I've loved history; I always have. I always especially loved ancient Roman and Greek history. But when sitting in World History or English class, I never imagined that I would actually get to see the places I was reading about. The Colosseum? The land of Oedipus and Odysseus? I mean, they sounded amazing and I always thought they would be cool to see, but I never expected to see them in real life. This was the thought running through my head for the whole of this past week.
We spent the first part of our spring break in Rome/Roma. All of us had been told so many times by friends and family members as a must-see while we were in Europe that we knew we wanted more than a weekend there. And we were right.
Right away we were hungry, and we asked the front desk at our hotel for a restaurant recommendation. They told us to try a restaurant directly behind the hotel in a little alleyway. What we initially thought was a little hole-in-the-wall place soon proved to be one of the best finds on our trip.
The restaurant is called la Taverna dei Fori Imperiali and is generally listed as one of the top 10 restaurants in Rome. Pictures on the wall showed us that the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and Ron Howard had eaten there. The place was simple but it had a lot of charm. But the best part, of course, was the food. We all tried different things, which was great because we could sample a lot between the four of us. Everything was delicious; from the pasta to the ravioli to the gnocchi to the buffalo cheese to the desserts which all included zabaione cream (yum!). It was so wonderful that we went back for our final dinner while in Rome and have since been comparing all other food we’ve eaten to the food from Imperiali.
That night we met up a fellow Ithacan, Heather, who’s studying abroad in Rome for the semester. We met her at the Spanish Steps (or the Piazza di Spagna), where even at night many people were sitting on the steps and chatting, singing, playing games, etc.
Heather brought us to her favorite gelato place (though honestly, we never found gelato we didn’t like in Rome). We then walked to the Piazza del Popolo, after which we grabbed some pizza (more yum!) and crashed back at the hotel.
The next day we decided to visit the Colosseum/Colosseo, which was just a couple of blocks from our hotel. It was, of course, amazing. We took our time touring the arena, listening to the audio guides we rented.
Afterwards we went to see an exhibit featuring Giotto di Bondone, a famous Italian painter from the Italian Renaissance. The exhibit was located in the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II or “Il Vittoriano” which is down the road from the Colosseum. We then climbed to the top of the Vittoriano and checked out the view of Rome.
We then ate at another restaurant near the hotel, which had pretty good food, although I ordered a pasta with spicy sauce by mistake and probably ended up drinking two litres of water while there! We then tried to make it to the Pantheon before sunset, because we wanted to see light shining through the dome. However, there was a service of some sort occurring so we headed toward the Trevi Fountain, where of course we threw in the necessary coin for a return to Rome.
The following day we went to the Roman Forum. It was beautiful, but it was so huge I feel sure we must have missed something.
On our way out we ran into fellow Ithacans from London (we already knew that many people had chosen Rome as a spring break destination). Afterwards we finally made it into the Pantheon, which was gorgeous and we had fun just sitting and taking it all in.
Our last day in Rome (Monday) was devoted to the Vatican. We first visited St. Peter’s Basilica (Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano). It turned out that we weren’t the only Ithacans who had the same idea that day; we ran into no less than 10 other Ithaca College London Centre students while there (and considering there are only 70 of us, that’s quite a lot!).
The basilica itself was one gigantic “WOW.” It was enormous and there was gold everywhere. We first visited the tomb of the popes, where many of the popes, including Pope John Paul II, are laid at rest. It was quite eerie, especially since nobody is allowed to speak or make a sound in the area around John Paul’s tomb.
We then entered the main hall of the basilica, which was very grand and filled with many, many statues.
Kara and I immediately sought out Michelangelo’s Pietà .
During our search we unexpectedly came across the preserved body of Pope John XXIII on display for public viewing (and photo ops as well, apparently). It was…quite odd, but we refrained from taking pictures.
After leaving the basilica we chilled in the Piazza di San Pietro for a bit, enjoying the view and sunshine, before heading to the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina). The Sistine Chapel was a bit of a maze; the Vatican has engineered it that you walk through countless exhibits of Renaissance and modern art before reaching the actual chapel.
But it was all very beautiful, and the chapel itself was awe-inspiring (sorry, no pictures allowed in the chapel!).
That concludes our time in Rome. Look for Spring Break, Part 2 in the next couple of days!
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