Well, it’s about time for another adventure. It seems like I just got back from the last one. Anyway, this time I decided to go to a country that I had planned on visiting three years ago, but got derailed by global insanity, Italy! I finally made it!

After around 24 hours of flying, I arrived in Rome in the evening, found my hotel and crashed for the night. I woke up early my first morning and hit the streets. I quickly discovered how much I underestimated this city. Not only is there a lot to see here, but most if it requires advanced tickets. The first few days I was buying ticket after ticket online and running around like a psycho worrying that I wouldn’t have enough time to do it all. Luckily, it’s winter and most of the other tourists won’t arrive for another three or four months. Let’s start with the most famous site in Rome and one of the most famous sites in the world, the Colosseum.

I’ll be honest here, the Colosseum is just plain spectacular… from the outside. Once inside, there’s really not much to see in my opinion. You have to just use your imagination to see the horror that took place here. Gladiator fights to the death, public executions, etc. The remnants of some of the seating with the ancient graffiti in the museum part was really cool, but the biggest thrills I got were walking around the outside.

In addition to being the center of Roman entertainment, throughout the centuries it was fortified and used as a castle by an Italian family, became a sort of botanical garden and was a favorite place of French artists, was buried and forgotten about, then rediscovered and eventually turned into one of the worlds most famous tourist attractions.

Right next to the Colosseum, and included in the ticket, is the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, where Roman emperors lived in luxury.

As you can see in the pic above, it’s a big mess. In the hundreds and hundreds of years of use it was built, added to, remodeled, repurposed, added to again, and again, and again. My favorite part as with most Roman ruins I’ve seen, is the columns from all the ancient temples left standing

To say the place is dense would be an understatement. The main road through it all is called the Via Sacra and it’s littered with so many temples, basilicas, and other structures from so many different eras that’s it’s difficult to wrap my head around it.

Right next to the Forum and Colosseum is Palatine Hill where Rome was originally founded in 753 BC and where Rome’s emperors lived the good life. Most of it is just the foundations of the incredible villas that were once here, but it must have been amazing. They even had their own private stadium up there.

Just a couple of blocks south of all that is another stadium, Circo Massimo, where all the chariot races took place. Now it’s just a really pleasant public park.

And if the Colosseum, the Palantine stadium, and Circo Massimo weren’t enough, there’s also the Teatro Marcello in the same neighborhood.

Right next Teatro Marcello is the Portico d’Ottavia, the remains of a Roman walkway with some temple remains between them. When people talk about Rome, it’s Colosseum, Colosseum, Colosseum, but it’s just mind boggling how much is REALLY here!

Clearly, Rome has no shortage of ancient ruins, but let’s check out the museum situation. I started with the Capitoline Museum, opened in 1471 making it the oldest public museum in the world, on the Piazza dei Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo. Wow!

The museum did not disappoint. It was filled to the brim with classical Roman sculpture, gods, emperors, philosophers, you name it. One of the most famous pieces was this statue of Venus. It’s astonishing to me that all this classical art is considered ancient, but there can still be hundreds, if not a thousand years between any two pieces. Amazing!

My personal favorite was the bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, one of my favorite philosophers, which used to be at the center of Piazza dei Campidoglio. There’s a copy out there now. They brought the original in here for protection.

In my wandering I also passed by the Piazza del Quirinale, where the president of Italy just happens to live. For about 300 years until the late 19th century it was the Pope’s summer palace.

The Altare della Patria is the biggest monument in Rome, built to honor Italy’s first king, Vittorio Emanuele II in 1885. It currently houses a small military museum and the tomb of the unknown soldier. Most Romans hate it apparently, but there’s no denying it has some pretty amazing views from the top.

Among the ancient Roman ruins, and the museums, you can’t turn a corner anywhere in Rome without stubbing your toe on a church. The 2000 year old Pantheon was originally built in 27BC as a temple to all the classical gods. It was made a Christian church in 608AD, but it’s always sported the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built. It’s also where the famous 16th century painter, Raphael is buried.

Not only churches, but you also can’t turn a corner in Rome without stumbling into some famous piazza. Piazza Navona was built over a Roman stadium in the 15th century.

Originally built to be a grand entrance into Rome from the north, Piazza del Popolo was built about the same time as Piazza Navona. The obelisk in the center was brought from Egypt by the Roman emperor Augustus, once stood at the Circo Massimo, and now centers this beautiful piazza.

At this point in my stay in Rome, I’m still running around like a crazy person worried I didn’t allow enough time to do everything and trying to wrap my head around the vast expanse of time and different eras that it took to make modern Rome what it is. Thousands of years of temples, buildings, churches, and fortifications all built on top of each other using pieces from past eras and rearranging everything many times over. It’s impossible to keep track of any of it. Anyway, here’s the uber famous Trevi Fountain.

