Three Coins in the Fountain
So we are back from our trip to Rome. It was a really bipolar trip. Half the time I was stressed out or worried because we were lost/ couldn't figure out where we were, where we had to be, and were running out of time to get where we were going. The hostel was terrible because it was so far away from the city, but at night, after we'd cleaned off and come outside to drink our boxed wine and eat our bread and cheese, we watched the sunset and felt the air cool off and it was beautiful. The city was amazing. History and religion peered out at us from behind every corner, piazza,and via. My guidebook was our bible and I became obsessed with it, consulting it every five minutes, and checking it for answers to the problems we found ourselves in. I was basically like Frodo in Lord of the Rings. The longer I had the guidebook in my hands, the more obsessed and crazy I became. On our last day, I made Roy and Ryan take over the maps and guide book, only consulting it for factoids about the places we were visiting. The rest of the time, I took in all the scenery and enjoyed the walks. Bernini basically designed Rome as it is today and he was everywhere. I got to see my favorite Caravaggio painting (San Girolamo aka St. Jerome) in person and fell in love with Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. I got to go to Vatican city and see St. Peter's Basilica which was just jaw droppingly beautiful and grandiose. There are no words for that Basilica, it's just something that has to be seen. I also got to see the Pantheon which is truly humbling. I walked in, past these towering Corinthian columns, through an ornate bronzed door and into this ancient structure just filled with marble and statues of saints and looked up at this massive dome that by most mathematical calculations should not be able to support its own weight and should have collapsed in on itself years ago, and just couldn't believe my eyes. One of the best parts of Rome are all the amazing fountains everywhere. It seems like every little street or Piazza has its own fountain and whether they're simple or elaborate, they are something to be appreciated. The gellatto and the cappuccino was tasty especially the "pope gellato" just outside Vatican City. There were flowers blooming everywhere and I got seriously ill from the foreign allergens but they were colorful and cheery and I just loved them all. Saints and angels abounded and were thankfully more prevalent than bums and swindlers but just barely. I saw the Colosseum, masterworks by Michaelangelo, the Spanish Steps, Vatican City, and some of the greatest products of the ancient world and the renaissance but nothing could compare to Ryan's morning wood. I feel that this trip definitely brought the three of us much closer and in some pretty scary ways. To round our trip off, we each threw a coin into the Trevi Fountain to, according to legend, insure that we would one day return to Rome.
