We started the weekend by waking up super early and hopping on an 8am bus to Roma. By we, I mean a group of 8 (of the 14) girls from my program. The other 6 found adventures in Firenze. You would think that a group of 8 would have a lot of trouble coordinating schedules and dealing with logistics and planning events, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well we did! Good work guys!
Fresh off the bus and confused about where to go next, we decided to buy a Roma pass right away. For anyone visiting Rome for a weekend, BUY A ROMA PASS. It was a fantastic decision, and so enormously helpful the entire time.
This beauty (please ignore the sideways fashion of the picture, it's bothering me too...), allowed us to freely use public transportation and visit two sites for free. For the amount that we zoomed around on the metro, it was SO worth it.
Here is my ode to the Roma Pass:
Oh, Roma Pass,
how fabulous art thou,
to allow us the metro,
to get lost and get found,
to see the sites
and find good food too,
oh, Roma Pass,
how I love you.
Welll....now that we've skipped over that lovely gem because clearly I'm exhausted, let's talk about the Metro a little bit more.
We totally mastered the metro! Granted it wasn't very difficult, but I totally felt like I knew how to navigate all...2...lines by the end of the weekend. This will come in handy when I fly through Rome for spring break though. It'll be nice to understand the transportation system a better when I'm trying to deal with airport nonsense.
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| This is one of the trains by the way. I'd say they're cooler than New York City trains but that's just me. |
But it was a nice feeling to be able to hop on the subway and go back to the Vatican this morning without spending 20 minutes discussing how to get there.
So this is Rome. Casual. I know.
After we checked into our (adorable) hostel, we went and found food. We ate pasta...obviously, and then zoomed off to the Colosseum to....USE OUR ROMA PASS! Being at the Collosseum was amazing though. It's one of those places that you hear about for years (or at least I do having taken 5 years of Latin) but don't know what it will be like to experience in person. I will say, it's not super different in person, but it was amazing being a part of it and experiencing it personally.
This was also the moment that I really realized I was in Rome.
So that's the outside of the Collosseum...
and that's the inside of the Collosseum.
I won't confirm it, but I may or may not have taken a selfie at the Collosseum. We did take normal pictures too...but look how ridiculous I look!
Also, this would be a good time to note the umbrella. Yes, it did rain for a good portion of our trip, but it did not stop us from seeing the sites. It changed the experience and the way everything looked, but in some ways, that was really great.
Literally everyone carries an umbrella in Italy. This means, that when it rains, there are a lot of colors around. It's actually pretty cool. From across the Collosseum, or looking down into the street, you can see tons of different colors, which created a beautiful contrast with the grey sky.
You can see tons of umbrellas behind me and Angela. Neat, no?
After the Collosseum...because let's be for real, no matter how cool it is, there is only so long you can spend at the Collosseum...we walked up the Palatine Hill.
We walked past the Arch of Titus. This is something that we talked about in AP Art History, and I regretted that I didn't dig out my old notes before I left for Europe to refresh my memory on it, but it was still super awesome to see in person. It also made me excited to pull out those notes when I get home and look at all the things that I saw.
This is the inside of the church on the top of the Palatine Hill. We spent less than five minutes here, but it was pretty and peaceful and I like posting lots of pictures!
...Casually coming across some old Roman ruins. Unfortunately none of us really knew what we were looking at but I love coming across things like this. There's nothing like it in America. And it's really cool to imagine what it used to be.
I did take a picture of the plaque we found though. I don't know if it's possible to read in picture form, but feel free to zoom in and scope it out a bit :) No pressure though, of course.
So, I think the most impressive building that I saw Friday, was the Pantheon. The Pantheon definitely had the wow-factor when we walked inside. It had already gotten dark outside, but this almost made it more beautiful. The inside also absolutely stunning. Everyone was quiet and it was incredible.
I know that these two pictures don't even begin to do justice to the Pantheon, but this post is already getting pretty long. I'm going to post more pictures to facebook for any of you that are super curious. For now though, admire the beauty.
Another one of my favorite locations in Roma (yes, I know, it doesn't make sense to have more than one favorite...shhhh) was the Trevi Fountain. We went to the Trevi Fountain twice, both because it is stunning and also because there is awesome gelato by the Trevi Fountain. I may or may not have had gelato 3 times in Rome. Hint: I did. It was worth it.
Isn't this beautiful?!? I just love the way it is lit up at night time. It was even raining a bit when I took this picture but you can't really tell. The rain didn't matter....well...mostly...I'll get into that later.
The last thing we did on Friday (I think this qualifies as a productive day), was visit the Spanish Steps. I'll admit they weren't as glorious as the Trevi Fountain or the Pantheon, but it was still worth going to see them. We climbed up and had a pretty good view from the top. I did feel like I was climbing a mini water fall though. There was just a ton of rain and it created a nice little river down the steps.
I'd say all in all, it was a pretty fantastic day. I need to get some sleep now...we actually have class in the morning (what???) but I will post again with the Saturday and Sunday parts of the adventure soon.
Buonnotte!
Buonnotte!
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