This might be Rome’s biggest fountain and it’s in one of it’s smallest piazzas. I couldn’t even get far enough away from it to get it all in one picture, I had to use the panorama. It depicts the sea god Oceanus and it’s pretty incredible. Not too far from here are the famous Spanish Steps. Both were built in the 18th century.

Just a few steps from the Spanish Steps is Palazzetto Zuccari. I’m not sure what’s going on with the door, but it’s pretty unique.

Rome has its share of little oddities too. The Mouth of Truth was probably just a manhole cover, no one really knows, but it ended up here and thanks to a movie cameo in the 1950’s, every tourist in Italy gets a picture of it, including me.

The Porter Fountain depicts a 17th century water carrier. It’s one of Rome’s “talking statues”, because people would sometimes leave not so nice notes for the government at them.

Il Babuino is supposed to be a statue of the god Silenus, a half goat half man. People thought it looked more like a baboon though, hence the name. It’s probably Rome’s ugliest statue.

The Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura was originally built in the 5th century by emperor Constantine, is the largest church in Rome and the third largest in the world. Saying it’s big just doesn’t quite cover it. Interestingly, it was built over the site where St Paul was buried and you can get a glimpse of the grave under the confessional. There’s also a portrait of every pope since St Peter. I had no idea there were so many!

Here’s an over simplified run down of my days here… museum, ruins, church, panini, museum, ruins, church, pasta, shower, crash… repeat. I’m enjoying the hell out of it though! Maybe the most unique museum I visited was the Centrale Montemartini. They have a big collection of Roman statues on display with some giant diesel engines that were used to produce electricity. It’s a stark contrast, but I loved it!

Another unique place I visited was the Capuchin Monastery. The crypt is fully decorated floor to ceiling with mummified monks and the bones from hundreds of years of dead people. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so you’ll have settle for this amazing painting of archangel Michael in the church.

Like I said before, you can’t turn a corner in Rome without stubbing your toe on a church, but I did have a list of important churches worth visiting.

A lot of the churches in Rome are also museums in themselves. For example, the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli has a very famous Michelangelo statue of Moses. It’s part of a popes tomb, though I can’t remember which pope.

You might be surprised to learn that Rome isn’t just about Romans. Before the Roman empire was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, the area north of Rome was occupied by the Etruscans. They traded with the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, all the major empires from around 900BC until 27BC. And of course, there’s a great museum all about them.

Nearby the Etruscan Museum I walked around the Villa Bhorghese and Villa Medici and got a pretty good view of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

This next place gets overshadowed by the Colosseum and Roman Forum right down the street, but I think it’s really a shame because it’s a spectacular set of ruins that you’ve probably never even heard of. Trajans Market. Built by, you guessed it, emperor Trajan in the 2nd century.

Speaking of ruins on top of ruins and bits of previous eras being used for the present, here’s the remains of a Roman temple being incorporated into a church. Crazy!

The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano did it to. Pilfered Roman columns are found just about everywhere.

Speaking of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, it just happens to be Rome’s most important church, excluding the Vatican. It was built by emperor Constantine in the 4th century and for over a thousand years it was the Popes main church. The Pope has moved, but this is still Rome’s official basilica.

These monumental bronze doors on the front were once the doors of the Curia in the Roman Forum, the primary meeting place of the Roman Senate.

You can’t build anything in Rome or even dig a metro tunnel without uncovering Roman antiquities. Part of some Roman baths were found in the basement of a luxury hotel, there are glass cases with artifacts in some of the metro stations, there’s even part of a Roman wall inside a McDonalds!

Do you think the Romans ever conceived that this bridge would still be in use over two thousand years after its construction? Probably not, but here it is. Amazing!

And finally, way out in the east end of Rome is a park where people picnic, run, and walk their dogs right next to some Roman aqueducts. This place is fascinating!

I know, I know, I said “finally”, but we’re not done yet. Hang in there! No trip to Rome would be complete without a visit to the worlds smallest country, a country so small they used the word “city” in its name, Vatican City. I started my day by visiting Castel Sant’Angelo first.

It was originally built as Hadrians tomb, but it was later used as a castle, the Popes house, a prison, and now a museum. It also has a secret passage that links directly to the Vatican.

The Pope in the 6th century supposedly had a vision of archangel Michael on top of Castel Sant’Angelo, so he’s kind of a big deal here. Michael, not the Pope.

