Colosseum

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).

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.

Arrival

I made it safely to Rome and my hostel today. It has already been quite an adventure, and it's only the first day. The flight to Rome was okay... The flight itself wasn't too bad, but there was very little leg room, which made it difficult to sleep. I probably got about 4 hours of sleep in all. From the airport, I made my way onto the Leonardo express, which is the train that runs to Termini, the train station in Rome. The train ride was quite pleasant. I saw some of the countryside and took a nap. It was during the train ride that it actually started to hit me that I was in Italy.

After the train ride, things got a bit bumpy. My hostel is only a 10-15 minute walk from the train station, but I got very turned around coming out of the station. It took me about 45 minutes to find it, which made me sweaty, tired and frustrated. I was so relieved when I finally made it and was able to plop down on a bed. I was thrilled that it was super easy to connect to their wifi, so I was able to call home using skype.

Just after I hung up the phone, a girl walked up to me and asked if I had any suggestions on where to get something to eat. I said no but that I'd love to join her. Her name was April, and she's from Arizona. We took a suggestion of a pizza place from one of the staff members, but ended up not being able to find the one she suggested. We ate at a different pizza place that wasn't anything special. We decided to wander around for a while, and stopped in at the first gelateria that we saw. Oh my god, it was so good. We both got three scoops on a cone. I chose crem caramel, something called riso and nutella, which I decided was like frozen rice pudding with a nutella swirl, and cioccolato à coco, which turned out to be chocolate and coconut. I was in heaven.

We burned off all the food by taking what ended up being a 2 hour stroll through the neighborhood nearby. We stopped in at Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. It was so beautiful. I loved the ornate ceilings. I wish I had brought my camera. I didn't bring it because I thought we were just going out for a quick bite. I guess I learned my lesson on that one.

We may go out tonight. If I can manage it... I'm pretty tired.

Underway

The day that I was fairly convinced would never arrive is finally here. I am Europe bound, by way of Toronto. I have a 3 hour layover here, then I take an overnight flight to Rome, getting in around noon local time.

This whole trip is rather loose. I have very little actually planned. I didn't even start packing until about 8:30 last night, and even then it was in between dinner and going out to see friends. My life has been very full lately, and I think that prevented me from meticulously planning every aspect of the trip like my nature would require. But I'm hoping this is a good thing... I hope it makes me looser and more flexible. More open to possibility. I have an idea of how this trip will go in my head, but I know I'm going to have to push myself to achieve that ideal.

My flight here was mostly uneventful. I was given a seat in 'economy plus' which meant extra leg room. Pretty sweet, although I wish it had been for my flight to Rome instead, since I only got to enjoy it for an hour. On a bit nerdier note, I'm excited about all the stuff my iPhone can do. I'm updating this blog with a pretty sweet app, and I made a skype to skype call for free! Thank goodness for unsecured wifi!

Oh by the way, I changed some settings around. Now anyone can post comments, not just people with accounts. Also, I decided to set the time to Rome, instead of eastern standard. We'll see which way is less confusing.

Check, One-Two...

Instead of working on packing for my trip, for which I leave Wednesday, I am setting up this blog. I think I found a good app for my iPhone to use to post entries on here. I really am just procrastinating right now. I hate picking out clothes to pack. It seems like such a big task since I am taking so few items. I have to choose very wisely. I also have done very little in the way of planning my itinerary and points of interest. I have a rough idea where I will be going, but have yet to select the sights I'd like to see there. I am hoping this will force me to be spontaneous, rather than make for a bad trip. We shall see.