ROME!

Woah, Rome's being attacked by a giant cat! Oh... no, wait, that's just left over from my WILD Spring break. Oh the college lifestyle.

So, I woke up Friday morning with two cold sores. I already knew my body hated me, this is just one more example. I was feeling a little better for some sleep, but certainly not at my best. I went and changed my money at the bank and then departed for Stansted to meet Lisa and fly to Rome!

Ok, well, I waited half an hour for a late bus first, but whatever. I got to the airport super early anyway and had a delicious blueberry muffin while I waited for Lisa's bus to arrive. It came right on time, and we checked in and went to our gate. Then they changed the gate so we marched on over to the other side of the airport and waited there. Then they changed the gate again, so we went back in the direction we had come, and down some stairs, and waited there. Then they changed the gate AGAIN, so we went back up the stairs and to the gate right across from where the second gate was and waited there - and dashed onto the plane before they could change it again.

The flight was pretty short, especially after the flight from America. We landed more or less on time and proceeded to look for our bus. We found it and had to wait a good long while for it to fill up and leave. It dropped us off at Termini, the central station in Rome, from whence we would catch the Metro (like the Tube) to the stop near the Metro Hotel where we were staying.

The bus dropped us off in front of some scaffolding, and we looked around, confused, unable to find an entrance to Termini. So we walked down the building, looking for the way in, when a taxi driver hailed us and told us that Termini was closed now for rennovations and he could take us to where we needed to go. We asked how much it would be to go to Hotel Metro and he declined, saying it was way too far for him to go, and why didn't we stay in one of the hotels in central Rome? He didn't seem to understand the concept of being a student with not much money. He offered to take us to another Metro station though. We agreed, because Termini really did look closed, and he took us to another station, talking the whole time about how we'd be better off in a nicer hotel. We got there and he cautioned us to wear our backpacks around the front because of all the pickpockets, and told us which way to go to get to the stop by our hotel. Slightly less than thrilled, we headed into the station.

The station was pretty deserted, so no worry of pickpockets really. We rode the line to its end and got off and looked around, unsure of which way to go. We asked a guy in a bright yellow vest if he could tell us where Hotel Metro was, and he said yes and pointed us in entirely the wrong direction (We asked a guy in a bright yellow vest because in Britain, that means you're a city worker. When we told Lisa's friends Megan and Steph about this later they looked at us like we were nuts). So we went in that direction for a very long time, and asked another guy in a bright yellow vest if we were going the right way, but he only had a little English along with his Italian and French. So we went into a cafe and asked there, and they pointed us back the way we came. So we retraced our steps almost all the way back to the Metro station, where we stopped in another cafe and asked again.

The head waiter guy in this cafe promptly produced a business card with a map on the back for Hotel Metro. Then one of the waitresses took us outside to point out some landmarks and give us very specific directions (in Italian). One of the customers came over and translated for us and, finally knowing where to go, we set off again. This time we actually found the hotel! It was only a block or two away from the Metro stop in the other direction. But the hotel was walled and gated and locked. We found an intercom and they let us in and we finally checked in around midnight.

Our room was on the ground floor, and you entered from the parking lot/courtyard thing, so the door opened directly to the outside. Two beds, a bathroom with a shower, not too bad for the price. Plus free breakfast. Of course the bathroom smelled a little like a sewer and the beds were the hardest slabs of foam you ever sat on and people smoked outside our door... but hey, it was a place to sleep.

I didn't sleep too well that first night - jet lag, and sickness, and an unfamiliar bed, you know. Apparantly Lisa didn't either because when our alarm went off at nine, we sort of just looked at eachother and went back to sleep for another couple of hours, skipping breakfast. When I woke up I had yet another cold sore, bigger than the first two combined : ( That's why my smiles look a little pained in the few pictures I'm in - it's because they ARE.

When we left the hotel, Rome positively took my breath away.



Sunny, warm, clear blue skies... and there is sooo much green in the city, it looks like it's just bursting with life. That first day Lisa and I decided to check out the Vatican, so we hopped on the Metro. Our route took us right through Termini station which looked suspiciously not-closed-for-renovations...



