ROMA! - april 8th - april 14th
The horror story of getting there.
Left at 8:30 am
took a bus to the gare, got on a train to go to lyon. I get to the station with an hour until my next train! perfect right? so i sit staring at the 'voie' listings (tells which spot to go for the train) and its starting to get close to my departure and my trip to Turin still didnt tell me where to go. About 10 til I started getting nervous and decided to start asking around. No one seemed to know what I should do. The name said 'torino autocar' which made me think it wasnt a train but at the same time it said 'train a l'heure' and the company 'ter' next to it, plus i have a eurorail pass so i thought NO it surely has to be a train. I finally go to the welcome desk and they tell me it is outside and a bus. I book it, having about only 3 min left. Theres of course a million buses so i ask someone where the autocars are and they point me to the direction. i run over and see a line of people waiting by a bus! yayy. i ask where they are heading and they were going to Nantes or Annecy or something, followed by them telling me a bus just left and probably the Turin one. GREAT.. so idk if its my french attitude or what but i kinda took a deep breath, accepted that i f-ed up.. and headed back to try and get my tickets changed
This was terrifying, in Lyon, and having the lady tell me there are no times until the next day, then finds one for later that night, but then she said it was full... i stood there about 10 min with her silently searching.. soo nerve wrecking. plus the conversations and planning were in french.. so kinda proud of myself. Finally she found a long connecting series that could get me there the next morning without me having to stay in a hotel or anything for another 60 euros. wouldve been 100s more without my eurorail pass. so i said 'sign me up' and waited for my next train to Chambery.
while waiting for Chambery, once again my train voie doesn't show up, and once again its 10 min til departure. I asked a girl next to me if she was on the same train and she was! she said its for sure a train and for sure going to be on time hah ai felt so much better, she was just as frustrated as me. she then invited me to sit with her on the train too. She is from Corsica and we talked most of the train ride. Very cool! got there and had 2+ hours to kill. It was a cute french town, kinda bigger. I found a Quick to try to find internet to tell quinn and my parents what had happened. tried to grab cheap quick food, and my plain cheeseburger took 25 min to get??? no apology, and cold fries.. yummm. at this point i just felt disgusting and tired and still had two trains ahead of me with my ipod on the verge of dying and my only communication tool.
get my next train to turin. This had a group of about 20 italian youths, screaming, painting their nails and playing music off speakers. I just wanted to sleep... plus the first hour of hearing a language i dont know is always annoying. blahhh. thankfully some other italian speakers got them to hush a few times but overall not a good train ride. I did however get a beautiful view of the italian countryside. Tall mountains, some snow capped, with rolling hills and cottages on them, and next to the train running creeks and brooks. So pretty, i tried to snap a few pictures but they do no justice!
Get to turin and had to again find internet and food. Found a mcDs.. got nervous as Quinn hadnt seen my message yet.. went to find pizza - had to be my first food in italy :) i was happy to see italian flags everywhere and to run into a huge fountain that had greek statues climbing up rocks! Felt like a new country and very cultural. I found a little pizza kebab joint, very local. Not knowing a word of italian got a pizza, thinking a slice. and i watch him hand make it all ! a whole pizza! i get a water bottle from the cooler and try to pay but he says i can just sit down. so i eat and drink all of it before paying ha that would never happen in the US, then i ask how much it was while having a 5 in my hand and prepared to get out more, a full pizza and waterbottle mind you! and hes like uhhhhh yeah that works so 5 euros it was :) also arabs got talent was on while i was there? weird.
decide to give myself a good hour to find my train, good thing i did. go back to the station and turns out my next train leaves a different station within turin. I found a really nice lady that showed me where it was on the metro public transit and headed off. (again, english is just so incredibly important!) this was my overnight train now to Rome. Get on and am in a little six person room. upright chairs with headrests on either side. An italian guy was in my room and we tried to communicate but it just couldnt happen as he only knew italian and me english and french. Fail. kinda awkward being in a room when you cant communicate at all. it was a horrible sleeping experience. waking up at each stop wondering if i should be getting off, getting woken up by the ticket checkers, and by cramps in my neck, legs, everywhere! I wake up to the sun and realize Rome is up next, i could get that much from the guy opposite of me. I was just so happy to see Quinn and get situated.
