Scusi

I apologize for my negligence these past few days…perhaps I should say ‘scusi’. Thank you, Inbar, for teaching me the phrase I used most in Italy, even if the majority of the time it was said with an exaggerated Italian accent, which I can finally imitate. So!

Saturday, January 5

When we got to the hostel, we sat down in the common room to figure out what we were going to do for the day, and within 10 minutes we had made a friend who stuck with us for the next three days. Philip, an exchange student in the UK from Iowa, introduced himself, we invited him to explore with us, and off we went. That first day we made it to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum before it got dark. It’s so odd to be walking along a typical big city street then come out onto some ancient ruins being excavated. That is what Rome is like in a nutshell, plus a church on every corner it seems like. Our hostel had free pasta that evening, so we took advantage of that, played some Hearts, and also participated in the pub crawl they offered. It began at their sister hostel with an open bar, continued to a pub, and ended at a club. It was quite an evening to say the least, but when in Rome...

Sunday, January 6

Today is the day I discovered espresso. I mentioned in an earlier post I think that Italians order ‘caffe’ then drink it at the bar before going on their merry way. Because it was only .80 euro cents, I got some and oh my, it’s good; I was hooked. For the next two mornings, we went to a café down the street for breakfast and ordered ‘un caffe’ and a pastry, some triangular thing filled with cream an Australian told us we had to try. I adore the mini cups and spoons, so the souvenir I got for myself in Rome is a little green espresso spoon. New morning tradition. Except I end up using a whole packet of sugar because it’s so bitter, so I’ll have to invest in some sugar too. My crowning moment was when I ordered and the waitress spoke to me only in Italian. Usually everyone just starts with English because we are so obviously American.

Anyway, we had planned to go to Pompeii today, but for various reasons that fell through and we ended up heading north to find the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. It was a long walk, but well worth it. Something was going on at the Spanish Steps…the streets were packed and there were a bunch of models doing some photo shoot on the steps. We sat and watched for awhile until the Christmas lights strung up all over the streets were lit up and the sun was setting. This meant perfect light for taking pictures at the Trevi Fountain, which I remember from a Richard Scary episode. I threw a penny in, but I didn’t do it backwards, so my wish might not come true. Then we managed to find the Pantheon and gelato because Philip hadn’t tried any yet. The Pantheon was very neat; the gelato so delicious. By this point, we were hungry, but we had to walk for a bit before we found an open place within our price range. But WAIT, momentary tangent!! I almost forgot. On our way back, which took awhile because we kept getting lost and looking like total tourists, we heard booming echoing off the buildings. Using our powers of deduction, we figured it was probably fireworks and not a war, and sure enough, there was a brilliant fireworks display over the Piazza Venezia near the Forum. I would imagine it was because of Epiphany, but I’m not certain. It was fantastic though, and people stopped their cars in the middle of the street to watch.

When we found a place, there were a couple other people from our hostel there and we talked about a variety of things, or rather, one guy told a bunch of stories about things like donkeys painted like zebras while we listened. Back at the hostel, we played some rousing card games with and talked to an older man who produced a movie a number of years ago about this man who lures women into the woods and then kills them. Then he told us he had an interview with NBC about this movie because the person he worked with had become a serial killer…I wasn’t really quite sure how to respond to this story, but he said the movie is on Netflix, so maybe I’ll have to check it out.

Monday, January 7

The day started off with espresso and a pastry, a stop at a fruit stand, and then a long walk to Vatican City. I’m pretty sure we ended up walking more than 7 miles today, but it was worth it. When we got to the Vatican, we were hungry again, so we got sandwiches at a little café. Pretty much the only thing I ate in Rome were tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. When in Rome….St. Peter’s Square was actually smaller than I imagined it to be, but the Basilica was enormous. I stopped taking pictures after the first few because it’s enormity cannot be captured. The sunlight was filtering through the windows just so, lighting the marble floors. We saw where St. Peter is buried, the literal rock of the church since the Basilica is built over him, then walked over to the Vatican museums. I’d heard a great deal about the long lines, but we hardly waited in a single line. It was superb. The Vatican Museum was cool, with all the ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc sculptures and art, but after awhile it seemed the rooms were never ending. The hall of maps was really neat, as were the rooms Raphael painted. Finally we came to the Sistine Chapel and saw the famous ceiling. This, too, was smaller than I expected, but no less incredible. The detail and dimensionality (is that even a word, Whitney?) were awesome. We probably spent 45 minutes in there just staring up at the ceiling and talking about religion.

            Then it was dinnertime! Well, for us anyway. We ended up at the Pantheon, which became a running joke, “Remember that time we went to the Pantheon…” because we ended up there again later, and sat down to a dinner outside under what the waiter proudly told us was “California Sun” aka heat lamps. We had a full view of the Pantheon as we ate our Italian dinners by candlelight. My first non-tomato and mozzarella sandwich meal. And then more gelato! Inbar had recommended this place ‘north of the Pantheon with a palm tree outside’. Turns out there are a lot of gelato places north of the Pantheon with palm trees. There are a lot of palm trees in Italy in general. But, as soon as I saw one in particular I knew it was the one we were supposed to go to. 150 flavors of gelato, like mango and ananas (pineapple!) which both tasted so fresh. Hyped up on sugar and conscious of the fact it was our last night in Rome, we had a hilarious walk back, in which we walked in a giant circle and ended up back at the Pantheon, but eventually made it to the hostel. Too tired to go anywhere else, we watched a movie in the common room then stayed up late dancing and being silly, probably to the amusement of whoever was watching the security cameras. 

Tuesday, January 8

And now we’re on the train to Galway, after having flown into Dublin from Rome and literally running to the train to catch it in time, which we did. We almost ended up in Istanbul though (well, not entirely…). Our tickets told us to go to Gate 5 (right next to G6, so now I have ‘Like a G6’ stuck in my head), so we sat there until 5 minutes before our boarding time figuring the screen would change to a Dublin departure at some point, but it never did. Luckily we asked. It’s so nice to be back in a country where people are hilariously friendly and I don’t feel like I have to conceal the fact that I’m from the States. And all the signs are in English. Buut it’s still hard to understand the accent sometimes.

And I apologize that this is really, really long. 

Philip, Taylor, and me in St. Peter's Square in front of St. Peter's Basilica. 

The Italian flag over Rome from Piazza Venezia.

The Colosseum at night. 

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. 

The Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon at dusk.