Woke up early this morning in order to grab breakfast and catch the 7:58 train to Rome. I had stayed up semi-late the night before in order to pack and generally feel ready for a full week trip around Italy.

We stopped at Cafe Ignoranti (yes, I know how it sounds) for a pastry and a latte, then cheesed it to the train station. Everything there occurred without incident, and so we were off to Rome. The train was just short of packed, meaning we found seats, but not necessarily right next to each other. I spent the nearly 2 hour trip chatting with Sharon (the woman in charge of that whole “Santa Chiara” thing) about the environment and society and Naples and Italian government and so on.

The Rome central terminal (Termini, go figure) was busier than most airports I’ve ever seen (which might not be saying much, but still.) People were everywhere, and we were all paranoid about pickpockets. Luckily, we didn’t have any run-ins with thieves. We bought a 3 day metro pass (A nifty little ticket that lets you ride the subway system [Metro], buses, and trams) from the nearby newsstand, then stood around waiting for our designated guide to show up and show us to our hotel.

A few minutes later, Fabrizzio? arrived. He briefly introduced himself, rekindled our fears about pickpockets, and then led the way to the Metro. The Metro experience was quite interesting. People were a little less than everywhere. I stood in between two cars (Not as dangerous as it sounds, promise. It’s one long open space from front to back.) and surfboarded to our stop, Manzoni.

We returned to the surface and strolled around a few blocks in order to reach our hotel. Along the way, we actually passed a parkish area containing a set of ancient arches. None of us had our camera out (in fact, I never remembered to get a picture of those dern arches. Scarf.), but the arches were a little astounding, just chilling in a residential area.

We arrived at the hotel simple enough. We didn’t check in (too early, you see), we just tossed our stuff in the hallway and geared up for a little tourism. {Side Note: In front of the hotel we found a Smart car (the tiny ones) parked perpendicular amidst other cars parked parallel. It was grand, and I want one.}

St. Peter’s was our target, which meant jumping on the Metro, riding to Termini, switching Metro lines (there are two, Red and Blue, that run semiperpendicular to each other and service different areas [duh.]) from Red to Blue, riding the Metro for some time until the Ottaviano stop, and debarking/regrouping.

A headcount later, we were strolling down the streets of Rome like we owned the place. We were in a fairly modern area, so there weren’t a lot of pictures, just a bit of walking. We passed restaurants and a zillion souvenir shops before reaching the gargantuan columns of St. Peter’s Square (or Ellipse, technically). The columns themselves were pretty astounding…

…and then we stepped into the square (ellipse). I think we all had a near death experience right then and there. There was no breathing, no heartbeats, and certainly no closed mouths. Not only is this place HUGE, it is architecturally BEAUTIFUL. We started snapping pictures like nobody’s business, freaking out and emitting an “Oh my goodness.” whenever we could spare the breath. Giant columns topped with fantastic statues, an obelisk showing everybody exactly what is up, fountains, and (to top it all off) St Peter’s staring you right in the face.

It is at this point in the story that our guide told us to get lunch. We thought he was crazy. How were we expected to leave this ZOMG place ever?

We interrupt this freak-out for a quick lunch break.

So we left, and hit up a by-the-slice pizzeria. The pizza was great, even though I dropped one of my pieces on the ground. Bummer, but John wasn’t hungry enough to eat both of his, so I still got two pieces.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled freak-out. Thank you for your patience.

We return to the square (ellipse), still freaking out, and make our way towards St. Peter’s. The entirety of the structure leading to the entrance is lined with statue after statue. I kinda have a thing for statues, so I was even more freaking out. (That’s a legitimate phrase, promise.)

I think we all redefined “architecture” when we entered St. Peter’s. The place is HUMONGOUS and ornate and generally a big deal. Pictures were a little iffy (My camera battery died, so I had to use John’s. It sucks. So the pictures were a little…shaky.), what with the low light and all.

The basic procedure was:

1. Walk three steps.
2. Nearly lose consciousness due to some new astounding aspect of the building.
3. Take several pictures.
4. Repeat.

This is obviously a very slow and involved procedure, and not one that our guide was intent to allow. So we ditched the guide and just pictured the heck out of St. Peter’s. States, paintings, columns, altars, chairs, you name it. (Also, there were plenty of windows up high, complete with the God-light rays streaming through. Plenty of pictures were taken to capture those as well.)

When we finally exited St. Peter’s, we were scrambling to fond our guide/the group. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but we all had been issued a one-way walkie-talkie (so the guide could speak a little quieter, no?) that was due back at a specific time (I had turned off and pocketed mine rather early on in our journey.), otherwise we’d be charged some 60 Euro fee. We ran around the front, just missing our group as they headed into the Pope tomb area. We skitted trough their rather quickly, always one step behind our group.

Finally, we caught up. We turned in our walkies and expected to be done for the day.

Change of plans: Paolo wants to show us the Pantheon.

So we rambled around to the Pantheon. We hit a few interesting sights along the way, sights that I don’t actually have a name for. Anywho, we made it to the Pantheon and DANGZ. (The ‘Z’ there was accidental, but I think it adds a proper emphasis.) Talk about a dome. This place almost seems like it shouldn’t stand. Goodness gracious.

We Metroed our way back to the Hotel (as everyone tried not to fall asleep) and planned to regroup afterwards for dinner.

We all fell asleep instead.

END TUESDAY.