Roma!

Howdy!

(I’m so Italian)

Rome was great!  I didn’t end up staying the night, though, because I was satisfied with all of the things I was able to see on Saturday, I was very tired, and I never was able to find Jenn and the Ausies… haha. 

My ride to Rome was decent.  There was a struggle at the second stop, when a lady kicked me out of my seat (since it was hers), and I discovered that my train ticket had a seat number on it….  I finally found my seat and read Playing for Pizza the whole train ride, trying to keep my legs tucked under me (the problem with train cars instead of the trains with airplane seating is that everyone’s legs have to go in the same place..)  As I started reading, I was at the part when Grisham describes the Napoli team’s trip to Parma, and it was very strange because I was getting on a train in Naples at the exact same time that they did for a similar, 1-day trip (although I was going to Rome to be a tourist rather than going to Parma to play football.  When I returned though, I passed out on my bed as if I had had a football game).  But all the same- I feel connected to the Naples Bandits!

When I got to Rome, I tried calling Jenn, with no success.  So I went to the McDonald’s to get wifi on my ipod to see if she had finally responded to my messages about where we should meet up, but I was not able to connect.  I struggled with the internet alongside a couple from Naples, Florida, and we had an enjoyable chat.  It’s nice when you find fellow Americans over here.  I found out later that Jenn’s phone had died- but luckily I didn’t wait around the train station to get in contact with them before I headed out.. I bought a map of Rome and a day-long metro pass and started venturng!

My first stop was the Spanish steps in the Piazza di Spagna (where I was attacked by men trying to sell me flowers), then I went through the church at the top of the steps (all of the pictures are on facebook and the captions are more informative than I will be on here… so you should check those out for a better description of my trip and the things I saw).  Next, I looked around some artwork that the people were trying to sell on the streets, and listened to the band playing on the steps. 

I stopped for gelato (the main reason for this stop was the free restroom, which is not a common find), but this was an excellent choice. I got the banana gelato off of a suggestions, even though I don’t like banana flavored things, and it tasted exactly like mushed up, frozen bananas… really good.  Then I walked through a beautiful garden with more blossoming trees and a great view of the city from high up.  Next, I headed down to the Piazza del Popolo, found my way to the river (not as impressive as the rivers in London and Paris), then I headed towards the Pantheon, because this was the #1 thing I wanted to see in Rome, due to the amount that I’ve studied it in my classes.  Near the Pantheon, I stopped for lunch at a little outdoor café (7.5 euro for a pizza margherita, bruschetta, and a coke).  I ate, wrestled with my giant map (deciding to basically forget it and just wander…which ended up working out quite nicely for me), and again tried calling Jenn again (..nothing).

I headed over to the Pantheon, and got stopped in the Piazza in front of it by a clown that had been performing-  He came over to me, stared at me with his mouth hanging open, pulled out a measuring tape from who knows where, and pretended to measure my height.  I didn’t really know what to do, so I just sort of stopped and stared at him, then got bored, smiled and tried to walk away, but he grabbed my hand, squatted down (he wasn’t very much shorter than me..), and started walking with me.  I just walked along, holding his hand, like we were friends.  He finally found a different tourist to jump on and followed him instead, thank goodness.

The Pantheon was great.  I knew previously about the great airflow design, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as temperaturely cool as it was- I was very impressed.  I sat down on some seats in there and stared at it awhile before moving on.

Next I just started walking in the direction that I knew would eventually get me to the Colosseum, but I assumed it would be a long walk before I got there.  I stopped into an art museum and took a picture of the garden, but didn’t go further because I didn’t want to pay.  The next corner I walked around.. bam!  The giant Piazza Venezia, and…. A little bit of the Colosseum visible, not too far away!  But first, I had to get around the giant piazza without getting hit.  It’s a good thing I had to walk around it and couldn’t just bee-line to the Colosseum, because as I was walking, a bit of ruins caught my eye, and I decided to take a small tour to track these down.  It turned out that the ruins that I had spotted were not seemingly important (there are ruins everywhere in Rome), but they were right next to Il Campidoglio (the Capitol), which I’m very glad I stopped at.  The impressive, blossoming trees were what urged me to start climbing the steps, then I caught a glimpse of the beautiful the Capitol Square (designed by Michelangelo) that was at the top of them, so I kept going. 

