Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita...

I'll send a postcard to whoever can tell me where this blog title comes from without cheating!

Day 4

Long version: In the morning we went as a group to the house where John Keats lived when he moved to Rome from England after finding out he had "consumption" aka TB. We sat in a big study and one of the curators of the house told us all about Keats and his life and friends and all that. I wished I had known more about Keats before we went - it would've given me a better appreciation for being in his house and learning about his life. When we were done it was about lunchtime so Audrey, Olivia and I (when I refer to "we" this is usually the combination of people I'm talking about) went to a little trattoria near the Piazza del Popolo for lunch. That was actually the only sit-down meal we had in Rome besides the hotel dinners. From there we went to the Vatican again. When we were there the first time half of St. Peter's was closed off for mass so I didn't get to see all of it. Well the line to get in was huge so we decided to skip St. Peter's and started on a walk that Talbot had written down for us to do. We walked from St. Peter's toward the Castel Sant'Angelo which is a big castle-like structure that was originally built as a mausoleum for the emporer Hadrian. In subsequent years the Popes used it to hide from invading armies and stuff. We then crossed the Ponte Sant'Angelo and headed toward the Via dei Coronari, which was probably my favorite place in Rome. It was just a little, quiet street with a great history. Christian pilgrims would walk down this road along the Tiber River on their way to the Vatican. Naturally, vendors sprung up offering all kinds of trinkets and the coronari, rosary beads, were the biggest sellers and thus the road is named. Now there are mostly antiques shops. It was so different than any other part of Rome we visited. We walked along the Via dei Coronari until we hit the Piazza Navona, at which point it started to pour buckets of rain. And of course, we weren't anywhere near a Metro stop. So we cut our walk short and went back to the hotel. It stopped raining while we were en route, but we were soggy and didn't feel like resuming our walk. We had a nice night in instead.

Short version: John Keats' house, Vatican, Castel Sant'Angelo, Ponte Sant'Angelo, Via dei Coronari, Rain


Day 5 - giovedi'

Long version: What a day. We went to the San Castillo Catacombs in the morning. Getting there was an absolute disaster. We had to take the Metro to a bus stop near the edge of the city and then catch the 118 bus to take us on the Via Appia (this road has great religious significance for anyone who believes in the New Testament). Easy peasy, right? Wrong. We waited for a half hour for a bus to come by. But when it came we were down two people who were taking a potty break. Some of us got on the bus thinking they would just catch the next bus, but Talbot decided we should just wait so we got off the bus. That is, most people got off the bus. I, however, did not make it off the bus. Instead me and Travis took the bus to our stop and decided to wait for our group at the catacombs. And wait we did. It was an hour and a half before the next 118 bus came. An hour and a half. 1.5 hours. Travis and I basically had to wait under a little tree by the road unable to communicate at all with our group. In the States I would've just whipped out my phone and texted my peeps, but no. Not in Italy. No phone. When the bus finally came, I realized we had gotten off a few stops too early, so Travis and I had to walk up the Via Appia to meet up with our group. Fun fact: the Via Appia is an ancient Roman road. It is cobblestone and is lined by 13' walls. It is wide enough for one car to comfortably drive through. So naturally it is a two way street. The shoulder is about a foot wide in most places. Yep. Travis and I almost died a few times while walking down this ridiculously tiny road with cars zooming past us. It's a miracle we're alive. Seriously. But the catacombs were pretty neat. Kinda spooky, but neat. Instead of waiting for the stupid 118 bus to take us back to our hotel we took the 218 bus which went a different way but still got us to a Metro station. And we only had to wait 10 min or so for it. Boo 118 bus. Hooray beer! I mean, hooray 218 bus! After composing ourselves at the hotel, our mini group set out to finish our walk from the day before. We started this time at the Piazza del Popolo were we got to see two gigantic Caravaggio paintings in a church nearby. Those were definitely a highlight of Rome as well. We then set off down the road where we passed by Caesar Augustus' mausoleum. We also peeked inside a church called the Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso which was gorgeous, and also where a couple was being married! As we continued down the road we passed by the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) and eventually met back at the Piazza Navona where we had abandoned our walk the day before. We seized the opportunity to go back into the piazza to check out Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers and look inside Borromini's Sant'Agnese in agone. Afterwards we took the Metro to the Piazza della Repubblica so Audrey could check out the Fontana delle Naindi with its "sensual nymph" statues. Yeah. And then that night after dinner we went to the Colosseum so we could see it in the nighttime. They had turned out some of the lights so they could shine some projection on it, which was a bummer, but it was still very pretty. I didn't have a tripod so I couldn't get any good pictures. Oh well. Still a good day.

Short version: Via Appia bus disaster, San Castillo catacombs, Piazza del Popolo and Caravaggio paintings, Augustus' mausoleum, Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso and wedding, Ara Pacis, Piazza Navona, Piazza della Repubblica, Colosseum