Spring break, parts 2 and 3: Rome and Paris

I am back in Berlin after a great spring break, completely exhausted but thankful for the unbelievable amount of things I saw and did over the course of ten days. I wrote about the first three days (Athens) in my last post, so I will tell you about Rome and Paris in this post.

I spent my first day in Rome by visiting the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, the largest church in Rome dedicated to Mary, and walked down to the Colosseum in the evening. I did not go inside at this time because most major sites close by 5:00, but I walked around it looked at the Arc of Constantine and a few other things near the Palatine Hill, where the Roman Forum was situated. The next morning I met up with two of my friends from the international program in Berlin and we walked around the city all day. We started at the Pantheon, which was very impressive on the inside, and wandered from there to the Fountain di Trevi, one of the most famous fountains in the world. After walking through Piazza Navona we got to Castel Sant’Angelo and the Sant’Angelo Bridge, which are very close to the Vatican. After lunch we entered the Vatican and walked around St. Peter’s Square.

After a little while we took the long walk from the Vatican down to the Colosseum and paid the admission price to go inside. The Colosseum looks so huge from the outside that it looked somewhat smaller on the inside than I imagined, but I’m sure that didn’t subtract from the intense gladiatorial contests, mock sea battles, and executions which some 60-70,000 people crowded inside to see during the first centuries A.D. The original ground floor is no longer there, exposing the underground passageways and cages where gladiators and animals were kept before being brought up to the arena.

Later in the evening we got dinner at a restaurant in a piazza called Trilussa, which was one of those areas with narrow, winding streets that many people think of when they think of Italy. I had my first authentic Italian meal there, and it was as good as they say it is. The next day we took a train from Rome down to Naples central station. It was about a 3 hour ride, but the landscape between Rome and Naples was beautiful. From Naples it was a separate 20 minute train ride to Pompeii, which has a modern city but we were there for the ancient city, which was destroyed and buried in volcanic ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Seeing the ruins of walls, streets, and buildings, and also preserved human figures was all very moving.

Back in Rome the next day, I went back to the Vatican having a ticket for entrance to the Vatican museums (which aren’t really museums, as much as they are former residences of popes which hold one of the greatest collections of art in the world), the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo’s painted ceiling, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo’s Pietà is kept in the basilica:

This was all so incredible to see, and it took 5 hours to cover everything. For the second half of the day we caught a train down to Lago Albano – a volcanic crater lake – at Castel Gandolfo, which is a small town 45 minutes south of Rome where the pope spends the summer. There was not too much to do here besides sit by the lake and find a restaurant for dinner, but it was a nice relaxing end to the four days in Rome. (pic)

On Friday morning I flew from Rome to Paris for the last couple days of break. After checking into my hostel, I walked around the area a lot. Paris is a very expensive city when compared to Berlin. I ended up buying some fruit for lunch – but even apples and bananas cost twice as much as what I’m used to in the U.S. I took the metro down to the Eiffel Tower in the evening, bought a Nutella crêpe from a food stand for dinner, and sat in a park opposite the tower watching the lights go on the tower. You can walk right up underneath the tower and pay to take an elevator up to the very top, but it was sort of expensive and the line was too long. Still, it was cool to see the tower. I wrote a report on its history in 7th grade but never thought I’d be there.

The next day I visited some of the other famous sites in Paris, starting at the garden area at the Louvre. I walked from there to the little island on the Seine River on which Notre Dame cathedral is situated. Notre Dame is one of the largest churches in the world, and the inside – the Gothic architecture with huge stained glass windows – was very impressive. I went from there to the Luxembourg Gardens, which was a very large, green area in the middle of the city. It was nice to see some trees and grass for a change!

The next day after I checked out of the hostel I had a few hours to burn before my flight back to Berlin, so I went down to see the Arc de Triomphe, and then walked up the Montmartre hill, the highest point of the city. At the top is a famous church called Sacre Coeur. I climbed the very narrow spiral staircase up to the dome of the church for a view of the whole city:

After this I grabbed my bag from the hostel and went to the airport. As I went from place to place over these ten days it was sometimes difficult to comprehend the deep historical significance of everything I was seeing. Many of the things I saw in Athens and Rome I have learned about in Latin and history courses in high school and at MLC, which is why I picked Athens and Rome – but it is strange to think that I was actually there. These ten days were so packed full and I will probably never see so much in ten days again. Back in Berlin now, I am starting to pull together sources for the term papers I need to write for my music and history class, and also getting things figured out for short 2-day trips for the weekends in April (don’t worry; the Luther sites are coming, I promise). That’s all for now!

Tschüss,

Collin