when skies are grey : Day #91 (Field trip to Rome)

May 24, 2013 – Friday

On Friday morning we woke up around nine, checked out of the hostel, and then the three of us (Laura, Jenna, and I) started walking to the Holy Stairs or the Scala Sancta. These are the stairs that, according to Christian tradition, led up to the praetorium of Pontius Polate in Jerusalem, which Jesus Christ stood on, on the way to his trial. But then according to the story, they were brought to Rome by St. Helena in the 4^th Century and Christian pilgrims come to see them. Another girl in our group, Katherine, went to the Holy Steps last weekend so she told us how to get there and said that we definitely had to go because it was great. So we were super pumped about it and walked all the way across town to San Giovanni, a basilica that pretty much looks like a mini St. Peter’s on the inside because it’s so big. We asked the woman in the gift shop where the steps were and she told us, then we were still confused to we asked a police officer and he pointed us in another direction but he said that the steps were open, so we walked over to the steps but there was a locked gate in front of them. So we just assumed that these were the Holy Steps and sat there for a while, did some writing, took a few pictures, and then left. But later, I Googled the Holy Steps and those were definitely not them. I was pretty annoyed because apparently we were like twenty feet away from the real steps so I could’ve seen them. Katherine took Laura to see them later that day so at least Laura got to see them. But I’m just going to pretend that I saw the real Holy Steps.

We made our way to another church, San Clemente, and then walked to the Colosseum. There were so many people and so much traffic! I waited by the Colosseum for a few minutes before Heather soon picked me up in her car. We then went out to lunch at a restaurant near where she lives and we both got cacio e pepe (I don’t think I could get sick of it!) and then meatballs. It was delicious and I was stuffed because we also got gelato after which was great too. Soon it was time for her to drop me off at the Trastevere train station so I could get to Termini to take the train back to Orvieto with the rest of my group. But I was about 1 minute late to the train but it was okay because I took the train to Roma Tiburtina instead, and then got on the the train that my group was on from Roma Tiburtina to Orvieto. A few people in my group were confused though as their train rolled up to the Tiburtina station and they saw me standing at the platform – not on the train yet. It was a little frustrating because there weren’t any seats for the first hour that I was on the train, so I was a little bit carsick (or I guess… train sick) from standing up for the first hour. But then I got a seat in the same section as a few of my friends and I fell asleep right away. Then I woke up to someone trying to shake me awake and it was a man coming to check my train ticket. So that was a little bit startling/embarrassing because I could tell that he was trying to get me to wake up for a while because I was in a deep sleep. So I opened my eyes and saw Tyler laughing so hard because apparently the guy didn’t know what to do when I wasn’t waking up. Anyways, Orvieto was the next stop so thankfully the train ride was over, we took the funicular up, and then arrived at the monastery to relax and get ready before dinner. :)