Honeymoon - Part 1: Rome

We’re back! Although it’s been almost a week since we returned from our honeymoon in Italy, we’re still suffering from jetlag. We can’t help but going to bed at 9pm and waking up before the sun rises at 5am!

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from our trip, city by city. First up – Rome!

Colosseum
It’s amazing that this monumental structure is still standing since the Roman empire! As shown in the movie “The Gladiator”, it's hard to believe that this gorgeous place was used for gladiatorial contests where the Romans were given free tickets to watch the gladiators fought against each other and wild animals, sometimes to their death, for entertainment purposes!


Vatican City
No trip to Rome is complete without visiting the Popeland! We were in awe and humbled when we walked into the St. Peter’s Basilica. The voluminous basilica is simply gorgeous. Everything in the church is made of marble, bronze or gold!

When we got out of the basilica, we were surprised to see the mile-long line at the entrance to the St. Peter’s. We were lucky to not have to stand in line at all. Hoping we’ll have similar luck on our next stop, we quickly headed toward the Vatican Museum, and we were glad to find out that luck was with us again. The museum houses outstanding artworks by Raphael, Leonardo, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and other great artists. After looking at hundreds of paintings, statues and frescoes on the ceilings, we finally got to the highlight, the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s spectacular frescoes very much live up to the hype! I am amazed that Michelangelo painted the 12,000 feet of chapel ceiling for 4 straight years! Our necks were already started to sore after looking up for 10 minutes, let alone 4 years! Anyway, after exiting the Chapel, we walked down this cool double-helix spiral staircase to exit the museum.


Trevi Fountain
Rome’s most celebrated fountain. (When I first saw it, I thought it looked a little familiar. Later I found out that there is a scaled-down replica of the fountain outside of the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Duh!) Anyway, Trevi Fountain was impressive enough during the day, but at night with the floodlights, it was pretty spectacular! I'm glad we waited till sunset. We each threw a coin over our shoulders into the fountain, a tradition to ensure a return to Rome.


Catacombs of San Calisto
On our last full day in Rome, we took a couple of buses out of the city center to visit Rome’s largest catacombs, home to the tombs of half a million of Christians, buried here in the early centuries because Roman law forbade burial places within city limits. It was kind of eerie to walk through the underground chambers, but it was pretty rewarding to see and understand the history behind it.

Piazzas
There are a few piazzas (plazas/squares) that were fun to hang out and people watch. We frequented Piazza Navona (well, our hotel is just a short block away), and visited Piazza del Popolo (presides a 4,000-year-old pink granite obelisk), Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere (cafes, restaurants, etc.) and Campo de’ Fiori (lively square with a produce market in the morning and booming social scene at its bars in the evening).


Food & Drinks
Talking about cafes and restaurants, I think we would have put on weight if not for all the walking around the city! We usually started off our day with either a cup of cappuccino or an expresso (for Kyle, it would be the good old orange juice) with some bread and pastries, then sandwich, pasta or pizza for lunch (with beer and wine of course), cold cuts, cheese and wine for happy hour, and then more pasta and pizza and wine for dinner. We can’t believe that wine was so cheap there! One of the cheapest we've ordered was €6.50 for 1 liter of red house wine, and it tasted pretty good. Also, one of Kyle’s indulgences in Italy was to eat gelato! Ah, they were so yummy!



Well, on our 5th day in Italy, we bought a pair of train tickets, and we headed north to Florence!