Rocks and Ruins
Rome was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip, even though it was our last stop before heading back to London and home. There arn’t really any words to describe what it feels like to be standing in front of the Colosseum, or to walk into St Peters, or to see the ruins of the Forum. Just the fact that wherever you walk there is probably thousands of years of history beneath you feet that still hasn’t been uncovered is a ridiculous amount to grasp. Needless to say I kind of felt like I was in a dreamland while we were walking around, just trying to realize where I was for four days.
Oh yeah, and there are ruins everywhere. You can just chill on them.

We were able to walk everywhere in Rome which was really nice, and luckily the weather was on our side yet again. The first day we explored as usual - the first stop being the Colosseum. (:

After that we wandered over to the Forum, and when I saw the ruins I was just so overwhelmed already that I started crying. I was seeing stuff that i had studied for years and all of the sudden it was right in front of me. Despite trying to realize where I was for the whole trip, it still feels surreal.

We also went to the Pantheon (!!!) and to Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.







The first full day we went to line up to get into the Colosseum - luckily we got there early, so not much of a wait at all. Again, very surreal to be standing in there. Words or pictures don’t so this place justice, everyone needs to go there at some point… but here’s some pictures anyway. (:


We had a bit of magic morning light, which made for some amazing photos.

And here’s me showing off my Joaquin Phoenix impression:


And then we had a crazy thought that it would be a good idea to go to the Vatican since we were done the Colosseum relatively early. So we grabbed some lunch and walked to the Vatican, also trying to find a NORMAL bank machine along the way… we were super confused because they kept telling us we were taking cash “advances” with our debit cards… we chanced it and luckily it must have just been a bad translation because it was a normal withdrawal not a cash advance… sigh.
Anyways we got to the Vatican and I stared at St Peters for awhile before we walked all the way around to get to the museum. I was dreading at least a few hours wait to get in, but we were both astonished (yep, astonished) to see absolutely NO line at the entrance. It was crazy because I’ve heard its one of the longest lines ever.


So that was good. We went through security and they made Clayton check in his backpack (even though hundreds of other people had backpacks…) and we made our way in to the Museum. I was still sick at this point so I was already tired just from getting there, so we sat in the cafeteria there for awhile before starting the tour.
Long story (kind of) short, the reason there was no line outside is that they have apparently stopped staggering the amount of people that they let inside. So. There was a LOT of people inside. Like, people soup. You couldn’t really stop to look at anything because you just had to keep moving so you wouldn’t be run over by all the @#$%ing tour groups behind you.
I hate tour groups… I hate them so much.
Sad to say it kind of ruined the museum and the Sistine Chapel especially. It’s supposed to be one of the holiest places in the world, and you walk in and there is a ton of people, all the tour guides are shouting into their microphones so their group can hear them, and EVERYONE is taking pictures. There was one guard half ass shouting at people to not take pictures, but he hardly cared. So we tried to find a somewhat empty space to stare up at the ceiling, and I tried to make the most of it but honestly I was pretty disappointed. It was still an amazing thing to see though, despite the atmosphere.

So after that we found ourselves outside of the museum and at the entrance of St Peters. There was no line for this either somehow, so we hopped inside. Little did we know it was about to close (along with the museum) so we only got to staty in there for about 15 minutes… but since they were clearing people out, we got some amazing pictures with no people in them. (:

After we left the basilica, we realized that there was no way to get back in to the museum from that side to get Clayton’s backpack. So we had to walk ALL the way back around (it takes about 15-20 minutes, and we were practically jogging) to get to the entrance. We got there and…

it was closed. With a crazy intense bolted door. Cue a bit of panic - our hotel keys + probably some other important things we in the backpack. So we hastily went to the exit of the museum on that side where they were still letting people out, and Clayton explained that his backpack was still inside and showed the guard his ticket… the guard responded with “It’s your lucky day…” and let him inside THANK GOD. haha.
So it was a little bit of a rushed/stressful visit to the Vatican. It didn’t help that I was still sick. We definitely didn’t see everything we wanted to, but just another reason to go back. (:
Some more magic light at Castel Saint Angelo on the way back from the Vatican. (:


The second full day we went to the Spanish Steps and took it pretty easy, just a lot of exploring and finding little shops and restaurants. The third day we had planned to do the Forum, but it rained for a few straight hours in the morning Vancouver style, and the city completely shut down. The metro was flooded, the Colosseum and the Forum were both closed, and there were mudslides everywhere. Needless to say they are not prepared to handle any sort of rain haha. So we did our own tour around the outside of the Forum, and still managed to see most of it.





That night we also took one last walk around the Colosseum for some pictures and to say goodbye. ):

ilu Colosseum.



And as were were walking back towards the Forum to find some dinner, we were greeted with the beginnings of an amazing sunset. Took some pictures and Clayton said “Should we go or do you think it’s going to get more instense?” and almost right as he said that, it got super intense. So we grabbed a spot to stand along the railing - there was a giant puddle behind us that no one else dared to go around, so we got our own little alcove for the show.



What a send off. I couldn’t have asked for anything nicer.
























































