Friday, April 9th 2015
Getting to Rome was all sorts of drama. My morning was exhausting and filled of attempting communication and keeping my poor mother awake. Arriving in Rome was a mess because of the bus company and organization. Either way, it was a disaster, so upon arrival I treated myself to a gelato. I have never had such an amazing gelato in my life. The chocolate tasted so rich, thick and creamy and then I had a gorgonzola walnut (I think?) with it, and it was delicious. Gelato in Rome is just fantastic.
I continued to walk towards my one goal of the day… to see the Colosseum. I turn the corner and walk up the hill and there it is! I finally made it! After my morning of stress and exhaustion, my goal was reached. It almost looked like the Wachovia Center… except it had a few more holes and a lot more worn down. But actually it was incredibly impressive. It was a very very large stadium that was still so intact. It blew me away how old the building was but the fact that it still is standing. I met a very nice couple from England. I got my ticket and went in. The inside was even cooler than the outside. You could see the seats and the different viewing areas as well as the whole arena. I spent a very long time immersing myself in the environment. I walked around every part that was accessible to me and looked at it from every view possible. It felt like I was jumping back in time and experiencing a culture so similar to mine, in the sense of the big sports stadium and sporting being a large aspect of the culture, yet so far away in period.
Now remember, this whole time I have been carrying around my pack, which included a big camping backpack with all of my belongings and a smaller green bag. I liked to say that I was pack mulling. Often I would put the bag down to get a picture, so I would pick it up and say in my head trek along or alright get ready to pack mull again. It was pretty exhausting, but that wasn’t even the beginning.
After the Colosseum, I went to Palantine Hill and the Roman Forum, which is a place with a lot of Roman Ruins and structures. I had a great time wandering around and seeing the ruins. I explored for a very long time and had barely gotten to half when they announced that the park was closing in five minutes! So on that announcement, I did the best I could to get into the section of the park I hadn’t been to yet, so if they kicked me out I would at least walk through that part. Once I got there, I started exploring again… and five minutes passed, ten minutes passed and no announcement. So, I continued on and saw some amazing columns, buildings and structures. Another hour later, they finally started to make the announcements again, but at that point I had trekked throughout the entire property. Overall it was an awesome site to see, I was happy that I managed to make it there that day and I was exhausted from lugging my things and walking throughout the whole park. But to my great surprise, I realized there was a tram that took me from basically where I was almost directly to where I was staying and could meet Becky and her friends.
When I made it back we gave hugs and were excited to see each other in Rome! For our first night out, we walked to a place called Eataly, where it is basically a shopping mall for food. There are different restaurants and places to buy food throughout the entire huge building. We found a nice place to get pasta and I ate one of the most delicious gnocchi’s of my life. It was these little fluffy pillows of gnocchi that were covered in a zucchini sauce, it was fabulous. We then went downstairs to a bakery for a cannoli. The cannoli was definitely everything I dreamed of an Italian cannoli. Yum! I was quite happy.
Joelle, a friend from high school, came and joined us at Eataly! It was so nice to see her again, it has been quite a long time. We all walked back to the apartment and my exhausted body went straight to bed.
Saturday, April 10th 2015
This morning started out with a walking tour of Rome. We saw the Spanish Steps and some fountains and some monuments, but overall we didn’t like the tour guide, so I just wandered enjoying the pretty views. We grabbed some Italian pizza for lunch which was quite good. The sell the pizza by the weight, so you can pick a few flavors and they weigh out the pizza. It ends up being quite cheap. I had a potato pizza, which is traditional, and very tasty. The afternoon was then spent in the Vatican. We went into the Vatican museum (skipping the entire line thanks to Joelle’s excellent forethought). The museum was incredible. I ended up getting lost from the group because I saw so encapsulated by the place. There were some incredible sculptures (yes so cool that I even took pictures of them). The most incredibly thing to me was the ceilings. They were so intricately painted and detailed. The entire place had some amazing history and beauty.
Finally, at the end of the tour, I made it to the Sistine Chapel. I walked in and was amazed. Amid the yelling at people not to take pictures and the screams of Silence, I was incredibly impressed. It felt like I was stepping into one of my history books, because I have spent a decent amount of time studying some of the paintings that appear on the ceilings and walls of the chapel. This is certainly one of the most memorable things that I have seen while touring. I just wanted to lay back and listen to Mr. Dunbar (9th grade Western Civilizations Teacher) explain and discuss the paintings.
