RomAmoR

On Tuesday, March 6 at around 9:00pm Dylan and I arrived in the Rome airport. We waited to take a shuttle to the train station then had to walk from the train station to the hostel. The name of the hostel we stayed in was Alessandro Downtown. On the way to the hostel we stopped and ate dinner at McDonalds. I know it’s terrible but it was the only thing open and we were both exhausted. The hostel was about a 5 minute walk from the train station down a somewhat scary road, at night that is. The hostel was pretty nice. I definitely liked the one in Barcelona better though. As soon as we got checked in we headed to the room and went to bed. The next morning we slept till about 9 or 10 and then signed up for a tour of Ancient Rome.

The Coliseum

Turns out we were the only ones that signed up so we ended up having a private tour with a guy named Tim. He was really nice and you could tell he loved the history of Rome. He told us that he had just moved there about 9 months ago from Holland where he studied ancient history at a university. He first took us to the Coliseum by metro. We had excellent views of the Coliseum and walked all around it. Unfortunately our tour did not go inside though. We also saw the Roman Forum, Pantheon, City Hall, Circus Maximus, and the monument built when Rome became a part of Italy. The monument is massive and very white. Tim told us that most Romans do not like it because it is so large and they think it is too bold I guess you would say. It’s beautiful but they feel it’s an eyesore.

The Monument

My favorite of course was the Coliseum but I also really liked the Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus is where chariot racing used to take place. Now it is just a big field with somewhat of a track but it is cool to stand there and imagine what it used to look like.

Circus Maximus

Also some other places we saw during the tour were the balcony where Mussolini stood and the site where Michelangelo’s house used to be. After our tour Tim took us to a small pizza place just around the corner from the Pantheon. There pizza was amazing! After lunch I suggested we get gelato so Tim also took us to his favorite gelato place and joined us for a cone of gelato. I got coffee and chocolate gelato. Finally Tim left and pointed us in the direction of the Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon

When we got there I wasn’t too impressed. I thought it would be in an open area and that the fountain would be massive. Instead it is tucked away in a corner with shops surrounding and it isn’t quite as big as I thought. There were also a million tourists surrounding it. We of course took pictures in front and tossed a coin into the fountain. Later that night we walked to the top of Pincio Hill to see the sunset over Rome. It was stunning. You could see the Pantheon, St. Peters Basilica, and the monument all in one glance. My friends Cat and Lauren also met us to watch the sunset.

Once the sun was all the way down and it was dark we walked to a nice little restaurant just past the Trevi Fountain. We shared a bottle of wine and I hade fettuccine alfredo. For desert we had more gelato. Gelato crushes ice cream any day! After dinner we walked around a little more and went home to bed.

Trevi Fountain at night