I haven’t upload since Tuesday but I may just have to fast forward to Friday cause I cant remember what happened between Tuesday and Friday therefore it cant be that important. Just one thing, the secret bakery has been found. Here in Florence you cant exactly call up wings over Storrs or Sergeant Peps to order late night food; instead you have to search for the secret bakeries. Secret bakery’s are a secret you don’t know where they are therefore you must search. Once found you are able to purchase croissants and other pastries hot off the press. I got a chocolate croissant for ONE EURO. Such a bargin compared to wings over Storrs. Another amazing thing about the croissant was the fact that the chocolate was melting in my mouth it was to die for….
Side note one of the reason I had such in interest in studying abroad in Italy was because of two movies I watched when I was younger. One was When in Rome featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and the other was obviously The Lizzie McGuire movie. Both took place in Rome, so I was so excited to see Rome with my own eyes. Now onto the adventurous weekend in Roma with the roomies.
We arrived at the train station for the 525 train…..oh wait nope not the 525 train due to a delay of about a half hour. We should have taken that as a sign that maybe this trip was not meant to be but oh well. 2 hours later we arrive in Roma, and set out to find out hostel. Luckily it was just a short walk away from the train station. We stayed at the Yellow, which had gotten good reviews by people who have previously studied abroad as well as on the Internet. We were given 2 keys for one room and 6 for another. We then decided to fix this and try to get us all together but that was impossible since the room was set up for only 6 guests. We then decide to go down to the front desk and ask to be rearranged the best she could do was 5 in one and 3 in the other so we took it. Only later to decide that sharing beds for two nights and squeezing would be the best option. Ideal situation was that no one random would be sleeping in the extra bed. We set out to get dinner we walk literally an inch down the road and a restaurant owner tells us he will give us a deal of 20% off the whole meal, free bruschetta, and a free bottle of champagne why not take that deal? After two hours of chatting it was time for dinner to come to an end. We then walked the inch back to our hostel to find out that someone was in fact going to be sleeping in that extra bed. At first I didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be just fine. Our other roommate for the night was a boy our age named Nico who has been backpacking through Europe since Christmas.
After hearing about his adventure it was time to explore Rome’s nightlife. We went to this bar called Gilta which was by far the classiest place I have ever been to. People were dressed so well and walked with such purpose. I almost felt out of place, once I went up to the bar I knew I was not in the right place one drink price ranged from 10 to 15 Euros which was simply ABSURD. We stayed an hour explored and stayed FAR away from the bar.
Saturday’s wake up call was at 830AM since we there is so much to see in Rome. We went across the way to Vatican City, which was honestly beautiful. We went through the Vatican museum followed by the viewing of the Saint Peters Basilica, which will be by far the prettiest building I will ever lay eyes on in my life. I walked in and just wanted to cry, I could not handle all the beautiful artwork. I am still mind boggled by all the artwork that is here in Italy it just doesn’t seem real to me. Mass Saint Peters Basilica must be unreal and so crowded every Sunday.
We walked around, and took photos to document our visit. Everyone was getting cranky and it was time for a quick bite before we headed to the Pantheon. While at the Pantheon it seemed only right to have some gelato. The night out was interesting to say the least. We ended up back in our hostel cause we could not find the bar we wanted to go to. We asked basically the entire city where a certain bar was and each person pointed us in the wrong direction.
Sunday we headed over to the coliseum and took a bunch of pictures, followed by a walking tour through the roman forum, looking at the ruins of ancient Rome.
Coliseum
Roman Forum
To me its mind boggling that part the empire is still there, it was so interesting to see and walk through. As I walked through all I could imagine was the ancient times that I learned about in history back in the day. The last stop for the day was the Trevi Fountain, where I threw a euro in hoping for my wish to come true. Time will tell if my wish does in fact come true.
One last quick meal in Rome was much needed before we departed. This was by far the most interesting experience thus far. The place was called friends bar and you could get a plate of pasta for five euros a little too good to be true. As we were sitting waiting for our food we saw a women dressed in a restaurant uniform. She had a bag of what looked like take out food in her hand. We all looked at each other and laughed saying that cant be our food. Two minutes later 8 bowls of pasta came out of the back, guess that was our food after all.
Overall, I really enjoyed the historic sites in Rome but everything else I did not care for. It was a little pricey, and dirty. Im glad I picked the homey city of Florence.
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