When In Rome

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As the saying goes, When in Rome, be a tourist..... And I would say we were successful enough for a 2 and a half day trip to Rome.
Our adventures to Rome began Friday morning when we hopped on our train at 8 am, while I was singing happy birthday to Jennie......not so sure that was her favorite part of the weekend 😉. We took the fast train to Rome so the duration of the trip was just over 4 hours. It was 4 hours of beautiful scenic hills to have breath taking views of. We arrived into Termini station and set out to find our hostel. We chose a hostel a trek away from the train station because a handful of people warned us the train station isn't a place to roam around in the evening. Our hostel, Rome City Hostel was exceptional for a hostel. Jennie, Yuliya, Stephanie and I shared a 4 bedroom private dorm. I was impressed by the cleanliness and helpful staff of this hostel. In my experience, hostels are always a toss up; you can read reviews and look at photos on the Internet but looks and words can be deceiving. We had a good catch this time around! Breakfast was included at the hostel too......always a good way to save a few euros.

Friday afternoon was spent at the Colleseum. Between the 5 of us girls traveling together, we were able to navigate our way there. In Italy is it quite common for the buses/metros to go on strike but luckily this did not affect us in Rome all weekend long, only part of the weekend. I should say the other girls managed to navigate....directions are never my strong point. The beauty of traveling with 5 girls is to bring out the different strengths of each individual. The outcome is efficient travel and a stress free time together. We nicknamed ourselves the 5 ducklings. ....quack! We were also named the Spice girls by a local who spotted 5 american tourist girls in a line.Back to the Colleseum! Luckily we did our research and ordered our tickets online to avoid lines. Highly recommend this if you ever visit the Colleseum! And Vatican City for that matter. It was disappointing to see construction work on the outside of the Colleseum because it takes away from the look and historical monument that is the Colleseum. Still an awesome experience to step inside and see the historical monument. It was jennies birthday wish coming true to see the Colleseum! Successful 25th birthday for her. And the success continued into the evening when we went out for some delicious roman food. I have been told how different each region of Italy is in relation to food, and I noticed this especially with the pizza. Pizza in Rome is very thin crust and very big.... Where as in Turin the crust is slightly thicker and the pizza is smaller. It is important to note that baskets of bread are NOT complementary with dinner, it's an added cost. Bread is also not served with olive oil in Italy at most reastsursnts.....that is an American 'itialian' cooking. Also meatballs in spaghetti, and american meal! You order meatballs and spaghetti in Italy and you are automatically a tourist. That is if the maps, cameras a camelback water bottle wasn't already a give away. I notice very few Italians carrying water bottles with the ,where as water bottles are a common on the go item in America. Camelbacks, Americans are all about those handy thirst quenchers! Here, people grab a plastic bottle from the super market most commonly. The city also leaves water fountains running, instead of turning on and off when need be. On with Roman Friday dinner, my Mouth is drooling thinking of that Seafood risotto I ate along with the liter of wine a few of us girls shared. I was surprised to sit down at dinner and have complimentary champagne brought to our table, chin chin! (That phrase is equal to 'cheers'). We went out Friday night and it was mostly spent in a tabacchi shop (smoke shop) which had been used as a pub for nights. A small, real local place. We stood outside drinking and making friends with some locals of Rome for the evening.....and the weather was perfect for me in a shirt and scarf, the locals were bundled up. Weather was even warmer in Rome than Torino because it is farther south.
Saturday we went to Vatican City. It was a bit too full of tourists for me, and after looking at the Vatican museum for a while all of the artwork started to look the same to me...the same statues, paintings, etc. Some people could spend days in there, for me, a couple hours was more than enough. To get into the Sistine Chapel there was a long line weaving through the museum. The Sistine Chapel was an impressive sight to see, and so impressive and holy that they ask you not to take photos while in there. We saw two older ladies get kicked out for taking photos in the chapel. We saw the outside of St. Peters Basilica but it was much too long of a line to go in...the line almost looked like a Disney Land ride line, so long! Looking from the outside was satisfying enough for me. Saturday night was spent out at a local pub close to our hostel.

Going to Rome in three days was tiring and a lot of walking, and yet we still did not get to all of the sights! By Sunday we were all tired out from the past two days that we took Sunday a little slower. We took a stroll through a park, and went back to see the Spanish Steps, three fountains, and a beautiful view of the city. I also tried gelato style frozen yogurt. The Italains took the idea of frozen yogurt shops in America such as Yogurt Sundae and Cherry Berry, and turned it into gelato frozen yogurt. The employess told me we took the idea and Italy made it BETTER. And that is the truth...gelato is always better 😊

Now on to a 4 day week at school and than off for another travel adventure.....Barcelona Halloween style! Thursday to Saturday I will be in Barcelona, Spain with Jennie and some other fellow english teachers from our travel group.....maybe my pequeno Espanol will come in handy.

Happy Halloween since I may not blog until than.....trick or treat 😊 which by the way, some kids in italy do trick or treat!



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