Rome in 6 hours - March 25, 2003
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I've never really read one of those 'city in a day' books. Maybe now
I could write one though. Really I did better than that. I saw
all of this in about 6 hours and walked most of it. I arrived in Rome
a little after noon, wiped out from having only a few hours of sleep over
the previous several days. Nevertheless, I was determined to go out
and catch some of the major sights in the city. I'd never layed over
downtown and really wanted to test out my new camera (HP Photosmart 850).
I was with another F/O who knew his way around a bit. He didn't want
to be in any of the pictures, but he was happy to take a few of me and guide
me around the town.
For starters, we hit a little spot for lunch. Had a 4-cheese pizza
which was fantastic. Then, of course, had to get the Hard Rock t-shirt
(which was right across the street from the restaurant we ate at).
Once we had those formalities out of the way, we headed for the Spanish Steps.
There were a lot of people there, including some woman doing push ups
right there in the middle of everything. Thought that was kinda funny.
The steps are rather large and at the top is a church. We enjoyed
the scenery there for a few minutes then headed for the Vatican.
All of the buildings in Rome are incredible. Probably the most impressive,
though, is St. Peter's in the Vatican. It's not only huge but absolutely
beautiful and filled with truly priceless art. The Cistine Chapel was
closed, so we didn't get to see that, but we soaked up what we could of St.
Peter's. This alone is worth taking a trip to Rome to see. Central
to the cathedral is the tomb of St. Peter. Reportedly his remains are
actually in there. I tried to snap a shot down into the tomb but wasn't
really successful because of the low lighting. An interesting sight
which I didn't photograph (maybe for obvious reasons) were the various preserved
popes around the building. I didn't really know they were in there.
It's a bit eerie to see them in various states preservation laying
around various 'alters' (I don't know what they're really called - tombs?
alters?).
We were there in the afternoon and I noticed the sunlight shining through
many of the windows. As I photographed, I realized the effect of the
sunlight in the still photographs was truly stunning. I captured a
few of those moments in these pictures. The atmosphere that created,
along with the obvious stunning beauty of the place, and the service that
was taking place in one corner of the building really was attention getting.
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