but no.. course not. get off and hes no where to be found, i circle the station for 2 hours with my suitcase and finally give up thinking maybe i should stay in one spot. so i then stand for another hour.. Meanwhile a piano guy performing for money plays the same song in a loop for 2 of these three hours... but passer-bys would never know haha but I DID! i decide to go find internet. I wonder around the station and find an internet cafe spot. I pay for a half hour of computer and realize quinn was there that morning but we missed eachother, also that he looked for me the night before cus he had not gotten my facebook message in time :( what a good friend. I go back to the station waiting and sit on a bench drifting in and out of sleep with all my belongings cradled in my arms. I start having a few itches, and when i go to look see that i have a line of bumps on my left shoulder and left wrist. usually id be confused, but it was something id seen before... blatantly bed bug bites. GREAT.. bed bug bits covering me from i assume the sleep train.. no one to pick me up.. no internet.. and no way to find out where to go.
I let my curiosity kill me until noon and go back to the internet cafe. i go back and find and see this message from quinn:
So i'm heading back down to termini (for the third time) to try and find you. Stay on the top level in HIGH VISIBILITY try to gravitate towards the Mcdonalds that is on the same level as the platforms! Do not leave termini w/o me because I'm not leaving till I find you....
i realize.. there was no mcdonalds or even restaurant at my station.. also no 'top level'.. perplexed i realize... maybe i am not at 'termini'. I run back to the station and scan looking for someone that looks nice haha. I randomly pick a kid my age with shades and a suitcase saying 'do you know where the closest mcdonalds is?' -yeah im not american :P... he barely gets out in english that hes from florence and does not know, i say i am suppose to meet someone there.. idk how but he puts 2+2 together and says.. maybe they are at the other station where theres a mcdonalds! he tells me its 4 stops down on the metro.. and finally i have hope, but of course i take the metro two stops in the wrong direction at first :P.. i finally get to the termini station, running around looking for quinn and mcdonalds hoping he hadnt left. I get to the mcds and see no one :( i stand there scanning and scanning. Finally i lock eyes with Quinn!!! both our jaws drop.. i dropped my stuff and we ran to hug! omg such a relief. and now the trip actually begins.
he takes me back to the Loyola Rome campus, stopping for pizza along the way. Find out that I am not even allowed to go to his room for 5 min as a visitor, yup.. even though i am a loyola student. pretttty dumb, i just wanted to shower. I didnt have anywhere to put my stuff or change or anything cus i was suppose to be staying at the other student housing place that is a hotel but the person i was going to meet jake, was at work so i couldnt get in. After an hour of arguing with quinn he convinced me to just get a hostel for the night so there wouldnt be any more problems. We head to the hostel - it had a great location and was realllly nice and clean - i got to shower and got ready to go out with his friends. We were going to a Ballet! it was a really modern show, kind of acrobatic more than ballet. They were all on cords and flying through the air while dancing and telling a story. It was incredible, it was impossible to see the cords because they did some kind of weird lighting. the dancers moved as though they were floating underwater, it looked unbelievable. It was really awesome and all italian so def a cool experience. After, we went to a restaurant called 'the zodiac'. its on top of a huge hill. It has all glass windows so you sit at a table with a candle with a perfect view of Rome at night! gorgeous! we went all out. Red wine, two appetizers -clams and an artichoke one, i had clam gnocchi entree, and we topped it off with a lemoncello. It was amazing, it was with quinn and two of his girl friends. not only was it great to be with such a good friend from home but to meet new people that i could actually see when i get home, i am so used to meeting people that i may never see again. the food was amazingly italian, and it was just a great atmosphere, especially after my 30 straight hours of traveling.
new friends form loyola that we had dinner with
we walked along outside checking out the view. We stopped at a bar and sat outside for a little with a drink and caught up some more and then i went back to my hostel that was just next door. I was sad to part quinn scared of having to meet up again haha. The next morning quinn met me outside my hostel though, and no problems whatsoever.
