European Tour (Part I)

Rob and I traveled around Europe for 4 weeks this summer (June 14 – July 11th). We spent 2 weeks in Italy, 1 week in Switzerland, then visited Stasbourg (eastern France), took a bath in Baden-Baden, Germany, and saw Neuschweinstain Castle (Germany). After that we made our way home by train via Saltzburg (Austia), Budapest (Hungary) and finally Ukraine. We flew into Rome, and then used Eurail passes for trains to get around Europe.



Rome (1 week): We stayed all week at B&B, which was a cozy apartment with shared kitchen, and gave us coupons to eat breakfast at a local coffee shop (coffee and croissants, apparently typical Italian breakfast). It was a great residential neighborhood close to the Coliseum.

What we love about Rome that it has layers of history, which are often preserved. Many of the current building are built upon previous ones, and we were able to see “the underground” Rome! For example, one of the highlights of our trip was a tour of necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, where St. Peter’s bones were found in 1970s.

Things we saw and explored in Rome:

• The Coliseum: toured in the morning and came back to see beautifully lit up at night
• The Palatine Hill (ruins of emperors’ palaces) – spent hours exploring this large hill.
• The Forum (central square of ancient Rome’s life) – has triumphal arches, ruins of temples, surviving temples and ancient house of Senate.
• Spent a day biking the Via Appia Antica (Appian Way) – an ancient Roman road, which is a 10-mile long archaeological park, lined with ruins of tombs and monuments.
• Early Christian Catacombs of San Callisto – on the Via Appia, we took an underground tour of catacombs. This was very impressive, as we walked on first century streets and walls to each side were lined with openings where bodies used to be.
• The Vatican. Saw the Vatican museums – most impressed by Sistine Chapel. Then, spent hours exploring inside of St. Peter’s Basilica (saw Michelangelo’s Pieta), climbed to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica – amazing views of the Vatican. Best part was taking a tour of the Scavi – the necropolis (cemetery) underneath St. Peter’s, where bones of St. Peter were uncovered in 1970s. Rob booked this tour 2 months in advance. Again, like in Catacombs, we walked on first century streets and looked into the burial rooms, where walls were lined with holes.
• The Pantheon - one of Nika’s favorite things in Rome. This is the world's best preserved building from ancient times, which is a temple to all gods built by Romans in the 1st century AD. Walking into the Pantheon is amazing, as the dome is huge. It baffled me to think that it was built in the 1st century! Michelangelo studied the architecture of the Pantheon before building the dome for St. Peter’s Basilica.
• Day trip to Ostia Antica, well preserved ruins of an ancient Roman port/city. Entire lay-out of the city is preserved, some walls are two-stories high, also ruins of an amphi-theater, baths (with beautiful mosaic floors), cemetery, etc.
• Explored different squares (piazzas) of the city. Saw Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps.
• Explored the Travestere district of Rome, which is on the other side of the Tiber rive than downtown Rome. Visited a beautiful church of Santa Cicilia in this district. We took a tour of finished excavations underneath the church, which was a home of an early Christian wealthy martyr. I was amazed how well-preserved the lay-out of the home was; we walked along wide hallways and saw many rooms.
• Saw many beautiful churches, one of which is Basilica of St. John Lateran, which was the first church of the popes from the 4th century till 1300s. Also the site of the first Christian church ever built in Rome.