I Heart Roma

Yesterday was a really long day, but we covered a lot of Rome so we were happy. Got up at 6:30 am to get ready, have some breakfast, and head out to the colloseum for our walking tour. It ended up being with the same young, Irish tour guide as yesterday (Jimmy) so us ladies were happy, and he has a degree in art history so he knows his stuff. We first toured around the Roman Forum, where Julius Cesar is buried and where Rome basically began (before the common era), and with Jimmy explaining everything that used to happen there it was really cool. We walked down the most famous road of all time, the one where the senators used to walk down to get into the forum, so that was pretty cool.

After the forum we went into the colloseum, and as Jimmy had promised, avoided the 3 hour line in! There’s a secret to skipping that line, but he doesn’t want us to tell anyone so that he can keep taking his tours through it lol. The colloseum was everything I thought it would be: so old, so huge, and so cool. I loved that part of the tour, despite the gruesome uses it used to have.

After the tour we got some more pictures inside the colloseum, and walked up the road towards the Vittoria monument, and up Via del Corso to do some shopping. We found the yummiest pizzerria, that even had vegan paninis and tons of salad stuff, and I mistakenly ordered a beer for 6 euro. We were even standing up as you pay more to sit down, but I’m in wine country so I guess that explains the price? Felt like I was back in Dublin! Anyways after eating we kept wandering down the shopping streets, eventually veering down a market street and towards the trevi fountain. On the way we found the BEST gelato place, that had like 8 different fruit sorbet’s with no milk. Mom and I each got 2 flavours, and then after we had ordered I noticed they had soy pistachio, hazlenut, and chocolate gelato! We ended up getting some on the way back from the fountain and it was amaaaaazing.

We also stopped at a liquer store, where Kristel was trying creamed liquers of melon, pistachio, lemon, and then white chocolate, which she ended up buying. Mom and I had bread dipped in oil and lemoncelllo, which was really really good. We all bought some glass jewelry at one of the shops too; there was soo much to choose from it was all really nice stuff. The Trevi Fountain is huge and really cool, and we sat by it and finished up our gelato. There were tons of tourists around it, and it’s October! So I couldn’t imagine the people who would be here in the summer. The weather is still really hot so we’re doing good so far! We then walked up to the Spanish Steps, got some pictures, and took the metro home.

After relaxing for a couple of hours (with our 1 litre tetra packs of wine for 89 cents!) we headed out in Ostia (where we’re staying) to grab some dinner. It was just after 7, and we couldn’t find one restaurant open until after 8, so we ended up going back to the hostel to drink some more wine and then we went out again to have the same risotto we had the first day because it was that good.

Today we got up to a beautiful day, so we had breakfast and got a few hours in at the beach across the road from our hostel. It was such a nice day, and I think we all had naps laying in the super soft Roman sand. We got ready and headed into Rome to buy our tickets to Firenze tomorrow and wander around the parts of Rome we hadn’t seen yet. We found the Pantheon, but resisted temptation to go in until our free tour at 7. We wandered around Piazza Navona, and found an AWESOME litre of wine to drink while we waited. We still had more time to kill so we found some early (delicious) dinner at a pizzeria and then headed back to the pantheon to sit, people watch, and take drunken photos (wish I could put them up! Hopefully better connection in Florence tomorrow!). Our free tour was from a different guy, Tom, from Windsor, and he was really good. The Pantheon is amazing, and the tour was short but sweet. We then stopped by the gelato place from yesterday (I tried the soy chocolate tonight) and got the metro home. We’re exhausted, but pretty sure we covered everything we wanted to here in Rome, so we’re ready to be off tomorrow! Really missing everyone at home, 4 weeks today and we’re back!

Tomorrow we leave for Florence for 5 days, where we’ll do day trips to Siena, Pisa, and Cinque Terre!