I apologize for the delay in posts. I’m back to the good ole’
days of no wifi in my new apartment.
Therefore, I now rely heavily on the public library which has been difficult
to visit since I have a packed schedule of school, planning, and private
lessons.
Buttttt, my trip in Rome was heavenly. It has been added to the list of my favorite
places. Let me start back at the
beginning.
Thursday, January 2:
Sara and I arrived in Rome very, very tired. We were still recovering from New Years Eve
and waking up at 4:30am hadn’t help. But
the amazingness of the trip began before we even left Spain...
SIDENOTE: I have been extremely fortunate in all of my
travels to come in contact with absolutely wonderful people. This luck began with my backpacking trip in
Europe in the Summer of 2012 when I met my first memorable friend at Newark
airport. She was an old lady from
Ireland. We spent hours talking in
Newark and then continued our conversation in Shannon Airport, Ireland. I was waiting for my ride, and she stayed
with me, and we talked over coffee.
Another time was when I met a man from Iceland on a train headed to
France. He happened to study theater
like me, and we found joy is discussing the differences and similarities of theater in the different countries. Additionally,
I met a French girl on a park bench in Galway, Ireland whom I still keep in
contact with today. And another time,
there were no empty tables for me to sit at in a café in Ireland, so I asked a
couple if I could sit at their table. They
were from Germany, and we talked about politics, family, teaching, and more for
hours and eventually they ended up treating me to lunch. The stories go on and on. This time was no different.
...For our flight to Italy, Sara and I chose the company “Vueling”
which is typically very cheap when it comes to airline prices but not as cheap as Ryanair (which I refuse to fly). However, with the low cost of the flight, we
lost the option of choosing our seats.
So for the flight, we were separated.
I instead assigned a seat next to a recently retired man who is from in Naples,
Italy. He and his wife (also not seated
near each other) had just finished their vacation in Sevilla, Spain. The funny part about the entire situation was
that he was Italian, I am American, and we spoke in Spanish. I know ZERO Italian, he only knew a little
bit of English, so we settled on Spanish being the best means of
conversation.
What I’ve started to notice is that my Spanish is pretty
good compared to where I started back in August. The
whole thing depends on where the person is from. If they are from Andalusia, Spain (the part
where I live now), I usually have difficulty understanding the person. This is due to their accent (they’re “S's” are
pronounced “th”), and they’re tendency to not finish words or sentences (for
example: “fin de semana” in Andalusian is “fin de” or “adios” is “adio”.) However, when I speak with someone who is
from another part of Spain or isn’t Spanish at all, I understand almost
everything. (Or rather I’m not
constantly guessing and trying to figure out what the person is saying.) This language barrier is comparable to any of
my New England readers trying to converse and understand someone from the deep
south of West Virgina, Mississippi, or Louisiana. For
some, it may be difficult to understand the deep southern accent because it is
entirely different from the New England accent.
Anyway, back to my Italian friend. We talked for the full flight (two and a half
hours) about so many different topics.
We covered the basics of why I was in Spain, his trip in Sevilla, my
trip in Rome, his different trips around the world, his attempt to convince me
to visit Cuba, politics, food, etc. It
was incredible. And I left the plane
extremely proud of myself for speaking in Spanish for that long. The man and I sadly parted ways at the airport.
For Sara and I, the adventure continued. She was
convinced by the train ticket agent to take a shuttle to our Bed & Breakfast instead
of the train which was our original plan. For the same price, our
trip would go from two hours to 45 minutes if we took the shuttle. Now, this sounds like a great alternative but because the man was being extremely pushy, I
wasn’t interested. But Sara insisted, so
I was coerced into going. The man
driving the shuttle wasn’t the nicest or the most attractive. Let’s just say he was missing more than one
tooth. And the other people on the
shuttle were gypsies who have a bad rap in most of Europe because they
typically steal things/pick pocket. The
only saving grace/comfort I found in the shuttle was that there were two other Spanish
people on it as well. So either, all
Spanish people could be easily swindled, and we were all going to be
kidnapped/robbed together or this shuttle was potentially trustworthy. I took
my chances with the latter. Not to say
that I didn’t spend the extra fees to text our Bed & Breakfast owner that
we were on a shuttle (company name included) so he knew of our whereabouts in
the event things took a turn for the worse.
But they thankfully didn’t.
And Sara and I arrived at our B&B safe and sound.
