So Thursday night, the 4th, was my friend Ben’s 21st birthday, and what better place to celebrate it than in Rome?
Well, after a few train delays (always always always in Balogna) we finally arrived in Rome around 10 pm, over an hour late for our pub crawl. We got a quick drink and explored the city a little bit and then went back to our hostel. My friend, Leigh Ann, who was with us, lived in Rome for a month last summer so we were able to get the inside scoop on everything ROMA.
So the hostel was an interesting experience. It was a private room that four of us shared, we had our own bathroom, and it was only €20 per night for each of us, but we were in a sort of dingy part of Rome (think of Italy’s answer to Chinatown in NYC), near/not so near Termini train station, and the traffic could be heard LOUD AND CLEAR through our closed window every morning. So that was kind of annoying, but hey, When in Rome, right?
So first of all, the Termini train station, the main station in Rome, is basically a shopping mall. It’s huge and contains every kind of store you could ever need. There was a McDonalds inside of it and across the street, and most people in Rome spoke English.
We bought Roma Passes for €23, which gave us three days of unlimited access of the Metro system (the subway), free admission to two museums, and discounts at others. This was by far the greatest deal ever.
Some of the sites we saw included Vatican City, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Trajan’s Column, the Trevi Fountain, and more that I know I’m forgetting. I didn’t get to the Sistine Chapel this time, but I will be returning to Rome in the next few weeks and will definitely see it then.
I could continue bore you and myself with a reflection of all the sites we saw, but the pub crawls were by far the best part of Rome. We went on one Friday night and had so much fun that we went and found another to go on Saturday night. Both nights, we paid €20 for a t-shirt (I took an extra one each night, so I came home with four new t-shirts), unlimited drinks at the first bar, pizza, and then one free shot at every other bar we went to. The first night we made it to three bars total and the last night we made it to the fourth and final bar before the four of us WALKED ALL THE WAY back to the hostel. I haven’t the slightest clue how far it was, but I’m glad I wore tennis shoes both nights.
So this was our last travel weekend of the summer, because my study abroad program ends on Friday. I have my two finals that day, and then I will be catching a bus to Venice at 2:30 pm, and picking up Heddy at the Marco Polo airport around 10:30 pm (hopefully). I have not finalized logistics yet, but as of now the plan is to book a hostel with a few other CIMBA people in Venice Friday night, possibly stay in Venice Saturday night, and then Heddy and I will head off to either Greece or Florence (haven’t decided yet). The tentative plan is to spend the week of the 14th through the 20th somewhat repeating what I have already seen, but this is not a problem because 1). I now know how to navigate myself around Italy, 2). I can’t wait to go back to all of these places anyway, especially Cinque Terre, and 3). We will likely have a free place to stay in Rome, with Heddy’s friend who lives and works there as an English teacher. After that, we’re basically winging it.
I will try to update as often and be able to Skype as often I can. I will be keeping my computer with me in Italy, but it may be locked in a train station for a few periods at a time. I do have a European cell phone now and will be texting periodically to let you know where I am and when. Heddy also has a phone with her.
I was hoping that I would be better at keeping up with this! I'm sorry that this hasn't been as regular as I would have hoped!
Anyways, Cinque Terre was the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life! Cinque Terre, which means "Five Lands" is composed of 5 adorable towns in the Liguria region of Italy, along of the coast of the Ligurian Sea. The towns are Monterosso (#5) , Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore (#1). My four travel mates and I stayed in an apartment for three nights just off of the harbor in Riomaggiore (check out the view from our window!!!). I bought a post card while I was there, and you can actually see our apartment on the postcard - in other words, we had an awesome view and fell asleep and woke up to the sounds of the sea.
(The reasoning behind the title: one of our travel buddies, Ben, got stung by a small jelly fish one day when we all swam out to some rocks to sunbathe. He was fine though. And the busted ankle was Matt - who fell really hard one night while we were exploring the nightlife in Monterosso.)
Cinque Terre has beautiful rock beaches and great views, but the real purpose of going is the hike the 9K trail along the coast through all five towns. The entire hike is estimated to take approximately 5 hours (there are some very difficult, steep parts of the trail). We completed the hike it 3 hours and 45 minutes. We are BAD ASS. Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the hike, but I got the best views in.
Anway, we're off to Rome this weekend. It's Ben's 21st birthday today, so we're planning on doing a pub crawl in Rome tonight to celebrate. €20 and we get a t-shirt, free wine/beer for an hour, and then 1 free drink from every bar we got to. Can't wait!!!! Rome is going to be way cool, look forward to pictures!