Technically, Castel Sant’Angelo isn’t in Vatican City, but given it’s proximity to the Vatican and it’s papal history, I did it the same day. The views of the Vatican from the castle were pretty great.

I thought I could just go to the Vatican museums, but it turns out you need to book tickets online in advance. I almost didn’t get to go and probably wouldn’t have if I had waited another day. Close one!

There hasn’t really been too many other tourists, at least not enough to be really annoying, and I think it’s because they’re all here. This was a crazy, chaotic, day! There was so many people in the museum I just got herded along with the crowd. I got to see everything, but it was so hard to just stop and take it all in. Nevertheless, here are some of my favorites below… A Raphael painting, an unfinished Davinci of St Jerome, Perseus with the head of Medusa, and a statue of Apollo considered to be the ideal of human proportions in classical art.

Not only are there paintings by Raphael, but he also painted the frescoes of several rooms. It was a lot to take in, but the Raphael rooms were probably my favorite part of the Vatican Museums. You just can’t walk away from some artworks without being irrevocably changed for the better. Below is a piece from the Constantine room.

The Raphael painting below was my favourite of his, though. In this scene are all the most famous philosophers, Plato, Socrates, Diogenes, Pythagoras, Euclidides, Zoroastra, and many others that I can’t remember right now. Also, way way over on the right in the black hat is the artist himself peering back at us. After that I was herded yet again through a very confusing maze of rooms and staircases and hallways that seemed to go on forever.

Finally, I arrived at the Sistine Chapel! Michelangelo’s masterpiece. I honestly didn’t know you weren’t allowed to take pictures. I got one shot of one wall and promptly got yelled at. Oops, sorry! Then, the stupid camera, on my stupid phone, may or may not have, accidentally, inadvertently, snapped a picture, while I just happened to be standing underneath the most famous part of the Chapel, trying to do something completely unrelated to photography. Stupid technology, so frustrating! Nevermind the forehead.

When I arrived in St Peters Square earlier in the day the line to get into St Peters Basilica wrapped around the entire square! I was worried I wouldn’t get a chance to see it. When I came out of the Vatican Museums, though, the line wasn’t bad at all. I only waited about a half hour. Awesome!

I get why they do it, but it’s somewhat annoying looking at this beautiful 16th century square littered with speakers, cameras, and jumbotrons. Oh well, anyway, St Peters Basilica, as you probably know, is the current place of worship of the Pope and the largest Christian church in the world. It is massive!

The most famous piece in St Peters Basilica is definitely Michelangelos “Pieta”. It’s the only thing he ever signed, though you can’t get close enough to see the signature.

I also didn’t expect to find Pope John Paul II’s tomb, but there it was. I guess I assumed he was buried in Poland somewhere. He’s not the only one, though. Let me tell you, there are a lot, like a LOT a lot, of popes buried in this place. It seems there’s at least one Pope buried in every church, but St Peter’s takes the prize.

Almost done, I promise. I took a couple of day trips from Rome as well. I had planned a couple more, but as I said, I really underestimated Rome and had to alter my plans a bit. Maybe I can fit some in on the back end of this trip, we’ll see. Anyway, first up was an easy train ride west to Ostia Antica, the Romans port city at the mouth of the Tiber River.

The place was HUGE! I spent the whole day walking around enjoying those ruins. Apparently, it was about as big and about as important to the Romans as Rome itself. Unfortunately, most of all the cool mosaics were covered up, but not all of them.

At the end of the line you come to the remains of the port itself. The Tiber has shifted over the millennia, but I imagine this was probably a busy and chaotic place then.

And of course no Roman city was complete without it’s own theatre.

Far more impressive, were the ruins of Hadrians Villa near Tivoli. Another easy train ride, east this time, and a short bus ride took me to the Villa Adriana, designed by emperor Hadrian himself. He was quite the brilliant architect.

Thankfully, there was almost no one there. It was very peaceful and quiet. Back in Tivoli, I explored the other big site in the area, Villa d’Este. Originally a convent, then converted to a luxury retreat in the 16th century. The incredible renaissance garden with it’s many crazy fountains is the main reason to visit though.

The Fontana dell’Organo supposedly uses the water pressure to play an hidden organ, though I didn’t get to hear the music today. It’s still an amazing sight.

I also spent a fair amount of time wandering the medieval streets of Tivoli before heading back to Rome.

Roughly nine days in Rome commences my Italian adventure and I’m already exhausted. Rome is just plain overwhelming! I left a lot out of this post, if you can believe it, because if I included every detail, this post would be a book. Even writing this post itself was overwhelming! If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. Now I head to my next stop and hopefully a more relaxed pace…