Italy First stop: Rome Part 3

While 3 days (really 2 full days, and one partial day) is a very short amount of time to explore Rome, we were able to see so much.

A trip to Rome wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Mouth of Truth. I’m happy to tell you I did leave Italy with my hand. (Legend has it that your hand will get bitten off if you tell a lie with your hand in its mouth.)

Vittorio Emanuele is so impressive you can see it from far, far away. Also, this random man wanted to get in on my photo op here. 

Who can go to Rome without visiting the Colosseum? We didn’t take a tour of the inside (I did on my first visit, but let the newbies on this trip decide that it wasn’t a priority to go inside). If you want to go inside the Colosseum (or the Forum) buy tickets in advance, and consider a tour. We thought we could get into the forum pretty easily but the line was a million miles long.  

We also visited the Pantheon, and went inside (something I didn’t do on my first Italy visit). It was really neat inside and I also used the Rick Steve’s Free Audio Tours podcast here too.

We end the Rome portion of the trip here, but I’m sure I’ll share a few random snapshots later, since there are some really great pictures taken by my friends during the trip.

Next stop, Florence.

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Italy: First stop, Rome Part 2

We didn’t make many specific plans for our trip, but we did reserve tickets to see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. On my first trip to Rome, I didn’t go through either, but this time we bought tickets in advance.  

Admittedly, I’m not a slow browser at museums, and usually go at a pretty quick pace. Even at my quick pace, the Vatican Museums take a very long amount of time to go through before you get to the Sistine Chapel.

The frescos, paintings and artifacts throughout the museum were amazing.

And I feel like a bit of a heathen saying this, but I was more impressed by the following hallway than I was by the actual Sistine Chapel.

Let me explain. The chapel was packed. There were thousands of people in there. And they were all talking. And the guards were all shushing. So it wasn’t a reverent or reflective atmosphere. I finally grabbed a tiny edge of a bench to sit down and try to take everything in. I turned on my Rick Steves’ Audio Europe Free Sistine Chapel Audio guide on my iPod and listened to a few minutes. I went to the other side of the room so I could see the whole thing. But in the end I just wasn’t feeling it. Don’t get me wrong, all the detail in the work is impressive. The place is beautiful and the frescoes tell a wonderful story. I know I’d feel a lot differently if  had the proper atmosphere to view it in. And maybe a private tour guide. (I don’t have any pictures because they are forbidden, and besides my photography skills couldn’t do justice to it all. Just google it.)

So after the Sistine Chapel, we took a short break out in St. Peter’s Square, then headed inside St. Peter’s Basilica. To say it is beautiful inside is an understatement. It really is so amazing. 

A few more pictures, then we headed back toward our hotel. I really loved visiting the Vatican on both of my trips in Rome. You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate it.

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Italy: First stop, Rome Part 1

I’ve been to Rome before but I was still very excited to go back. I went to Rome 5 years ago, shortly after Pope John Paul died, and near Easter, so it was very different. We saw some of the same things this time around, but also saw some different things.

This installment is in at least 3 parts, in no particular order.

Some things you can’t help but see, like the ruins in the middle of the city.

We also went to visit the Spanish Steps. The last time I was in Rome, they were under renovation, so it was wonderful to see them without scaffolding all around. Also, I hope you’ll forgive the craptastic iPod picture.

On our first full day in Rome, we walked all the way to the Vatican, and just happened to stumble on this awesome place for lunch where I ate pizza with porcini mushrooms and a huge glass of wine. (Vatican pictures coming soon.)

We visited the Trevi Fountain in the day and night. A must see “when in Rome.” And yes I threw my coins in. I definitely hope to be back someday.

It was so damn hot, so we left the Trevi to visit a favorite gelato place just a few blocks away. I had honey, rum chocolate and pistachio. I went to San Crispino for gelato my last trip, and still, it did not disappoint.

And for this Rome installment, I share a silly picture, since we had a lot of fun. Because there were 4 of us, the beds in our room were veryclosetogether. One night we were playing around with the camera after a decent amount of wine, and we were doing the nightly shower rotation, so this is what you get. Previous pictures in the series show me with a quintuple chin, so L (on the right) was helping me to avoid the multiple chin photo here. I promise she wasn’t strangling me, as J’s face (the left) might indicate.

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Staying in touch on your overseas vacation

Before I get further into the pictures and stories from my Italy trip, I wanted to share some of the ways I stayed in touch while I was across the big pond. Since I went with without my husband, I knew I’d need to do at least a minimal amount of checking in. You know, the “hey, we actually made it here” kind of checking in. So here is how I kept in touch while I was enjoying my vacation.

International calling and text messaging. So before I even left, I went ahead and set up my phone for international calling and text messaging. I knew it would be expensive to make calls and text, but worth it if we ever needed it. What I didn’t anticipate was that the second I turned on my phone when we landed, it started doing what smart phones do…using data. I didn’t sign up for a data plan of any type since I knew I could use wi-fi while we were out and about. Less than an hour after landing in Amsterdam on our layover, I’d somehow racked up $200 in data charges. Luckily, Taylor called our provider for me, and got me set up on another plan  so that wouldn’t keep happening. They also were nice enough to say they were back dating the plan. So, for the remainder of the trip, I fixed the settings so it wouldn’t automatically use data, and I kept my phone off a lot.

But, if I had it to do over again, I’d research using a prepaid international sim card or phone. The trip crossed over two billing cycles, and in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve incurred at least $200 in extra phone bill charges…the phone calls at 99 cents a minute,  texts at 50 cents each and those pesky data charges at a billion dollars a megabyte (I exaggerate only a little bit). I can only imagine if I kept my phone on a lot. I hope by next month’s bill things have settled down. 

Without the other things I am about to recommend, I definitely would have an even higher bill.

Skype and Facetime. I got my family signed up for Skype before I left on my trip and I used this a lot to call Taylor. I used my iPod touch and my sister has an iPhone so I could use Facetime to call her too. Using video chat features of both Skype and Facetime, I got to show my family around a couple of the places we stayed. It was also so much easier to have a chat for more than a minute or two knowing that I wasn’t being charged an outrageous fee per minute.

Textfree. One of the girls on the trip showed me this one. It was a free download on my iPod touch, and I could use it to send text messages via the internet, for free. So when a call wasn’t needed, or when I wanted to see if Taylor was free to talk, I could send him a free text message. It was a little slow depending on the internet connection, but definitely better than the 50 cent charge per text I’d incur if I texted through my phone.

Free WiFi. Overall, it was pretty easy to keep in touch, but the key really was finding places with free wi-fi, which all but one of our hotels had. I wouldn’t have been able to use Skype, Facetime or Textfree if we didn’t have wi-fi access. Some of the other girls didn’t call home as much as I did, which I guess is one solution to keeping your bill down.

Do you have any other suggestions to keeping in touch during an overseas trip?

What’s that you say? You want Italy pictures? Ok, here’s a tease from our first stop, Rome.

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