15

Ah, Roma.

Three of us visited this weekend. We left Florence bright and early and took the long train (four hours) to Rome. We booked into a hotel that others from our group had booked, which turned out to be a disaster. It was a really nice hotel, but was a twenty minute cab ride outside the city, which is useless when you want to actually visit historical places. After quite a bit of arguing with the hotel, we managed to cancel our reservation and move to a hotel in a much better location (thanks to booking.com). Just the three of us moved.

The second hotel was nothing special, but well located not more than a fifteen minute walk from most of the stuff we wanted to visit. We nicknamed it Guantanamo Bay though thanks to some interesting security measures. Our room was on the fourth floor. We had to walk up one set of stairs outside the hotel lobby, go through a first door, walk up another three flights of stairs, unlock a giant wooden door, walk through a hallway, unlock an iron grate kind of prison door, walk down a hallway, and unlock our room. Many many keys.

Friday afternoon we visited the Forum first. It's really pretty, but was a lot of walking on rather painful stones. You'd think that the Romans would have used flat stones for paving, but apparently not. I discovered my new favorite phrase: Neronian Cryptoporticus. We visited it, but I'm still not sure exactly what it is. Some kind of dingy hallway maybe?

After that we went to the Colosseum. After that to the Trevi Fountain. We had a decent dinner around there before heading back early to the hotel and passing out with exhaustion. Rome is a lot of walking.

The second day (Saturday) we were up bright and earlyish to visit Vatican City. Surprisingly, we only waited for a half hour in line before going in. It was disgustingly crowded. I didn't really want to go, but one of the girls I was with had never been to Rome before and did want to see it. I guess it's just not important to me. I even skipped going into the Basilica. Whatever.

After that we were planning on going to at art museum that the other girl I was with wanted to visit, but had a bunch of issues with the bus schedule and tickets and whatnot. Honestly, I'm glad because there's only so much art I can stand to see in a day. The Vatican filled that quota for me.

We ended up in the Piazza Navona instead, looking at the fountain and people watching while enjoying fresh Bellinis.

After that we went to the Pantheon (which of course was in the middle of Mass when we arrived). After waiting we were able to go inside. Once again, not that interesting the second time around. We headed to the Spainish Steps afterwards and managed to catch the end of a concert that a band of firemen were playing, which was fantastic. The best part was when they played the Italian national anthem and everyone in the crowd started singing. Pretty cool.

We had the best dinner I've had so far in a little side street not far from the steps. Amazing bruschetta and eggplant parmesean. Plus the most delicious house wine I've ever drunk. A friend ate cockeral, which was also interesting, though somewhat disappointing (it was very dry). My meal was great though.

Sunday one of the girls left early because I really wanted to visit the catacombs, and she did not. Honestly I was very glad because she was really getting on my nerves. I'm friends with her, but I've decided that I don't really want to spend any more extended time in close proximity with her. Maybe it's just that we don't have anything in common besides being transfer students and being on this trip together. She's loud and bouncy and seriously chatty, none of which apply to me. I just don't get people who talk all the time. Is there something wrong with silence? I think it can be really peaceful. Why bother talking if what you're saying isn't worthwhile?

I did get a bit snappy with her, which I feel bad about. It could have been worse though. I could have said what I was really thinking. Or thrown something at her, which I seriously considered at several points. For example, however the topic came up, I told her that one of my serious pet peeves is people singing and shouting in public places (and generally being obnoxious). Apparently this made it hilarious to her to start singing everywhere we went. Are you kidding me? I sure as hell meant what I said and would be happy to punch you in the face if you don't close your mouth. Especially in the mornings. I do not do mornings. I do not function like a human being. I do not need you in my face.

On a positive note though, the other girl was fantastic (the one who hadn't visited Rome before). She is fairly quiet and we got on really well. The two of us made the journey out to the catacombs on Sunday. Thanks to getting off at the wrong bus stop, we had to walk 600m to a fork in the road, 900m somewhat backtracking to the first catacombs. We stupidly decided we would rather visit the other ones instead and walked another 600m to farther ones, which were closed. We walked back to the first ones, which were closed for another hour and fifteen minutes. Let's just say it didn't run so smoothly.

The Roman road that we walked was really cool though. Nice and straight and beautiful. After a decent wait we got on a guided tour, which was really cool. The catacombs were amazing. 500,000 people buried in the one we saw (100,000 of which were babies). It was a labyrinth of tombs built into the walls. It was interesting to see the way early Christianity has changed to where it is today. Different symbols, different languages. Pretty cool.

On our way out it started pouring with rain. So gross. More gross were the creepy guys we had to sit next to on the train back, who kept talking in whatever language (Slovakian or something) and staring at us. Asking us where we were from. I pretended to sleep to avoid it, but definitely felt a hand stroke my leg. Gross. Go buy some deoderant, learn either English or Italian, and try your creeping with someone stupider. When you stare at us and start talking with a dirty little smile, we do know you're talking about us. Ew.

Back in Florence safe and sound at the moment though. Hooray. I'm in midst of planning a trip to Southern Italy for the weekend after this one.