rome

rome may be one of my proudest moments ever. i'm not even kidding a little bit.

wanna know why?

read on.

when dr hurlbut was with us, we had a rule about traveling that only allowed us to travel to either 1) french speaking countries and 2) london. i'd already checked london off the list.

but then dr erickson came along, and he didn't have the same rule as dr h. and because we only had so many weekends without art history, we decided on a sunday that we would go to rome. monday night we bought tickets. sort of. there were some struggles with stupid ryanair (the airline) but it all got figured out. we got a hotel. tuesday we argued with the airlines and i made an "itinerary." wednesday we had a group meeting. thursday morning at 6 am we set off for beauvais airport and off to rome.

because we had so many problems with stupid ryanair, and no one really knew what they want to do in rome, i decided to just make an itinerary. i went to one of my favorite bookstores - gibert jeune - and picked up a rome travel book and a map. i asked people what they loved in rome and started planning. my itinerary wasn't super exact…i planned things we wanted to do, but not exactly when we wanted to do them. i decided to just let that play out as we got to rome. but i found out about roma passes (museum discounts, metro use, etc), mapped out where things were on my handy map, and made sure everyone knew what times we needed to be at certain places.

i felt a little silly doing it. but it was actually super helpful. i felt a little bit like ashley benning, aboot, inc. and that made me happy.

everyone decided to call me "mama syd," a nickname that only grew more and more appropriate as the week wore on.

thursday morning we met up at porte maillot stop super early. i think we were there at 6 am. woof. from there, we caught a bus/shuttle to beauvais airport for our flight to rome!

our flight was fairly uneventful…except alicia fell asleep with her mouth open, and it was the funniest thing i have ever seen.

when we got to rome, we hopped on a bus that took us to the metro station closest to our hotel. from the map, i was worried that it would be really far way. turns out it was only like a block and a half away. (it turns out rome is totally a walking city. it's way smaller than any of us thought, and way smaller than the map makes it look.)

we checked in, then got lunch. we had our first italian pizzas. turns out the personal size pizzas are bigger than my head, so that was fun. then we bought roma passes and got on the metro.

our first stop was the colosseum. i navigated us there from the metro (which was kind of a joke because you could SEE it from the metro exit since it's colossal, you know). we got in free because of our roma passes, which was cool, and then i proceeded to find 10 euros on the ground. best. day. ever. and of course we had to sing a little lizzie mcguire. this is what dreams are made of, people.

we also hit up trajan's column, the pantheon, the trevi fountain, and the spanish steps. it was a really big day. i think my favorite of all those places was the trevi fountain. rome has such a fun night life, and the trevi fountain was so alive. it is just so huge. i mean, the thing is MASSIVE. i don't know what i was expecting, but it wasn't nearly that big in my little imagine-ings. i just loved how it was so lit up and the water was so loud. and the people were so happy. rome was such a happy city.

we had dinner at some restaurant near the spanish steps. it was awkwardly not delicious like we were hoping...but it's all good because we more than made up for it later on.

on friday morning, we got up, had some breakfast, and headed off to the vatican. kind of mind blowing, going to the vatican. it's only the home of the largest christian institution in the entire world. with an amazing collection of art, to boot.

the vatican museums were so much more than i was expecting. i think that because the louvre is the biggest museum in the world, i have just always expected to see pieces that i've learned about there. a silly assumption, but one that i have nonetheless. but because of that assumption, the vatican was one big huge surprise for me. honestly, the only thing that i really knew was there was the sistine chapel. other than that, i just kinda went along with the tour. it was so fun to find things that i just had no idea at all were there. like the scraper, or laöcoon, or the school of athens. i think that's what made all of rome so incredible. it is a city of surprises.

we accidentally went through the vatican museums twice. i mean, i guess it wasn't really on accident. we had gone through once before, but we missed the school of athens. and how do you go through the vatican museums without seeing the school of athens? so we went back through. twice in one day. who does that? i guess we do.

after the museums, we headed over to st peter's basilica. i also had no preconceived ideas of what the basilica would be like. we wandered there in the rain and made it inside. when we walked inside, my jaw literally dropped. it doesn't happen often. but my mouth was gaping open. so much marble. so much gold. so much over-the-top beauty that i couldn't even handle myself. i'm almost tearing up writing about it. scratch that - i am tearing up. i want to go back there so badly!

inside the basilica, everything was decorated in marble. all of the walls and columns and ceilings. everything. all surfaces had some sort of ornamentation. carvings, gilding, painting, mosaics. pretty much it was all there.

and do you know what else was there? michelangelo's pietà. that made my eyes water up. it was great. cori and i were really having a hard time keeping it together because of all the surprises. it was so great. we also found moses, and that was exciting. the altar of the cathedral was UNREAL. so big and gold. oh i loved that place.

my eyes watered when i had to leave. they really truly did. i was so sad.

and then we went and had dinner. we went to a little restaurant near our hotel and i had my first real italian pasta. chicken alfredo. it was SO GOOD. i was really quite happy. and we had tiramisu for dessert.

