Roma!

Roma! We woke up at around 9 with the intention of being gone by 10 o’clock. We ended up leaving around 10 o’clock, locked the door to our brightly decorated bed and breakfast/hostel and headed out. We were a little unsure about the whole breakfast thing so we went across the street and grabbed some pastries at a little snack bar that was right in front of the metro stop. Luckily the metro is right at the corner of our street so we were able to hop on right there. It was 4 euro for a 24 hour ticket, and it ended up being well worth it’s price. Our first stop was the Vatican. I could attempt to explain it to you, but I really can’t. It was amazing. The amount of artwork in that place leaves you in awe. Everywhere you turn there is something different. It’s not all Catholic art either, there are tons of pieces of old Greek and Roman gods as well. It took us awhile to get through the entire thing to make it to the Sistine Chapel to see the ceiling Michelangelo painted. There is a huge hallway before you get there and the ceiling is completely painted and extremely ornamental. I can barely describe it so I just took a picture. It was amazing. On our way through the maze that eventually takes you to the chapel Genna stopped us. “Is that Dave?” - Dave being a kid from UMass that also happens to be in UCC with us. Sure enough, it was him in Vatican City also on his way to the Sistine chapel. We made it through the maze a bit more and met him in another room and chatted about our travels. It ended up he had been traveling alone, which I cannot even imagine. We finally found our way to the Sistine Chapel and looked up to see Michelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling, only what we were surprised to see was that there were a million pictures on the ceiling and that famous one of many done by Michelangelo was in the center, and a lot smaller than I pictured it. It didn’t make the room any less beautiful as there was not an empty space on the walls or ceiling that wasn’t filled with some magnificent painting by an amazing artist of years ago. It was breathtaking. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures – though people did anyways. Every time someone did the guards would clap their hands. I hguess they figured that was the best way to get the English-speaking people’s attention. It didn’t really work that well. Eventually we made our way our of the Sistine Chapel and out of Vatican. We decided we would meet up with Dave on the Spanish steps at around 4 after we checked out the Coliseum. We grabbed pizza at a café near the Vatican – that was a mistake. I’m not even going to say how much we spent on pizza. Thank God it was good or I would be pretty angry. We hopped on a nearby metro station and headed toward the coliseum. We ended up walking all the way around the coliseum since we went in the wrong direction toward the entrance. But it was a nice walk. It was 11 Euro to get in, a bit steep for my liking but it was the Coliseum! That’s a must-see if I ever saw one! It was amazing! It was so cool to walk through there and imagine what it was like when it was actually used as an entertainment base. It is really breathtaking, and there were some awesome views of the surrounding areas like the Forum and the arc. Just amazing. We checked out the giftshop – got the essentials. No extras on this trip, and headed back to the metro and toward the Spagna stop for the Spanish steps. It was like a where’s Waldo game. I spotted Dave in the middle of the steps and we went and sat down. At this point the sun was shining bright and it was so warm. I loved it! We all had our sunglasses on. I hope Greece is this warm – or warmer.
We took some pictures and then we headed out towards the Pantheon. I don’t know if you know this – but the Pantheon has a large hole in the center of it. Want to know what they do when it rains? Nothing. It just rains inside the Pantheon. Pretty cool if you ask me. That was a cool building to see, not nearly as impressive as the Coliseum in my personal opinion. But still cool nonetheless. While we stood around in front of it some weirdo came over to Dave and offered to have his picture taken with him. I really don’t know how to explain the encounter except for weird, awkward and uncomfortable. Dave got pretty annoyed with him and we were pretty close to running away. After that we headed back toward the place that we ate at the night before. It was really well priced in comparison to anywhere else so we decided to go again and Dave joined us. Our favorite waiter was there and he chatted with us about how he had been out way too late the night before last and that’d why he had been so tired. I got the risotto in scampi sauce this time. The best part was the garnish which was some sort of small crustacean with claws and eyes. I put it on my other plate and put the napkin on it. It just made me way to uncomfortable to have it watch me while I ate. Once we finished we headed toward the Trevi fountain which is better to see at night. On our way we got gelato – surprise surprise! I was lucky though – I ordered and paid for a 2 euro cup of gelato (the smallest) but he gave me a 3 euro cup! Wonderful! I love gelato. I will miss it dearly when I leave Italy. We finally found the fountain and it was beautiful at night! We took a bunch of pictures. However the men that sell souvenirs on the streets are obnoxious and besides trying to sell us roses, camera tripods, and weird knick-knacks, they had these rock like things that they were playing with and selling that sounded like those really loud bugs you hear in the summertime in New England. It was the most obnoxious sound ever. Whenever they came near us, Dave would firmly and loudly say “No.” I think he scared them a little. Good. When we were done taking pictures we headed back to our hostel. We were exhausted and had no energy or money to head out that night. We checked out our stuff online, emails and such, worked on class schedules and I packed my bag. Bedtime!
Update: Genna had to go to the bathroom and needed help unlocking the door. I got up and unlocked it for her and as I shut the door behind her I heard the neighbors, very loudly and clearly getting busy in their room across the hall. When Genna got pack she peeked at me on the bottom bunk and gave me a look of shock. All I could do was laugh and say, “Well somebody’s having fun right now.” What a day.