Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Shane and I were lucky enough to continue or European tour with my family in Italy. We spent a week and a half beginning in Rome, spending a day at the Amalfi coast, and visiting Siena and San Gimignano before ending up in Florence. It was rainy but warmer than London so we were perfectly content.
We started off in Rome at the Vatican where we had tickets to hear Christmas Eve midnight mass (done at 10pm this year) by the Pope. We waited in line for 4 hours, even after having tickets, just to get inside! We passed the time chatting with other people in line from all over the world and together trying to stop the Italians who constantly tried to cut in front of us :o) Once in St Peter's we had great seats, next to the aisle, so we had full view of the Pope as he entered. Unfortunately we also had full view of the woman 3 rows behind us who attacked him. It was a tense few minutes but thankfully the Pope was fine and continued with the mass.
The following day was Christmas so we slept in and then headed out to explore Rome. We wandered down near the river and saw the bridge where the original Romans landed and founded the city. We also toured the old Jewish district and one of the smaller neighborhoods across the river. That night we had a fabulous dinner at our hotel and all went to bed completely stuffed!
Then our touring really began; we got up early on the 26th to meet a guide who took us to the Colosseum, the Roman forum and through St Peter's cathedral. The history in Rome is amazing, especially with a guide who can point out all the small things that are easy to miss. Plus, Shane had re-read his Roman history textbook (yes, it is scary) prior to the trip so he was forever wandering off to some obscure rock, reading it to us and then grilling the guide on what it meant in relation to whatever we were seeing. All of our guides kept looking at Shane and saying, "wow, no one has ever asked me that before!"
After seeing most of ancient Rome we headed for the Galleria Borghese. This is an old home, now converted into a museum, with an incredible collection of ancient Greek, Roman and other masterpieces. The home had been owned by a Cardinal who had used his power, inappropriately, to acquire a vast fortune of artwork. It does make for a very nice museum now though!
The following day we headed for the Almalfi coast, with Andrea (my parent's friend and former tour guide) as our driver. On the way we stopped at the Via Appia, the first Roman road, and walked down a small length of it. It is amazing that a road built 2000 years ago still exists! The Almalfi coast is absolutely beautiful. We ate lunch at this incredible seafood restaurant that was perched out over the ocean so it seemed like you were surrounded by water. We also stopped in a small town called Rudolfo where we visited an old castle, a local church and bought some beautiful pottery. We stopped in Naples on the way back where Andrea swore to us we would have the best cup of espresso in our lives (it was quite good!) and then had pizza just outside of Naples that was absolutely wonderful. The day was excellent save the fact that Shane was rather violently car sick and managed to purge after eating at least once a day for the next 3 days - opps.
The 28th was our last day in Rome. In the morning we saw the Pantheon, St Peter-in-chains cathedral and the Ara Pacis, a memorial built by Augustus (1st Roman Emperor) to himself to tell his people about the peace he had brought to Rome (he was an expert in propaganda!). In the afternoon we visited the Vatican museum, which you could easily spend 3 days in, and the sistine chapel. Then Shane, Stefi and I were able to do the scavi tour which is a tour of the excavations that have taken place under St Peters. It was amazing. In the middle of WWII, when Italy was aligned with Germany, some construction workers were digging around St Peter and found that there was more there than dirt. The Pope OK'd for 4 experts to come in and excavate but they had to do it at night, in secret, and anything found was to be kept strictly confidential. This was to prevent Hitler or Mussolini from learning of any new treasures in Vatican city. So for the next 4 years these 4 archaeologists dug out an entire necropolis (city of the dead) that was found to have been built around the 1st or 2nd century AD. There was also a marking, very small and obscure but definite, that showed this is where the apostle Peter had been buried. Apparently, prior to the building of St Peter's this area had been a large field and burial ground both for wealthy pagans and the impoverished (and often Christian) Romans. In the 4th century AD when Constantine made Rome a Christian nation he had all of the roofs of the necropolis crushed and filled in with dirt and he placed a small alter over the tomb of Peter. Fearing grave robbers, Peter's bones were moved inside of the wall with only a small inscription stating their location. Centuries later after Rome had moved to Constantinople, Christians found this alter and built another, small church on top of it. As the catholic church grew in power the 1st St Peter's was built on this spot and finally, in the 15th century the former church was torn down and St Peter's, as we see it today was built. The incredible thing is that if you drop a coin from the top of the dome it would land on the apostle Peter's bones. It was a fascinating tour.
And thus ended our Rome adventure. The next day we headed out for Florence, which I will write about in the next post! So read on!
Love, Sarah and Shane
