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Published: September 12th 2014
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Well, Rome was a complete whirlwind, and it was over a week ago that I was there so we will see how well I can recall what I did. I arrived at the hostel around 10:00 am, met the girls (my college roommate's younger sister Heather and two others she was traveling with on a school related trip) immediately after checking in, and by about 10:30 am we were headed to the Coliseum. We didn't have time to go inside because we booked a Vatican tour at 1 pm that afternoon, but were able to get some really good views by walking around the outside. We wanted to fit in the Trevi Fountain so we hustled over there in hopes of snapping a couple good pictures and making a wish or two. To our extreme disappointment, it was under construction, so there was no water and you couldn't get a very good look at it 😞 At that point it was time to start heading to the Vatican to meet our tour group. The tour lasted 3 hours and was narrated by a very witty Italian woman who had walked through the Vatican over 300 times. Needless to say it was
chalked full of information. We started out in the museums, made our way through the courtyards and garden, spent time in the Sistine Chapel and ended in St. Peters Basiclica. The amount of detail and beauty throughout the Vatican is unparalleled. I'm sure I could walk through this relatively small city 300 plus times and still notice something new every time. The only bummer was that after walking around for several hours before the tour, and 3 hours during the tour, I was completely exhausted by the time we reached St Peters Basilica. This massive church is probably the most amazing part of the tour, and I felt like I didn't get to appreciate it as much as I would have liked to because my feet were aching so badly. Once we finished, we went back to the hostel to rest a bit before dinner. I had booked a space in a 6 bed female dorm room with a private bathroom, but most people stay in 8 bed mixed dorm rooms. I actually ended up really liking the hostel situation, especially considering how cheap it was. That night the four of us, plus one girl we met from Turkey and
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Coliseum a guy we met from the US, took a bus to the river area and had a great dinner. I had veal meatballs, stuffed zucchini and the house red wine. After dinner we sat overlooking the Tiber, had a couple drinks and just talked like we had all known each other for years... it was really nice. In the morning we all had breakfast together before Heather and her friends left for Umbria. I had gotten along really well with Denise, the girl from Turkey, so we made plans that night to have dinner then go the the hostel pub crawl. The pub crawl sooo much fun and I met a lot of awesome people from all over the world... Brazil, Belgium, Mexico, Germany, England and a couple other countries I can't remember. Denise was definitely my favorite, and I do have hopes of visiting her someday in Turkey. The last day in Rome I had made plans to meet up with the mother and daughter from Australia that I met at the B&B in Vico Equense. I set off relatively early to do a bit more site seeing in Rome and get a chocolate tartufo, then met them at
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Arch of Constantine Piazza Navona. This area of Rome has a ton of great shops and restaurants so we strolled around for a while before finding a spot for dinner and drinks. That night I had some of my first lamb chops in Italy paired with a montelpuciano, sooo yummy. Leia (the daughter who is close to my age) grew up in Australia with her parents but has been living and working in London for the past year. She and her mother are seasoned travelers and I got to hear all about their journeys along with recommendations of places I should try to visit. She told me she thought I would love London and invited me to come stay with her, so she is another person I hope to visit in the future. I'm still blown away by how fortunate I am to have met such interesting, friendly and caring people on this trip. We said our goodbyes after dinner and I went back to the hostel to pack up all my stuff for my next adventure.... Greece with Dani 😊
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