I don't know if I did it exactly as the Romans would do it, but I loved my time in Rome. From the second my shuttle bus from the airport did a loop around the Colosseum, I was sold. This would be a fun place. I got in on a Friday afternoon, found my hostel by doing the opposite of what their directions told me, and went out exploring. One of the first things I came across was a beautiful scene... A group of backpackers were standing outside another hostel, with their backpacks and suitcases and bodies blocking the walkway. Just ahead of me was a heavily botoxed Italian woman. She starts to yell at the crowd, in Italian. I've heard yelling in lots of different languages, but Italian yelling has to be my favourite. It's entertaining (if not directed at you). One of the backpackers says to her, "In English! In English!" (he didn't sound like a native English speaker), and this is when she flew off the handle, hand gestures in everyone's faces. "NO! IN ITALIA, ITALIANO! RESPECTO! RESPECTO!" I blended myself into the crowd in a way that I looked like I was a part of it, but far enough away to not bear the brunt of her shouting. She started moving people's suitcases about. One of the backpackers gave me a "What are you doing here?" look, so I awkwardly shuffled off, happy for what I saw but sad that it was over. I noticed on my map that I was not far from the Trevi Fountain, so decided to pop down there for a look. I got a bit lost along the way, but when I turned a corner and saw a group of a few hundred people facing the wall I'd just come around, I figured I'd found it. Have to say, I was impressed. I've seen the mock version of it in Vegas, and assumed that one was to scale, but this one was a lot larger. Or maybe it just felt that way because the square was quite small, comparatively. I weaved in through the tourists to get my own selfie, trying not to ruin others'. Afterwards I went back in the direction of the hostel, then out for a romantic dinner for one, where I enjoyed free bruschetta, spaghetti carbonara, friendly waiters and a man playing classic Italian tunes on an accordion. Yeah, Rome is alright. On the Saturday I had booked myself onto a tour of the Vatican, but it wasn't until the afternoon, so spent my morning, map in hand, gradually making my way towards it in time for the tour. I started off at the Spanish steps, realised I had no idea why they were significant but comforted myself that the other hundreds of people there probably didn't know either. My walk took me past a lot of old and significant looking buildings, and a castle. I stopped for a ham pizza before the tour, and then wandered to the tour office. This was where I met Deirdre - the only Irish person in the world who doesn't drink alcohol, and Natalia from Rio de Janeiro. I was relieved to find I wasn't the only one who had trouble "dressing for the Pope" that morning. Essentially, your shoulders and your knees must be covered, for the Pope does not want to see any of that. He just doesn't like joints, your lucky he allows elbows. Dressing for the Pope is pretty tricky when it's more than 30 degrees and humid as hell, and Natalia became known for her "whore shoulders" being on display (she had a cardigan to cover them up, don't worry, no religious figures were offended that day by anyone I know). Our tour guide was a short Italian woman who was in a big rush for some reason. We zipped through all the exhibitions, which is tricky when for the majority of the museums and churches in Vatican City, you're sharing the space with thousands of other people. She was not shy in displaying her contempt for the security guards at the Sistine Chapel, saying they just play on their phones, sit on their arses, throw their weight around all day. She got into a big argument with one that cordoned off an area we were about to walk through, so we would have to go a different way that would take longer. I don't speak Italian, but I'm pretty sure at the end of it, he called her a bitch. Again, Italian yelling is amazing. We eventually got into the Sistine Chapel after being led through a maze of walls adorned with gifts for previous Popes, and rooms with modern art (which the guide also hated. "What is this stuff, anyway?" she would say, "Oh that one is Dali, that's ok, but that? Who needs that here? They have special museums for that!"). Being a chapel, it wasn't that large, but it was crowded with people looking up, wishing they were allowed to photograph the ceiling. Except for us, who were quickly shepherded through the place, she showed us 'The Creation' momentarily and led us out of the chapel. Maybe she's agoraphobic, but if that's the case, she probably shouldn't be running tours of the Vatican. The tour ended at St. Peter's Basilica, where she left us to our own devices. I don't think I got anything more from going with a tour rather than just going on my own, because we still had to wait for her to go and get our tickets, which we could have easily done ourselves. Buy a book if you want to know about all the art and history, and you're set. Although I didn't get nothing out of the tour, because I now had Deirdre and Natalia as my Rome buddies, as it turned out we were all at the same hostel, and all solo travellers. So we were all grateful to have someone to take photos for us, so we no longer had to rely on selfies. Very big deal. After our tour we walked into St. Peter's Basilica, and it is impressive. I found it more impressive than the