When in Roma!

So Thursday night, the 4^th, was my friend Ben’s 21^st 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.

The link to my Facebook photo album from the trip is not fully uploaded yet, but will be finished shortly.

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 14^th through the 20^th 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’m off to bed! Buona serata!