Rome: The Eternal City

The week of October 4th we visited Rome. Mara and I had been to Rome for exactly 1 day, 25 years ago, so we were eager to get back and experience Rome in a little more depth. We met up with our friends Blaec and Stella, who have been living in Rome for the last 3 years and they showed us the sites and all the best food in the City (thank you Blaec & Stella!).

Here is what the girls thought:

RYAN: Rome: My Perspective

I was kind of excited to go to Rome. (Why do they call it "Rhoma"?)? When we got there The city were old and overgrown. Our taxi driver was having a hard time getting to our apartment because of all the people on the teeny tiny streets. On our first dinner a very nice man gave us all our orders, but gave me a heart shaped pizza.

On our first official day, we did a lot; Spanish steps, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Piazza Navona.

On our second day we went to Vatican City with our funny tour guide, Chiara. She showed us all of the things and she kept saying to me and my sister "Your Mom is very smart." because she was answering all her trivia questions. Just so you get what we mean when we say funny, here was my favorite Chiara quote; "Get ready to say 'Mama Mia' at least five times." when we were about to see a cool piece of art.

On our third day we went to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was basically an olden times football game stadium. Just imagine an old stadium where dads are screaming stuff in roman instead of "GO TREES!!!" and "FEAR THE TREE!!!!!!".

Kenning:

I was not as excited to go to Rome as Ryan because I loved Paris so much but once we got there I enjoyed it. We stayed in a very little apartment in the middle of the city where we were walking distance from all of the sights. It was really cool to walk down all of the narrow streets and alleyways where you never new what you would find. I had never been in a city that old and when you live in the U.S. the oldest stuff is about 200 years old. In Rome almost everything is 2,000 years old which is pretty crazy to think about. Almost everything was written in Latin which is a really cool language but isn't very easy to read. It was surprising but in Rome we found really good vegetarian food (finally!)! We were introduced to one place by our friends and the other we found on our own. We ate lots of smoothie bowls and avocado toast which was really good, we were ready for a break from the heavy croissants and other European breakfast foods. All the sights we saw were cool but it was a little bit hard to process how old everything was. I personally found it hard to understand how long ago 2,000 years was. I really liked our time inland and I would recommend going to Rome especially if you are really into history.

I also discovered cacio e pepe, the most delicious pasta ever!

For Mara and I, the coolest thing about being back in Rome with a little more time (and grey hair) was appreciating all of the stunning artworks. We finally visited the Sistine Chapel (when we were in Rome in 1996, we couldn't find it!...). No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but it really has to be seen. Michaelangelo's frescoes are breathtaking.

In addition, we discovered a new appreciation for sculpture. In St. Peter's Basilica is Michaelangelo's Pieta. Even for the non-religious, this is a moving piece.

The most striking sculpture we viewed was called Laocoon. It is 2000 years old and the detail in it is exquisite. There is also an interesting anecdote (in the description below) where the original arm of this sculpture was found for sale in an antiques shop in Rome in 1905!

And while the artwork was amazing, it's moments like these that we like the most!:

Arrivederci!