It's a hilly city.



No, I wasn't standing in the street. I'm on a sidewalk.



You can sort of see a neat dome behing the trees...

Before we got to Vatican City, we stopped for lunch in a little pizzaria and split a Margherita Pizza and some brucietta... man was it good. The tomatoes on the brucietta were soooo fresh, and the skin was just lightly salted... who knew salt could do so much. The pizza was also truly excellent, on par with the Pizzaria Roma pizza in Brasov.



Here we are in Vatican city! This is a courtyard with a huge gold ball in it.



And here is a pine cone.

Ok, so the thing about the Vatican (and this is especially true of the Vatican Museum) is that they don't put plaques or identifying tags on anything, so you don't know what most of the really cool stuff you're looking at IS unless you hire a tour guide, which Lisa and I did not do.



Architecture is amazing.



Big kitty! From Egypt!



A view from a window in the Vatican Museum



This is an enormous bowl. I do not know what it was used for but this sucker is BIG.




The guy's name was Meh. That's awesome.



The greenery was really just overwhelming. This window opened onto the grounds of the Vatican. The Pope's got some nice views. Of course, he wasn't in at this time, he was, in fact, in America : P



More views from the windows... I really was in a museum I swear, but I've never been in a museum with so many open windows... the stuff inside was cool too I guess, but we were really there to see the Sistine Chapel, which culminates the loooooooooong walk through the museum, and where you are not allowed to take pictures.

The Sistine Chapel was gorgeous though. Paintings cover absolutely every surface except the floor. You could sit in there for hours and still find things to look at. Of course it was very crowded. No pictures aloud, and talking must be kept to a whisper. They have a guard whose job it is to go SHHHHHH! when the voices get too loud. Reminded me of my gradeschool cafeteria
: P Anyway, there is even more museum to go through after the Sistine Chapel, but Lisa and I were pretty museumed out by the time we got there, so we exited instead.




More view! I love the way the streets turn in the city, and the way the city has many hilly levels, and of course, all the freaking trees!



Dome!

Right so the Vatican took up most of the day. We took the Metro to the Colleseum, where Lisa called Steph and Megan, her marching band friends who are studying abroad in Rome, to see if they wanted to meet, and we planned to get together around seven. So we had a few hours to walk to the place where we'd meet up.



So we looked at the freaking Coliseum!



This thing is ENORMOUS. We decided to save it for the next day when we'd have more time.



Pretty green Rome.



Oh yeah, so like how there are trees everywhere, there are also ruins everywhere! Just sort of nestled in amongst the buildings. You never know when you'll turn a corner and find some monument or ancient building.



Hilly cities are pretty.



The ruins down there are, I think, part of the area where the Forum is.

On the way to meet Megan and Steph, we stopped to get gelato. I had strawberry and banana, and it was seriously like eating fruit... it was delicious ^.^ We got a little lost once or twice, turned around in the curvy streets of Rome, but eventually we found our way to the bus stop where we'd be meeting them. There was a bookstore there, so we went in there and explored and I got to buy an Italian copy of Peter Pan ^.^

Then we met up with Megan and Steph, and they took us to see the Pantheon.



Which is freaking GIANT.



See those people sitting on the steps? They are normal sized. The building is just HUMONGOUS.



This is Lisa and I in front of the Spanish Steps, which are just COVERED in flowers



This is a picture of the Spanish Steps without the nighttime filter turned on...



Then I remembered I had a nighttime filter, and here you see a veritable waterfall of flora...

Then Lisa, Steph, Megan, and I went for dinner at a little cafe where the head waiter was super nice. It was awesome going to eat and walking around Rome with Steph and Megan. They are both really friendly, full of cool information, and can speak Italian!

So at this Italian restaurant, I got gnocchi. It was SO good. It was just delicious.... yummm Italian food...

Next we went to go see Trevi Fountain, which is apparantly a famous fountain in Rome. Go figure : P



It's an allegory of the sea!

