Roman Holiday

2 days. 11 sites. 4 gelatos. 3 pizzas. My visit to Rome was action packed, and by no means normal. Though I like to pretend my family is ordinary, we are anything but. Having already been to Rome once, my father decided that we needed to see the obscure part of Rome, incorporating the Cat Sanctuary, Criminology Museum, and visiting Crypts into our itinerary.

We arrived in Rome around 9am the second day of Italy. Per a wonderful recommendation of Sal Mochella, we checked into a small hotel in the Trastevere area, which is known to be more of “Old Rome”- small streets, little boutiques, and teaming with local culture.

Our first outing was to the Cat Sanctuary. Located in the center of the city, a square of ruins over run by cats was the highlight of the morning. Similar to the SPCA, one can adopt a cat, but unfortunately my dad was pretty against me adding another one to our family. Instead I spent a good half hour playing with the furry friends, even the ones from the disability room. One cat in particular who was blind and had feline leukemia cozied up to me, perched on my thigh and took a cat nap.

The next stop, and perhaps my favorite, was the Pantheon- the famous ancient building that the Rotunda was modeled after. Of course my whole family was excited to see the much larger original, so we took a token UVA photo in the front. We also ventured inside to visit Raphael’s tomb. His inscription (from the Pope!) read “Here lies Raphael, by whom natured feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die.” I don’t know about you, but that is some pretty high praise from the Pope…

No trip would be complete without Gelato, so on our way to the Capuchin Crypts, we stopped by for our first indulgence in the sweet treat- I of course got lemon (the most national favorite) and some mystery flavor that turned out to be gooseberry. Full stomachs, we headed to the Capuchin Crypts. The church was originally run by 5 saints known for wearing brown hoods; though I guess they started a world wide friar fashion, because I always thought all friars wore brown hoods with their robes. The weirdest thing about the church was the 5 rooms on the ground floor filled with bones arranged in various designs. As my dad put it, the man who sat and played with all these bones clearly had not discovered playdough yet.

Though it was insanely hot, my family pushed on visiting the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. But those sites were a little too touristy for the family’s liking. Ending the day on a traditional abnormal note, we visited the Criminology museum. The museum housed exhibits ranging from medieval torture practices to fake paintings confiscated by the Italian police to stories of unsolved murders on the coast of Italy.

Exhausted we went back to our hotel (after having a large traditional Italian meal and another round of gelato) to sleep soundly for a solid 8 hours. The second day in Rome was just as action packed but more cathedral focused. We stopped into almost every church we found, though I always had to find something to cover my knees. Shorts were not permitted and shoulders always had to be covered in order to enter the holy spaces. Churches on churches on churches and the day finally came to a close at the Galleria di Borghese which hosted the Pope’s private collection of Italy’s finest sculptures and paintings.

I could go on and on in the blog about my Roman holiday, and yet I still didn’t see everything. Though a bit too much of a tourist town for me, I still love Italy- and especially the food, for I got one more scoop of gelato before leaving for Naples, Italy.