Four Nights in Rome

From the moment I got here, I truly felt like a young child, being lugged around by my parents to see a bunch of historic crap that frankly, I have very little interest in. What can I say, I’m not a history buff. But, I do know the importance of it all. Regardless of how much it interests me, I would rather be educated and bored than ignorant and entertained.

The history lessons began with a triathlon event featuring the Coliseum, the Roman Forum ruins, and Palatine Hill. All in a day’s time, we saw more broken rocks than I’ve probably seen in my entire life. Out of the three friends I was traveling with, Thomas was by far the most in to it all. A lifelong history geek, he gave us the rundown of each site we were seeing, including the miniscule details you only learn by watching the history channel from the time of birth.

Day two featured the Vatican—ignorant me, I was surprised to learn that it was more than just a giant catholic mecca. The main site was actually the Vatican Museum, which covered over four miles of walking, including room after room of Raphael’s frescos and the Sistine Chapel, home to Michelangelo’s famous ceiling frescos of the “Creation”. The adventure was topped off with the final visit to St. Peter’s Basilica—the biggest church on earth. Still not too sure if that’s an accomplishment the catholic church should be proud of, but regardless, it was necessary to see.

I’m still confused about the definition of the Vatican. It’s called Vatican City, but it’s not a city in a country. It is its own entity. But what if I was pregnant and gave birth in a bathroom inside the Vatican Museum. Would my child have citizenship in the Vatican? Is anyone actually a Vatican citizen? Is the Pope? Why didn’t they stamp my passport when I walked through those giant walls? I wanted another stamp!

Day three had little sightseeing planned, which was great for me. By then, I was Rome-ed out. Kelsey, Ally, and I walked around the streets surrounding the Spanish Steps to do a little shopping, while Thomas went to like three more museums. After meeting back up, we grabbed some food and made our way to this park that sits high above the entire city. We lay in the grass napping for a few hours before we began a few rounds of Hearts. I continued to be terrible at this game, but continued to love our competitive tradition we had built. Honestly, hanging out in that park and playing cards is probably something I will remember more than the Roman ruins and museums put together.

We left the park with one destination in mind: Trastevere. Trastevere is a small neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, originally designed by Mussolini to be the most efficient and well planned area in Rome (unlike much of the rest of Italy)-- and it is home to one of Rome’s best views. We walked along the Tiber River for about 45 minutes before arriving. We followed the notes from our friend Nathan (who we met in Cinque Terre), which told us all about his favorite places in Rome—this being one of them. He directed us to the lookout from the Piazza de San Piedro in Trastevere, where we hung out and took lots of artsy pictures, just enjoying the view. Soon, the smells from the nearby restaurants became too much of a distraction, and we walked down while debating the very important and distinct differences between a canolie, stuffed shells, and ravioli. And so it goes, we enjoyed a final dinner with our Italy travel group. For myself, asparagus risotto.

Our “hostel” in Rome is a story unto its self. We arrived at the train station and followed the directions we were given to reach our hostel. But these directions brought us to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant run by a tiny Asian woman who greeted us with much enthusiasm. In less than broken English, we managed to figure the system out—she runs this restaurant, but on the side, owns a floor in an apartment building where she rents out rooms like a hostel, with several bunk beds in each room. After we figured it all out, we were guided from the restaurant down two blocks and around a corner to the apartment building, where we were given the keys and left to fend for ourselves. Not exactly your normal hostel experience—but then again, we had been so spoiled by all the great places we had been staying. But what was perfect about the situation was that breakfast was included in the cost of the room, so we got breakfast at her restaurant each morning—cappuccinos and all.