Rome with Steve

Hola,

Soon to come, as suggested by Steve, is Steve and Monica’s Survival Guide to Rome and Florence.  Get excited for that ha. First stop from the Malaga Airport was Madrid and then a few minutes later we were on our way to Rome!

We were very intimidated by Rome at first because we could not figure out the airport.  We ended up at abandoned turnstiles when trying to find Steve’s checked baggage.  This lead to us having to ask multiple people for directions with me speaking Spanish and them responding in Italian.  We found his baggage about an hour of struggling later.   We then had to figure out how to get to our hostel from the airport, which was also confusing.  We ended taking a van through the train service booth? Still not sure how that all happened but we got there safe and the van ended up being great because we got to drive through room at night and see the coliseum all lit up.

We stayed at a hostel called “Cristina’s Place” and if anyone plans on traveling to Rome I HIGHLY recommend it. The owner, Fidel, is so nice and so helpful.  He’s originally from Nigeria and speaks perfect English, which was extremely helpful to us, especially the first night.  On the first night he gave us a map of Rome and circled all the important sites, nearest restaurants, and what areas were the est for going out at night.  That night we got some pasta for dinner, and realized how expensive it is to eat in Italy.  Although, we figured out some tricks to save a few euros here and there and luckily Florence was a little cheaper.

We spent our first day in Rome primarily in Vatican City.  We went to St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican Museum mainly.  At St. Peter’s we went up to the top of the basilica's dome first.  There we over looked all of Rome.  The city is so massive with so many important monuments and sites and we could see almost all of them from that one viewpoint which was pretty awesome.  After we went into the church and then began the search for our Palm Sunday tickets, which we ended up not finding until we left the Vatican Museum. 

We went into the Vatican Museum expecting some sculptures here and there and then the Sistine Chapel…Man were we wrong!  The museum was gorgeous and is basically a collection of all the treasures, paintings, and sculptures given to each pope throughout history.  There was so much and it was so gorgeous that by the time you saw the Sistine Chapel at the end we were just kind of like “it’s nice”.  It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but there were prettier murals and ceilings that we saw along the way.  We also got a kick out of the security guards in the chapel that stoop on platforms and barked “silenceeeee” “noo photos”.  Couldn’t help but laugh and it just furthered tempted you to take photos.

After the Vatican Museum and lunch at a sandwich shop we finally found the “bronze doors” where we were suppose to grab the tickets we had reserved for the Palm Sunday with the Pope.  At the door was one of the Swiss Guards.  Their uniforms are hilarious making it hard to take the seriously.  Please google image it for a good laugh.

Once the tickets were in hand we visited the Pantheon and the Trevy Fountain and few other plazas on our way back.  We had to walk back and forth from our hostel to Vatican City (about an hour walk) because the metro workers were on strike that day.  But we saw so much more of the city by walking and loved exploring the little side streets so we ended up walking everyday except to go out at night and to see the Pope Sunday morning.

Side note is that my camera officially stopped working Friday afternoon as we were making our way through different plazas on our way back home.  Luckily, Steve brought his point and shoot digital camera on the trip along with his fancy one.  He’s letting me borrow his point and shoot for the rest of my semester so that I don’t have to buy a new camera while here.

On Saturday, we toured the coliseum, forum, and palatine hill.  Its one ticket to see all three and after getting my budget stubborn self to agree we put extra money into the coliseum so that we could get a guided tour which included also going to the basement and the third level of the coliseum.   It was so worth because for the extra money we paid we left understanding so much about the coliseum’s history and got to see so much more than we would have with the general ticket.

The forum and palatine hill are both in one entrance and we were there until close still trying to fit some last minute pictures in, especially because the sun was starting to set giving us perfect photo ops.  And by us I really mean Steve with his fancy camera.  His photos are the ones to see.

Saturday night was when we decided to hit up the nightlife.  We went to the plaza that Fidel suggested Campi de Fiori.  During the day the plaza is all open markets but at night its filled with hundreds of people bouncing from bar to bar.  There are no open container laws in Italy so most of the places would put your drinks in plastic cups so that you could leave after you paid to go hang in the plaza with the masses or bounce to another bar.  We did a little of both, but we had to be smart about because drinks in Italy were so expensive, especially compared to Spain.  In Spain you can get a beer for 2 euros or less and it comes with tapas (food), in Rome Steve’s beer cost him 6 euros :O  We ended our night out with some delicious and alcoholic crepes.  Who would’ve thought that existed?

A few hours later we woke up to see the Pope… ha woooops.  We didn’t get there early enough to have seats but we were in the standing room area and when the Pope came by in his jeep at the end we were less than 10 feet away! We even saw him kiss a baby #classic.  Being in St.Peter’s square for the service was crazy because it felt as though the whole world was there.  There were so many different flags (We sadly didn’t think to bring an American flag and didn’t see anyone else with one while we were there) and we heard so many languages.  The service was all in Italian so we didn’t understand it, but we clapped when everyone else clapped.  The craziest part was that they offer communion to the entire audience which was crazy.  We stepped back so that people who really wanted it (people were trying to climb over each other to get ot it) could.

To end our time in Rome we went to Campi de Fiori during the day to check out the open market.  There we got some really fresh fruit cups and enjoyed live music and people watching.  That afternoon we left the perfect weather in Rome to visit the gorgeous city, Florence, with its not so perfect weather.