Sono Anna Baldini. (New Entry #2)
Day 2 in Roma brought us to the Colosseum, the Forum, and a lot of the other biggies. We fueled up on free breakfast (yummy cornettos - croissants with cream inside) and walked to the Colosseum where we were supposed to meet Erin and Paddy for the day. We waited and waited and probably should have picked somewhere not as big nor as crowded as the Colosseum to meet because we never found them. We did, however, listen in on several tours, and Katie got picked on by one guide who thought we were a part of his - The Roman numeral for 4, by the way, is IIII and not IV.
We bought tickets to the Colosseum/Palatino for the undiscounted price because Italy discriminates against American students. Boo. I still don't really know what the Palatino was except that it's in ruins now, but it was gorgeous and very fun to walk around in. The Colosseum seemed a lot bigger in my head than it was in reality. Still, it was impressive and the helpful signs taught me a lot of interesting facts about it. For example, it had awnings in case of too much sun that were controlled by men in ships. We walked over to the Forum and picked up the last bit of a tour before looking around. We saw the Vestel Gardens, Caesar's tomb, and walked on the road that ancient Roman armies used to. We lunched at a little restaurant before more ruins and Roman sights - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Piazza della Repubblica, Trevi Fountain, Quattro Fontane, et cetera.
We went back to Freestyle for naps, showers, and "Pastaaaa!" At 8:30, we met Paddy and Erin on the Spanish Steps for a pub crawl around Rome. We got cute free T-shirts, and to be honest, that was about the best part of the poorly-organized crowded crawling experience. Except for the part where we stumbled upon the Pantheon on the way to another pub and saw a suspected lunar eclipse (found out later it actually was one). Meg, Katie, and I ducked out early (around midnight) to head back for bed.
Sunday morning we had our last free hostel meal, checked out of Freestyle, checked into Ottaviono with Paddy and Erin, and found a spot in St. Peter's square to camp out for the Pope's blessing. Due to a little confusion on the times, we were a lot earlier than expected so we used the time to catch up on our sun-soaking, letter-/postcard-writing, and general laziness. At near noon, the Pope didn't come out of where we expected him, essentially making our prime front-row standing area useless. We quickly relocated to see him as he blessed the waiting crowd in half a dozen languages.
We had pasta for lunch at an adorable restaurant where Katie communicated in Spanish to our waitress. We wandered past the street vendors along the river towards the beautiful Piazza Navona, which was full of artists and fountains (well, just 3 fountains). We got a bit disoriented and searched in vain for a bus to the catacombs, though we did stumble upon the Area Sacra. We didn't have time for much more than dinner and some gelato in St. Peter's square before Katie had to hop aboard the Metro for her flight to London.
Sidenote: The Metro made me love London's Tube, despite all of its stupidity. The Metro goes in a big X across Rome in a most unstrategic way and is a pretty gross, dirty and smelly mode of transportation. Furthermore, for all the costs of the inconvenient Metro, it's much easier to take the free bus. By free, I mean that it costs the same amount as the Metro, but in the bus' case, no one pays. Tourists stick out on Italian buses because they are the ones who take the time and trouble to buy tickets and scan them in on the buses. Once this became obvious to us, we decided to be Italian and take the bus for free too.
We bought tickets to the Colosseum/Palatino for the undiscounted price because Italy discriminates against American students. Boo. I still don't really know what the Palatino was except that it's in ruins now, but it was gorgeous and very fun to walk around in. The Colosseum seemed a lot bigger in my head than it was in reality. Still, it was impressive and the helpful signs taught me a lot of interesting facts about it. For example, it had awnings in case of too much sun that were controlled by men in ships. We walked over to the Forum and picked up the last bit of a tour before looking around. We saw the Vestel Gardens, Caesar's tomb, and walked on the road that ancient Roman armies used to. We lunched at a little restaurant before more ruins and Roman sights - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Piazza della Repubblica, Trevi Fountain, Quattro Fontane, et cetera.
We went back to Freestyle for naps, showers, and "Pastaaaa!" At 8:30, we met Paddy and Erin on the Spanish Steps for a pub crawl around Rome. We got cute free T-shirts, and to be honest, that was about the best part of the poorly-organized crowded crawling experience. Except for the part where we stumbled upon the Pantheon on the way to another pub and saw a suspected lunar eclipse (found out later it actually was one). Meg, Katie, and I ducked out early (around midnight) to head back for bed.
Sunday morning we had our last free hostel meal, checked out of Freestyle, checked into Ottaviono with Paddy and Erin, and found a spot in St. Peter's square to camp out for the Pope's blessing. Due to a little confusion on the times, we were a lot earlier than expected so we used the time to catch up on our sun-soaking, letter-/postcard-writing, and general laziness. At near noon, the Pope didn't come out of where we expected him, essentially making our prime front-row standing area useless. We quickly relocated to see him as he blessed the waiting crowd in half a dozen languages.
We had pasta for lunch at an adorable restaurant where Katie communicated in Spanish to our waitress. We wandered past the street vendors along the river towards the beautiful Piazza Navona, which was full of artists and fountains (well, just 3 fountains). We got a bit disoriented and searched in vain for a bus to the catacombs, though we did stumble upon the Area Sacra. We didn't have time for much more than dinner and some gelato in St. Peter's square before Katie had to hop aboard the Metro for her flight to London.
Sidenote: The Metro made me love London's Tube, despite all of its stupidity. The Metro goes in a big X across Rome in a most unstrategic way and is a pretty gross, dirty and smelly mode of transportation. Furthermore, for all the costs of the inconvenient Metro, it's much easier to take the free bus. By free, I mean that it costs the same amount as the Metro, but in the bus' case, no one pays. Tourists stick out on Italian buses because they are the ones who take the time and trouble to buy tickets and scan them in on the buses. Once this became obvious to us, we decided to be Italian and take the bus for free too.
posted by Megan at
11:32 AM
2 Comments:
Don't you remember the saying, "When in Rome do what the Romans do"? Not sure that there were buses around at that time though.
Love ya
Mom
By
Anonymous, at 4:02 PM
"The Roman numeral for 4, by the way, is IIII and not IV".. . it makes you think what else we Americans have wrong . . ya know . .? I would suppose that no one knows Roman numerals better than the Roman's . . . or at least the people in Rome.
I loved the "free" bus ride by the way!!
Love,
Dad
By
Dad Krzyske, at 8:24 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home