When he meets me he casually asks 'hey would you like to go see the pope before we go around the city?' umm YES. the pope does a blessing every sunday! so we grabbed a coffee and headed over to st peters square. it was packeedd, obviously! but i was blown away by the columns and the basillica! Such a great place to be and it was a beautiful day. We had a good 45 min to just soak up being there and walk around a little while waiting. We hear a huge uproar of applause and look up to see the pope with his arms spread wide out of the higher window of one of the buildings. He begins to give his blessing in italian and it was so moving. So many people, standing silently listening to him.. people from all over the globe. He then begins giving shorter messages and prayers in many other languages. As he switched people in different areas of the crowd would cheer and wave flags, it was awesome, i could not look away.
After, we walked down the street where there are statues of the stations of the cross and tons of shops. We were on a mission to get to the best gelato place that quinns found. I got strawberry and kiwi and we sat at a patio with vines around. So nice and delicious! next up: Pantheon. quinns taking a lot of art and history classes here so he was not kidding when he said he could be my tour guide.. he knew soo much and we would then check up in the Rick Steves guidebook and it would be exactly what quinn said, maybe even less! i was so impressed. but not as corny
We walked by a cat garden.. it was literally a square of a bunch of ruins that a bunch of cats live in? yeah random i know. We walked around town through the jewish ghetto - saw a scavenger hunt going on with legit runners. Picked a restaurant off a small side street that we had a glass of wine, tomato and mozzarella bruschetta and pizza. delish. We then went to the Church of St. Matthew to see some famous Caravaggio paintings, including the calling, inspiration and martyrdom of St. Matthews. It was packed full. We then went to 'L'avventura de ignazio di loyola'. It is a super Baroque style church that seemed just massive!
Trevi Fountain - we of course threw a coin over our shoulder for a safe return to Rome later in life. Stood and stared at the gorgeous sealike fountain for a while before heading on to a park to sit and soak in the italian lifestyle, attempted one museum but it was about to close. We headed on until the spanish steps. great view of the city, great people watching, and the sun was setting. the downside is it being atouristy spot and us having roses and stupid gadgets shoved in our faces every two seconds. Literally one time the guy just kept tapping my shoulder with a flower saying 'take it.. take it.. take it'... i wanted to kill someone if they asked me to take a flower one more time! After soaking it in for quite a while we walked through the main shopping district/triangle. giorgio armani, prada, you name it they had it.
As night came on we walked past more ruins, including the Forum and headed toward the Colosseum. it was so great because it is one of those overwhelming sites that just makes it hit you 'i am in another country'. we walked all the way around it, i touched it :D and just kinda stared at it haha. also passed the vatican at night, it was gorgeous. We ate at a restaurant right near the Pantheon. It was outside on a cobblestone road, we once again got wine bruschetta and this time pasta! I had carbonara pasta - a quintessential roman dish. again, absolutely delicious. I snuck into the Hotel to stay with jake and it went smoothly, surprisingly! thank god
next day:
Forum - one got in free for culture week.. two, it was awesome! it was so eerie and so amazing to know we were walking where Romans walked 2000 years before. We saw the spot where Caesar was burned after being killed. it was covered with flowers and postcards to him. We couldnt go in the senate building but my favorite was seeing the Market. It made me feel so tiny. It showed how sophisticated they were and just amazed me as i thought about how similar life was then and now. I also couldnt believe how well preserved a lot of it was. It was easy to make out writings, designs and mosaics. There were archeologists working still uncovering stuff!
can you see me standing in the middle of that column? thats how huge it was
San Giovanni in laterano
my favorite thing about this church was that it had statues of sts all around the main area and they were all very epic. the ceiling had gold decorations and above the alter was an image of christ that was one of the first, that were allowed because christianity used to be banned. we came home we got three different kinds of pizza to share, a shrimp/mayo one, a sausage/white sauce, and a ham one. We ate them in a park while watching a group play cricket. we came back to loyola and i registered for classes in their IC. we also skyped with aubrey and jon for a while each. As i was filling out paperwork for RA stuff, i got kicked out of the IC because i am a guest and stayed past ten. quinn n i then went for a drink before i went back and snuck in the hotel again.
my birthday!
quinn and brooke had classes all day so I toured solo. I first went to piazza popolo. It is surrounded by villa borghese - a beautiful park with lots to see. It was siesta time so churches were closed but i got a great view of the city and lots of people watching and performers. I saw their zoo, a camel too! checked out the museum and its gardens even though i couldnt go in - reservations booked for the next week straight. after thoroughly raking the entire park i headed to piazza di republica. Here I found the baths of diocletian and the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli dei Martiri. There was not much inside the church but it was neat because 8 of the columns were original and its size was that of a football field and 7 stories! Also inside was an sundial type instrument that they used to calculate the equinox's, easter, and time.
