When in Rome...

Hey friend and fam! I hope everyone is doing well. Please e-mail / facebook message/ Myspace message / blog comment - whatever mode of internet communication you prefer! - whenever you can, I really like to hear from everyone.

So, getting down to business: Rome was INCREDIBLE. My favorite city to date. It's so beautiful, with the most amazing architecture I've ever seen in real life, the people were so friendly and helpful, and the food... don't even get me started on the food! Great pasta (homemade!), amazing bread and cheese, best pizza ever, and yummy gelato everywhere. I swear if I lived in Italy I would just just expand!!!

Quick rundown of what I did (Will probably forget some stuff, but this is the gist):

Monday - Got to Rome that night. Mostly just walked around and took in the sights. Met some of our friends at the Spanish Steps. Had an AMAZING dinner at this nice restaurant that we spent way too much money at. Our flirtatious waiter did send us free desserts though!

Tuesday - Walked around the beautiful Villa Borghese and went to the Galleria. Saw some incredible paintings and sculptures. I loved Bernini's Apollo and Daphne best of all. No pics because unfortunately no cameras were allowed. Next we walked around the Ancient Rome district, saw the Roman Forum and Colosseum. That night we walked around Piazza Navona and had the best pizza I've ever had in my life - delicious and cheap!

Wednesday - Vatican City- Got up early to explore St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Talk about incredible - I saw the Sistine Chapel in real life! I still kind of can't believe it. This was also the night we had a fantastic multi-course meal at this restaurant I had read about. We had so much food, it was awesome.

Thursday - Explored Piazza del Popolo, which was my favorite piazza. Visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Saw the Spanish Steps in daylight. Went to the Trevi Fountain, which of course was beautiful but also a clusterfuck (as Dad would say!) of people. We bought stuff to make lunch and had our own picnic on the steps of a church overlooking the Trevi. We had fresh bread, cheese (best provolone I've ever had), ham, apples, and iced tea. It was delicious and saved us money. We also checked out the Piazza Campigolio, which was designed by Michelangelo. For dinner we went to a little place close to where we were staying (where I accidentally ordered liver... big mistake, lol!)

Friday - Tried to take in a few more sights before leaving for the airport. We checked out some of the Catacombs which were pretty cool but not exactly worth the 6 euro fee. We then went back towards the Vatican City area to check out the Castel Sant'Angelo and some palazzo what I forgot the name of. Lots of nice architecture around there, and the views of the Tiber were very cool. We then went down to the Trastevere district and had lunch at a tiny place with DELICIOUS food. Reasonably priced, homemade, and filled with Romans - definitely a recipe for a good restaurant. I had this yummy fried salt cod as my appetizer and ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta for my entree. Even the sauce was amazing. We found a gelato place after that (never hard to locate in Rome!) and ate on the steps of a random fountain in the sun. Definitely a nice conclusion to a lovely vacation.

So you wanna know where the pics are, right?? Never fear! I've actually uploaded a bunch to the internet. For the main album, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marilynflo/ROME?authkey=oMfeKokunCQ
The Vatican album is separate: http://picasaweb.google.com/Marilynflo/TheVatican?authkey=CoF6htIJvfE
That one is pretty much all art, so if you're not into that you might want to avoid it.

Whew! Long entry. I think I'm done now. Check out the pics and tell me what you think!
xoxo
Marilyn