Sistine Chapel, but maybe just because I had time to take this in. After a quick scour of the gift shops, we decided to get some food and found a place near a piazza nearby. I had some more pasta and accompanied it with delicious limoncello. Natalia had a not so enjoyable meal, finding something green that she thought was mould in a bit of meat. She told the waiter, who tried to tell her that was meant to be there, but couldn't think of the English word for the ingredient, but it was a typical Roman dish. She said it tasted awful and he looked terrifically offended. I just felt uncomfortable. Afterwards we returned to the hostel for a rest before meeting again for the pub crawl hosted by the hostel, which I hadn't planned on attending, but was talked into it by the non-drinking Irish girl. When in Rome? It was a pretty standard hostel pub crawl - drinking games at the hostel bar, a terrifying bus ride to the first pub (we were all crammed onto one of the public buses, nobody paid for it, and everyone falling over/into each other as the bus flew over cobblestones), a free "shot" (it was vodka with juice. You can't call that a shot, it's just a tiny drink) at that pub, before being led to a "club" where we were the only ones there except for some predatory looking Italian men. And a guard continuously telling everyone to watch their bags. Still, it was a fun night, and there was a great group of people out. There were a group of Brazilians there from Florianapolis, and they were all surprised to learn that an Australian had been to that town. There was a group of Argentinians with not fantastic English, so I had fun reviving the Spanish again there. A couple from L.A. that were both wonderfully drunk but in a happy way. And then the couple that met 3 years ago on one of these hostel run pub crawls - a Canadian girl and Brazilian guy. They live in Canada now, but she has learnt Portuguese so she can speak with his family. They recently got married, and Rome was a stop on their honeymoon. Bless. Sunday was destined for more sight-seeing, so Deirdre, Natalia and I met in the morning, got some breakfast and set out. We first went to buy our tickets for the Colosseum, so when we did eventually get there, we wouldn't have to wait in the long queue. Genius. So we did that, and also visited the Pantheon, and I returned to the Trevi Fountain with them, which was good so I could redo my photo there, and also to throw a coin in, for tradition's sake. Deirdre wasn't feeling well, so we regrouped in a location she would feel comfortable in - an Irish pub. It was also nice to get in some air-conditioning. I realised that I probably wouldn't have time to get to the Colosseum before my evening activity, Deirdre just wanted to get back to the hostel, but Natalia needed to get there soon as it was her final day in Rome. As there is a metro stop at the Colosseum, we started to head towards there. I looked up and noticed the dark clouds in the sky, thinking they didn't look good, but they might not amount to much. Then the gust of wind comes - that same gust of wind that comes right before a tropical torrential downpour is about to happen. Within 2 minutes, it starts to pour down, so all the tourists around the Colosseum are scampering, running to huddle under drink stands. I see a crowd running into what looks like a church, so direct us all to go in there to "claim sanctuary". There were some stunned looking parishioners in prayer-pose (maybe they were praying for more tourists in their lives, and weren't expecting immediate results) and an angry Italian man starts yelling at us all, in Italian. From what we could make out, he was just asking us to be quiet. But he kept on shouting and I wanted to tell him, "It's cool, I'm baptised.", but I don't think that would have been enough for. When the rain got a bit lighter, we left and found that all the men that had been selling hats just 30 minutes ago were now selling umbrellas and ponchos. We walked on a bit, when the rain got heavy again and I noticed hail hitting the ground. And then hitting us. They were maybe 2cm square pieces, but not fun to get pelted by. We had made it to the metro station, so Deirdre got a train back to the hostel, while Natalia and I waited with all the other huddled tourists for it to pass again. Men were still trying to sell ponchos through the crowd. The thunder and lightning started too, and it was right on top of us at one point, but quickly moved on. When the rain had pretty much stopped, Natalia ran off to the Colosseum, and I went to the piazza to find the bus I needed to take to get to my evening with an Italian family. When I was in Barcelona, I had heard through Kayleigh about this website called EatWith - the concept being like 'airbnb' but for food, so essentially, a local person will host you for a meal. I thought it was a great concept, so looked up the places I was going to see where they were running, and found that there was just one going in Rome, with an Italian chef named Cecilia. I got in touch with her to see if they would be able to host me, and no problems at all, I got to spend a lovely evening with a lovely family. I travelled a bit out of the centre, but was met at the bus stop by Cecilia's son Bruno, and then walked to their apartment. Immediately, I felt at home. After a quick tour of the flat, we got settled into the kitchen (where I was provided with a chef hat and apron of red white and green) where I would be helping prepare