A Long Walk Home: Apologies, Gondola Rides, The Colosseum and the City of God.

My deepest apologies for the long break between. After I finished my essay this site wouldn't let me sign in for two days and the day after that the whole student village lost internet for a while and by then I started studying for my next exam (which I believe I rocked) and completely forgot to get the blogs done. I'll continue today with the story of the trip, with Venice and Rome and with Rome I will include the Vatican City.

We arrived in Venice early in the morning and although I had packed the night before and got all my stuff ready, my roommate had not. So it took us about an hour and a half longer to get off the boat than expected, but in the long run it didn't really make a difference.
Venice as a city is comprised of 117 small islands that are connected by bridges and canals and split in the center by the appropriately named Canal Grande. All of these canals and bridges made it nearly impossible for us not to get lost at least a few times. We would be walking in the general direction of our destinations only to discover that the sidewalk ended and was replaced by a 20 foot wide canal with little motor boats and gondolas moored to each side. It wasn't all too bad, though, because the city isn't very big and we were probably able to see more of it because of our unintentional detours. Venice also has an abundance of churches. Almost every little island seemed to have its own extravagant chapel filled to the brim with statues, gold and fresco coated walls. By the end of the day we would see a church and at least one person in the group would say something like, "Nah, 7 churches in a day is good for me, I think I'll sit this one out."
The coolest things to see in Venice were probably the Doge Palace, St. Marks Cathedral and the Rialto Bridge. The palace and the cathedral were located near each other and had a giant public square and a huge campanile next to them. There were shops and cafes and all kinds of things lining the winding alleyways that were essentially the streets. One of the coolest things about Venice is that, I assume because of the small bridges and streets, there were no motor vehicles at all. You could walk anywhere and not worry about getting hit by a car or bus or taxi. It was pretty neat gang. The only bridge that would have been big enough for cars to cross was the Rialto, which was very impressive. It was probably the width of a 4 lane road but there were all kinds of shops and stores and vendors lining the whole thing. Literally buildings on top of a bridge! Unfortunately I wasn't in the market for a 55 euro quill pen or a 10 kilo glob of blown glass (but if I was this was the place to get it!). Many of the shops also sold masks and feathered boas and things that reminded me of Mardis Gras. Apparently this is for the yearly celebration of the Carnevale which starts two weeks before Ash Wednesday and ends with the celebration on Fat Tuesday (also, I heard from the locals that it is mostly tourists who take part in the event now and the real Venetians are fairly scarce).
Also while I was in Venice, I had to indulge my tourist urges and take a gondola ride. My three travelling companions and I jumped into the boat and got our 45 minute canal tour of the city. Kyle and I got to sit in the front and discuss fun manly things while Alex and Josie got to sit in the couple seat, which I was completely cool with. I suppose the worst part of this was when they had me take a picture of them kissing... I know, as a couple, they like that stuff, but honestly those public displays of affection kinda gross me out and I don't like to be subjected to it. The day went on vomit free though and the gondola ride proved to be a success. Some interesting things I learned on the ride are that gondolas are actually banana shaped, the boats are usually passed down through generations in families, and the gondola drivers actually have to go to school for a few years to learn how to navigate their boats through all sorts of situations that can arise in the canals (like yelling for the right of way around blind corners, tilting the boat to go under bridges at high tide, and getting around tight corners without getting there boats all effed up). At the end of the night, Kyle and I decided to meet up with some friends we met on the cruise for dinner and a few drinks and Alex and Josie decided to go home. The dinner went well and I had half of the biggest calzone I have ever seen in my life, but when we were about to leave it started to rain. Hard. There was thunder and lightning and it was very, very frightening to me! Galileo! Kyle and I and our group of friends had no desire to make the 35 minute walk back to the bus station in the pouring rain so we decided to have a few more drinks and wait it out. Finally after about an hour the rain stopped and we were able to go back to our hotel and get a few hours of sleep before we flew to Rome the next morning.

