Spring Break, Part 2, Rome

Well, its been a whole week since spring break and I have yet to tell you all about the last half of my journey. During my last four days of break I found myself in Rome, Italy. We left the apartment at 2 in the morning to get a bus to get to the train station to get another bus to get to the airport. Yeah. Anyway, needless to say we were really tired when we finally got to Italy. But on the flight, it was a beautiful and looking out the window I could see the Alps and really cool other landscapes.

Ok, so we got to Italy and had the best experience with customs that we have ever had. The man didn't even say anything. He just looked at our passports and stamped them and handed them back. No questions or comments. No hassle. Beautiful. The airport we flew into was kinda sketchy. We thought it was just because it was Rome's small cheap airport, but it turned out that actually that is the way that most of Rome is. We asked information how to get to where we were going and purchased the cheapest public transportation that we yet have!

When we got to the hostel, it ended up being kind of like the airport. It was on the second floor of some random building, and it was dirty and we were tired and we just didn't want to deal with it...but we found out later that all of Rome is like that. So, we got a map...after finding out that our hostel didn't provide any pamphlets for tours or anything... We decided to just find our own way. We walked and saw some ruins and walked toward the Colosseum, saw it and the forum and some other things. We got our first gelato and generally just walked around until around 8:30 ish. The best part of the day was that weather was warm and beautiful.

The following morning I got a shower. The water barely came out. The drain flooded. It was so small I could barely move. But for 60 euros for 2 people for 4 nights, why am I complaining. But I refused to take a shower the rest of the time, and used my towel as a blanket, since I also refused to use those!

After getting ready to go in the nasty hostel we left to walk to the Vatican. The previous day we found information for a free tour there. First we walked up to the Spanish steps and threw coins in the Trevi Fountain and saw the Pantheon. We arrived in time, after getting gelato and pizza and other delicious Italian foods (excepts mostly gelato and pizza). Our tour guide was a group of seminary students from America who were studying in the Vatican and they knew pretty much everything about St. Peter's. In fact, our tour was a 3 hour tour only of St. Peter's Basilica. It was fascinating. I loved it. It was the greatest tour we had there (and the only tour). I learned a lot.

Afterwards we wanted to visit the Sistine Chapel, but it was closed, so we walked to get more gelato (we tried about 25 flavors between the two of us by the time we left). Then we went to tried to find a restaurant that we looked up on the internet the night before. But it turns out that Italians shut down their restaurants between about 2/3 o'clockish and don't open again until 7:30. It's really unfortunate because we eat a lot earlier than 7:30 and a lot later than 2:00...

So, instead we walked around Trevi Fountain and went gift shopping and got more gelato and found a different restaurant. The last 3 days ended up being a lot better than the 1st one. We still retired early though and went to bed for the next day of walking. Which we did.

The next morning we bought breakfast...as in a giant pastry roll thing from the convenience store next to our hostel. We toured the Sistine Chapel that morning in the gorgeous sun. The we walked down to tour the Forum and Colosseum which had been closed in the morning. We did the Forum first and walked around until it closed. Then we walked down to see Circus Maximus, as the Colosseum closed before we got there. Then we got dinner, and walked up to the Popolo. We met a random salesman guy to whom we pretended not to speak English. Then we went home for bed.

The next morning we woke up and toured the Colosseum. After that we got on a train to go to Ostia Antica, which other than the Vatican was the best part of the trip. It was a gorgeous day and we toured the ruins in this city and it was glorious. I could have walked around all day. The ruins were phenomenal! After that we got back on the train and went to the beach. The sand was black, and also dirty. It was the off season and the beach hadn't been combed in forever. It was gross and we had to jump some barricades to get in. But there were some surfers there too so we weren't the only one who jumped it. It was too cold to swim, but I stuck my hand in the Med and picked some seashells. We went back to Rome for the night and got dinner and our last Gelato of the trip. Then we packed our bags and headed to bed.

The next morning we flew back to London, and were never so happy to be home in our lives. We got real showers and real beds and it was phenomenal. This weekend we are heading to Wales, so I'll update you on that when I get hope. Sorry I didn't write more about this, but my roommates are drunk and loud and I'm distracted...yeah. Anyways, later!