While I'm disappointed I never got to see the Caravaggio painting of Saint Jerome, they had a substitute on display. It's always nice to see Commodus as Hercules, and the gigantic statue of Marcus Aurelius.
There was a special exhibition on Archimedes and Rome. It had some cool inventions and stuff, but mainly stuff from Syracuse in the 2nd century BC. Another part that sucked, was the gigantic head of Constantine was under wraps because of renovations to the building. However, I did get to visit the other side of the museum for the first time, and finally got to see the statue of the dying gaul and his 70's mustache.
After that, we chilled at the Roman forum. We got to see some cool stuff, that our tour guide never showed us before. From the Vestal Virgins temple, to the gigantic Basilica of Maxientius. We had fun making up history along with the actual historical facts of buildings, some people were actually listening in on our fake history. Ezio Auditore di Frenze is from a videogame, peeps.
We also went to the Palatine hill for the first time. It's a nice area, like the Peralta Hills of Ancient Rome. We got to see things like Augustus's house and stuff. And got some great views of the entire area. It would've been dope to watch the races at Circus Maximus here.
After that, we were dead tired and needed some lunch. We walked through some park near the Colosseum, and found some decent Roman restaurant. What's funny was, some guy we randomly saw at a bar at our neighboorhood yesterday, was at the same restaurant. We then went to the Colosseum quite late in the day, and skipped the line and laughed at the losers without a Roma pass or a reservation. This time, the Colosseum was hosting an exhibition on Constantine. So it was pretty neat seeing artifacts from his time, from the 4 tetraarchs to the Edict of Milan.
I got some more great views of the colosseum. We spent a decent time at the colossseum before heading to the Arch of Constantine across the street. You can get a pretty great view of the Caesar statues and the copy of the Marcus Aurelius statues. We then took the subway to the Spanish Steps, and laughed at how lame they are. It's probably the worst tourist spot in the world, with nothing to do.
So we walked down the street with all the designer stores, before we eventually ended up at the Giolitti, gelato shop, like the most famous one in Rome. It's overpriced, it's nothing special, and the locals love to cut in line. We finally made it to the Trevi Fountain, and got to toss our coins in the water there, so I guess its true, if you throw a coin in the fountain, you'll make a return trip to Rome.
It was dumping by the time we were done there, so we walked to the Pantheon. We were the only people on the Fountain with the obelisk taking pictures of the Pantheon because everyone was hiding. The Pantheon look pretty cool at this hour, it actually wasn't even that packed. Got a good look at the Raphael and Vittorio Emananuel II tombs.
We then walked down the street to the Absinthe store, and got the original and oldest absinthe, that's made with the wormwood.
We were going to walk back to our hostel, but someone's big idea was to catch a cab. So we walked half a mile down for no reason to Piazza Venezia, where a giant protest was going on. So there was zero chance at a cab, and we had to walk ALL the way back to our apartment. We were dead tired, and our feet were really hurting, so we gave ourselves time to nap before we went to eat. We we're going to try Dar Poeta, some famous pizza shop in the area, but it was too crowded, so we went to the restaurant right outside our door. I got a primi, a secondi, an antipasto, and some wine for 13 euros. I guess Trastevere really is the place to eat. We drunk some absinthe, and walked around drinking some beers in public and fit in with the locals. Trastevere is honestly the best place to stay in Rome, if you're young. Ciao
No comments:
Post a Comment