Eventually I left and decided to wander around a bit more before heading back to the apartment. I walked passed someone with an amazing looking gelato cone and went up to them and asked if she got the gelato from the place nearby. She looks up and says “Jamie?”. I didn’t recognize her at first, but after a few minutes it was obvious. I had somehow went up to Rachel Coby, a friend from Camp Wayne! I haven’t talked to or seen any of the girls from Camp Wayne in many many years. The last year I went was after 7th grade! I certainly had tried to put that time behind me as well, because my last two years at that camp were not exactly shining memories (no, my parents money didn’t go to waste, I loved the activities and the camp just didn’t exactly match well with the girls at the camp in my age group). So when Rachel was sitting in front of me, surprised and happy to see me it was a mind blowing moment. We did the small talk catch up and it was actually quite nice to hear in her voice that she was also happy to see me. After we were done chatting she pointed me in the direction of the desired gelato. I actually had to wait in quite a bit of a line for the gelato, but it was well worth it. This gelato was fantastic, and they dipped it in chocolate! All I can say was that I was quite the happy camper.
I made my way back to the apartment so I could rest and get ready for dinner. We went out to dinner with our group along with one of Becky’s friends from American University and their friends. I spent most of the night talking to Jeana, who was Becky’s friend’s friend’s friend. She was super nice and I really enjoyed her company. For dinner, I got a price fix menu and between the few people I was sharing with a whole arrangement of Italian dishes. Everything was of course delicious and it was fun to try a lot of things. We also had quite a few glasses of the very good house wine with dinner. It was fabulous.
After dinner we went out to a few drinks to experience the nightlife. It was a fun and enjoyable evening!
Sunday, April 11th 2015
This morning was started with a trip to a flea market. I have to say, it was very impressive and there were a lot of things there. After hearing the story about the Moroccan torah in Barcelona, I am now paying more attention to the random things that people sell. The stands truly do sell random things, from toothbrushes to lotions to bread to antiques. I stopped by someone selling bread and asked for a small piece of their bread and they didn’t even let me pay, just gave me the taste! I then found one of the best gifts ever… but I can’t tell you about it because it was a surprise. Next month check back and you can see what is was! Either way, I realized that all of the things they sell in the market look like nothing to most people, but then you find something that is perfect for you, and that is how they sell things and the markets are successful.
We then went into the city to Avantine Hill, which is a garden of orange trees on the top of a hill. It had an amazing view of the city and it was so pretty! We then wandered around the city, seeing some ruins, some great views and some very historically interesting places. We even ran into what looked like a crazy intense field day. For lunch I needed to feel healthy so I enjoyed a nice salad. |
That afternoon, we wandered into an incredible church. I think on trip advisor it is technically rated the highest in Rome. It was really very beautiful and we sat in there for quite a bit enjoying the atmosphere. Then we went to see the Trevi fountain. We knew it was under construction, but we were not prepared for how sad it actually way. It was pretty covered and the fountain was off. We got to walk across a bridge infront of it, where the water normally is, but the fountain was so disappointing. Also, in the movies it looked like it was on a huge pretty square, where it is really just on a small square with lots of touristy things around it.
I have to say, if you’ve noticed about my blog post so far, I really liked the things to see in Rome. But, unfortunately I very much disliked walking around the city. Everything was incredibly touristic and filled of people selling to tourists. I started by being nice to them and saying no, but at some point I was driven so crazy by the people selling selfi-sticks that I would just push by them or say NO! It was really obnoxious and ruined the atmosphere of Rome for me.
I have to say, if you’ve noticed about my blog post so far, I really liked the things to see in Rome. But, unfortunately I very much disliked walking around the city. Everything was incredibly touristic and filled of people selling to tourists. I started by being nice to them and saying no, but at some point I was driven so crazy by the people selling selfi-sticks that I would just push by them or say NO! It was really obnoxious and ruined the atmosphere of Rome for me.
I saw a few more things in Rome before heading back to the apartment. For dinner we met up with Jeana again and she brought us to a very traditional restaurant. I got a pizza with mushrooms and provolone on it and got to try and share with everyone else their dishes. After dinner, just Jeana and I went to get gelato. It was nice to just chill with her, chat and eat some amazingly delicious gelato. It was a lovely last night
Monday, April 12th 2015
I woke up super early today to see St. Peter’s Cathedral. It was totally worth it. I didn’t wait in line at all and the inside was beautiful. I didn’t really connect to it though, so it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I spent the morning enjoying the Vatican City and the gorgeous sun. I enjoyed some amazing gnocchi with tomato sauce before heading off to the airport to start the next leg of my trip.