Roma!

May 20-24, 2010

I absolutely loved Rome! Almost everyone there was so friendly & always joked around with us--especially at restaurants and things like that. We saw sooo much in that one weekend, so be ready for another longggg post....

Getting there on Thursday

Yelena, Sarah, Mary Ellen, Preethi, and I packed our bags before we went to school on Thursday, May 20th, and headed straight from class to the airport. At first, we thought we got there superrrr early. But after being told the wrong terminal, getting to security and finding out we need our boarding passes stamped, going back across the airport to get our passes stamped, getting back to security and finding out that we were supposed to get two stamps, heading back to the same stamp place to get our 2nd stamp, finding out that my plan of getting to the hostel from airport didn't exist because trains don't go from Ciampino Airport to the city, getting our bus tickets, and finally running back across the airport to get through security, we decided that getting there a few hours early on our first trip out of Spain wasn't a bad idea at all. While standing in line to board our RyanAir plane (that was surprisingly not sketchy at all), we met an Italian family. The dad gave us a little Italian tutorial (ciao, grazie, prego, dove, cuanto costa). When we were flying into Rome, we could see Italy's boot shaped outline against the ocean. On our bus ride to the hostel, we saw the walls surrounding the city of Rome. It was about 8:30 when we got to Stargate Hostel (which was just a few blocks away from Termini Station--awesome!!). The guy working at the hostel hated us almost immediately. We couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on in our room because you have to use your key to do it and you have to leave the key in the slot--not something we're used to. So we had him come up and show us, and we were messing with the wrong thing--something he told us not to ever touch. He said "Ayyyy American girls" and left haha. We went to dinner at a cute little place down the road where we all at pizza and pasta (don't tell my senora--she insists that I only eat gluten free food even though I have told her so many times that I can have gluten once a day). They gave us some bruschetta on the house, and the waiter joked with us and asked us to pay him in five kisses on the cheek. Then he took one of our cameras and started having a photoshoot with it. We went back to the hostel, planned what we were going to do the next day, and passed out.

Friday

Friday was exhausting but really exciting! We basically saw all of Rome that day. We took a hop on hop off bus tour so that we could get out and look at the sites and catch a bus to the next stop whenever we were done. The first stop was a hugeee and gorgeous basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. We didn't get off at this stop, but we circled around the whole thing and took pictures from the top of the double decker GLT bus. It is said to hold some of the wood from Jesus' cradle inside!

The second stop was the Colosseum--we spent sooo much time here! We went on a tour inside the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums on Palatine Hill (one of the 7 hills Rome was founded on). It was fascinating to learn about all of its history. Our tour guide told us how she loves to imagine history happening before her eyes in these spots--like at the Senate Building that Mark Antony gave the funeral speech for Juliius Caesar. I have my pictures labeled full of facts so I can tell you more about it when going through my pics.

We bought lunch from a street vendor--I had a chicken sandwich. We ate lunch on the steps of Ara Coeli. I thought we were on Capitoline Hill--which we were, but we weren't sitting at the main building. Yelena convinced everyone else that we were on the Spanish Steps--which we definitely weren't! That seemed to happen a lot with us--we would look for a building or site and ask someone where it was, and all we had to do was walk ten feet further or turn a corner.

After lunch, we went to the Pantheon and to Piazza Navona. The Pantheon is enormous and has been built and rebuilt over and over again. It has a lot of tombs and paintings inside, and the ceiling is awesome! Piazza Navona is this pretty little plaza with vendors and a beautiful fountain. I bought my painting of 3 sites of Rome here. Our next stop was Castel Sant'Angelo (castle), Ponte Umberto I (bridge), and Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II. The view was incredible!

We went by the Vatican/St. Peter's Square/Basilica, but didn't go inside because we knew we were going to need another day for it. We did get gelato near the basilica though and it was delicious! I got frutti de bosco (mixed berries) and loved it!

Then we went to the Trevi Fountain and the actual Spanish Steps! The Trevi Fountain is incredible. We went to it 3 different times throughout our trip just to see it after different times of the day. I definitely like the night view the best. It is amazing with the lights shining through the water. We made a wish and threw coins over our shoulders, took tonssss of pictures, talked about how romantic of a place it is, and saw a bride and groom taking pictures. Afterwards, we went to the Spanish Steps (which is near the Spanish Embassy building). It was soooooooooo crowded! People filled the stairs from top to bottom--crazy!

