when in Roma...

While attempting to recover from the excitement of the weekend, I will share my adventures in Rome. We (Anna, Cara and I) woke up at 4:30am on Friday morning to make it to the airport for our 7:10 flight to Rome. We landed in Rome around 9:10, took a bus into the city and checked into our hostel. The hostel was in a less than beautiful part of the city and as it was my first impression of Rome, I was a little surprised and disappointed (this was to change). We dropped off our bags and ventured towards the Ancient City, the area, according to our itinerary, that we would visit on Friday. We wandered around until we happened upon the Coloseum. It was a steep price to enter and a lengthy line but we decided we had to experience this part of history. What I found the most fascinating was the sheer age of that building, it makes you wonder if anything from our world will persist for another two thousand years. We then wandered over to Palantino to look at the ruins. From atop this hill we had a panoramic view of the city. I liked this area because there was a smaller crowd than at the Colosseum. We wandered through the Roman forum and on to Trajan's column and other large famous buildings I cannot recall the names of. We saw tons of feral cats lurking around the ancient city, it was a cute and amusing addition to the monuments. After this we stopped for lunch at a little cafe for a long awaited Italian meal. Cara's pizza was my favorite (I ordered bruscetta which was good but not great). We ordered after-lunch cappuccinos and chatted with our crazy waiter who called us darlings. We then headed to the Pantheon. This was one of my favorite sites in Rome. It has such a grand presence both because of its large proportions and it contrasts dramatically with the surrounding buildings. Walking inside I was hit by a feeling of awe and a higher vibration of energy. After this we had to do some window shopping and eat some gelato (so yummy!) When we got back to the hostel we met our roommate, a Brazilian guy named Christian. He was friendly and being the thoughtful people we were, we invited him to dinner with us. Anna's friend recommended a restaurant in trastavere that was cheap and delicious so we got up the courage to attempt the public transportation. Rome's public transportation is run mostly with buses and trams, they only have 2 metro lines so we had to take a bus and then transfer to a tram. Well once on the bus, we realized we had no idea what our stop looked like or what it was called. We tried to ask someone who didnt speak english, spanish or french (I tried all three of these languages) and figured out through pointing and gesturing that we had already missed our stop and we had to turn around and go back the other direction. We managed to successfully reach our destination an hour after leaving our hostel. Fortunately the food was fantastic and inexpensive but they ran out of caprese salad which was exceedingly disappointing. I ordered a great pizza and got terrimasu for dessert (I had a list of Italian foods I wanted to have while in Rome so every meal was something different and delicious). We fell into bed that night, exhausted.

On Saturday we went to the Vatican City. We headed to the museum first because it had short hours on the weekends. We had to wait in a ridiculously long line that wrapped around the walls of the city, fortunately I think we only waited 45 min to get inside. Once in we went directly to the Sistine Chapel as we heard it was better to go as early as possible to avoid the crowds (everyone else must have had the same idea we did). I was surprised at the amount of art this museum contained (we were ferried through a maze of rooms to actually get to the chapel so by default we saw a lot of the collection). The chapel ceiling was impressive although there were so many people by this time it made it hard to just hang out and admire without being bumped or shoved every few minutes. We escaped that zoo and checked out the Egyptian part of the museum and saw a mummified body. We also saw the rooms with the early Christian sculpture which was so extensive that the display was merely metal scaffolding to display as much art as possible. It is no wonder the Catholic church is worth so much. After the museum, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. The courtyard outside this building was beautiful but jam packed with tourists, as to be expected. The interior decor was elaborate with beautiful details, but way too over the top for my taste. After this we stopped for lunch and I was able to order the calzone I had been craving (not as good as I was expecting from Italy). With full bellies, we wandered along the Tiber river (which looks very similar to the Seine in a lot of ways) and went back over to trastevere to see this area during the day. Architecturally, this was my favorite part of the city because it has winding cobble stone streets and brightly colored building with cute shutters, peeling paint and lush greenery tumbling out of window boxes. For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by our hostel that was just right around the corner from us. The food was great and the waiters were funny (we were invited to go to a club with them after they got of work, something we declined as you can never trust those Italian guys). At the end of our meal a large group of middle aged Italian guys came into the restaurant for dinner and we convinced ourselves they were in the mafia. After dinner we made friends with the employees of our hostel and some of the residents at the hostel's bar, it was a diverse group with people from Spain, Argentina, Australia and we met someone who graduated from Berkeley.

Sunday morning we went to Villa Borgese, a large park in the northern part of Rome. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day so we hung out on the grass before going to Galleria Borgese, a small museum full of renaissance sculpture and painting in the park. The interior of the building was beautiful and the sculpture really blew me away, especially a few Bernini works. We picnicked in the park afterwards and ate disappointing paninis, the only time the Italian food let us down on this trip. We wandered to the Spanish steps which were too crowded for my taste and then walked over to the Trevi fountain. This was truly an impressive sight, but again just so many people! After dinner, we met up with a few of Anna's and my friends for drinks in a trendy bar called Flow (I think).

Usually I wouldn't need to share the return trip but ours was one for the record books. Our flight was at 9:30am on Monday so we decided we needed to get on the 7:30am bus to the airport. Unfortunately the alarm didn't go off in the morning so we woke up at 7:30, packed and dressed in 2 minutes and ran to the bus pickup stop. When we arrived the line was so long we were not even able to make it onto the bus. By 8 I was getting nervous because I couldn't afford to miss our flight so I paid for a cab to take us to the airport. We arrived in enough time but once we were on the plain we were delayed for an hour due to weather. We finally landed in Paris at 12:30, my test was in an hour. We ran to the metro station, got on the train that would take us back into the airport only to find out that there had been a wreck on the train line and we could not take it into the city. We had to get off with the rest of the train (approx 200 people) and attempt to take the bus into the city. Unfortunately there was only one bus to take this group of 200 plus people into Paris and it was so full it didn't even stop. At this point it was 1:30, my test starting without me, AHH! We decided to take matters into our own hands and hitchhiked into the city. A very nice woman picked us up and dropped us off at the nearest metro. By the time I got to my class there was 15 minutes left and my professor gave me the test and said good luck, needless to say, I failed this exam. That being said, Rome was totally worth it! I didn't want to leave because I felt like I was just getting acquainted with the city and I had not yet had my fill of Italian food. I liked staying in a hostel because everyone was friendly and hung out together, including the staff. I would love to go back to Italy and stay in a smaller town that was less touristy to experience the culture on a deeper level. Although I loved Rome, I am so happy to be back home in Paris.

Weekend in Rome