Rome, what an amazing city! Lana and I have seen a lot of great places here in Europe, but when it comes to cities with history Rome definitely takes 1st place. Since life had been so busy with the FLUG and working in the scheduling shop, I took a couple days off for my birthday so Lana and I could fly to Rome together. It was definitely a city we wanted to visit during our time here in Italy. We landed around 12 on Saturday, checked into our hotel which was close to the center of town, and got right to work seeing the sites. The first day we saw Fontana di Trevi, the Pantheon, Piazza dal Popolo and the Spanish Steps. Many of the things we saw during our trip date back to B.C. times while others were built during the early A.D. time frame. It was also humbling to be walking through the very places Peter and Paul would have walked through as they were taken to prison and eventually martyred. It's amazing the structures that were built back 2000 years ago, especially mathematical feats such as the Pantheon. Rome is a much see city!
The second day was packed with more site seeing. After breakfast at the hotel we hit the road to see Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Roman Baths of Caracalla, and the Catacombs of San Callisto before making our way to the Circo Massimo and the Colosseum. Each stop had it's own interesting parts, but I thought the Romans baths and Colosseum were the highlights of the day. One our way to the catacombs we walked on one of the oldest Roman roads still in existence today called the Appian Way. The Roman elite really had it rough spending the day at the baths...the buildings they built for the baths were covered in marble and had pillars similar to what you'd see inside an old church somewhere in Europe today...pretty amazing. The baths didn't really compare to the Colosseum other than in age. While walking around inside, I imagined screen shots from the movie Gladiator where gladiatorial fights took place against wild animals and other gladiators as the crowds looked on and cheered. It's hard to imagine the types of things which were common back in the Roman times. Along with the games at the Colosseum, they used to burn Christians alive at the steak at night and use their burning bodies to light main roads throughout the city. On a lighter note, Lana and I enjoyed a nice meal out on the town that night before heading back to the hotel to get some rest for the next day.
Our last two days in Rome were spent seeing more of the Roman Forum and Palatino, the prison where they think Peter and Paul were held captive at different times, Piazza Navona and Farnese, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. Saint Peter's is the biggest Catholic church in the world and is quite a site to see. We decided to take a paid tour of the museum, the chapel and the church so that we'd get the most information possible. The museum is full of art, statutes and many other things the Popes have gathered over many years. Millions of dollars worth of stuff in the church's museum... The paintings of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel were very impressive...especially since they were recently cleaned bringing out the colors of the paintings. It's amazing the amount of art inside the small chapel...the ceiling and all the walls are covered. I don't have a picture of it since we weren't allowed to take any. From the chapel we moved into the church itself...wow! A huge church built supposedly on the site where Peter was martyred by being crucified upside down on a cross. I obviously don't know if it's the exact site or not, but the church is VERY impressive. However, there is so much glitz and glory surrounding the church that it seems the focus is in the wrong place. It's put on the Pope, Peter and other Saints instead of the real Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. He seems to be merely a side thought...sad in a way. I personally think many people completely miss the truth of Jesus (Romans 10:9-10) and just see a beautiful church and the Pope. I don't mean to get on my soap box, but Lana and I both felt that way while we toured around. A great but disheartening place at the same time.
I don't have any complaints about my 28th birthday...Rome was definitely a good way to spend the weekend and a couple days off work. Like I said before, if you make it to Europe you need to take the time and see Rome!
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Like the last cross-country I went on, it pays to be a volunteer and in the right place at the right time. This time around, they were looking for another flight lead to fly as #3 to Lakenheath, UK and then on to Spain and southern Italy again to fight the Eurofighters. Well, after a short round of rock-paper-scissors with another guy in the squadron, I won and was in as #3. I was looking forward to this cross-country a lot because Capt Chapman, my good friend way back from OTS, is a WSO in the F-15E squadron at Lakenheath. He and I are in the picture below. The plan was to fly in on Thursday, do some dissimilar aircraft training (DACT) with the F-15 Eagles and then leave Friday night for Spain. Well due to some maintenance issues, two of us ended up staying the weekend and then flying back to Aviano on Monday after my wingman's jet was fixed. We ended up spending our time at my friend's place for the weekend and got to see London and Cambridge where many of England's well know colleges are. Well known men like Isaac Newton attended school here. There's also a popular pub called The Eagles Nest well known to fighter pilots because it's a place where the Royal Air Force and US Air Force flighter pilots from WWII went to relax after a stressful flight fighting the Germans. There are many names of pilots who flew burned into the ceiling by candles still readable. We also did what they call "punting" on the river that runs through Cambridge...it looks a lot like steering a gondola in Venice...no one fell in, but almost!
The next day, we headed to London to check out some of the well known sites in the city. We saw Big Ben, Tower Bridge (most think it's called London Bridge, but it's not) and a few other places. Compared to Rome, London is very different. I wish I'd have had more time to see St. Paul's cathedral and some of the WWII sites like Churchill's command bunker. The rest of the weekend we spent our time close to the base and waited for the jet to be fixed before flying home on Monday. Yet another paid trip by the Air Force...no complaints here!
