Roma

Monday 2.11.2008

Today I walked around Rome. Paul and I walked at least 10 miles! Needless to say, my legs hurt! We started out walking towards the Church of the Bones, but google was definitely wrong when they told me where it was. I saw an Information booth and asked directions. They gave me a sweet map too. I took a turn too early and then from there on I let Paul navigate. We went to the Capuchin Church (Church of the Bones), and they said no pics or video. Of course I tried to get pics anyway, but I forgot that when my camera is on the museum setting I have to be still… so next time (if there is a next time b/c it was really small. If you go to their website, I think you can see all the exhibits anyway!) I’ll have to stop and ponder the exhibits lol.

After that we went and saw the Quirinale, which is where the President lives. I think it was after we left the Quirinale that we heard an accident… We turned around and it turned out some chick ran into the back of a police car. It was rather hilarious. There were at least 5 other police officers around too because we were so close to the Quirinale. Sad thing is. There was a lot of traffic so they were all going really slow… Paul and I were like how could anyone do that???

Then we continued on our journey and walked up Via Sistina toward the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately, they were working on the Oblisk that is in front of the church. Actually, I think they were working on the church too… after that we walked some more… we ended up crossing the river and heading towards the Castle of S Angelo. We just looked at it from the outside… I didn’t feel like spending money on something I was pretty sure I’d be bored with after 30 mins or less.

St Peter’s Basilica was our next stop. We sat and ate our sandwiches we brought with us before we headed into the plaza. The Basilica was closed until 4, so we just took pics of the outside. I think it was around the time we were at St. Peter’s when my battery started saying it was low… I had to conserve my battery power for the rest of the day, so I didn’t take as many pics as I wanted (I took 177 pics in total). There was this guy in the plaza of St Peter’s who was wearing a white robe… I took his picture… :) and later Paul said buongiorno and I said ciao. He responded to me… Paul was like he said ciao to you but he didn’t say anything when I said buongiorno lol.

After that we head back across the river towards the Piazza Navona where these guys were making bracelets. They would tie one end of the string to a tourist’s finger and then make the bracelet and say it was a gift. They’d then demand an offering after. We weren’t stupid enough to let them, but we watched other ppl who were. My battery finally died :( and I changed it. The other battery I had was half dead already, so I still had to conserve battery power. We then headed to the Pantheon. There were a ton of people there. Since Paul and I had both already been inside we just walked by it. I didn’t even take a picture because I already have so many… After that we walked across the bridge again, walked along the river for a bit near Isola Tiberina, and then walked back across on another bridge. From there we walked Circus Maximus… We walked towards the Coliseum from the backside. We checked out a couple arches… One was for Titus and the other was for Augustus. After Paul took a couple pics of me in front of the Coliseum we headed towards the Monument for Vittorio Emanuele II. They were working on it so I didn’t bother with a picture. I already have so many.

After that we chilled by a fountain. We then started looking for a bar and ended up by the “area sacra argentina” for the 2^nd time that day. Last Friday, I told Mr Bloyd that he could tell a guy from BJU (he is staying with other missionaries in Aprilia) that he could meet up with us if he wanted to, so we ended up meeting him by the Monument for Emanuele. Then we decided to go to St Peter’s and see if we could get in the church before it closed. It was around 5 and the church closed at 6. We hopped on a bus, and it wasn’t the one that went directly there… Paul even asked which bus went to St Peters… oh well… We ended up riding the bus for a good while, and a nice lady sitting by John (the BJU guy) said we should get off at Cornella because there is a metro stop there, so we did. We rode the metro back to the station. John went back to Aprilia and we went back to Terni after buying some Pringles and Pocket Coffee (Holy Cow… Pocket Coffee is SO amazing. It has chocolate on the outside and it has a liquid center that is coffee flavored… I think I’m addicted!). When we finally got back to Paul’s house around 8, we ate dinner and told his parents of the days events. After dinner, I calculated how far we walked… 10.39 miles which is 16.72 km. I’m sure I forgot some detours we took, so we probably walked more than that!