Rome according to Jenny

I was wholly unprepared going into our Rome trip. My knowledge of general history and Catholicism are at times embarrassingly limited, but in this case that made nearly every moment visiting the main sights completely surprising. Please forgive my simplified rundown... here are a few of my highlights:

-Rome was our first hostel experience- the Two Ducks Hostel. It was on the lower end of the price spectrum and I was pretty satisfied... safe, relatively clean and comfortable. Many hostels in cities are tucked into obscure streets among other private residences and businesses, and its kind of fun to discover the hostel-community hiding behind the street facade. I enjoyed talking with a few of the other guests as they were on their own adventure and were able to share experiences and recommendations (where the good wine is, how to skip the long lines, etc). The girl had dreadlocks and a piercing in her cheek (if you can picture that) and fit my stereotype of Europe-backpackers pretty well... and she was great to talk to. I do envy the quick alliances that backpackers strike up when they overlap in a city... its a fun culture of young people who are open minded and curious about the world.

-Lauryn detailed the drama surrounding the Scavi tour, but I will just throw in that the tour was awesome. Our guide was an archaeologist and made an already interesting tour that much better. It was incredible to walk on the original Roman street level and see the family mausoleums... I really liked the concept of erecting such tributes to deceased family members, granted these were the wealthy families of the time. It was a pagan custom to bring the deceased drinks (to pour down a tube into the ground) and to have meals/parties on terraces above the tombs. It was very cool to see the tomb of St. Peter, though there is no certainty that the bones associated with the site today are the bones of St. Peter (he has two different skulls attributed to him, currently). The symbolism of the current altar in the basilica being over the original tomb of St. Peter was powerful to see at the excavated level where it all began.

-The Scavi tour ended at the tomb of JPII. It was more moving than I anticipated to stand before it with a small group of people, knowing how beloved he was/is. The 'exit' put us right into the middle of the basilica... breath-taking moment number two.

-The Roman ruins which coincide and predate what we saw at the Scavi really put history in perspective. I'm no history buff and am admittedly very bad at remembering details, so please forgive any inaccuracies! The ruins are beautiful in their overgrown state today (especially since dogs are not allowed in... this was the first 'safe' grass area I have been in since we've been here!!) and it was very interesting to stop and imagine Roman society at the height of the empire... probably not so different than today's leading metropolitan cities if you just change the clothes :) I was thrilled to identify the very street that is referred to in the saying 'All roads lead to Rome' and had to take several pictures on my own feet on the road.

- We visited the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is actually the official cathedral of Rome. Of all the churches we have been in thus far I am a little partial to this one, mostly because it was actually in use when we got there (for a funeral and daily mass on a side chapel) which was evidence that its still a functioning church and not just a tourist attraction. We had a priest bless us and our religious articles which added to the visit. He didn't speak English but Eric was able to converse with him in Spanish and he was a very nice man.

-Lauryn and I made this trip with our friends from WSU, Pat and Eric, who have been traveling around Europe for the past three weeks. It was fun to connect with them over here and explore a bit in Florence and Rome. In addition to seeing the major sites we ventured out to an Irish pub, a mediocre restaurant dinner (good company and a bottle of wine saved it), attempted to go to a soccer game which ended up being a big walk out to the stadium and back, and a wine bar to pick up some recommended wine. A note on that... our hostel friends had learned about this wine on a tour- I forget the details, but basically there was a group of men who were founding a city and needed women. They visited the neighboring community and got the men drunk on this strawberry wine, then stole their women. Supposedly they make the wine in the same way today. It was pretty good so we bought a few bottles between us, a good story sells well :)

- We each threw two coins into the Trevi Fountain... the tradition is that the first coin ensures that you will return to Rome, the second is for a wish. I'm counting on the first coin because there is much more in Rome that I want to see, one weekend is not enough! I'll do my research for next time.

I always end up being more long-winded than I set out to be and this is the simplified version! That should make up for the tardiness of posts :)

Jenny