talking Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Jimmy Choo, Cartier, etc! It was crazy. I can't even imagine how much money is on that street! Walking down that street Trevor got us to the last museum of the day. This one was in a building that itself was a ruin and in parts of the building you could see what the original looked like including ceiling paintings. It was awesome! We figured we were done for the day, but ended up at the Colosseum after taking a wrong bus. We decided that since we were hungry and it was 20:00 already, we would find a restaurant and hang out until the Way of the Cross Mass started at 21:15 by the Colosseum. After pushing our way through the crowd (after supper), we got to see the Pope!!! We only stayed until the 4 th Station of the Cross and figured it was time to get back because we have a crazy early day tomorrow. The crowd was amazing and much less pushy than you'd expect for the amount of people. It was great being a part of it, but my feet were just crying out, so home we headed. Until tomorrow…
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