Living in Oslo: My Roman Holiday

In the Colosseum

Rome is officially my current favorite city... (though I seem to say that after every city)

Lets see if I can describe our trip in Rome without writing a novel

When we got off the train into Rome we were immediately overwhelmed! First of all we forgot to copy our directions to the hostel the last time we had wifi (sometime in Venice), so we literally had no idea where to go, we tried McDonalds who claimed they had wifi but McDonald's in Rome is a complete chaotic explosion, people everywhere.. it was nuts and the wifi didn't work. Finally I texted Kyle to login to my email and pull up the directions and then text me what it said. Thank god he had just woken up for work and that I get a few international texts every month!!!

After we got our directions we found our way to the hostel which is also owned by the owners of a little Italian restaurant where we got free breakfast & 10% off other meals. Score! The hostel was also very clean (unlike the Venice hostel) except our beds where like a brick.

Since we arrived by 1pm we spent that day exploring fountains, churches, ruins and random streets and places around our hostel. We found the Fountain of Trevi, a super famous and the largest fountain in Rome. And of course we threw coins into it, which ensures that we will return to Rome some day. We also found "the big white building", we later learned it was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's this HUGE white building, with a constant guard, covered in statues and typical Roman architecture. Wandering behind it we found the Ancient Rome ruins which lead to the Colosseum. Since the sun was setting and we had dinner plans we decided to not explore further yet. That night Ali & I met up with her brother's girlfriend who is studying in Rome for a few weeks at a Catholic campus. We got a delicious free dinner and then went into town where we found a local college bar decorated in US college banners!! I saw UW and CU, but sadly no CSU, but Ali's school UND was there!

The next day we went back to the Ancient Rome area and actually paid an entrance fee for something! (a rare thing for us cheap travelers) We figured the Colosseum was worth 12 euros. After thoroughly exploring ruins and churches alike we met up again with our friends from Oslo (the ones we met up with in Venice) for lunch and then we spent the rest of the day with them sitting by a river, sun bathing and drinking wine. For dinner that night we met up with their host (they were couch surfing instead of using hostels) who took us to a local bar where we got a drink + unlimited food for extremely cheap! It was really nice to spend the second half of the day relaxing and eating/drinking. Since we've arrived in Italy a week ago it's been go-go-go and we were starting to ache and get exhausted!

Thursday we went to Vatican City (Maundy Thursday, great timing!). On the way though we stopped by the Castel Sant' Angelo (Angels & Demons anyone?). It was a cool, perfectly round castle, with of course the expected angel statue on top! At the Vatican we went into St. Peters Basilica which was HUGE and gorgeous and then headed over to the Vatican Museum where we literally saw thousands and thousands of statues and paintings. All of the walls and ceilings where covered with these stunning paintings, there was a hall of tapestries woven into amazing pictures, a hall of maps that are still used to study ancient cities and the statues where from Ancient Greek and Roman times through more current, there was even an Egyptian pottery section and finally modern/contemporary art. According to a tour guide (who we may have followed/eavesdropped on) it would take 20 years to look at each art item individually because of how many there where. We ended in the Sistine Chapel where pictures where not allowed and yet everybody took them.. so I did too! After seeing so much art we were kind of sick of it and ready to be done by the end, (it took 2 hrs to see it all!). But it was still extremely impressive! I wish I could paint even 1/2 as good as any of the art we saw. Though sometimes I wonder if future art analysts will wonder what happened in the 21st century to make our art digress so much (I'm not a huge contemp art fan). After the museum we got the worlds BEST gelatto! You chose the size/price cone you want and then get as many scopes as you want for no extra charge + whip cream! ( I definitely got 3 scoops!) On top of the amazing amounts you get for much lower prices than other places in town, it really did taste the best and have the coolest flavors! (I highly recommend Old Bridge Gelattoria in the Vatican for anyone that visits)

By Friday we only had one main thing left to see, the Pantheon. The funny thing was that neither of us actually knew what it was. Turns out it's another church. This day our feet hurt so bad! We were literally in so much pain we had to take many breaks to just sit. We had powered through so much of this huge city in 3 days that we by Friday we were worn out and just spent the day wandering, eating and shopping. Apparently in Rome though you can't sit at a random fountain's park bench to eat McDonalds (yes we had that twice in Rome, it's cheap!), we tried to enjoy a quite lunch in a plaza but got chased off by a angry police woman. We found several cute and peaceful parks we wandered through and a couple local Italian neighborhoods that were absolutely stunning! We found one park that overlooked the whole city. It was cool to see all the statues that adorn the top of many of the buildings. That night we just packed in early and watched The Help on my computer. We are some pretty wild party girls.

Rome was amazing. It's hard to describe the city exactly. The atmosphere in parts was very city-ish but in other parts it felt like a small town. Overall it was huge! There is no way we covered even half of the full city, we just got to explore the center part and all the main tourists areas. It was extremely warm and I even burned one day. As beautiful as Venice was, it is extremely touristy, and while Rome obviously has parts that are touristy as well, it was easier for us to find areas away from it all and get to see true Italy. I only disliked two things. 1) we found out that unless you go somewhere very expensive all the food is frozen, not quite what I was hoping for. 2) The men are kinda gross, we've never felt so objectified in our lives. They openly stare, whistle etc to any girl that walks by (even to women with their husbands!). Other than these things, which I was able to ignore, it was great! Rome is a city I could never live in (I'm not a city girl by any means) but I know that I definitely want to go back!

We left Rome on a perfect day, it was stormy and rainy this morning. And now I'm in Greece soaking up even warmer sun and the beach! I can't believe this is real sometimes