Parla inglese?

What a weekend! On Monday I got back from Rome, and this was by far my favorite trip yet. We arrived in Rome around 9pm on Friday night. We then took a 40 minute bus ride into the city. I tried to do my homework before I left so that we wouldn't have to take a cab to where we were staying and I researched the metro stops. Unfortunately, the metro closed at 9pm. To add to that, the bus dropped us off in possibly one of the most dodgy areas of town. As my friend and I frantically looked for  cab, homeless men were yelling things in Italian at us. We speed walk to a more well lit area, clutching our bags and hoping nothing would go wrong. We tried multiple times to flag down a cab, but none would stop for us. Finally in desperation we sprinted across the street and basically ran right in front of a cab hoping it would stop. Thank god he stopped. Without speaking a word of Italian, and only having a piece of paper with an address on it, this was by far the most unsafe I have felt in Europe. We later found out that Rome uses taxi stands where you must wait for a cab to pick you up. Makes sense why it was so difficult to find a cab!

My friend Alison had some friends in Rome, so we got to stay in their apartment for free. We arrived around 11pm and quickly got ready to go out. That night we went to a club called Coyote. Since Alison and I didn't know Italian, we had fun speaking Spanish to each other to throw the locals off. Surprisingly, many Italians didn't know how to speak Spanish. The languages are so similar, so I thought  it would be more commonly spoken.

The next day we did a plethora of sight seeing. We started out with St Peter's Square and St Peter's Basilica. The church was by far the prettiest church I have been to. I was in awe the entire time. After that, we headed to the Vatican Museum. The Museum was interesting, but I wish I would've understood more of what everything was. At the end of the Vatican Museum was the Sistine Chapel. I was surprised by how small it was, but it was interesting to see how Michelangelo added depth and dimension to the flat walls of the Chapel. The Last Judgment painting was pretty amazing to see too. After that, we hiked over to a different part of the city to check out Trevi Fountain and make a wish. Instead of a euro, we threw a quarter in because a cab driver had given one of the guys quarters for change instead of euros. We thought it was funny and figured they were useless, so why waste our precious euros? After that went to the Pantheon.

Around 5 the guys went back to the apartment to siesta, while Alison and I stayed out to eat a late lunch. We went to this little restaurant that was known for having international students visit. The waiter was quite interesting - he insisted my eyelashes were too long to be real and had me pull on them. He then proceeded to kiss my cheek and asked me what I would like to eat. One good part of this unwanted attention was free wine. This restaurant made a special wine called "sexy wine." It was a sweeter version of red wine. It kind of reminded me of tinto de verano in Spain. With every meal, you were given a free glass of wine, but our waiter gave us an additional glass for no reason at all.

That night we went to a place called Tony's and I had the best Italian meal of my life. We started off with bruschetta. The tomatoes in Rome are absolutely amazing, so after that meal we ordered bruschetta with every meal. My friend and I split chicken parmesan and tortellini. I was stuffed midway through the meal, but it was too delicious to let it go to waste.  After appetizers, entrees, and 2 liters of wine, our meal split between the 4 of us was only 15 euro. Rome was surprisingly a lot cheaper than I expected it to be!

The next morning we got up and headed to the Colosseum and the Forum. Unfortunately, it was rainy and windy, so sightseeing was quite miserable. The Colosseum was huge, and I bought an audio tour headset to learn more, but it was a little too detailed for my liking. I'm more interested in the general history, not on specifics, so I quite using my headset midway through. We then went to the Forum, but didn't spend too much time there because we were cold and miserable. We quickly went home to change, and then went on a hunt for authentic Italian gelato. All I have to say is thank god I am not studying in Rome-I would easily come back 15 pounds heavier! The gelato was the best tasting I had ever had. Later that night we went out for pizza at a little family owned joint then spent the rest of the night at an Irish Pub.

On Monday we did a last bit of sightseeing at the Spanish Steps and ate our last delicious Italian meal. Now I know what they mean that you need at least a week in Rome. I would love to go back someday!

St. Peter's 

Vatican Museum

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Colosseum

Mmmmm gelato

View from the top of the Spanish Steps