After this long day, we went back to our hostel, quickly freshened up, and left for dinner in the non-touristy part of Rome called Trastevere. We found out about the place from a guy named Jack (we think) who quickly became our guide to the city. He worked at our hostel and as a vendor near Termini so we saw him allll of the time. He helped us SO much! Trastevere has tons of little shops and side streets, restaurants and live music--it's adorable! We ate at La Taverna Scala and I had chicken cattiatore (basically an entire chicken). On the way back to the hostel, someone tried to pick pocket me. I'm lucky that Lauren and my parents scared me enough about pick pocketers to the point where I always pay attention to my surroundings and to the people around me. As soon as I got on the bus, a guy sitting in a seat got up and stood directly behind me. He was staring at my wristlet as soon as I got on. He kept bumping into me hoping I'd drop my wristlet (even though it was around my wrist, I was holding onto it, and it was tucked under my arms). I turned around and just gave him a dirty look and when I did, I saw that he was going through a brown wallet. I thought this was weird, so I just turned around and kept watching his reflection in the window. When the bus stopped, he reached over my shoulder and tried to grab my wristlet. I just turned away from him and he left. My friends and I started talking about him, and a French couple said that he tried to get the guy's wallet out of his pocket. He kept pushing on his pants pockets, but luckily he didn't get it. He did get someone else's though. There was a guy standing right behind me who had his backpack and back turned to the pick pocketer, and I'm assuming the brown wallet the pick pocketer was flipping through was his because his backpack was unzipped. Too bad he was gone by the time we realized it. After we got back, we made plans for Saturday, went through and labeled our pictures, and went to bed.

Saturday

We spent Saturday at the Vatican. I'm pretty sure we GLT'd it to the Vatican since we used the GLT a few times that weekend. We waited in line for about an hour in the hot sun. I got a fantastic half circle tan line on my back and we saw a lady have a heat stroke--which was so scary! Luckily, someone sort of caught her so she didn't hit the ground. All of the paintings and rooms in the museum leading to the Sistine Chapel were incredible! I can't imagine how long some of those pieces of art took to create. Everything was gorgeous. When we got to the Sistene Chapel, it seemed so unreal. I couldn't believe I was standing under the Creation of Adam. Preethi got kicked out of the Sistine Chapel as soon as we got inside because you aren't supposed to take pictures for copyright reasons (whoever paid to restore it got copyright privileges). Preethi got caught and put in "jail"--behind bars outside the Sistene Chapel. I felt bad for her because she looked like a sad puppy looking in on us standing in the chapel and because everyoneee was sneaking pictures and not getting kicked out. I got a good one!

After the Sistene Chapel, we went to St. Peter's Basilica which was equally amazing. Everything inside was enormous and ornate. Afterward, we took pictures in St. Peter's Square.

We booked our hostel too late so we had to stay at Peter Pan Hostel for one of the 4 nights in Rome. This hostel was out in the middle of no where, but was still a lot of fun! There was a choir of what we like to call "big, dutch men" staying at our hostel. We heard them sing a few times and actually ran into them at the Trevi Fountain after we checked out of Peter Pan. At Stargate Hostel, we had a nice private 5 bed suite. At Peter Pan, we were in a room with 12 girls and had community showers and one bathroom. It really wasn't bad though. We met new people and ended up having a good time just staying at the hostel. We bought some pizza from this local place down the roa and watched the Champions League Final in the dining room.

Sunday

Since we saw nearly everything in one day, we had Sunday just to kind of relax. We went shopping & I bought a dress, had lunch on the real Spanish Steps, got some more gelato, went back to the Trevi, and ate dinner at this amazing place called L'Archetto. The waiter here was hilarious too! They had over 100 different kinds of spaghetti to choose from (as if I'm not indecisive enough). I ended up getting one with tomato sauce, shrimp, veggies, cheese, and hot red pepper nomm nommm nommmm :)

Monday

We went to bed around midnight and woke up at 2:45 a.m. to get to the airport on time. I got a cold when we first got to Rome, so the whole not sleeping thing didn't help much. We took a CRAZY cab ride to the airport--our driver drove like a maniac and got us there in half the time it normally takes. Then again, it was like 3:30 in the morning and nobody was out. We ended up getting there before the airport was even open--really sad. We waited forever just to get inside the airport and then even longer in line because nobody was there to work yet. We got back to Madrid early enough for Preethi and I to come home before class. I should have slept, but for some reason wasn't tired. Instead I just unpacked, ate breakfast, and went off to class!