The Roman Finale

If you ever have the privilege and pleasure of traveling to Rome, don’t try to do it in a weekend. You will not be able to see everything you should and you’ll kick yourself for rushing through trying to get to everything. The Vatican and Coliseum tours will take an entire afternoon, and with the hot Roman sun beating down on you, a nap will be in order once you finish them. I only saw two things this past weekend, the Coliseum and Vatican City, but oh man, did they live up to the hype.

Before we got to those amazing sights however, my group and I had to navigate some sticky situations. Lost cell phones, wandering friends making poor decisions and getting lost were all problems that met us within three hours of stepping off the train. Somehow we came out unscathed, although one of our IPhones belongs to Rome now.

On Friday, our second day in Rome, we decided we wanted to see one of Rome’s most popular destinations, The Coloseum. Or it’s also spelled the Coliseum, depending on who you ask. Regardless, it is truly one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. Call it barbaric if you want, but the fact that thousands of gladiators fought to the death against all types of challengers is simply awesome. Throw in imagining yourself fighting along side Russell Crowe in a scene straight out of Gladiator, and its impossible not to have fun walking around that incredible landmark.

The most amazing part of the Coliseum is standing there in awe trying to soak it all in, and realizing just how incredible it was back in its golden years. They had artists’ renderings of what the Coliseum looked like in its prime, and there is simply no limit on the amount of money I would pay to see it like that. The stone arches, its winding corridors, envisioning the ancient Romans sitting in the stands as the Gladiators fought to the death for their amusement, it’s simply a must see for any person fortunate enough to travel to Rome.

As part of our 30 Euro tour, which I would highly recommend by the way, if only to avoid the absurdly long lines waiting in the aforementioned inferno of a sun, we also got to see the Roman Forum. The Forum was not as cool as the Coliseum, but I mean come on, it never really stood a chance. Nevertheless, the Forum compensated for its cool factor by being surprisingly fun to walk through. I wasn’t expecting it to be much, but its history was everywhere and the tour guides information also helped. We saw the forum, learned about some of the history of Rome and its leaders, and spent a long time weaving around the area.

We wanted to squeeze in the Pantheon that afternoon, but with Rome being simply too big to walk across and already sweaty disgusting messes from the sun, we decided to hoof it back to our hotel to regroup and rest before we sampled the nightlife.

The next morning, we had to wake up very early (‘very early’ for college students who had a little too much fun the night before) to take the subway to our Saturday destination, the holiest of cities, Vatican City.

Once again we took advantage of the tours offered, and with this one we even got a decent student discount. The tours will take up a significant portion of the cash you bring with you, but I can’t recommend them enough. On summer weekends the lines to get into the Vatican will wrap around the walls, and I can’t stress enough how bad it is to wait in those lines with the sun beating down on you.

The Vatican was a little different than I expected, which I guess shouldn’t have surprised me given how little of it I had seen on TV or on the internet. There are a lot of smaller buildings and museums housing some tapestries and paintings that aren’t what you expect to see on a Vatican tour, but they are stunning nonetheless. Some of the paintings and expertly crafted wooden ceilings still have me questioning whether or not a human being could actually create something so perfect. One of the my favorite parts of the tour that I wasn’t even expecting was the basement of one museum that stored all of the popemobiles from what must have been centuries worth of popes. It was interesting to see how much the vehicles have changed over the years, from the wooden horse carriages to the bulletproof glass clad modern popemobiles of today. I may also be biased because this particular wing of the museum had the sweet comfort of air conditioning.

About halfway through our tour we got some pretty sour news. That day the pope had called an unexpected meeting of some kind, and as a result, St. Peter’s Basillica and St. Peter’s square would both be closed. This was a bit of a gut shot because it was just bad luck that Pope Francis decided to hold this meeting on the probably the only day I will ever be at the Vatican. It also meant that of the three sites I most wanted to see, only the Sistine Chapel would be open.

Luckily for me, ten minutes I spent in the Sistine, looking up at the Creation of Adam, will be a memory that brings me joy everyday for the rest of my life.

It was one of those things, where you hear so much about something, and when you finally see it, you are either let down, or you sit there staring at whatever it is knowing that its met all your expectations and then some. I feel truly blessed that I was able to stand in the Sistine and gaze upon such a prodigiously magnificent work of art for as long as I did.

So entranced by it, I almost forgot to take a stealth shot of the painting with my IPhone, even though its prohibited. Another thing we learned is that pictures aren’t prohibited because flash damages the painting. According to our tour guide, modern cameras’ flash functions are harmless to the artwork, its that a Japanese firm owns the rights to all visual images of the Sistine Chapel, which is why there are 20 or so Vatican employees shouting at you to put your cameras away while they’re not busy shushing you while all you want to do is admire a beautiful painting by one of mankind’s greatest artists. So I took a bunch of blind stealth shots of The Creation of Adam, and while most were blurry, a few were as good of quality as I could hope for. I’ll only agree to not take pictures of the art if Michelangelo tells me not to, and I don’t think he’d mind.

Rome is the one city in Italy where it really is a case of, if you didn’t go there, why even travel to Italy? It’s the most popular city with the most popular tourist destinations for good reason. The Coliseum and Vatican City are places where, given the means, choosing to not see those landmarks would be an insult to all the people on this earth that want to walk the corridors of the Coliseum, to see the Pope bless the crowd, and aren’t able to.

This was my last weekend in Italy, and abroad in general. It was a bittersweet weekend to say the least. You could very well say the best was saved for last, and I couldn’t tell you were wrong. I saw amazing places with some amazing people that I’ve come to know well this past month, and I am now lucky enough to call them friends. I’m glad we had a great last weekend together, before finals, before we either head back home to the states, or continue on to the next chapter of our individual European adventures. It’s going to suck to say goodbye.

 

Thanks for Reading,

Adam Zogas

 

P.S. For any future CIMBIAN or student traveling abroad in general, if you ever make it out to Rome, avoid staying at Hotel Cambridge at all costs. The man that works the desk will be your sworn enemy by the time you leave.