Day 16 - Chocolate and Strawberry & Peanut and Cookie

Salvete!

Welcome back to my blog. We're getting ridiculously close to the flight home now, and I am extremely excited to get talking about today. Today was a good day, and not just because I doubled up on gelato.

I also grew two feet

Expectations vs. Reality

As you might have noticed, being in Italy was pretty different from what I expected. Specifically, there are tons of people around, all the time. That did not really fit in with my mental picture of austere Renaissance churches and stately ancient ruins. It has still been a great experience, don't get me wrong, but I was a little disappointed that I would not experience the barren glory of my mental images. That is, until our visit to the Via Appia.

The Appian Way

The Via Appia is a road that leads to Rome, built very early on in the city's expansion. The buildings remaining on the site are from a development begun by Maxentius in the fourth century AD while he was emperor. It contains a racetrack and an arch, as well as some other structures. There is also a building that was turned into a castle. I love castles.

The people that run the Via Appia also had dogs. I got to pet one.

I was definitely more excited than Elizabeth about this.

There was no one there when we reached it early in the morning, at the crack of 10 am. I am sure that this, in part, is due to the difficulty of reaching the area. It is several miles outside of Rome proper, and there is only one bus route that goes there. It is also competing as an attraction with the Basilica and Catacombs of St. Sebastian, which was the first underground cemetery in Rome and the home of the third most important saint of Rome. I was perfectly fine with this.

At the racetrack, we got to climb on the spina, the structure that runs down the center of the track. This was pretty mind-blowing. Firsst, we got to touch it. Second, we got to stand on it. We were basically taking the same route that charioteers would take during funerary games! I was the first one on, but it turned into a procession later on.

So awesome. 

After visiting this site, we went into the museum that housed some of the pieces that were found in the remains of the buildings. You guys, this place was turned into a castle during medieval times. Full-on castle.

Ignore the anachronistic garden hose and this could be an abandoned set from Game of Thrones.

The only residents of this castle were pigeons now, but just looking up at it left me breathless. 

After walking around the Via Appia, we went to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. We had a guided tour, which was disappointing for two reasons: the tour was large, containing too many people, especially since there were a couple groups outside of our own, and because of that we skimmed past all of the side rooms and did not spend nearly enough time inside. Also, they did not allow pictures. That was a bummer.

I am pretty disappointed that we waited this long to come out to the Via Appia. It is by far my most favorite place that we have been to on our trip. I loved it. 

Gelato

We got gelato when we got back, as well as after our roommate dinner.

First time was strawberry and dark chocolate at the local place.

Next was peanut and cookie at a new place.

The new place was okay. The cones were real waffle cones, but I definitely got stiffed one flavor. The cookie gelato had a whipped cream base, and the peanut flavor was flavorless unless I got a bite of actual peanut. In this case, it was fine to stick with a familiar classic.

Coming up Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be on my way to England! I'll be hanging out for the day. That account will be saved for Thursday though. Tomorrow I will be doing more of a summation of the trip. 

Ciao!