What to say about Rome, except that it's huge, crowded, beautiful, stressful, and stunning? The amount of people in that city is just unbelievable. The fact that anybody has the guts to drive a car there is also unbelievable. The traffic is simply ridiculous and also unorganized; mopeds and motorcycles weave in and out of cars and occasionally onto the sidewalks, there are few stoplights (mostly roundabouts) and the only way to cross the street as a pedestrian is to wait until a small traffic jam and then sprint in between the cars. Definitely not a place I would want to spend the rest of my life in.
But, visiting Rome was absolutely amazing. You can't go two blocks without running into something historically, archaeologically, or artistically significant. It was astounding to see all these famous things that you hear about so much (i.e. the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Pantheon) actually in person. The weather was also fabulous and a nice break from the cold raininess I had experienced thus far in Germany.
Probably my strongest memory of Rome, though, is the first time Pascal and I took the metro. We were in the main train station trying to get to the Vatican. The metro train pulls up, and it is PACKED with people. Every aisle and doorway is full without an empty spot in sight. the platform was also so crowded that we actually didn't make it onto that first train, but had to wait for the next one (when we got aggressiver and started elbowing people out of the way). In German, the word "Menschenauflauf" means a crowd of people, and the word "Auflauf" itself means crowd or casserole. So every time I say that word I think of a casserole of people all jumbled together. And that about sums up my impressions of Rome. On to the pictures!
Walking around the first evening
Pretty painted columns; scary fountain; archaeological site in the middle of the city
Palazzo Venezia
The Pantheon and an obelisk
Trevi Fountain at night; me caught in the act (of eating gelato)
Crazy long line outside St. Peter's Basilica
Pascal and I checking out possible alternative entrances to the Vatican ;)
St. Peter's Square
Vatican Museums (only spent 1.5 hours waiting in line, not too bad)
A pagan statue cast down and replaced by crucifix, what I guess you should expect to find in the Vatican
The Tiber River
Castel Sant'Angelo
Inside St. Peter's
Michelangelo's Pieta: simply amazing
View from the top of the dome
The Spanish Steps
Pascal and I got a joint caricature drawn (let's take a guess as to whose idea that was). I'll have to post a picture of it later, because it's actually really cute.
Wandering through the Roman Forum and other ruins
I'll give you one guess as to what this is
These guys were hilarious...but not so hilarious when we found out how much they wanted to be paid
somebody's Arch (Flavian's?) and other parts of the ruins
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