...Do as the Romans do

Our second day in Rome started out rainy, so we slept in for a few hours until it stopped. We knew our Roma pass was our ticket into the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill, which meant we wouldn't have to wait in the long ticket lines. We took the metro to the Colosseum and walked right in. It was a Saturday and the place was buzzing with tourists. The wind picked up at some point and started blowing dust, small rocks, and dirt from the surrounding ruins, which was annoying and a little painful. The wind would last all day because another storm was blowing in. The Collosseum was great, it was surreal standing where so much history had occurred.

We grabbed a panini and walked right by the ticket lines into the Forum and Palatine Hill entrance. The Roma Pass proved to be a really great investment and time saver. On top of the hill, I walked through the ruins of Augustus' house, looked into the heart of Circus Maximus, and down through other various ruins. We moved on to the Forum, and kept getting bombarded with wind-filled dirt. I can't believe the little bit that is left of the ruins are still standing. I was really excited to be there and can't imagine what a big history buff would feel like.

We exited the Forum and were right by the Victor Emmanuel Monument, so we sat on the steps and took pictures. The monument is unnecessarily huge, but still beautiful. We made our way back to the metro and went to our bus stop for the afternoon excursion to Villa d'Este. We arrived at the Villa and it was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. There were fountains everywhere... I can't emphasize how many fountains there were. We walked around for a few hours, saw the water-powered organ foundtain play it's tune at 4:30, and then had wine and a panini on top of the palace. Again I felt bad for spending the money, but it was GREAT wine, and this time Danielle said, "We're drinking wine on top of a palace near Rome." We had the option to stay at the Villa or go on to Hadrian's ruins, but we decided the place was to beautiful to leave and we had already seen enough ruins for the day. Good choice.

We made it back to our hostel and got ready to go out for the night. I laid down for about an hour to recoop while the other girls went and got dinner. We had called and reserved spots on the Colloseum Pub Crawl. A pub crawl is when you pay an amount of money, get a free shirt, and visit different pubs all over the city, eventually ending up at a dance club. It was fun and we got a lot to drink for the amount of money we paid (18 euro... we might have been able to get 3 drinks each for that anywhere else). There were too many Americans though, so Maria and I walked the streets for awhile and eventually went home.

The next morning was hectic, the other girls were really hung over and we had to catch our 8 hour bus back to Paderno at noon. We went and chilled at the Spanish Steps again and made our way back to the pick-up spot for the bus.


Overall Rome was my least favorite visit. I appreciate all of the history the city has, but I would not go back on my own dime. At least I can say I have been there. I did enjoy myself, it was just too touristy and the big city made me forget I was in Italy. It felt more like NYC or a big city in the U.S. I would have rather gone to Munich, Paris, Barcelona, or back to Florence... but I couldn't have come to Italy and not gone to Rome!!

Pictures will be up as soon as I have time. I can't believe it's my last week here!!! It is so sad, we are all depressed about leaving this beautiful country and the new friends we have made.