Weekend in Roma

Aside from the travel debacle (I forgot to mention the toddler across the aisle throwing up as we took off) it was great to be back in Rome! I had been 5 years ago for a weekend trip when I studied abroad in Florence and this time around I had approximately the same time frame to fit in all the sights before catching a bus to Perugia with the rest of the choir.

Our route through Rome

Our hotel was by the Castel Sant'Angelo (chosen for it's location near the big sites, the river, and centrality to Metro lines). It's the purple outline on the map that looks like the Pentagon. Use that as the starting point and follow along :)

Swag's guide on how to do Rome in a day and a half:

Piazza Navona.

We left our hotel around 8:30 after breakfast. When we got there, the piazza was practically empty, save a few art students. Our view of the Bernini Fountain of the Four Rivers was unspoiled by vendors and tourists!

Pantheon.

The Pantheon was only a few blocks away from Piazza Navona and again, we got there early enough to avoid large crowds of tourists. We signed a book to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification next to Vittorio Emanuele's grave.

Coliseum.

We walked along the Corso and stopped in various ruins along the way to take pics. At the Coliseum we waited in line for 45 min (not bad at all). In retrospect, we discovered that you can buy tickets that include the Forum and the Coliseum at the entrance to the Forum which would have spared us the long lines at the Coliseum.

Roman Forum.

Saw the Arch of Constantine, grabbed panini from a vendor, then made our way into the Forum. We did a bunch of walking among the ruins (Nero's Gardens, Palatine Hill etc) and throughout there were potable drinking fountains.

Spanish Steps.

We hopped the Metro at Colosseo and took it to Spagna to see the Spanish Steps. The station is literally right underneath the steps. We took advantage of the large palm trees nearby to take a gelato break.

Borghese Gardens.

The gelato powered us to climb the steps and walk past the Villa d' Medici and onto an amazing overlook of the Piazza del Popolo. It's truly one of the best places to see all of Rome. We made our way into the garden past magnificent fountains, chipped busts of exalted Italian literary masters, and onto a bench in the shade where we people watched.

Piazza del Popolo.

We backtracked a bit and made our way to the Corso which was filled with mainstream stores. After a few blocks we found ourselves at the obelisk in the middle of the circular plaza. We also went into one of the twin churches that are on the corner of the Piazza and Via del Corso.

Trevi Fountain.

Showers were definitely in order. We went to the grocery store next to the hotel to pick up breakfast for the next morning, cleaned up, had dinner near the Pantheon, and walked to the Trevi fountain after. It was crowded, like always, but it was a beautiful night. I made sure to throw in a coin :)

Vatican Museum.

Checked out of the hotel at 6:30 am and left our luggage in the hall to retrieve after our jaunt to Vatican City. After a 35 minute walk, we found the entrance to the museum and sat down in line (we were in the first 10!). Advice: If you want to do the Vatican museum, get there around 7 am. By the time the museum opens at 9, the line is wrapped along the wall down the length of the city's perimeter and you're screwed.

Inside was uncrowded! We were free to move around and see the museum at our pace which was important since we had to make our connection at the Rome airport that afternoon at 2pm. Some highlights were the Egypt exhibit (complete with mummies), The School of Athens, Henri Matisse, and the Sistine Chapel (breathtaking).

St. Peter's Square.

After the museum we hit up the square and took pics of the Swiss guards. Unfortunately, we were short on time so we didn't make it into St. Peter's Basilica (the line circled the square). But it was amazing just to even stand in the square and take it all in.

Doing Philly in a Day

The other week I was contemplating a destination for a road trip since it was President's Day and I was long overdue for an adventure. My roomie (who was at home for the holiday weekend) and I started Gchatting and ultimately I wound up with an invite to Philadelphia. The last time I was in Philly was in 6th grade on a field trip to Valley Forge, Independence Hall, and Betsy Ross's house. It was time for some new perspective on the place.

I left Arlington around 7:15am after hitting up my favorite Dunkin Donuts for a cup of road trip French vanilla coffee. After plugging my roomie's address into the GPS, I decided to take I- 95 so as to keep time on my side and allow a full day for any spontaneous deviations. This proved to be a fantastic idea. I got up there in no time, though I was $11 poorer from all the tolls!

On the exit ramp, I saw a sign for Villanova. I knew Villanova University was somewhere in PA, but I had no idea it was near Philly, let alone 5 miles away from my roomie's place! It was part curiosity, part wanting to size up another CAA school, and part knowing some alums that made me reposition my car and follow the signs to the university. The place was teeming with prospective students and their parents- luckily parking wasn't an issue. I grabbed my DSLR and hit the campus!

It was nice to stretch after a few hours in the car. The first building I saw was the chapel, which was beautiful inside. I then did a long lap around the main part of campus, saw the football field (JMU's is wayyyyy better!), went into the student union, and even got mistaken for a student by a family visiting the school! Not to keep my roomie waiting too long, I jumped back in my car and hit the road.

We drove into the city and lucked out finding a reeeealllly tight parking spot. The Franklin Institute was the first stop of the day! Everyone and there mom was there because it was a holiday aka. tons of kids, strollers, and loud parents. The lines were ridiculous. Fortunately, we called ahead and the roomie had a family membership which got us a shorter line and entrance into the Leonardo DaVinci exhibit for free. The exhibit was very interesting and it explored Leonardo's folios (Codex) in depth with life-size recreations of his inventions. The thing that bugged me the most were the grammatical errors on the displays. To save my sanity, I refrained from counting the number of punctuation marks outside of quotation marks.

We went around the rest of the museum, walked through the giant heart, saw an IMAX movie, and had some chili at the cafeteria. Note: I was taken aback at how cheap the food was. I'm used to Smithsonian prices that jack up the price of food threefold. At this point it was close to 4 pm so we hopped in the car and went to the Philadelphia Art Museum to do the obligatory Rocky poses at the top of the steps. Parking was a cinch near the water, behind the building. The thing was, it was freezing cold out and walking all the way to the front of the building was not such an appealing option. So we decided to walk through the museum.

Yes, you have to pay to get into the museum, but we were well aware of the fact that if you act like you own the place and go about your business, no one will question you. We were so right. We walked right in and found a hallway that led us to an elevator which eventually led us to the main entrance. If we wanted to game the system, in theory, we could have seen all that art for free. Anyway, we went outside and took pics a la Rocky (along with all the other tourists)- it was kind of epic!

We left the museum and headed to Jim's on South St for my first real Philly cheese steak. Oh man, was it good! I got mine with whiz and onions. I loved looking around the place and seeing all the pictures and autographs of the famous people who visited. Denzel Washington's was in the corner (you know a place is good if Denzel endorses it). Since I had work the next day, I headed home after Jim's. The drive back took an hour longer because I took a non- toll route west through Lancaster County, and York, and it started snowing heavily around Baltimore. All in all, it was an easy and doable road trip only a few hours from DC!