walking

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so i've walked. everywhere. my legs hurt with an amazing hellfire pain, which is particularly interesting because i'm coming off of weeks of intensive training. but whatev. so i've seen the city! i'm waiting on a bunch of the biggest attractions because my program leaders should take us there (and pay for it) - the vatican museums and gardens, the coloseum, etc. i did see the trevi fountain though and the piazza del popolo and the monument to vittorio emmanuele and the balcony that mussollini stood out of and the spanish steps and the monument to garibaldi.. so i haven't been completely lazy. i can successfully navigate, map-free, from my apartment into the center of Trastevere, up to the Vatican, across the river.. all kinds of important things. be proud.
so this batch of pics follows my long walks around the city. i would like to note that i only found the piazza garibaldi because of a cab driver. i know.. again with the cab driver stories. i don't know why. but this one is better than the last one. this time my cab driver looked just like adrian brody, only scruffy. he was taking me home from my friend's apartment and we were having a nice conversation (me speaking bad italian and him speaking bad english) about what we were passing which happened to be the monument to garibaldi. i'm not gonna lie, when i noticed we were turning around and he said something to the effect of 'don't worry about the meter,' i got a little freaked out. perhaps because it was 2:30 in the morning. or because the monument to garibaldi is in the middle of a big park. and parks are scary at night. luckily, mr. brody was just showing me the beautiful scenic overlook that is at the monument. he kept saying 'this is rome, this is rome.' it was a good time. i went back the next day and took some pictures. another note - the cityscape was certainly beautiful, but i still don't think it compares to the view from the piazzale michelangelo in florence.
also we got what is supposedly the best gelato in town at giolitti. holy holy holy that was some freaking good gelato. the stracciatella was amazing. i'm definitely going back and trying all of the 99 other flavors or however many they have.
and there are HUGE sales all over the city, i think for january, and mom you would be happy to know that i am not participating at all. not at all. it is eating away at my soul, but i didn't go into one store on the via del corso. only a mcdonalds and a hotel for restroom purposes.
oh and for goodness sake if you are an english speaking tourist around college age, DO NOT go on the pub crawl. i know there is probably more than one in the city, but the one that you'll probably here of is the one that starts on the spanish steps. the crawl itself wouldn't be bad in warmer weather, you get an ok deal and a t-shirt, but i went last week and it was such a joke. there were 170 people and i'm pretty sure everyone was a native english speaker. i'm not saying just american, there were tons of australians.. but guys.. rome is not a frat party! ugh. it was a terrible, loud, drunken mess of english speaking discusting.
and don't ever try to walk to the art cafe.

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Photos

castel sant' angelo
this is where the pope escape wall runs to. i think it used to have a moat.

monument to garibaldi
i didn't read everything on the monument because the sun was setting, but there was a relief sculpture of the she-wolf and the two rome guys suckling on one side, which was pretty cool. and on another side were the words 'roma o morte' which as far as i can tell means 'rome or death.'

this is rome! this is rome!
thank you taxi driver for your enthusiastic response to 'what is this?'

fountain
i found this fountain while i was walking home. (i was about to type, i found this fountain walking home, but i knew some readers might make fun of me for it) i don't know what it is. but it is across the street from the spanish embassy, which is guarded by police.

rome
this is the view from the un-named fountain.

memorial
this is right down the street from that fountain, but i know what this is (there was a sign). this is a memorial and tomb for soldiers who died here while fighting for the unification of italy in the mid-1800s. i think 1849 to be precise. at some point the two sides held a cease-fire in order to exchange dead or something to that effect, and this is a memorial to them.

tram!
this is the 8 tram. in case you were wondering. on the viale trastevere. in case your curiousity went further.

tram!
this is the rest of the 8 tram on the viale trastevere.

ministry of education
apparently there are students who protest outside of here, i hope i see it! and i wasn't trying to be artsy or anything, i wanted to get the inside and outside in one shot, but i was too close.

Comments

[the dish]

oh hi
1. yay drunk australians! they're almost as bad as americans when it comes to being loud drunks 2. rome or death.. cake or death.. makes me laugh 3. i hate you. march can't come soon enough!!!

[Aunt Resa]

Mailing Address
Yes of course your Mother hasn't given me the mailing address, as yet! If she reads this she'll probably email it to me. If time permits, could you email your mailing address to me? usually Aussie's are quite fun when drinking. My experience proves Irish to even be more loud - oh yeah I forgot, Redneck Budweiser swillers at a NASCAR race!

[marisa]

again, i can't help it.
1. i love love love trevi. 2. i went on one of those pub crawls in spain (accidently and for free) and its amazing how many austrailians travel. 3. haha, florence. ps - saw rob the other day. he looked scruffy and pretended not to know me while sitting right next to me. at the same time cara was telling me that there's guy on her trip who looks like him, and as a result she cannot cannot befriend him, and i was slowly dying of hysterics. i miss you.