"The Domus Sessoriana is a first-class hotel located on the slopes of the Esquiline Hill, in central Rome. There is no hotel in Rome, which is comparable to this one. The Domus Sessoriana is laid out in one wing of the Monastery of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which has been occupied by the Cistercian order since 1561. The traditional spirit of hospitality that rules the Cistercian order pervades the Domus Sessoriana. This hotel is infused with 2000 years of history and some of the city's oldest ruins can be viewed from the hotel terrace."
It was quite the place, to say the least!! Definitely wins the award for "Most Unique" for any hotel I've ever stated in!
From our hotel we easily made our through ancient and modern Rome as the city transitions seamlessly between each. It rained every day that we were there... Oh well, you can't win 'em all. Even a few torrential down pours couldn't damper our spirits, so we kept trucking along through the soggy streets and took in the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, The Vatican City and Museums (we saw the Pope!!), Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza del Popolo... too many places to list!
The Colosseum.
The Roman Forum.
Us at Trevi Fountain.
I tell ya, those Roman Art and Architechure courses I took at UVic really paid off!!
We had some great Italian food, and some not so great "Italian" food! An of course, we got the usual tourist fleecing a few times!!
After Rome we took a 15hr night train to Paris... that's right, I said 15 hours. It actually wasn't as bad it sounds. We spent 4 days in Paris and saw so much! We didn't have the greatest weather, rain again, but our last day brought us sunshine and the chance to explore. Our hotel there deserves none of the praise that Domus did :)
Paris is a such a magnificent city and it was a fantastic place to finish up our trip! Here are a few of our highlights:
The Eiffel Tower during one of our cold, rainy day walks.
The Tower again at night. It's always lit with the yellow/gold lights but for 5min every hour it sparkles with thousands of twinkling white lights :)
The Catacombes. Have a read at the Wikipedia link for the details. This was easily the creepiest thing we've done on our trip, but it was certainly interesting and eye opening!! We joked about how weird it would be to grab a bone as a souvenir, and then when you leave there's a bag check/security point at which that day alone they have confiscated about 3 or so skulls and about 10 femurs!!! Crazy people...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris
Didn't make it in for a show (at €180 we thought it was a bit much!), but saw The Moulin Rouge up close!
Us on the Promenade Plantee, which I think is one of the best places in Paris. It's 4.5km of elevated park/pedestrian walkway on an old abandoned rail line. It was so beautiful to see a slice of nature and calmness in a big bustling city.
I can't believe it, but that's it. 6 weeks of planning, traveling, spending, seeing, doing, packing and repacking, losing our way only to find it again and loving every second of it... is all over. I can't wait to see everyone back home and share more photos and stories!
Cheers, Michaela!