The fountain was beautiful all lit up at night. Lisa has some pictures of all of us in front of it that I intend to steal as soon as she posts them.

We wandered back to Megan and Steph's hotel then. They are in Italy through a St. Mary's program. They are staying in a four star hotel... jealousy!

They put us on the right bus to get back to Termini where we would take the Metro back to our hotel. Travel went without a hitch and, thoroughly exhausted, Lisa and I went to bed.



Oh, here is our hotel, by the by. This is the next morning after we've totally torn apart the beds...



It's a rather white room.



Here's the bathroom. Yeah, that's a shower nozzle just sort of hanging out in the middle of nowhere... no, there's no shower curtain, or even an indentation or raised area in the floor for the shower. The shower pretty much is the whole bathroom... instead of being a bathroom with a shower in it, it's a shower that happens to have a sink and a toilet in it...

This day we actually did drag ourselves out of bed and went to breakfast, which was tasty scones and yogurt for me, although there were many more options as well. Oh, and juice of some sort... possibly banana. Depends on what Anana is in English : P

After breakfast we checked out and set forth once more, this time with our luggage on our backs. The plan for the day: Coliseum, then plane.



Another beautiful day in Rome. Man that Coliseum is big. It is possible to go into the Coliseum, but the line was stretched practically around the Coliseum itself... the same goes for the forum, and we decided we simply did not have enough time left in Rome to spend it standing in lines.



That's me in front of the Coliseum! Way in front : P



Giant arch! No, I don't know any more than that. Just that Romans built things BIG.



The ever-present greenery

Lisa and I wandered up a steep path called Via Sacra. It is a cobblestoned road, walled on both sides. Through occasional openings in the wall you can catch glimpses of the Forum and Palantine, among other things, in it. The path culminates in the stations of the cross, and finally, a small church with enormous, beautiful paintings in it that is, nevertheless, completely untended. I didn't take pictures of those because it feels odd taking pictures of holy things... but I got lots of scenery!

Professor Ponder has the following to say about the Via Sacra: It is the oldest road in Rome. It used to go through the Forum and Palantine (but now it's blocked off from that way) and it was the road on which triumphant generals would march and display the spoils of war. It was, she says, literally the heart of the city.... good to know.



Ruins!



There are more ruins through these trees, I promise.



Bits of walls. Behind the trees.



Arches.



An old wall that is, nevertheless, not quite a ruin because I think there's a rectory on the other side of it that is still in use.



Saints standing on a roof. Good job guys!



Some architecture with columns! again, beyond the tree...



More architecture!



Columns in the lower left, dome in the upper right, who knows what between...



Just... Rome, you know?



This is the exit of the Coliseum. I tried to get a shot of the inside, but dude... people.



I stood at the bottom of the Coliseum and looked up... it's tall.



More of the Coliseum



Four large stone tablet outside the Coliseum. They are not grave markers... I don't know what they are...



Rome! Trees! A building!



Some columns, a beautiful blue sky...



A half ruined dome and those same columns...

Lisa and I got some lunch. I had a pizzanini - basically a pizza folded in half and put in a panini press. As we sat and ate, some legionaires wandered by and performed their military drills and sheild formations, which was random, but pretty cool. they were completely surrounded by a wall of people though so I didn't see too much of it.

After we ate, we took the Metro back to Termini and wandered around looking for our bus. We found it and went back to the airport and caught our plane. We landed back in chilly England and caught our busses back to London and Colchester, respectively. On the way back to Colchester it started to pour. Seriously. On the stop just before University, our driver left. I don't know if it was time for a shift change or what, but me and one other kid were sitting on the bus waiting for a driver for about a half an hour, which was annoying.

When I finally, FINALLY got back to the room, I took a shower, ate dinner, and just sat down. It was lovely.

Today I didn't want to wake up for lecture, and as it turns out, I shouldn't have. It was cancelled, as we found out after showing up. So I went back to the room and had a wonderful nap, finally waking up around 2 in the afternoon and proceeding to do nothing.

Tomorrow, the goal is to get out and go grocery shopping!

The end!