On the way to the baths i haggled for some sunglasses for 4 euro and continued on to the baths. Again very cool to see a lot of old artifacts and realize how similar they were to us. To be in the same spot they were was just a cool feeling. There were pretty gardens in the spot of the old baths as well.
Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore- inside this church was old relics from jesus' nativity, there are two pieces of wood bound by iron under the alter where a statue of Sixtus V is kneeling as well. The whole church is focused on mary with a column in front with her above as well. i grabbed a pizza on the way to the Coloseum, best i had had yet! yumm.. and was in for my fav part of Rome
Colosseum :
This was the greatest thing ever! again free for culture week. SOOO many tour groups so that was the biggest downside. I took 1000 pictures. It was just amazing to be there, i could not get enough, i teared up several times. It is just crazy to be there.. in something sooo old.. soo historical.. sooo epic! I got creepily stalked by some 40 year old offering to tour me around... its a circle.. i think i can figure out where to go dude, beyond weird, but the rest of the time i was really glad to be by myself and just soak it in! i also listened in on a few english/french tours that i heard going by. I stayed for a good 2 hours! it was dusk so I decided to finally head out, but i think i could live in there haha :D
I came back to loyola, ran into people i knew on the bus? weird haha and quinn took me out for a birthday dinner! It was a local place and i had ravioli :) we also had a sparkling white wine, bruschetta and a jambon cru pizza (cannot spell the italian word for it). We came back to Loyola, they were having a talent show! it was great i stood with some friends and it was really good and funny. quinn even preformed with some friends. After that we went to their local bar 'cubbyhole' - this made me laugh for those of you know how i pronounce cubby wrong always. It was beautiful outside so we just sat out with everyone. I got back super late to the hotel and slept on the floor since jake was already in bed, only to wake up early for the vatican
VATICAN!
of course couldnt get a printer to work so wasted some time in the morning but still got to the museum around 10:30am. We did this super italian.... took us 5 hours! started with a coffee in the courtyard for a while, while reading up on rick steves book about all the works we were about to see. It was an amazing museum! so many great works/originals, and sooo huge! it was so incredibly crowded, like we joked how it was like getting into a rock concert.. we would be standing still at times waiting to get into the next room. As we got farther in though the mass kinda spread out and it was more do-able. this included tapestries and the raphael rooms. The greatest part was of course once we got to the Sistine Chapel! for lack of a better description, i got chills. It was just incredibly detailed and magnificent. The Last Judgement we looked at forever, the amount of detail and actions going on was so intricate there were always new things to find. On the ceiling the famous Creation of Adam along with the stories from creation days to noah. Along the sides was a comparison of the works and teachings of moses compared with that of jesus. we sat in there for a very long time. Finally we left and pretty much ran through the rest of the museum just ready to be done.
We got paninis (tuna, turkey, spinach, and hard boiled eggs) and gelato (coffee and carmel creme). this was very much needed after all the museuming. We went back to the vatican to get in the St. Peter's Basilica to catch mass at 5pm!!!!!!! basically you had to be there.. i dont know what to blog about it. it was amazing. mass in italian - which i understood a surprising amount of (not a lot) but could piece some together, i received communion and basically cried, it was just gorgeous, overwhelmingly grand in everyway. Michelangelos pieta, tomb of st peter, sit of st peters crucifixion... you must go.
after we searched for a cross for jon. I also got my other rome souvenirs for others and an Italia shirt for myself before heading back. I got to have dinner with Brooke! had tons of catching up to do. I got the best pasta i have probably ever had, the were shell like noodles with a broccoli based sauce. yummmYY! I came back to the hotel and tried to stay up to talk to my parents but couldnt make it.
Today I stayed at loyolas campus doing trip planning for the rest of italy and booking hostels, writing this blog, sending important school emails and adjusting classes for fall.
I love love lovveeddd Rome. very magical city of romance (both in a lovey and a historically romanticism way) so traditional, cultural, and beautiful. Sad to leave, but glad to see some more of this beautiful country!
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