Thursday night, our plan was to have dinner and stay in so that we could leave bright and early for Rome on Friday. My roommates, along with a group of friends from Clemson, have started a new tradition called "Tiger Dinners." Last week William and hosted, and this week it was our turn! We were so excited that we went a bit overboard. We bought a ton of chicken, parmesan, three pounds of pasta, two gigantic containers of pasta sauce, and tons of fresh veggies. We (and by we, I mean Alana and Jacqueline...Megan and I cut up some veggies and were in charge of setting the table) made pasta in a regular tomato sauce that we added grilled chicken, zucchini, red peppers, onions, tomatos, and fresh garlic to. We also went through four baguettes and several plates of olive oil and balsamic. Classic Italian meal :) We drank a little too much Frizzante (a cheap version of prosecco) and were somehow coaxed into going out. We went to the Fish Pub which is a bar in San Lorenzo right by the market and stayed for about an hour until we realized we needed to leave for Rome in a few hours. Despite going to sleep at 5:00 a.m., Megan, Alana, and I were up and out by 7:00 a.m. When we got to the train station we had just missed the train, so we went to our favorite cafe on the corner to grab breakfast and wait for the next one.
The train ride was four hours, so we all napped for about an hour and chatted the rest of the time. Once we got to Rome, we navigated the crazy busy Termini train station to get to our hostel. I had the address written down, but realized that my Let's Go book had directions to our hostel in it, so we followed that. We ended up at the doorstep of an entirely different hostel. When we showed them the book, they told us it must have been printed before our hostel moved to the other side of the train station. I'm sad to say this is the first time my Let's Go book has failed me. We trekked all the way to the other side of Termini with our bags in the sun and finally arrived at Mosaic hostel. The front desk man was super friendly and gave us directions and advice on how to get all over the city. We headed down a main street towards the Colosseum and had lunch. After lunch, we wandered the entire area of the Ancient City which includes the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Imperial Forum. To be honest, we had no idea what was what (besides the Colosseum, of course) but we were happy to just roam (haha) around and steer clear of the obnoxious guided tours.
After walking around the Colosseum, we stumbled upon a man renting bikes and these strange bike/cart vehicles. Normally, our "let's not look like American tourist" instincts kick in in these types of situations, but this was a deal we couldn't beat. We each paid 3 euro and piled into the bike like kids on the Cape May boardwalk. We then realized that the sidewalks are impossible to navigate. They're filled with people and bumps that our bike couldn't quite handle. So, we went for the road. Luckily, Alana comes from a family of cyclists and knew what she was doing. We drove on a main three lane street that was full of buses, vespas, and taxis. There we were, put-putting along past ancient ruins and ringing our semi-broken bell at passersby. It was so ridiculous that all any of us could do was laugh hysterically. I think our lack of sleep made us all deliriously hyper, so we cruised the streets screaming "ciao!" to random pedestrians. A few people were so amused they even took pictures of us! We turned down an alleyway and found a cute cafe where we parked and got cappuccino (Coca Cola Light for me). We desperately needed energy after sleeping for not even two hours the night before. The waiter at the cafe was very taken aback by our mode of transportation. Apparently we're the only crazy tourists who ride around the main streets of Rome in a rickety cart. It was one of those strange, impulsive decisions you make on vacation, but I will probably never forget how fun it was.
After our wild ride, we decided it was definitely time to siesta. We walked back to our hostel, checked into our room, and passed out for about an hour. We met up with Alana's friend Connor who is studying in Rome, and went to dinner at a typical little Italian spot with delicious, you guessed it, pasta. We also got some wine and free limoncello shots which helped put us right to bed when we got back! While we were eating, a Russian man was at the table next to us listening to our entire conversation. He came over and told us that when he hears English-speakers, he likes to try to guess where we are from. He guessed the Southeast of the United States. You all know how happy this made me. I find myself telling people I'm from South Carolina here...whoops. Anyway, he sat and talked to us for a while about Russia and different dialects of English until we left to go to sleep.
A full night's sleep later, and we were up bright and early at 7:30 a.m. to get ready. We went downstairs to get our free hostel and then took the metro to the Vatican. The metro system is so easy here. Definitely a lot less complicated than New York. We waited in a 45 minute line to get into the Vatican Museum. In the summer months the line is apparently 4 hours long! Once we got inside, we got our tickets (50% student discount!!) and made our way through the museum. We had no idea what anything was, but it was still so amazing to look at. None of us are very "artsy" so we moved through the museum pretty fast until we found the Sistine Chapel. It was so incredible. I wish I had seen it before taking that dreadful art history class at Clemson, because I would have appreciated it a lot more. We sat in there for a while and took a few stealth pictures when the security guards turned their backs. Then we headed around front to St. Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican is a lot bigger than I imagined, and St. Peter's square is such a fun place to just sit in the sun and relax. We were all starving since our breakfast at the hostel was kind of bad, so we got gelato at Old Bridge Gelateria. It was recommended by my book and several people, so I was pretty excited. The portions at this place were absolutely ridiculous. I don't think any of us have ever eaten an ice cream cone that huge before. I got banana and nutella flavored gelato, and it was the best I've had in Italy so far! After our gelato break, we got in line for St. Peter's. The inside is even better than the outside! It really made me realize the history and immensity of this religion that I've been surrounded by all my life. The intricacy of the inside definitely puts every other Italian basilica I've seen to shame. We decided to be brave and climb to the cupola! It was over 500 stairs, and I had a few near-panic attacks when I couldn't see the top and had nothing to hold on to but a rope. All of the sore leg muscles and panic was worth the AMAZING view of Rome.
