My next day in Rome was my last full day. I started off with a tour of the Roman Forum. Now, this wasn't just any tour. My Christmas present was a private tour with a guide arranged through the site Tours by Locals. When my family visited Russia last summer, we had a Tours-by-Locals guide in Peterhoff, and it was an incredibly valuable experience. The Roman Forum is an impressive site, but you really need a guide to make sense of the millennia of history scattered about. The guide was a very knowledgeable Italian woman who specializes in archaeology, and she was in her element. The most impressive thing I saw in the Forum was the building that housed the Roman senate. The things that building has seen!

After my tour, I headed to the little port town of Ostia Antica. The guide gave me directions and told me about a good place to eat along the way, so I took the subway a few stops out to where I could catch the suburban train to Ostia Antica. When I got there, I stopped at a food emporium called Eatly, which was somewhat overpowering for my senses, dulled by 16 months in Russia. Talk about a grocery store--this place was three floors of groceries mixed with stations that served all sorts of prepared food. It was also packed, and it was fun watching Italians do their grocery shopping--they get very into it. I then headed to the suburban train station, where I looked for the platform for Ostia Antica, which was supposedly impossible to miss. Well, I couldn't find it. After searching high and low, I broke down and decided to ask someone. I figured the ticket counter would be best, so I approached and asked my question (in English). The man behind the counter was a cultured-looking older gentleman smoking a thin cigar, and he answered in perfect English and told me where to find my train (I was so close!). I was a little shocked: He didn't snap a snarky answer at me or look like I was greatly inconveniencing him. I guess I'm too used to Russia.

After a half-hour train ride, I arrived in Ostia Antica, which was Rome's port town two thousand years ago. It's quite well preserved, and you really get a sense of how the town felt. It's also quite large, and I didn't even get to see the whole place because it started to get dark not long after I arrived. Needless to say, I had already gotten my fill of ruins by this point on the trip, so I wasn't too upset about not seeing the whole place.

On my very last night, I decided to get pizza at the pizzeria I had been frequenting and then walk back to Piazza del Popolo, which is one of my favorite spots in Rome. I wandered along the streets and then just sat on a bench at the piazza and reflected on my trip. It was a great last evening to an excellent trip.

    

I'll post the next installment of my Rome story tomorrow, but I feel like I need to tell polar-vortex-crazed America a bit about the weather here in Vladimir. We had a warm start to the winter, with temperatures in the 20s and 30s Fahrenheit. The locals really hated that weather; everyone was pining for some real Russian winter.

We we got some real Russian winter. The temperature plummeted about two weeks ago, and the forecast for the next week calls for highs around 0F and lows down to -13F. It's also been sunny, which makes the whole frozen world amazingly beautiful. All the trees are laced with brilliantly white frost, and the snow creaks underfoot. You have to bundle up so you don't freeze (and your nose freezes up almost instantly at -10F), but walking in this frigid weather is a lot nicer than when everything is slushy and slippery.

The awesome thing about Russia is that people love winter. I get so tired of everyone moaning about winter and snow and cold in America. Ya, it's cold--it's winter in Cleveland. Get out and enjoy it. Winter isn't summer, but why can't people appreciate it for what it is? The freezing temperatures aren't stopping anyone from getting out: I'm going ice skating with one of my classes tomorrow at an outdoor rink. The high tomorrow? Eight degrees Fahrenheit, which will actually feel kind of warm compared to what it has been. So, America, quit freaking out. Russian news has been poking fun at the media spectacle that is the polar vortex; America's looking pretty ridiculous right now. Put on a scarf and relax.

Here's a few pictures of my neighborhood that I snapped on my way to the gym in the past week. I will admit that getting out of my warm bed for the 15-minute walk to the gym in -5F weather has been a bit of a challenge.