the food. It was so much fun! Cecilia's husband acted as photographer, taking pictures with both my camera and theirs, as I cut up vegetables, prepared meat and whisked eggs. We chatted about food and travel and food some more, before enjoying the meal. We made spaghetti carbonara (and Cecilia kindly gave me her recipe, so I will be practising this one at home), and saltimbocca (veal, prosciutto and sage, all rolled up together and held with a toothpick, rolled in flour and then shallow fried) with salad, and dessert was made with pineapple pieces we had cooked with sugar and rum, then mixed in with ricotta and cream. Absolutely delicious. All of it. As we sat down to dinner, we watched a DVD about all the different regions of Italy, which just made me hungry for more Italy, and now I know I am definitely coming back, and probably didn't need the Trevi Fountain coin-toss to guarantee that. For my final day in Rome (I would be leaving for Venice that evening), I found myself a walking food tour to go on, because I felt like I hadn't eaten enough things. It was a small group, an American couple, two other Americans, two Australians, me and our tour guide - an American. He has been living in Rome in the same neighbourhood for 5 years, so the tour is him showing us all the local haunts he goes to. It was perfect. We went to a bar first (as in, a bar for coffee), and had some Italian croissants (cornettos) and these fabulous little tirimasus in chocolate cups. Then we went for a slice of Margherita pizza, and a place that was ranked #3 in Rome for Margherita pizza (so that's something). We visited a store for meats and cheeses, and tried some of those. Stopped at a market, had bruschetta, caprese salad, and canoli. (There's still more food) We sat down for three different pastas - ragu, carbonara and I don't know what it's called, but it was essentially just cheese and pepper, and it was perfect. We got the deep friend rice balls from a place that apparently was on Masterchef Australia (and lots of other things, but this was the only one I could relate to), and finally some gelato (and were taught how to tell real gelato from fake gelato). For four hours, we packed a lot in, and I don't think I ate for the rest of the day. It would have been good to do it on my first day in Rome, just so I'd be better equipped for choosing restaurants as our guide gave so many handy tips, but again, I'll just have to return! After all the food, I rushed myself to the Colosseum, as I was also conscious of getting to the airport (there was a Kramer due for a flight, and the airport would expect me there 5 hours early!). I was prepared to have to wait even though I had a ticket, and was unnerved at the easiness to get in. I quite literally just walked right in. Oh well, not complaining. I still whizzed around the place, grateful to be on my own so that kind of thing was possible but also tried to take in as much as I could. I dodged through shuffling tourists to get to good viewpoints, got my snaps, and made my way back to the hostel. A very rushed Colosseum trip, but I still saw a whole lot of it, and maybe next time I'll do it slower ;) The whole shuttle bus back to the airport system was.. interesting. I asked the hostel reception what the procedure was and they said I could buy a ticket on the bus. I got there, and there was a line of people all holding the same ticket-looking item in their hand. I see a girl with a maple leaf flag on her backpack, so ask her if I need to buy a ticket first and find out that I do. But then her and her friend are panicked about missing their flight and have decided to get a taxi, so I buy one of their tickets. Good. I try and find out if the line I'm kind of on is going to the airport I need to go to, and an American lady tells me I need to go into the office to get a "boarding pass". Okay... So I go in, and get a piece of orange laminated paper that has my airport on it, and the man tells me it''s for 6 o'clock. So eventually, I've worked out that the "boarding passes" are for different airports, and different times of departure, so you are guaranteed a seat on a bus at a certain time. But this was never explained clearly, and there's a gaggle of confused tourists hovering over the road. The girl there is trying to perform her best crowd control and eventually becomes very angry. The tourists are all panicked about missing their flights, and confused why they can't get on the bus that is leaving now for their airport, and she is getting frustrated because she's told so many people they have to wait and to wait out of the way of the road. My bus comes, and people are crowding and pushing to get on it. Another girl is taking the boarding passes and shouts "Everyone calm okay? You have a seat! Don't worry!", and I could see her faith in humanity fading as desperate tourists are pushing at her to get onto the bus. I wait my turn, and throw her the sincerest "grazie" I could muster as I gave her my ticket, and she smiled and I saw a bit of faith in humanity come back. Not all us tourists are jerks, promise. That evening I flew to Venice, and that is where I am now. But that's another blog. Rome was just an amazing place, and I could have had longer there, but still feel like I got the most out of the time I did have there. But I will be returning one day, because I threw 10 cents into the Trevi Fountain, and you can't break a guarantee like that.
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