Day 1. We went to the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, and the Piazza Novana for dinner. We got an awesome tour of the Colosseum and Roman ruins for about 15 euros which was great because I really had no idea what I was staring at
In front of the Roman Ruins!
Spanish Steps! We met up with one of Genna's friends from AU and she showed us around. We went to the Trevi Fountain and then to the Spanish steps. Apparently the steps are supposed to be Romantic but instead it was touristy, hot, and really crowded. Across from the steps was a road with a bunch of designer boutiques and we strolled around while pretending to have thousands of euros to dispose for fun (although we didn't buy anything, obviously).
After the Spanish steps we somehow ended up at the Parthenon, which was SO COOL. I remembered learning about it in art history freshman year of high school, so seeing it in person was surreal. Seeing the Colosseum was kind of the same, but because I saw it in pictures all of the time it felt like I had already been there.
That night we ate dinner in the Piazza Novana and ate PIZZA. It was delicious, and our waiter was SUPER nice.
DAY TWO
We started out south of the Colloseum and walked all the way up and it turned out there was this large street fair for no reason at all and we got to see some cool stuff. People were singing on the sidewalks and there were tons of souvineer stands but the coolest part were these guys competing at tug of war. I got this awesome picture of them with the Colosseum in the background.
Afterwards we went to a museum with a Van Gogh exhibit which was boring, saw a bunch of other monuments that were pretty but I'm too lazy to upload pictures, and ended up getting lost across the river in Trastevere for a few hours. I got really angry at Genna, but we eventually figured out where we were and got gelato.
We then proceeded to take a TON of pictures for no reason. This is one of my favorites!
Later, we went to Campo Di Fiori, a huge bar scene, and then ended up back at the Pantheon where we got dinner. I literally ate pizza while staring at it. Super awesome.
DAY THREE
We met up with CIERRA!!! It was great to be able to talk to someone other than Genna because we had been together nonstop. We waited on line to get in for literally 3 hours and were so hungry we had to eat in the Vatican which cost a ton of money and the food wasn't that good. The museum was amazing and I took over 100 pictures.
The Sistine Chapel was literally the most stunning place I have ever been. I was so excited to see all of the famous paintings. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I like to live on the wild side so I snuck a few. You can see the famous painting at the bottom of this picture.
At the Vatican. Genna was taking too many pictures of me.
Most importantly, I GOT TO SEE GIACOMO!! We met at my hippie camp, Omega Teen Camp, in 2005 and I hadn't seen him since. We met at the Vatican and we finally got a tour with a true Roman. It was so great seeing him again, and Genna and I fell in love with his accent! He took us to a famous lookout in Roma called Pinchio which was beautiful and then took us to dinner!
Us at dinner. Notice his hand gesture.
We had PHENOMENAL food and after much wine decided to go back to Travastere to go bar hopping. Ended up drinking WAY too much and Giacomo offered to drive us back to our hotel which was waaay outside of the city center.
Overall, ROME WAS PERFECT!!
I'll post about Mykonos and Athens soon. I also started my internship yesterday, so I need to discuss that as well. Sorry it's taken me so long I've been nonstop since getting back!
Cheers!
Miriam