Roma

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OK so Roma was a blast, and here is how it all went down…
I caught a direct flight to Roma at 1:00 in the afternoon from Málaga and arrived in there at about 3:30. Alitalia is Italy’s “official” airline, and they were very accommodating (but still not better than SwissAir). When I arrived in the airport, the hostel which I was staying at picked me up and brought me to their site. Club Castelfusano is a small village of bungalows and camping grounds for this hostel and they offer free shuttles to the Metro station to bring you into the city. The hostel also has a bar and club, pool, hot-tub, 2 restaurants, and tennis courts that people can use…but I was more interested in Roma; so I passed on all of that stuff. Now when I say “camp grounds”, I really mean that I was camping. I had an entire 4 person tent to myself for the weekend. I was just one of about the 200 tents they have on the premises and 100 bungalows. The tent was of course in the woods with everything else, had a refrigerator, a tarp covered wood foundation, and a set of bunk-beds. It was the perfect place to get some quiet, and to crash after a long day in the city. So by the time I finally got settled in, I took the Metro into the city to get a quick bite to eat (un Calazoni). Then I did some quick exploring so I would know where to go for the next day, and then headed back to the hostel.
The next day, the weather was a sticky 85 degrees. Just walking around for a short period of time would make you sweat bullets, and it was like that all weekend long. As soon as you entered the city you could just smell the tourists (me included). I got myself some pizza for a morning snack and found the tourist office to get a map of the city. For the rest of the day, my goal was to orientate myself with some of the main sites like the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Trivi Fountain, and the Vatican City. The day after that, I actually went inside all those crazy sites, and found some new things to check out, like the Spanish Steps, and a small cathedral that has been decorated by the bones of over 4,000 monks in catacombs. All of it was really cool; however, the lines to get into some of these places were impressive. I only waited for about 25 minutes in the line to get into St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, but I was all the way around the entrance to the main area. You might get a better idea of how many people there actually were from the picture. I saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II in the cemetery below the church and walked around the basilica for a while. I thought one of the most impressive things were the Swiss Guards that were around the city. Only they can dress in all those crazy colors and still be considered total bad asses. Very cool. To beat the heat on Sunday, I sat in the Pantheon and “people-watched” for a while. People from all over the world come to Roma to see the architecture of these amazing structures all over the city. It was really interesting to hear the plethora of languages that people are able to speak, and how the people around them react to hearing these new sounds. I did this again at the Trivi Fountain, but mostly I just enjoyed watching the Italian police walk around the area and blow their whistles at every parent that let their kids climb on the structure.
In conclusion…I need to go back to Roma so that I can see more of these sites. The entire city is ancient, and there are ruins spread out all over the city. Everywhere you turn there is something new that you haven’t noticed yet. The dozens of street artists and performers make for an amazing atmosphere as well. Also, every Italian restaurant that offers waiter services, has waiters dressed in clean white shirts, straight black pants, and either a black bow tie or a nice silk tie. I recommend everyone to get out and see this place for yourselves, and don’t worry about the language barrier…almost everyone speaks English (it’s becoming the new universal language). I hope you all love the photos!

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