Spring Break; a Novella by Amy: Part 5- Roma, Italy

So our flight to Rome was pretty painless, other than the fact that we landed hugely ahead of schedule. We reserved for our hostel to pick us up from the airport at around midnight, and our flight landed at 10:30 p.m….wonderful. Oh well, the 5 of us literally sat in the pick-up area of the airport watching families be reunited for that time. (it made me thoroughly miss my own family, and made a tiny part of me want someone to come running at me for a hug when I get off the plane…but oh well) The driver showed up and literally had a sign with our name on it, didn’t say anything to us, and we all got into the shuttle bus.

Colesseum

Now going into Rome, we knew we weren’t going to have an awesome hostel experience, but what we got was a bit shocking even for our low expectations. It was a camping hostel, which again we knew…but what we didn’t know was that if you wanted a shower/bathroom that wasn’t shared with males you had to hike to the back of the campground. (we did) and that the “rooms” were separated by curtains. There was no heat in the rooms, and I’m pretty sure no insulation either. When we asked the desk for more blankets, the men running it simply grabbed blankets we had seen on beds earlier that were used n crumpled, they folded them n handed them to us…ew. So our guess was that the only thing getting cleaned in this place was the bathrooms. Oh well, we made the best of it and actually managed to have a lot of fun regardless of our sleeping situations. The plus sides of the hostel were: a free shuttle service to and from the metro line that takes you into the city, internet/computers(with 30 min. limit), restaurant/bar that doesn’t charge service taxing that we found in every other part of the city (booooo roma)

Going to rome was sort of another one of those bucketlist places everyone must visit. It’s incredibly old and the history behind everything is a little shocking. We had 3 days in the city and each one was slightly packed with different things. 

Nitty Gritty details:

Day 1: We got up bright and early and headed to the Colosseum. After walking all around it and taking many pictures, we moved on to Palentin hill and the Roman Forum. I spent the majority of the day in complete awe with how pretty and old everything was. One particularly weird moment was when Megan and I noticed one of the paintings had a description on it that said the romans had used plastic to make the masterpiece…how on earth did they have plastic back then? These people were so ridiculously ahead of their time. We ended our day by wandering a bit in hopes of sightseeing, but it started to downpour. We got lost and soaked before actually finding the metro, and heading back to the hostel for the night.

Day 2: This day was spent doing all things Vatican. Haha. But really. We spent the day in Vatican city, and saw many things I never thought I’d get to see, including: San Pietro (St. Peter’s Basilica), the Vatican Museum, and the Sistene Chapel. All of which were more amazing than words can do justice for, and even my pictures don’t begin to show how incredible it all is. After all things Vatican, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain were all of us made wishes and tossed in a few centimes, followed of course by more photos. ;) Next, and what ended day 2, was the Spanish steps. While they are very pretty, they were also the most touristy, and sort of awful in my opinion. There wasn’t really a moment of silence to be had during your time on the steps, but it was nevertheless very pretty.

St. Peter's Basilica

Day 3: Our last day in Rome was spent doing a little shopping, seeing the Pantheon, and finding a cute pizza place that didn’t charge tourist tax. The food was phenomenal, and the staff were actually nice to us! Roma win! It started to rain a bit, and Liana and I weren’t feeling like shopping or getting wet, so we went back to the hostel and chilled until the other girls made it back. Our last dinner in Rome was at the hostel restaurant, but it was fantastic. I had a pasta with lots of garlic and olive oil on it, and finally managed to get some Italian Tiramisu. =) yum.

This is when our group split; The next morning, Nikki and Megan headed back to Angers, while Liana, Leah and myself boarded our last plane; to Brussels. 

Mentionables:

Trevi Fountain

-Never assume people don’t speak your language. We had a few instances were…sadly…French people were being rude/gross behind us, and Leah did actually lose her temper once and yelled at them in French. They seemed more stunned that someone spoke their language, than that they were being yelled at. This is almost always the case, and is very ignorant; it is good to never assume that just because you’re in a country of which your language is not common people won’t know it…because well, they will, and you will come off as a huge douchebag.

-There is a Gelato place by the Vatican Museum that sells you a TON of gelato for 1.5 E, amazing, cheap, and delicious.

-Noone drinks tap water in Italy, even worse than in France…because they won’t even give it to you in restaurants.

-most restaurants in Italy charge you weird taxes for bread, and for many other rando things. Never assume that just because the menu looks cheap, that your bill will be; read the fine print on menus.

-While in line for touristy things, people will approach you asking if you’d like a private tour for a ridiculous cost…we got sick of them all approaching us about halfway through day 2, so when one more came up..we all pretended to not understand her no matter what language she switched to. Finally, she asked what language we spoke, to which Leah thought she could pull one over on the guide and said “Russian” …the guide was Russian…and started spewing it realllyyy fastly at us. Luckily when we all broke into laughter, she got the hint and walked away. Oh lord.

Pantheon

-Swiss guards may look funny, but I bet they have skills of bad-assery that we can’t even begin to fathom.

-you can buy pope kitch anywhere in rome.

-When it rains, many men will shove umbrellas in your face trying to get you to buy them, to the point where you would rather grab him and beat him with it, than to buy one from him.

-Stereotypes for me are abolished after studying abroad/travelling abroad. There are rude people from every country, but there are nice ones too..you just have to figure out who is who and go from there. 

 one more city to post about, can you handle the excitement? ;)