The past few days have been a jam packed blur. I still cant believe I'm actually here. After the last post I wrote, April and I took a night stroll to the colosseum. It was amazing all lit up. Well, amazing in general too, since this was the first time I had seen it. 
Yesterday morning I got up nice and early, enjoyed the free hostel breakfast, then set out for the colosseum again. I went and bought a Roma pass, which costs 23€ and gets you free admission to two sites, discounts at a whole slew of others, and three days free use of the transit system. Plus, you don't have to stand in line at the sites. It's a pretty sweet deal.
So I picked that up, and jumped right in to the colosseum, which was awesome. Instead of paying for a tour, I downloaded a walking tour podcast, which was pretty good. Did you know that the colosseum held 50,000 spectators, and yet they could empty the place in 15 minutes? How very efficient.
After that, I toured palatine hill and the roman forum, since they're considered one site with the colosseum. The forum was really cool. I used the walking tour podcast again, which was good except it was sometimes difficult to tell which set of ruins I was supposed to be looking at.
Afterwards, I wandered around for a while trying to find a restaurant that my guidebook recommend. I finally decided it didn't exist, and picked a place on the street. It turned out to be quite good, and I had spaghetti carbonara and a glass of white wine (which I ordered in Italian!)
After returning home and taking a nap, I ate the free pasta dinner that the hostel serves on the weekends. The pasta was mediocre but the company was good. April and I rounded up some girls ( the two Argentinian girls, Poich and Inez, and a girl from LA named Catherine) and headed out for the evening. On the recommendation of the ladies who work at the hostel, we decided to head for Campo di Fiore. The ladies were getting off work as we were leaving, so they rode the bus with us and showed us where to get off. They also informed us that it wasn't necessary to buy tickets this time of night, as nobody comes around to check them. There seems to be inspectors that randomly get on and spot check everyones tickets. So, we made our way to Campo di Fiore, picked a bar, and got to it. We chatted with some Americans who live here and work as tour guides, and had a drink with them. We shared a bottle of prosecco and people watched.
We decided to check out Trastevere next, but couldn't find the bars, and ended up stopping for pizza instead. Let me tell you, that was the best pizza I've ever had. It was just cheese pizza, but it was so freaking good. We spent the rest of the evening wandering around trying to find something to do. We never did, but it was a lot of fun just wandering the streets of Rome. We stopped one more time, this time for paninis (them) and crepes (me).
Yesterday morning I got up nice and early, enjoyed the free hostel breakfast, then set out for the colosseum again. I went and bought a Roma pass, which costs 23€ and gets you free admission to two sites, discounts at a whole slew of others, and three days free use of the transit system. Plus, you don't have to stand in line at the sites. It's a pretty sweet deal.
So I picked that up, and jumped right in to the colosseum, which was awesome. Instead of paying for a tour, I downloaded a walking tour podcast, which was pretty good. Did you know that the colosseum held 50,000 spectators, and yet they could empty the place in 15 minutes? How very efficient.
After that, I toured palatine hill and the roman forum, since they're considered one site with the colosseum. The forum was really cool. I used the walking tour podcast again, which was good except it was sometimes difficult to tell which set of ruins I was supposed to be looking at.
Afterwards, I wandered around for a while trying to find a restaurant that my guidebook recommend. I finally decided it didn't exist, and picked a place on the street. It turned out to be quite good, and I had spaghetti carbonara and a glass of white wine (which I ordered in Italian!)
After returning home and taking a nap, I ate the free pasta dinner that the hostel serves on the weekends. The pasta was mediocre but the company was good. April and I rounded up some girls ( the two Argentinian girls, Poich and Inez, and a girl from LA named Catherine) and headed out for the evening. On the recommendation of the ladies who work at the hostel, we decided to head for Campo di Fiore. The ladies were getting off work as we were leaving, so they rode the bus with us and showed us where to get off. They also informed us that it wasn't necessary to buy tickets this time of night, as nobody comes around to check them. There seems to be inspectors that randomly get on and spot check everyones tickets. So, we made our way to Campo di Fiore, picked a bar, and got to it. We chatted with some Americans who live here and work as tour guides, and had a drink with them. We shared a bottle of prosecco and people watched.
We decided to check out Trastevere next, but couldn't find the bars, and ended up stopping for pizza instead. Let me tell you, that was the best pizza I've ever had. It was just cheese pizza, but it was so freaking good. We spent the rest of the evening wandering around trying to find something to do. We never did, but it was a lot of fun just wandering the streets of Rome. We stopped one more time, this time for paninis (them) and crepes (me).
We took the bus home, but the driver told us to get off at the Piazza Venizia, which is quite far from the hostel, so we walked. The walk from the bus was lovely. I like Rome during the day, but I am in love with Rome at night. All the buildings and fountains just look breathtakingly beautiful under moonlight. It made my heart ache to see it.
Hey, Lauren --
ReplyDeleteYour mom sent me your blog address, and I've had a nice time reading your posts so far. Be safe and enjoy the hell out of this experience! It will stay with you for a long time to come...
Love,
Jax