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| This isn't a very good pic, but the hair of this lady working at the United desk at SLC reminded Josh of flock of seagulls. |
It has been a long time since either of us have flown internationally, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect, but we basically walked right out of the airport, once we got a stamp in our passport. From there, we found our shuttle to our hotel. Thanks to Sarah, we had a great rate for a Marriott hotel about 12 km outside of Rome with a shuttle service to and from Rome city center. As we couldn't check in so early in the day, the hotel was more than happy to hold our bags until we could.
The shuttles into the city ran every two hours, so we hopped onto the next shuttle at 10 am, and due to a traffic accident, finally got to City Center at 11 am. Our first plan of attack was to pick up "Roma Passes" which would allow us to use any bus or metro in Rome for free, as well as get us into our two first sites free (minus the Vatican because that is technically not Rome). Any other participating sites (such as the Colosseum) would also be at a 25% discount. We definitely got our money''s worth out of the Roma Passes.
Our next stop was the Borghese Gallery. You have to have reservations to attend, and we had made reservations for 1 pm a couple weeks prior to our trip. After consulting our map, and a few locals, we finally got on a bus and made our way to the Borghese gallery. The bus took us most of the way, and then we had the pleasure of walking the rest of the way. It took us awhile to find the Borghese Gallery and we almost missed our reservation, but we made it. I think our lack of sleep and 15 hours of traveling probably made our trip to the Borghese Gallery more of an adventure than it really needed to be.
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| Galleria Borghese |
The Gallery is filled sculptures and paintings. The rooms walls and ceilings were also covered in art, kinda like the Sistine Chapel. As you may expect visiting Rome, all of the art and sculptures were very old which is why they don't allow photos. Some of them dated back as far as 20 A.D. I think that is the oldest one I can remember seeing the date on. It's just so amazing the detail the sculptors can carve into marble! I think my favorite was a sculpture of David (from David and Goliath.)
Since we were already nearby, we decided to go to the Capuchin Crypt next. It's a church our friend Dempsey (who served his mission in Italy) told us about. A prisoner/monk being held there (a long, long time ago) got permission to dig up old graves and use the bones to create murals on the walls. Each room had a specific religious theme and even used only a specific set of bones to create the murals and chandeliers. Once again, because of the sacred nature of the crypt no pictures were allowed, but if you Google Capuchin Crypt you can see examples. The creativity some people have is amazing. I guess if you have time on your hands, why not, right? While we were there, we also saw a group of LDS missionaries touring the Crypt and said hi to them.
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| Capuchin Crypt |
By the time we were done with the Capuchin Crypt, we were tired and hungry so we decided to eat dinner. Before we left we had done our research on places to eat in each of the areas we were visiting. Unfortunately, in Rome most places close at 3 or 4 and don't open again until 7 pm. So our original plan was scrapped and we looked for a place that was open to accommodate us tourists. Fortunately, we found a place to eat on our way back to our shuttle stop. It ended up being really good food. Josh got a Roman dish called bucatini all'amatriciana (thick spaghetti noodles, tomato based sauce, bacon, onions and something else) and Angela got ravioli.
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| Our first gelato in Italy. |
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| Josh's bucatini all'amatriciana |
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| Angela's ravioli |
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