So I was fortunate enough to have another little adventure during one of my off-duty periods. And if anyone is interested here a couple select pics from my romp through Rome, Italy!
There was nothing going on back home during my 2 weeks off so I decided to try and give a shot on jumpseating over to Europe again. Our company has an agreement with Air Canada (our national carrier) that we can travel on stand-by fares for free. Some of you may remember I posted a couple of pics from London and the Rockies, and both times I used this method to travel. Its amazing when it works out, but stand by travel can be stressful! hehe. I actually had to switch my flight from my original date of Sat to Sunday due to heavy loads on the Sat flight. So I ended up flying out of Toronto on Sunday late night and arriving in Rome in the late afternoon Monday Rome time. Anyways, enough babbling, here are some picture linked from my facebook account! (I posted 197 pics on Facebook but I'll just choose the good ones for here. If you'd like to see more let me know please)
My first day there as I said was kind of short as it took awhile to get through customs, into the city, and then checked into the hostel downtown. None the less I decided to spend the first night just wandering around and hitting some of the "small" main sights in town. That was probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip, just wandering and always finding some interesting building or monument around a corner. Here is a cool church I found just 5 mins from the hostel.
And the inside. Gorgeous! And they just kept getting better
Walking down a very busy street towards what I would soon find out is the Spanish Steps
And here we are at the top!
Looking out over the city from the steps at sunset. You can see St. Peter's in the background all light up
I continued along my walk to find Piazza del Poppola. Very big / fun place on a warm summer's night
Next I walked down Via del Corso which is part of a really hoighty-toighty shopping district. I didn't buy anything
And I ended up at the bottom of the steps now. Of course I climbed them afterwards hehe
Next on the docket was the Trevi Fountain, which I was amazed at how big it was! Very very cool. And busy as a beehive.
Now day 2 begins, which I decided would be the theme of Ancient Rome...we begin at the Colosseum!
And outside is the Arch of Constantine, which was built by the Emperor Constantine (duh) after his victory over his rival which made Christianity the state religion of the Roman empire.
Cool shot from Capitoline Hill
Walking around Capitoline Hill, old pieces of ruins everywhere. Very neat
Titus Arch, built to commemorate his victory of Judea
Looking back out over the Roman Forum. I took about 20 pics of various sites inside the Forum but this one will have to do
Victor Emmanuelle moment, built in honour of Italy's first king
The Pantheon. Very cool building!
Trajan's Column. Very cool site as all around the column winding upwards are pictograms that chronicle his various wars and victories.
Four Rivers fountain in Piazza Navona. Also one of the many obelisks scattered throughought the city. It was sort of like a treasure hunt finding them all hehe.
Sunset over the Tiber
The Colosseum takes on an eerie glow at night!
Day consisted of a visit to Vatican City and all its various treasures. First was the Vatican Museums.
The Lancoon Group. Very cool sculpture
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This is called the Hall of Maps, as yo ucan see from the walls!
I forget the name of this painting but it was pretty neat
After the shots above I was inside the Sistine Chapel but no one is allowed pictures. It was very amazing and I spent a good 30mins or more just taking in every painting. After that though, we enter St Peter's Basilica which is absolutely massive
Looking down from the bottom of the dome
I braved the 350 or so steps to the top of the dome to get an amazing view over the City and of Rome
The 4th day I decided to go some of the quicker and "off the beaten path" sights around town. Here is St Theresa in Ecstasy, as made famous by Angels & Demons (hehe
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A very awesome sarcophagus inside the National Museum of Rome. It was big!
Very beautiful mosaic inside the same museum
I went to the northern part of the city to see the Catacombs of Priscilla. Was very cool to see all these deep tunnels and catacombs. No pics again.
Outside of the Crypt of Capucin Monks. Its a small little diorama made entirely of monks bones. Google some of the pictures, theyre amazing!
That evening I went to Galleria Borghese, which is a very famous collection of painting and sculpture. I will admit I'm not an art connoisseur but I was amazed at a lot of the pieces inside. Bernini's Apollo and Daphne was wonderful to see in person. Unfortunately no pictures, but of course pictures couldnt do any of it justice
I decided to finish the day with a nice dusk stroll through Villa Borghese gardens.
I thought this was a neat little stair in off some small street I found
It was a very fun trip and I had a blast, was quite glad I was able to go. Its always nice to see different cultures and experience them to see how different they can be from home. Well yet again that was way more photos than I was expecting haha. But anyways I hope ya enjoyed them, or at least they killed a couple minutes at work for anyone who read this hehe