Roma!

First, a little bit about Thursday- we went to Dublin Pub for a bit and I had cider. Cider is incredible; it’s sweet bubbly beer. Love it. Then, since it was Valentine’s Day, we decided to go to a club on Faenza called Maracana. There was a lovely man in drag with his face painted white singing sappy Italian love songs. He was fabulous and it was so surreal in there…the club felt like some sort of strange Eyes Wide Shut-esque, weird situation. Then another singer came and sang- I think she was famous or something because there was paparazzi taking pictures of her. She had this crazy black lace number on and she was sitting on people serenading them. Awesome…but Maracana usually had a 20 Euro cover, which is ridic so I don’t know if I’ll be going back…that night was enough of a memory for me I think.
The next morning we hopped on a nice cheap train to Rome! We got to the Yellow Youth Hostel, which is apparently a British chain. It was great- everything was clean and safe and at night the front desk staff partied with us at the bar next door (Yellow Bar) it was very convenient. We didn’t want to go anywhere too far because Rome is a huge city and we didn’t want to be lost at night. But anyway, we went around and did touristy things all day- we walked so so much. We saw the Colosseum and the ancient city. That night, like I said we went to the Yellow Bar because our feet were killing us and we didn’t want to walk all over Rome at night. The drinks were kind of steep so I wanted to see if I could find someone to buy me a drink. That was when I met Ben, a nice guy from New Jersey…he was taking a one-month survey of Europe because he just graduated. He was nice enough to ask me if I wanted a drink and he ended up coming to Vatican City with us the next day. Emily also made a nice friend from the British Army… “Bennie” aka Steven was very interested in her and very married…anyway, I don’t think I can adequately describe him with words.
We woke up early to avoid the lines and we ended up getting into the Basilica right away and there was a woman giving a complimentary tour so we went on that. She was terrific and so knowledgeable. She asked us if we wanted to do the 25 Euro tour of the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. At first we thought it was too expensive but we tracked her down and said that we wanted to do it because we knew that she would teach s a lot and we wanted to do the Vatican right. I am glad I did it well because it was so massive that I think that it was a once in a lifetime experience. Everything was so beautiful (pictures will be on snapfish). After the three-hour Vatican tour we went to have some lunch (second pizza lunch of the day- Rome has the best pizza!) and of course a nice big gelato. Then we walked to the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps. It was a long day! We were all very cold and exhausted. We went to Yellow Bar again and hung out with Ben and some German guys...one of them hated Kelly and kept sticking his tongue out at her, which was funny.
Sunday morning we checked out of the hostel and went back to the Colosseum because we couldn’t go in on Friday- it was very amazing inside. We got to meet up with Kelly’s cousin who lives in Rome and she was telling us about the cool neighborhood she lives in. I wish we could have had time to see things like that but it really was a busy tourist weekend because it was the first time any of us had been to Rome…We went to the Forum and looked around for a bit before catching our train. That’s where I am right now...just reflecting on the weekend.
*A cool thing about Rome is the mixture of old and new. We (Kelly- the navigator) were looking at the map and trying to find the Colosseum and we turned a corner and there it was! These massive historical buildings are mixed in with the modernity of the city. I thought that made it very cool- I have heard that about Paris, but Emily says that makes Paris feel disorganized and strange. I didn’t think that Rome felt disorganized. It just felt really big. Everything there made me feel small, especially standing in the Sistine Chapel, I felt about one inch tall because thinking about the fact that one man could create something so staggering is overwhelming. It actually took them longer to restore his work (with Q-tips and club soda) than it did for his to create it. I loved learning about all of the different scenes before going in and seeing it.
I have a ton of great pictures- Rome is very beautiful and historically rich. This weekend just helped me realize that I prefer Florence. It’s smaller ad there aren’t as many cars. I also like that if I get lost I can just go to the Duomo and figure it out from there. I loved seeing everything this weekend but I am glad that I didn’t choose to study abroad in Rome. Florence just seems to fit really well. I love the quaint little streets and the beautiful bridges.
My Italian is coming along! I find myself using it well and I attribute that to hearing it all around me. So happy about that!
I hope to go to DUBLIN this coming weekend! Connect with my roots a bit- and I think the flight on Ryanair would be cheap to fly into Dublin. We’ll see…
And other exciting news- Mom and Wendy are coming to Florence on March 19! Can’t wait to show you this beautiful place!