Day 1
There are many reasons why I wanted to see Rome: the ancient city, Vatican, the piazzas full of artworks, the medieval streets, and the food of course. It was my most anticipated destination. We arrived at noon via trenitalia from Florence. Rome is a vibrant city with lots of history. Our hotel was at the Trevi fountain area so it was easy to find. It was a 3 star hotel named Hotel de Petris. We put away our luggage and started to explore the city. First we went to the Trevi fountain. It's always busy here, lots of people throwing coins into the fountain. It's a tradition that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you are ensured a trip back to Rome. We didn't throw any coin because we were going to go to Naples and coming back to Rome anyway. Unless I die along the way, I'd be back here. I stood there admiring the statues for awhile.
Next, we walked to the Pantheon. It was under construction so it looked pretty bad from the outside. Inside it wasn't that good either. If you saw the movie "Angels and Demons", the Pantheon looked much better in the movie. The Pantheon in Paris was much better. Our next stop is the piazza Novona. It was Rome's most spectacular Baroque piazza follows the shape of a 1st century AD stadium. There are a lot of history behind each attraction that I've read but it's just too much to write here. The fountain in the middle of the piazza was very attractive.
We then walked toward the old church Santa Maria in Trastevere. It was one of the first official place of Christian worship back in the 3rd century. We ate lunch and dinner here in Trastevere as it was very cheap compared to other tourist places.
In the afternoon, we headed north toward the Piazza de Venezia. It's a lively plaza with lots of people and traffic. We also passed by the Castle of St Angelo, which wasn't worth the money to get in. Another noticeable place we went to was the Spanish Steps. Not much here besides a church and many many people sitting at the stairs.
Day 2
The Vatican, St. Peter's Square, and the Vatican museum (next entry)
Day 3
We didn't do much in Day 3 because we got back from Naples in the afternoon. So we only went to the Borghese Garden and visited the Borghese Galleria. We bought the Rome 3 day pass for 25 euros each. The first 2 attractions are free, discounts for other attractions and free bus, metro rides. This pass is worth the money. I must say Borghese is the best museum we've visited in Europe. All of the statues and paintings in there were stunning. If you have to pick one museum to go in Italy, it has to be Borghese. The Villa Borghese and it's garden were designed in 1605 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The villa was used for entertaining and displaying the collections of paintings and sculptures. However, I was pissed off that they don't allow people to bring cameras in. You have to check everything in. I got my digital camera in my pocket so I was able to get it in but EVERYWHERE there's a person standing. I couldn't even take out my camera. Anyway, most of the sculptures here was done by Bernini. Some of the important ones are: The Rape of Proserpine, Apollo and Daphne, the David (a self portrait of Bernini). The best thing about this museum is that if you buy the audio guide (which you should), it tells you the details about each paintings / sculpture. For each important sculpture, there's a painting on the ceiling explaining why the sculpture below is in the position it is. Bernini is a genius, he breathes life into these sculptures. I stared at each sculpture in here for a long time and wanted to take a picture so badly.
Day 4
We went to ancient Rome in day 4. We passed by the Trajan's market quickly, arrived at the Colosseum. The Colosseum is Rome's great amphitheater. It was the site of deadly gladiatorial combats between gladiators with animals or animals with animals. Once there were as many as 50 bears fighting gladiators and other animals at the same time. I was impressed by the design. It has 2 levels. You can actually see the room where the animals and the gladiator were before the fights. The floor was destroyed and it is now under reconstruction.
Next to the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine. Here, we went to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.
The Roman Forum was the center of political, commercial, and judicial life in ancient Rome. The ruins of the Roman forum date back to many eras. There are other buildings around. We walked around a little but, it was sunny and crowded. There's a hill on top of the Roman Forum where you can have the view of the entire ancient Rome.
The Palatine hill was okay. I was a little disappointed because I thought it was an amazing place. After all, it was the place where Rome was found. There's a museum here but it's not worth the time and money to visit.
We got out of Ancient Rome and headed toward Trastevere for some food. After that, we visited the Castle of St Angelo and the Basilica of St Peter's again.
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