After climbing back down the 500+ steps, we headed back over the river to see the rest of Rome. Our first stop was Piazza Navona, a beautiful piazza that we didn't spend very much time in since we were so hungry. From there, we headed towards the Pantheon. On the way, we walked through my favorite part of Rome. The streets were narrow and the buildings were authentic. It was much less busy and made me a little homesick for Firenze. We stopped to get cappuccino at a cafe that Alana's dad said was the best cappuccino he's ever tasted. I figured that constituted me trying my very first Italian cappuccino. It didn't taste as "coffee-ish" as I expected, but I still wasn't crazy about it. As we continued walking, we passed a restaurant where I heard a very familiar American voice. I looked and saw the back of a very familiar American head sitting at an outdoor table. It was Jenn! Jenn and I had planned to meet up in Rome (she is studying in Granada, Spain) and had exchanged phone numbers. For whatever reason, her phone stopped working and I couldn't get through to her. She forgot to write down my number, so we had no way to get in touch. It was so crazy that in the entire huge city of Rome we found each other. We started screaming and hugging so loud that the entire restaurant stopped and stared. I just can't kick my American tendencies sometimes.
We continued on to the Pantheon where we got sandwiches at a surprisingly un-touristy deli. I had eggplant and mozzarella, my favorite. We walked and ate, and eventually ended up at the Trevi Fountain! It was so different than I imagined it to be, and ridiculously crowded. It is probably impossible to get a picture in the summer, since we had trouble even finding a spot! I made a wish and threw in my euro penny :)
After the Trevi Fountain we walked to what we thought were the Spanish Steps. When we realized how unspectacular they were, we realized we were in the wrong place. A little navigational help from my map and we found the real Spanish Steps. They were beautiful, but way to crowded to really enjoy. Megan and I did have a nice conversation with an adorable old Italian man. He barely spoke English, so it was my very first opportunity to really try to hold a conversation in Italian. We told him where we were from, and that we were business students in Firenze. That was about all we could manage. He then told us in broken English that he lived in Florence when he was in the war, and pulled out old military photos of himself from his wallet. These are the types of little Italian meetings that I absolutely love.
We decided to head home after the Spanish Steps to get ready for our big night out on the town. Alana's friend Connor came to our hostel with a few bottles of Rome's version of Frizzante (my new favorite) and we pregamed with bathroom sized cups in our hostel. Very classy. We then wandered out into the city to find a place to eat dinner. I had a restaurant all picked out from by book, but it's sooo good that we would have had to make a reservation! We opted for another authentic looking trattoria, and we each got margherita pizzas (all of which we ate entirely!) We drank plenty more vino and then headed to the famous ICE BAR. This bar is made entirely out of ice; the walls, seats, glasses, everything. They give you a big coat to wear, gloves, and a drink. We were each able to talk our way into getting two drinks included in our cover charge. The drinks were delicious, but we drank them fast because we were so cold and wanted to go somewhere above freezing. We took the bus to another part of the city where most of the nightlife is. It reminds me a lot of Florence's Santa Croce. We went to a place called the Drunken Ship but left shortly after because it was closing. By this point, we were ready to get back to the hostel and sleep, so we took the bus back and managed to navigate our way back to the hostel.
We slept in a little later on day three due to the amount of vino we consumed the night before. We realized that we had seen nearly everything on our list of things to see in Rome! We kicked butt on Saturday and went to basically every major site. We decided to shop around for a while, and stopped to get a little snack of bruschetta. Alana and Megan were ready to get back to Florence early, but I had plans to meet up with Jenn, so they went back to the hostel to get their things and I walked to the Vatican. Jenn and her friends were climbing the cupola when I got there, so I sat in St. Peter's Square people watching and listening to a guy play acoustic guitar. It was SO relaxing to sit down and not rush to be somewhere for once. The entire weekend was go, go, go, so I was excited to actually breathe and take in the sights. I found Jenn and her friends, and we caught up on each others exciting study abroad lives! It was so nice to hang out with one of my best friends after being in a foreign country by myself for almost one month now. We had lunch and then I hopped on the metro to my hostel. I've never been on such a crowded metro before. There literally wasn't room to breathe. I made it back to my hostel where I grabbed my bag and ran back to Termini to make the train in time. Unfortunately, since I stayed in Rome later I had to take the fast (and more expensive) train, but it was worth it get a few extra hours in and see Jenn. I had one or two "Oh my God I am completely alone in a huge, dangerous city" moments, but managed to find my way around, buy my train ticket, and board the train all on my own. I had a relaxing hour and a half train ride back to Santa Maria Novella and was so relieved to sit on my bed and relax upon my arrival in Firenze.
Rome is an incredible city, and I think I spent just the right amount of time there. I'm definitely ten times more confident in my decision to choose Florence though. It's much more personal and much less overwhelming. Next weekend, I'm hoping to head to Venice for Carnival!
Ciao :)
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