Three Wonderful Days in Rome

I'm back!  I've arisen from the not so dead and am ready to fill the internet with stories of excitement and adventure through my stories of travel.  Please note this was written primarily in 2019.

Through my day job I became fortunate enough to start running education based tours for young people.  As such, I got to go to Rome for free back in January 2018.

It was in late October of 2017 when I was contacted by the company that I use for these tours with an offer for a "training tour".  I was a bit incredulous at first.  I mean, nothing's free, right?  So after they assured me that the tour was in fact free, I had a choice of three European cities to go to.  I chose Rome because I had been to Paris and Barcelona isn't high on my list of destinations.  Also, I'm Catholic so I wanted to see the Vatican.  So Rome it was.

The trip over was normal.  I met several other teachers in Atlanta and enjoyed dinner and drinks with them prior to boarding our plane.  The flight was normal.  No crazy antics, just me, some movies, and Sweet Water 420 (an Atlanta brew and favorite of Delta Airlines).

Arrival in Rome was weird for me.  It had been 20 years since I had last set foot in Europe.  I wasn't used to the strange yet familiar hustle and bustle of a European airport.  We found our guide and were quickly ushered to a random spot in the airport and eventually we were herded to a bus and headed to our hotel.

Italy looks like no other place I've been so far.  The fields look different.  The roads look different and the buildings look different.  It was charming and magical.  Something about that place spoke to me.  Staring out into the distance from our speeding bus, I felt some connection to the place.  It's hard to define it, but it felt...comfortable.

After a quick change of clothes and some freshening up, we off to the Spanish Steps!  We began our tour of the city at the top of these famous steps.  A little side note here, the Spanish Steps are so named due the Spanish embassy to the Vatican located just off the Spanish plaza.  Anyway, we meandered down the steps and into the plaza below.  One of our tasks was to get lunch so I joined a group of ladies and we wandered through the narrow avenues that shot out from the Spanish plaza.  We eventually settled on a little cafe located on a nice little road.  I had bruschetta (slice of French bread with various toppings on it).  It was fantastic.  One had a pesto sauce, one had tomatoes and olive oil and the other had ham.  They were amazing.  It was so good.  I washed it all down with a nice glass of wine (day drinking is acceptable there).  I also had an amazing apple strudel.  So far, I was loving Rome.

After lunch we headed to the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is an old Roman temple and from the descriptions I had read on the internet, I wasn't excited to see it.  I thought "What's so special about it?  Just another old ruin."  Nope.  I was way wrong about it.  First, this place is huge.  Huge and stunningly beautiful.  It's one of those things that just makes you feel small and insignificant.  We rounded a corner and there it was.  Huge.  Majestic.  It projects an aura of greatness.  The inside was a whole different story.  It's hard to convey just what it's like.  It's just immense.  The larges dome in the world makes up the ceiling of this church.  It is just awe inspiring.  I walked away with a totally new appreciation for this wonderful building.

Dinner was at a small pizzeria.  They served us a variety of pizzas and all were great.  I usually don't go for mushroom only pizzas, but it was good stuff.  After several pieces of pizza and glasses of vino, we headed back to our hotel.

Something that I like doing in the countries that I visit is to check out their grocery stores.  I just happened to be lucky enough that there was a grocery store right next to our hotel so a few of us wandered over to have a look.  It was a pretty typical store set up, but the food was different.  I was surprised to see so many frozen things.  I think my impression of European food was that it was generally fresher than what we have here.  But they had frozen pizzas and other convenience foods too.  I think the biggest culture shock was that there was no beer cooler.  The beer was kept out on a normal shelf and was thus warm.

Saturday morning began with a nice breakfast buffet (one of my favorite kinds of buffets) and then several hours of training.  Training wasn't so bad, we did some ice breakers and group building exercises and then talked about leading trips with students overseas.  It was very helpful and informative.

After our morning seminar we were herded back onto the bus and headed to the Vatican.  I entered
the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil mass in 2017, but I had always appreciated Christian art and had always wanted to see the Vatican.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The art, the architecture, the gardens, everything was spectacular.  We were lucky, Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sisteen Chapel had been restored and was simply spectacular.  It was awe inspiring to see works of art that were created centuries ago by a guy who was in his twenties.  You aren’t allowed to take pictures in the chapel.  I don’t need to.  I will never forget what I saw.  The greatest part of the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica.  This was probably the largest church I’ve ever been in.  This place was HUGE!  When you wnter and turn to the right, you see one of the greatest works of art in the world, Michaelangelo’s La Pieta, the Pity.  It’s a statue of Mary cradling the body of Jesus, carved out of a single block of marble.  It was just awe inspiring.

One of the most amazing things about traveling is the human connections you make.  On this trip I became fast friends with several people.  Not a quick, temporary friendship that falls apart once you board your planes back home.  No, we made real, solid connections.  Many of us still talk over a year later.  I met one lady who lived literally right around the corner from me when we were kids.  I had even been swimming at her house before.

When I travel I like to enjoy myself and so I eat and drink whatever I want, I'm on vacation!  This was no exception.  I sought out all the food and drink I could.  I did not taste anything bad while I was there.  That's not to say there isn't bad food there, I just didn't have any.  I had some great lasagna in this little restaurant near the Plaza di Fiori.  Sadly, I did not write down the name of the place.  I also had a pretty good kebab near the Vatican.  I know I know.  Why go to Italy and get kebab.  One, kebab is awesome.  Two, I wanted something fast and cheap.  I didn't want to be late for our Vatican tour.  Another culinary highlight was a simple sandwich I grabbed from a shop near the Colosseum.  It was just meat, cheese and lettuce, but it was very tasty.  Again, I did not record the name of the shop.