At the top, I noticed that there was a museum, so I check the prices- they were normally 8 euro, but I only had to pay 3.5 euro- I’m not sure why.  I went through the museum, and it was very nice.  There were tons of sculptures, busts, and oil paintings, as well as a photo booth/ room that you could inset your face into a Roman bust (I may have done this… it was a little embarrassing being a 22-year-old, all alone, doing such an embarrassing, cheesy, touristy thing, with families with children in line behind me…)  After a little over an hour in the museum, I headed back out.  When I exited, I was curious about the view behind the museum, because we were so far up, and I ran into the Piazza Senatorio, which had an amazing view of the Roman Forum (tons and tons of ruins- very interesting- with giant columns and foundations left, as well as a view of the Colosseum).

I reluctantly headed back down and started walking to the Colosseum, but I walked right next to the Forum, and the ruins were just as impressive from the street.  I saw tons and tons of artists- intricately sculpting carrots and gourds into flowers and fish, spray-painting scenes of Rome, standing as frozen sculptures, posing as gladiators…  And I finally made it to the Colosseum.  I decided not to pay for a tour, since it was getting late in the day and I assumed that sometime later in my stay, I would be back in Rome with someone else who wanted to tour the Colosseum, and figured it would be better to do it then rather than alone.

Next, I grabbed a metro back to Roma Termini, bought a train ticket for a train that would be leaving in 2 hours- getting me out of Rome before the dangerous sunset, bought a croissant stuffed with nutella and some mineral water (I’ve become addicted to the stuff), and rested my feet for awhile. 

After my rest, I took the metro out the Vatican City, took plenty of pictures of the Saint Peter’s Square, then saw a big line and figured if that’s where everyone else wanted to go, it’s probably where I wanted to go, so I got in it.  I waited about half an hour of my precious hour and a half that I had left (I found out later that this was making it in excellent timing- it usually takes well over an hour), and went through the tomb of the Popes (because it didn’t cost anything), which was very strange to me.  I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I were Catholic..  I just walked straight through without stopping to look at anything because I wanted to find the Sistine Chapel if I could before I had to leave.  When I walked out, I found an information desk and asked where the Sistine Chapel was, and she told me that it was too late, that it had already closed- so there’s another thing for me to accomplish on my next trip to Rome.

Since I had a little time to kill, I joined the hundereds of other tourists that were sitting (or napping) on the steps surrounding the Piazza San Pietro, and soaked up the sun for a little while before heading back to the train station.  On my way back, again, I stopped and got some gelato- this time chocolate and tiramisu, and met a nice British lady who did not have a high opinion of Naples.  By the time I got the the train station, for some reason I was hungry again, and stopped at the same little ethnic café and bought another Doner Kebab (the same as I did on my stop in Rome on my way to Paris) and an orange Fanta.  I hadn’t finished my kebab by the time the train was supposed to depart, so I had to stuff it in my bag, because it was awkward eating it in a tiny car with five other people. (My bag smelled very strange when I got bag).   The ride back was very pleasant- I had found the correct seat, now that I knew I had one assigned to me, and the car that I was in had a nice set of people- all older and none travelling together, but there was a very good vibe there, although I couldn’t understand any of the conversation.  I’ve just about finished my book now.

I got back to the Villalta just in time for dessert at dinner (um… I may have had gelato for the third time that day…..  You can’t just pass it up!  It was pineapple and delicious).  Afterwards we had tertulia, and I was exhausted.  Afterwards, I went to bed, quite content with my day, even though it had not gone according to plan.

I will tell about the rest of my weekend later, it is time for mio corso di Italiano!  Ciao!