Rome: Day 1

as flynn rider says in tangled, "i could get used to a view like this. yep, i'm used to it. guys, i want a castle!" that's my thoughts about italy! i never wanted to leave. love at first sight.

while in rome we were to stay in a convent. with nuns. This is our view from my room. we slept with the windows open and woke up to the noises of cars, people, and vespas. is this real life?!

 we started the day with the  church. this is where the moses statue by michelanglo is housed. if he were to stand he would stand 13 feet. he as huge! here we also met up with our amazing  tour guide francesca. if anyone is in rome and want a tour guide, i highly recommend her!

she then took us to our next venue, the colosseum!

the colosseum took four years to build. the emperor paid for all the tickets and food, everything was free. it was built in an oval because if it was a circle everyone would be equal and the emperor didn't want that.

afterwards, we walked over to the forum, where it contains several ruins of several important ancient government buildings in the center of the city. our tour guide was telling us that over 2,000 years ago rome was completely built up with these old buildings. She said that more than 80% of Rome's city is underneath the ground because things were either built on top of or buried and people didn't even know it was there.

francesca later took us to san clemente that had a home several feet beneath it that went back to the 1st century. And there were more architecture underneath that! I love the roman's history, it is just so mind blowing and fascinating to me. francesca said that their history is so extensive that they were doing a good job in the schools if they got to Napoleon to be considered "up to date."

Google Images

Image from San Clemente website. One of the 1st century rooms. 

for lunch, marissa and i shared a pizza which was phenomenal. It had mushrooms, sausage, and cheese on it. perfecto! and then we headed over to the san giovanni in laterano church, which holds statues of all the twelve apostles. this church was huge! the details in these churches are unfathomable . 

for dinner, a huge group of us went to this cafe that was seated outside a block or so from piazza navona. I was finally going to get a plate of spaghetti to share with Marisa, but what we got was from from it! it was a white based sauce with bacon and eggs in it. i knew once i saw the eggs on the menu that i should stay clear, but we didn't. it was too salty and the cream was not good. i was disappointed because here i was in rome wanting a good pasta meal and i didn't get it. 

before dinner we ended up at piazza novena which has resturants, bakeries, and art work. so after dinner we went to find a painting. you can't go to italy and not buy a painting, that would just be a sin. as we were walking around trying to find the perfect one, one of the artists stopped us and literally flirted with us for 45 minutes. he was an older gentlemen and was the epitome of an italian man. giovanni (he is on the right) told mariah to kiss him on the cheek, so as she was leaning to kiss him on his cheek he turned his head and KISSED HER right smack dab on the mouth!!! Me and Marisa just about peed our pants!! 

so naturally, i had to buy one of giovanni's paintings, it was a beautiful piece of  the st. peter's. he wrapped it up there and i didn't look at it until the night before we left for the states, so i totally forgot what i even got. at first i was upset with myself i didn't get a street view or a building with flowers and ivy hanging from the window, but none the less i have an amazing masterpiece of rome. we had him mark it down to €25 from 50. and that's as low as he would go, which was totally fine. we had an even better experience just being there.

Ciao.