Roma Tomato

10/21/2009

Today we have been traveling for exactly one month. I am surprising not tired of traveling. I like being on the go and seeing everything. I really like Italy a lot too and am extremely enjoying being here. We were planning on getting up super early and doing two tours today, one in the morning of the Coliseum and Roman Forum and one in the afternoon of St. Peter’s basilica, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel, but 6:45 rolled around and we decided to forget about the first tour. I was ok with that because I remembered not being too impressed with the Coliseum the first time I saw it. I just remember it being one of those things like yep there it is. We ended up sleeping till 9:15 and it was glorious. Even on my travels I still stay true to my sleeping habits and love of sleep. I feel pretty lucky that I am usually a sound sleeper and can pretty much sleep anywhere especially with the aid of my ipod and eye pillow.

Breakfast ended at 10, so once we got up we headed straight down to take advantage of the free breakfast. It was probably one of the best free breakfasts that I have come across. They had really fresh tasting delicious cereal and cold and must have been less than whole milk (Im guessing that because it didn’t taste like barn to me). In addition to that, they had a cappuccino bar, delicious pastries, and fruit. There were even things that we could grab to bring along with us for snacks during the day. Then we went back upstairs to take showers. Unfortunately a con of this hostel is that the shower does not drain well at all. At one point I had to turn the water off in the middle of my shower and let the bottom drain a bit because it was over flowing out of the shower and onto the bathroom floor. There is just something about standing in your own bath water while you take a shower that still makes you feel dirty. We headed out to take the train into the city a little after 11. It was a beautiful day and much warmer than the last week had been.

We were going to the Vatican City to meet up with the afternoon tour. We had a little bit of difficulty getting to the Vatican using the buses, but eventually made it. A nice man on the bus finally assured me we were going the right way and told me where exactly to get off. When we arrived at the tour meeting location there were only two Irish guys standing there holding up an umbrella that indicated that they were the guys we were looking for. Apparently their job was just to collect the money. The tour guide had not arrived yet. Katherine did not think that this situation looked legit at all, so we opted forego the tour and go through the Vatican Museum and see the Sistine Chapel on our own. It cost 8 euro to get in. While it would have been cool to hear some history stories on the tour, it was also nice to move through at our own pace. Religious art really does not get me that excited at all. It was neat to see the mosaics and detailed artwork but I feel like after a while everything starts to look the same. Also the Vatican Museums are gigantic and it took forever, going through tons of different rooms and galleries, to finally see the Sistine Chapel. We were lucky enough to find a place to sit in the Sistine Chapel so that we could admire it sitting down after walking miles through the museum to get to it. It really is a pretty amazing feat for Michelangelo, but after about 10 minutes we were ready to carry on.

Once we got out of the maze of the Vatican Museum, we decided it was time to dig into our snacks that we had brought from the hostel. They consisted of packets of the already toasted break and jelly. Half way through eating it, I decided that while this might have been acceptable in Munich, in Italy it just wasn’t cutting it. There was a gelateria behind us, so we gave the pigeons the rest of our toast and went to get some gelato. The area surrounding the Vatican does not look like how one would picture Rome and we were a bit let down by it being our first viewing of the city. We decided next to head to the Pantheon and were pleasantly surprised by the change of scenery. Over by the Pantheon was more like what we had pictured Rome to be.

We spent most of the day walking around Rome and seeing the sites. We saw the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon (as I just said), Piazza Navaro (which is supposedly a happening place for night life, but during the day it had a lot of street vendors selling art work set up), Camp di Fiori (which is an outdoor food market, but had just closed by the time we got there and they were washing away the traces of the food on the ground), the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Rome is a good walking city.

While we were walking, I found myself looking at a familiar backpack. It was the kids from Georgia, who we sat with at the Wine Tasting in Florence. I yelled “Hey Georgia” and they turned around. They were staying in the Rome Famous Hostel and said that it was by far the worst Famous Hostel that they had stayed in, so that is a plus for our far out of the city hostel. They also showed us some stuff on the map that we couldn’t find and other hostels close to the train station for my future information when Im back in Rome waiting to meet my mom. Scott had said that he had rerun into people that he had met in his travels, but it was still a pretty crazy situation to actually have it happen to you… small world again.

I noticed throughout the day that Rome is a very religious city. There were religious people like priests, monks, and nuns walking everywhere. We walked down a street that had a bunch of shops on it selling pope outfits. I thought this would be a great Halloween costume, maybe a little sacrilegious, but pretty funny in how authentic it would be. At one point we realized that we were right in front of the Roman Religious College. Patricia had told us that Indian people dominate the flower market. They walk around with roses and if you hold one they make you pay for it. I noticed that this was blatantly true in Rome. Also there were Asian people everywhere. Before Rome, I had hardly seen an Asian people at all.

We stopped at a “snack bar” for a bite to eat around five. If you see a snack bar in Italy do not stop in it because they are extremely overpriced. Katherine and I split a cheese and proscuitto pizza that actually turned out to be pretty good, but they charged us 3.50 for a small bottle of water. I asked how much a quarter liter of wine would be and they told me I could either get a glass for 6 euro or a half bottle for 10. Yea right, my quarter liter of wine at dinner last night was 1.50.

Earlier in the day we called Patricia’s daughter Sara, who is looking for work as an actress in Rome. Patricia gave us her number and said it would be neat to meet up with Sara if only for a drink. Sara told us that her day was pretty busy, but she would give us a call later on in the night. Unfortunately our phone’s battery died so we never caught up with her. Well try her again tomorrow and see if we can work something out. If not its no big deal, but I still think it would be cool to talk to a working person in Rome.

My mom sent me an email saying that so far we are the only two people signed up for the cooking school. Hopefully that wont mean that they will cancel it. I have a feeling that this cooking school might also double as a working farm that Patricia was telling me about. I gathered that a working farm means that the property gets to claim some extra benefits if they can also make some profit another way, actually Im not really sure and will be interested if I can figure out if it is one or not and what it actually is. Any who, cooking with others would be cool and cooking with just the two of us will also be cool. The possibility of having a little more of a personal spin to the experience is exciting, but if that is not the case, I will be excited to meet new people.

Im pretty excited to meet some new people on the second part of my travels alone. Since I will be by myself, I will probably be much more aggressive with talking to others because I will have been with my own thoughts all day. We all know its not that good of an idea to be inside your own head for too long. The girl in our room at our hostel told me a cool thing that she is doing. She sends herself a post card from every location that she goes to. That way she gets a really good picture of something famous from that location and a postage stamp from the location. I thought that was a really good idea and wished I had done that from the beginning. Oh well there is always next trip.

Tonight they are showing Little Miss Sunshine at the hostel. That is not my favorite movie so I might wander somewhere and get some wine. Tomorrow is Katherine and my last day of sightseeing together.