¡Italia! Roma

This past weekend was the break between my intensive month course and the start of the official semester at Nebrija, so we had a 5 day weekend for traveling. I went with four friends to Italy, flying into Rome and out of Bologna!

Thursday after our finals for the intensive course we all headed to the airport to start our lives as jet setters. A few hours later we arrived in Rome without knowing a single Italian phrase to help us get around. Right away private car drivers approached us to take us to our apartment that we rented for the weekend, and after some ineffective haggling my friends convinced me to go for it. The driver that was taking us could see I was on the fence so he snatched up my bag to "help me" and we were on our way.

Apartment!

So cute

Our apartment was fairly close to the heart of Rome, situated right on a major shopping street. It was late when we got there so right after check in we went on the search for some authentic Italian pasta. The place we found was absolutely delicious, as were all the meals of the trip. Our waiter kind of tricked us into buying an 18€ mozzarella dish, but it was amazing so we didn't really mind. After our pasta, bread, cheese, and wine, we turned into the apartment.

18€ Mozarella

Friday was by far my favorite day in Italy. We started the day early and ended late. First, we walked over to Piazza Navona, a well-known plaza in Rome where tons of artists sell their paintings of the sites of Italy. A couple of my friends bought oil paintings and I had a great time looking at them all. Later in the day I gave in and bought a set of 3 watercolor paintings.

Piazza Navona

The next stop was the Trevi fountain, but we got lost on the way as we didn't speak the language or have a very good map. We didn't mind, though, because we stumbled upon the cutest little gelato shop. I got mint and tiramisu, sooo good, and it basically served as my breakfast for the day. Soon after we were searching for the Trevi fountain again and knew we were close when we heard the water and saw huge crowds of people. We rounded a corner and there it was - this giant, beautiful, famous, yet serene fountain by Michel Angelo. This was my favorite site of the trip because of how we found it and the stories that go with it. It is a wishing fountain, so we all stood in a line and counted to three after making our wishes and throwing euro coins behind our backs into the fountain. Off to the side there is a spot where you can drink the clean water from the fountain and it is supposed to promote good health.

Trevi

Drinking fountain at Trevi

Next we had lunch at a cute little outdoor cafe near the Trevi, where we got wine, bruschetta, and more pasta. I've decided bruschetta is one of my new favorite foods, and that Italians drink wine more than water! The water in Italy was not free by any means, each meal we had to buy it by the bottle (hence all the wine instead). After some more desserts (tiramisu and coffee this time, NOMZ) we ventured over to the Pantheon. Another huge site spotted just after rounding the corner, the Pantheon was full of history. We stood outside taking pictures and within seconds were pounced on by some club promoters inviting us to a pub crawl that night. Typical, because we are clearly American and all Europeans assume that we are down to party. So we went that night :P

Pantheon

Saturday we had a late start to the day, and it was very dreary and rainy outside. My allergies were acting up so it was not the most comfortable day outdoors for me, but it was exciting to go eat more nommy Italian food and gelato. We went over to Vatican city and saw a small museum nearby. After lots of timing confusion, we realized that we missed our chance to go to the more famous Vatican Museum, which was a major bummer. However throughout our confusion we saw tons and tons of catholic nuns headed to mass in St. Peter's Basilica. A very cool, very traditional Italian site to see.

For dinner, we finally had some Pizza! I ordered Diavolo, and it was the spiciest pizza I have ever had. I practically ate the whole thing anyway, it was phenomenal! On the way to dinner we passed by this curious little wall that had random quirky artwork all along it, and we figured out that it was a place artists posted their work for people to buy. It was a very cool, authentic Italian thing to stumble onto!

Art

After dinner we walked around (slowly, and full with pizza) to the Spanish Steps. The street leading up to the site, Via Condotti, was filled with high dollar designers and it was a lot of fun peeking in the windows in such a posh area. When we reached the steps, we were all in awe. The view of the steps was great, but I personally fell in love with the view from the top of the steps, overlooking Rome with the lights of Via Condotti adding a beautiful effect. With the cool breeze in the air and the serenity of the site, I imagined myself moving to Italy and living it Rome, taking this spot as my place to reflect on life and daydream. Basically, this is where I officially fell in love with Rome.

Favorite view

We went to the Trevi Fountain one last time from here, making one last wish and seeing it in all its lit up glory at night. Breathtaking. I wished and threw in a 1€ coin, making sure it would come true :) Our last stop of the night was to get some dessert (duh). On the way, we passed a man roasting chestnuts. This is apparently a fairly popular snack in Italy, because there were street vendors all over selling chestnuts. I've never had a chestnut, so I really wanted to buy just one! The man wouldn't accept my 40 cents so we moved on and had nutella filled crepes instead.

Trevi a la noche

Our final morning in Roma, we headed out to a tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. I loved the Colosseum, our guide told us the history of it for an hour and a half! Apparently in the dungeons of the Colosseum they kept "beasts" - lions, tigers, alligators - and would starve them to anger them so they would put on a great show when the beast would eat a servant in front of a packed Colosseum. After the show, Emperors would eat the beast. So barbaric to think about, but interesting all the same. The tour of the Roman Forum was great as well, but I didn't know much about the site before so I kind of had an information overload. But it was still so cool!

Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

Roman Forum 

Finally we went back to our apartment and packed up to head to Bologna by train. An amazing few days! So so so much history is held in Rome, I am very glad I got to spend time there falling in love with it. And the story is, if you make a wish in the Trevi fountain, you are sure to return! Fine with me :)