I set aside my next day in Rome for visiting the Vatican. I had already been on St. Peter's Square on Christmas Eve, but it was time to see all of what the world's smallest state has to offer. I started with a tour of the scavi under St. Peter's. It is an excavation that was begun in the early twentieth century to determine whether St. Peter's bones really were located under the eponymous cathedral. The excavations exposed the Roman street level of two thousand years ago and show an ancient necropolis--a city of tombs that exists under the floor of St. Peter's. Walking the same streets as ancient Romans and thinking of the thousands of people above my head in the church who had no idea what was underneath them was fascinating. And sure enough I saw the tomb that is believed to contain the bones of St. Peter. I'm not very religious, but to think that I saw the resting place of one of the world's most influential people is spiritual enough. 

I then went into St. Peter's Basilica, which was quite an experience. I was able to skip the monstrous line because I went on the scavi tour. We of course studied St. Peter's in my architecture class, so I marveled at things I had only before seen in photographs. What a place. 

I then got an amazing lunch of cacio e pepe (according to Anthony Bourdain, that's the most traditional Roman lunch pasta) and a roasted chicken, which was hands down the best piece of poultry I've ever eaten, all topped off with a decanter of chianti. It was the second big, expensive meal that I allowed myself, and it was worth every euro cent. 

My next stop was the Vatican museum. Somehow I missed out on the giant line that everyone seems to experience there; I just walked right in. The place was crowded with people of every nationality, and I can understand why--what a museum! I have to be a little sacrilegious, though: I didn't really appreciate the Sistine Chapel. Maybe it was because the famed room was packed to the gills with tourists, but I didn't feel any sort of overwhelming power or beauty. I liked the sculptures and mosaics in other parts of the museum a lot more.   

It's time for the next installment in my Rome travel series. December 27 was a busy day for me. I started off by going to the Catacomb of Priscilla, which is located outside of the historical center of the city. I took the subway there and found the entrance to the catacombs. I was lucky: There was an American family just getting ready to tour the catacombs, so I joined their group. What a spooky place! The bodies have been removed, but the labyrinth of tomb-lined passages carved into the soft volcanic rock was impressive enough. The catacombs feature some of the earliest known Christian artwork--it's amazing to think that people made that place almost 2,000 years ago.

After the tour, I got a lunch of artichoke pizza from a little pizzeria. The lady there spoke no English, but we figured everything out through a combination of sign language and my extremely skeletal Italian (I was able to figure out that she asked me if I wanted my pizza warmed up, to which I replied "si si"). Then I headed back to my hostel and asked the receptionist the best way to get to Hadrian's Villa. I studied that site in an architecture class, and I really wanted to go there. After getting directions, I took the subway to a suburban bus station. At the bus station I looked for a bus to Tivoli and got on the first one that pulled up. I asked the driver (in Italian) if the bus went to Hadrian's Villa, to which he replied "si" and then a lot of other things I couldn't understand, so I sat down and enjoyed the ride into the Italian countryside.

I didn't exactly know when to get off the bus, but I knew that the ride would take about an hour. So I watched the road signs carefully and saw a sign for Hadrian's Villa and got off the bus. Fortunately I was in exactly the right place. The grounds of the villa are immense and very beautiful, and I recognized lots of places I studied in my class. It must have been quite a sight to see two thousand years ago when Hadrian was throwing big parties in the giant bathhouses and ballrooms. I managed to see most of the villa complex, but I had to leave somewhat early because it was getting dark. Also, for a while I was the only person around, which was sort of eerie.

I walked back to the main road, a bit unsure about how to get back to Rome and whether the neighborhood I was in is safe after dark. There were lots of people just hanging out, and, after having been in Russia for so long, my instincts were telling me that it would not be good if people found out that I was a foreigner. I think I was being paranoid, but I wanted to get back to tourist-packed Rome. A bus pulled up after not too long, and its destination sign said Rome, so I got on. Fortunately it was the right bus and took me back to that same subway station. The weird thing is that I didn't pay for the bus to or back from Tivoli. No one ever asked, and there wasn't any sign of a way to buy tickets. Everyone just got on and off the bus without paying, so I figured I was okay. I guess I saved eight Euros that way--not too shabby.