after dinner, we weren't quite ready for bed, so noah, cori, alicia, and i headed back over to the trevi fountain. it was pouring rain, so we conveniently took shelter in a gelato shop. it was run by an older gentleman and his family. he was so funny - the classic italian selling gelato. it made me so happy! he was so kind. when he handed me my gelato, i asked him if the family made the gelato. he said that his 25 year-old son made it all by hand. then i tasted my gelato. and before i could even stop myself, the following question came out of my mouth : "do you think your son would marry me?" he laughed and he said that if i wanted to be the stepmom of his son's two kids, then it would be okay.

after climbing on the trevi fountain (i mean what?), we went back to the hotel and slept. and in the middle of the night, we were all awakened by the most horrifyingly loud thunder any of us had ever heard in our lives. it was like all of the thunder in the heavens came together and let loose right above our heads. i swear the hotel was shaking, it was so loud. but because i was still so asleep, i couldn't quite get myself to react to it properly. i mumbled to alicia, "was that thunder?" and she mumbled back, "yeah." and that was about it. in the other room, everyone was screaming. good to know that alicia and i are such sound sleepers.

on saturday, we went to the piazza dei campidoglio. this little plaza was designed by michelangelo, and was used as a model for the joseph fielding smith building (jfsb) courtyard at byu. dr h told us about this piazza and how he had suggested that it be used as the model for the jfsb. we decided that it was a must that we go there to take a photo or five for him. 

then we wandered over to the bocca de la verité. this is an old face. you put your hand in its mouth and if you are a liar, it supposedly bites your hand off. think roman holiday, here, people. i preteneded i was audrey hepburn and it was pretty fantastic. 

and then we accidentally found the circo massimo, which only was the arena where chariot races were held. not really a big deal or anything. that was pretty much how rome was - one surprise after another. all just popping out of no where. it was so much fun.

then we went to this little church - the santa maria della vittoria. this is where bernini's the ecstasy of saint theresa is. cori and i had another one of our moments. and then we headed off to the borghese gallery.

i had heard of the borghese through friends and the internet. i knew it was one of the museums in rome that we couldn't miss. i knew that apollo and daphne by bernini was there. so pretty much it was a given that we had to go, even if that was the only piece worth seeing. but boy, were we in for a surprise.

we had to book our tickets for the gallery 2 days in advance. it is super strict on numbers of people who can come in, and you can hardly ever get last minute tickets to enter. luckily, because we have some handy dandy art history student cards, we got into the museum for free! sweet.

when we walked into the gallery, we saw these HUGE heads. i'm talking about 5 feet tall stone heads. it was pretty impressive. we walked through the adjoining rooms of the gallery when we saw this marble statue that looked familiar. turns out it was david by bernini. not really a big deal. but seriously. it was.

and then we saw apollo and daphne. that piece is so amazing. there are two images in my head that will forever be associated with the borghese and rome. one of those images is of the toes of daphne, turning into roots. the marble is so thin that you can literally see through it. it was so delicate and precise. i can't get it out of my head.

and then we wandered into the next room where i kind of looked up, but not really. i could tell there was a big statue looming overhead but i hadn't examined it yet. we got up to the name plate. cori nudged me and asked if i recognized it. i said no, because the name was in italian. and then i took a second look at the name plate and wanted to facepalm myself. i looked up. because really? the rape of persephone was in the borghese? who knew? i almost cried. i love this statue. the second image i have in my mind of rome and the borghese is hades' hand grabbing persephone's thigh. it does not look like marble. it is actually a human hand grabbing human flesh.  i can't get over it.

and we saw about 16 other bernini statues. it was crazy. and then it was time to leave rome and return to paris.

on our way back to our hotel from the borghese, we were all starving. we couldn't find a cheap-ish restaurant and we all were getting grumpy. i made the mama syd nickname permanent when i remembered that i had some candy in my purse. thank goodness for flexi-fizz. i don't know what we would do on trips without that stuff. i gave everyone two pieces of candy to tide them over until we could find some pizza (which we successfully found). behind me i heard kayla say, "she really will make a great mom one day." it made me laugh. so now i will always and forever be mama syd.

after a wonderful two and a half days in rome, we had to return to paris. i've always heard people say that "italy is great...but it's dirtier and poorer than france." it may be true, but i was so so sad to leave italy. i was sad to leave the warmth. i was sad to leave the surprises and the discovery. i was sad to leave the italian people who were so open and friendly. i was sad about leaving the art and the food and the culture. i was sad about all of it.

in some ways, italy really reminded me of home. in my head, i've come up with this comparison that may or may not be completely accurate, but i've decided that france is like the east coast of america, while italy is like the west coast. it's chill and relaxed. it's got an "anything goes" feel. france is a little more proper, a little more upscale. 

they are so extremely different from each other, but i have really come to love the "east coast" of europe that i call home. while i was so sad to leave italy, i was excited to make my way back to my little piece of france. 

but rome will always have a very special place in my heart. :) 

SORRY EVERYONE MY INTERNET WON'T LET ME POST ANY PHOTOS BUT I PROMISE I TOOK A LOT OF THEM IN TRUE HUGHES FASHION LOVE YOU ALL.