After the lovely train ride from Venice, I arrived in Rome for my first time. In efficient traveler mode, I quickly found the subway system, bought a week-long ticket and set out to find my hostel. It was across the river in the Vatican area from the central part of Rome, and I loved it. It was called Hotel Colors, and it stayed true to its theme with clever interior decorating and a great character in general. My favorite part about it was the wonderful terrace! I had not expected this at all, and I was quite happy. I was there to meet Emily, but as I was settling into my cozy hostel, she was either in a nowhere-town in Germany or en route to Italy from it, as her trip back from Amsterdam was unfortunately riddled with misfortunes. So, I settled in and headed out to explore the city in the afternoon. I ended up getting terribly lost (as usual) and ended up walking around for a good four hours. I found my way to a nice path by a bar on a cliff overlooking the city as the sun set, however, so I wasn’t too unhappy. That night I went back to my hostel and met my new roommates - two from the Midwest (no way!) of the states, and one from Southern Italy, coming up for a few days as he does every week to attend his grad program. His name was Sebastiano, and he was my favorite.
On Tuesday morning I sat out on the terrace, eating my bread, grapes, and juice, and writing a draft of my thesis proposal, which was due about a week from then. I loved that really, feeling the breeze and the sun on that terrace (I want one sometime) and being so at ease, even when writing a nerve-racking proposal. Eventually I left and headed over to the train station, where I met Emily as she got off her train from her nightmare of travel. So nice of you to visit me in Rome! We headed back to her flat together, which just so happens to be in Piazza Navona (wow!). After climbing up the numerous flights of winding stairs to get to their floor, I was given a tour of their place, and I must say, it was very strange. Emily and about eleven other students from Connecticut College are part of a Study Away Teach Away program through the college, and as such they were staying with about six other non-Conn students and all living on the same floor, with all of their classes only one floor down. This concept truly baffled me, and I had trouble understanding who came up with the idea and why. It was very convenient, yes, but it was drastically different from my University experience, and I was just confused at the concept of being in a big city and living and going to class in one building. Very strange. But, luckily, we were in a very big city, and being in Piazza Navona meant walking out the door brought the city to you.
Thesis Proposals have never been so beautiful.
Emily and I decided to go exploring that afternoon, which we did for most of the week, and it was by far my favorite activity. We walked down to Piazza del Popolo and found the outskirts of the Villa Borghese. I’m not going to try to pretend what that translates to, but what it meant to me was ‘enormous parkland and gardens weaved together by labyrinthine paths’, which seems like a pretty good translation. We explored it in the beautiful endless sun of Roma, and the wondrous lush, green life that burst forth everywhere made me love the city at once. That night, Emily, her friend Maria, and I all went to a place that I believe was called ‘Buffetto’, which I was told translates to ‘Mustache’. It was a pizza place right by Piazza Navona, and it was the BEST PIZZA EVER. We waited in a line out the door, as there reputedly always is at this place, and waited for a good while, which we were very quickly grateful for. It was, in all honesty, the best pizza I have ever had.
Wednesday was relatively slow and relaxing. It was my last morning at Hotel Colors (I booked late, so I ended up booking three different places), so I soaked up the rays on the terrace once more and added substantially to my thesis proposal as Emily attended class. The afternoon found me moving out of Hotel Colors and heading over to my second hostel, which had directions from the nearby Metro station as being ‘three bus stops, or a short walk’. Of course I opted for walking and 30 minutes later I found the damnable place, which I had originally thought was in the Vatican area. To be fair, most of the walking was in the Vatican area, but that area ended after I had to cross four lanes of traffic on a very busy road, pass a Mitsubishi dealership, and walk down a dead-end street to reach the hostel. It was no Hotel Colors, I am afraid. The place was a bit of a mess, and the receptionist declared me lucky when she was able to find a key for me to have, after giving me €5 in petty change when I paid my deposit for it. Tired, sweaty, and unamused, I left at once to meet up with Emily again, which took close to an hour. Deciding at once that I needed a good drink, Emily, her friend Kayla, and I all went to the bar where I had gotten lost on Monday (I had since bought a beautiful map to guide me back there). We enjoyed a lovely aperitivo whilst looking out over the city as the moon rose and the sun slowly set behind us. It was an amazing way to relax, and I wanted then to have aperitivo every day for the rest of my life (a dream that has sadly gone unrealized... I don’t think they even know what a cocktail is in Scotland). We retired to Emily’s flat and enjoyed some lovely ravioli before I had to face running a marathon back to the new hostel. Which reminds me, the public transportation system in Rome is most certainly not the best. I finally figured out some buses to use towards the end of my time there, but walking was usually the method of choice and necessity.
Lovely Aperitivo
On Thursday, Emily went off to chill with the Pope (oh, did I mention the week I was there was Holy Week?) at some Mass or another, so I set out to explore some gardens I had seen on my map. The only advantage to the inconveniently located hostel showed itself that day, as I found a bakery with enormous loaves of bread for incredibly cheap prices. I didn’t even try to speak English either, as it was obviously a local place, and I wanted to respect that as much as possible. After seeing gardens from afar but never managing to reach them (too many walls here! Paranoid Roman Empire...), I gave up and spent the morning reading whilst looking out over them, which seemed just as good. In the early afternoon, I met Emily and enjoyed more pizza at a little café by their flat. The afternoon passed without much avail, and I went to dinner in Trastevere that night at a ridiculously cheap restaurant, which was good, but not the best of my time there (and my papa makes much better bruschetta anyway). Emily, Kayla, their friend Sofia, and I then went off to Piazza Navona where we enjoyed some cocktails and joyous conversation at one of the numerous bars. I had my first Long Island Iced Tea there, which I found ironic noting that I go to school on Long Island Sound...
That’s all for this entry. I didn’t want to make it too long, so I’ll post my stories of Friday-Sunday soon. Oh, and just click here if you want to see all of my pictures from the trip. Thanks for reading!
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