Rome in a Day

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I had a flight from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 5am the next day, so I hoped to spend the day tourist-ing, then head to the airport around 10 or 11pm, and try to sleep there. Another tutor from my camp in Matera was also passing through Rome, so we traveled together and spent the day sightseeing.



Sometimes you travel with people, and it just doesn’t click. Like, some people are happy to visit a country through food and drink. It’s 5 minutes after we leave a café and already people ask when we’re getting beer. Others want to do the most famous sights, see all the museums, and stick perfectly to the guidebook. Then there are people like my roommate last year, who didn’t want to plan—just walk around and see what you see without any pre-conceived ideas about what areas are nice, etc.



I guess I’m a blend of those, and I can typically be flexible based on my travel companions, but in reality, these days, I prefer to travel solo. It allows me to do exactly as much planning as I want, go super-cheap if I want, stop and read in a park, all at my own pace. It avoids difficulties that happen when you have to make decisions, either because people are too strong-willed or just are okay with any option.



When I’m traveling, I usually do a lot of research ahead of time. I look specifically at public transportation—how I can get to my hostel, airport, etc. I download a tourist map of the town and try to know where the tourist info office is to get a paper version. And then I also search for the more interesting places to check out. I might have some places in mind that I definitely want to check out. When I arrive, I look at the map and decide which way I want to walk that day.



So it was refreshing to have a travel buddy that matched my travel style in Rome. We just really roughly set destinations as we went, based on how far we were from them. That allowed us to wander, but we also weren’t set on seeing anything special. I hadn’t done that much research. I recognized a lot of names of famous sights, but I couldn’t even tell you what most of them were. And still, I need to do some belated background reading about the stuff I saw.



We first left our bags at a baggage check place in the train station (the entrance is more outside the train station). It took longer than expected, but we set off quickly in search of food. We came upon a pizza place. You choose the kind you want, and the price depends on how many grams it is, like in a deli. Then they heat it up for you. It hit the spot.



We headed towards the Colosseum, but along the way we happened upon St. Peter of Vincoli’s Basilica (not the one in the Vatican!). We weren’t doing a great job of navigating, more just following herds of tourists. In Rome if you see them around or coming from somewhere, there’s a good chance it’s what you’re looking for. We headed down a more secluded street. We talked about looking at where we were, but suddenly we looked up and there was the Colosseum. We were shocked by how easily we’d stumbled upon it.



Overall, Rome, even near the Colosseum, wasn’t nearly as hectic as I’d expected. It was a Saturday at the beginning of September, and there were lots of tourists, but it wasn’t this insane New Delhi-style place I imagined. The whole area near the Colosseum is strange, though. It seems like an area just for tourists—there don’t seem to be a lot of businesses or even residences.



After the Colosseum, we headed to a neighborhood across the river called Trastevere. It was much nicer, with smaller streets, and it had a more livable feel. As we walked there, we caught glimpses of St. Peter’s Basilica. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to get all the way over there and give it the time it deserved.



But, as we walked back towards the train station, we stopped at the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. The Pantheon was surprisingly free and easy to access. To me, initially it wasn’t that impressive. It was almost the exact same design as Canova’s temple. It was pretty dark inside too. What I realized later is that it, having been built around 1900 years ago, was the model for so many of the buildings familiar to me. So I take back that it wasn’t impressive.



Trevi Fountain was beautiful. It was very difficult to take a picture that captured all of it. The biggest surprise there is that there are rows of benches to admire it. The row farthest away from the fountain has faucets coming out below your feet, so you can turn them on and get a free foot bath. How perfect for the sore-footed tourists!



I had two favorites from my very quick visit to Rome. I’m sure with more time, I’d get to see more than just the tourist-filled center. Favorite Number One was Palazzo del Quirinale. We walked through it to get back to the train station. It’s a bit elevated, and yields great views all the way to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was a great place for the sunset!



Favorite Number Two was the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary. As we walked towards Trastevere, we crossed the street to get a better look at some ruins. It turned out that these ruins are now only traversed by cats who live in the cat sanctuary. In other words, there are ancient ruins that people aren’t allowed to access, but cats live there. I could have stood there all day looking for cats like Where’s Waldo. Really quirky!



My tutor friend was going to stay with an acquaintance who lived in Rome that evening, and she invited us to eat dinner together before I headed to the airport. She and her son are Mexican, but she works for the Mexican Embassy in Rome. I was really concerned about getting back to catch the bus to go to the airport, but she said not to worry. In the end, she offered to let me shower at her place, rest, and then they all drove me to the airport around midnight. It was so nice! It was a fitting end to a summer of generous people. I’ll try my best to pay it forward with travelers I meet.



I realize I haven’t written much about the foods I encountered in Italy. It would be another book of blog posts, but let me mention the ones that come to mind first, aside from pizza:

-gnocchi, especially gnocchi made from zucchini by a host mom in Friuli

-tortellini with walnuts and gorgonzola inside; made by my host mom in Mestre

-panzerotti; Bari-area specialty: like a calzone, but smaller, fried, and made of funnel-cake-like dough. Wonderful and delicious.

-zuppa di cereali—a blend of grains, kind of like a stew; made by my host mom in Matera

-pear cake and also chocolate cake and also blueberry cake; all made by my host sister in Friuli, and yes, they were eaten for breakfast

-torta salata—pastry crust with blend of cheeses like ricotta layered with veggies like bell peppers and zucchini

-spreads of mozzarella, tomatoes, bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar—Italians have super-delicious tomatoes; shout-out to bread in Matera

-bream (fish)—the best fish I’ve eaten in my life—by my Matera host mom

-insalata di riso—cold rice salad; basically the Italian version of my favorite Korean food, bibimbap—the best one was by my host mom in Loreggia

-pumpkin ravioli with pistachio pesto and also ricotta ravioli with walnut pesto at La Pineta in Ricco del Golfo di Spezia. Seriously delicious delicious food and also cheap wine.

-sambuco (non-alcoholic—the alcoholic one’s with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘o’)—a concentrated syrup of elderberry flowers sweetened that you add to cool water; my Gemona host family made this themselves



And here’s a list of the top gelatos. Keep in mind, this is from a long list of different ones.

-penguino—vanilla ice cream with chocolate and Nutella swirls. Tarcento.

-brasilero—pistachio mixed with lemony bits mixed with cream. A different flavor in every bite. Maybe all-time favorite, and I only saw the flavor that one time. Loreggia.

-dark chocolate and pear. Castelfranco Veneto.

-amarena—black cherry and vanilla cream. Tarcento and also Cinque Terre.

-two flavors together (as is typical in Italy) of Happy Ippo (peanut butter?) and Otto Biscotto (Speculoos cookies). San Remo.



Now, that I’ve left you hungry, you know how I felt to be leaving Italy. So sad, not only to leave the food, but the continuous stream of great people, the ongoing opportunity to see new places. Sure, I was moving to Spain, but it had a less exciting feeling—I was moving back to Spain. But, I was looking forward to seeing my parents in a couple days! You’ll hear about that in my next post.

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Photos

Obligatory Colosseum Shot
Rome

Roman Coffee
My first host family was a granddaughter of the founder of this company!

Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, Rome
Look closely, and you'll spot some inhabitants!

Roman Sunset from Palazzo del Quirinale
You can see St. Peter's Basilica