In Rome I stayed with my friend David Brockshus who is an architecture student at Iowa State and a member of my fraternity as well. My other three traveling mates were staying at a hostel somewhere on the other side of town. I met him at the Plaza de Argentia, which was near his apartment and coincidentally the same place where Julius Cesar was viciously murdered by a group of his peers. We grabbed a slice of pizza and went to his place to drop off my belongings.
After seeing his studio and meeting some of his roommates we walked to the Colosseum stopping at random places for David to tell me little tid bits of history about assorted marvels of the ancient world. David, as a part of his course, had to go to all of these places earlier in the semester and had taken a test on the history and significance of each place and was a walking encyclopedia of Roman factoids.
We got very lucky while we were in Rome. Not only did we have our very own personal tour guide in David for free, but also it was free entry week in the whole country for all national exhibits and monuments. David took us around the city showing us the Colosseum, the Roman Forums, various arches of triumph, the Spanish Steps, the Victor Emanuel Monument (which is probably the single largest building I have ever seen in my life), the Trevi fountain and virtually everything else that you would want to see while in Rome all while giving us insider tips on what to eat, how to order and how to get by along with a plethora of facts and figures about the city. When it came time to call it a day, after miles of walking and seeing more than I imagined I could in one day, my regular travel companions and I decided to meet outside St. Peter's Cathedral at 9 am and David and I split ways with Alex, Josie and Kyle and returned to his apartment where he had planned a small get together with other students from his course both American and Italian. The get together turned into a small party and the next thing I knew it was 1:30 in the morning and I was being taught phrases in Italian by some local students in David's kitchen. The party ended around three and as I was trying to go to bed, David was making spaghetti in the kitchen and telling me I couldn't go to bed until it was done being cooked and I ate some.

I woke up at 8:15 the following morning to the alarm I had set on my cell phone with a slight hangover and a full plate of spaghetti sitting on a chair in front of the couch I was sleeping on. I got dressed, brushed my teeth and and ate some pretzels and was just about to walk out the door when I received a text saying that Alex saying they were running a few minutes late. Thank goodness! I only waited around for a few minutes though because I did't know exactly how long it would take for me to get there.
I arrived at the meeting point around five after nine and bought a bottle of water and some post cards from a local vendor and proceeded to sit on a bench in the middle of the plaza of the cathedral. I waited and waited and then I decided to put an entry in my journal. Right when I had finished my entry I received another text, "Be there in 15 minutes." So I waited a bit longer and started to read a bit from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. About 20 pages later I got another text, "We're here." It was about 10:15.
We toured the cathedral and the catacombs and it was pretty unbelievable. The sheer size of St. Peter's astounded me, not to mention the detail put into every single aspect of every object. I would stand near a wall and look up and almost get dizzy. I have some pictures below. After the cathedral we grabbed some lunch at a place I'm pretty sure was run by the mafia and proceeded on to the Vatican Museum.
The Vatican Museum is essentially a warehouse of all the stuff the Catholic church has acquired over the last 2000 years that is laid out nicely and they charge you to look at. It culminates with the Sistine Chapel and ends in a gift shop that sells very expensive 1/14th scale replicas of various statues. At one point, while we were walking through an octagonal courtyard that had ancient Greek statues on every side of it, I was split up with the other three members of my group- I was the straggler believe it or not. I figured I would catch up with the other members of my group eventually, but then I saw the ancient Egyptian exhibit and just couldn't resist. I figured, I might only be here once, might as well see it all right? The Egyptian exhibit was cool, statues of Anubis and Ra and Ramses II and other assorted members of importance from the Egyptian times filled the walls of every corridor of the exhibit and it was really quite interesting to see. The only draw back is that the Egyptian exhibit brought me about 3/4 of the way back of the entire museum and I would be completely separated now.
When I turned out of the exhibit I and began to walk back through the stuff I had seen I heard a voice from behind me, "Hey Dylan!" I turned around to see Grant and Taylor, two guys from California that I had met a few days earlier on the cruise ship! We walked through the museum together talking about how I got lost and the cool statues and stuff and found our way into the Sistine Chapel. Now, the Sistine Chapel is pretty gosh darn amazing. I think I could probably spend three weeks in there just looking at it and still not see everything. The skill and dedication that was required to paint that are truly remarkable and it was probably one of the most impressive things I have seen, ever. Unfortunately, there were more security guards in there making sure you weren't taking pictures than there are light sabers at a Star Wars convention, and I was unable to get a picture of it. I can however take a picture of a postcard if anyone is interested... That or you can just google it.
I was reunited with my group at the end of the museum. They were patiently sitting outside on the steps and it was good to see them. We went go see the Castle San Angelo which was near by and checked that out for a bit and then decided to go back and get ready for Florence the next day. Back at David's place he and I went out to grab some pizza and beer and what not. He told me how to get to the train station the next day and all that stuff. Rome had been pretty awesome and much like nearly every other city I wished I had more time to stay there and see more things.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to catch the early train to Florence. I'll tell you about that tomorrow probably.

Hopefully I can keep myself in line and keep these regular...here are some pictures!