The B&B was basically an apartment. Stefano (the owner) greeted us at the door to
the building itself and brought us upstairs to the place. Our room was furnished with a king size bed,
a twin bed, giant wardrobes, a futon, television, and a terrace. There were two other bedrooms in the apartment
that were for other guests. We were
fortunate to be by ourselves for two out of the four days. Stefano also gave us access to the kitchen and
promised us a delicious breakfast everyday around 8:00am. After he told us how to get to the different
landmarks in Rome and where to have dinner, Sara and I ventured out into the
streets. But before we could make it to
the street, I managed to fall down the stairs.
Again, EXTREMELY tired to the point of my body no longer functioning. And we were pretty hungry too.
The B&B was located near the Vatican which is on the
outskirts of the center of Rome. We
chose this area instead of the direct center because it was the safest and the nicest for
the price. To get to the main center,
you had to take the metro for five stops.
The metro in Rome is very fast so our trip took maybe 10 minutes. The metro dropped us off at Piazza Spagna
(The Spanish Steps). I was a little
disappointed with these steps because of how crowded they were. All of the photos I have seen, show them as
being magnificent. However, I was not
impressed.
An example of a photo you see on the internet
My photo...
We fought our way through the crowds to the top of the
steps. Around the middle, there was a giant Belen set up.
And at the very top, was a teeny tiny art market.
And at the very top, was a teeny tiny art market.
We walked through that and decided it was necessary to find
some food or we weren’t going to make it to any other places in Rome. We settled on asking the door man in front
of a hotel where the best place was to eat Pizza. (Because the first thing you obviously have to
do in Italy is eat pizza.) He directed
us down some side streets (very Roman and beautiful), and we eventually found
the pizza place. Our first Italian
blunder was how we ordered the pizza.
Pizza in Rome comes in a giant rectangle instead of a circle. Pizza also isn’t served on a paper plate but instead
wrapped in paper. The man behind the
counter cut us a really long piece. We
figured it was okay because we assumed he would next cut the piece down the
middle. WRONG. He instead folded the pizza in half, wrapped
it in paper, and we were left with this giant piece of pizza which the only way
to share it was to alternate taking bites.
However, the pizza was really, really good and totally worth
the mishap. After enjoying our pizza on
one of the side streets, we headed to Piazza Barbarini. We were actually trying to find the Trevi
Fountain. But getting lost in this
Piazza wasn’t so bad.
Until we were lost for about an hour. And after asking four different Romans for
directions, we soon learned that Roman’s don’t actually have any sense of
direction. Oh and it started to
rain.
So Sara bargained an umbrella from one of the street vendors,
and we eventually stumbled upon the fountain.
The fountain was beautiful.
And humongous. And all of the
Roman fountains were built so that the water looks like it is from the
Caribbean—a beautiful turquoise blue. We
took photos and sat at the fountain just enjoying the peacefulness of the water
flowing. It was so loud, it drowned out all of the noise of the city and the crowds.
After the fountain, we headed towards The Pantheon. On our way, we stumbled across this building
(a museum, I think):
Very Roman looking
And eventually we found The Pantheon.
The Pantheon was very crowded like everything else we had
seen on this day. But it still was beautiful. It took only about 20
minutes to walk through the entire thing.
Obviously, the most spectacular part was the center. The roof is open at the top and the sun
shines through onto the floor which was used as a clock back in the day. As mentioned above, it was raining on this particular day, it was raining. So instead of sun, there was a “waterfall” in
the middle of the building. It was
really cool. The art on the ceilings and
walls were also wonderful.
The hole in the ceiling
The wet floor
Painted wooden planks on the ceiling
I spy a minion in the Pantheon
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After The Pantheon, we headed towards Piazza Navona. This Piazza wasn’t as grand as described either. Because the holiday season doesn’t end in Europe until around January 7, there were still Christmas markets on display. The markets took up most of the Piazza so it was hard to appreciate everything it is famous for.
Internet photo
Sara and I decided that because of the rain and our sleepiness,
the best plan of action was to head back towards our B&B, eat dinner around
that area, and then head to bed. On our
walk to the metro, we stumbled upon a store which only sold homemade pasta. It had thousands of different varieties and
pasta in tons of different colors.
After the pasta store, we stopped in a ceramic store.
And post ceramic story we finally arrived back at B&B
where we dropped off our things and headed to the restaurant recommended by
Stefano.
Now, this restaurant, was PHENOMENAL. It was definitely a place the locals go, and
I don’t blame them because the food was to die for. I wish we had gone there every single night,
but I think that would have been a little bit excessive. On this night, we each got Ravioli’s stuffed
with spinach and ricotta cheese.
We also had this wine:
We also had this wine:
.JPG)
If you can find this wine in the United States, or anywhere else
for that matter, I recommend you buying it.
It is one of the best wines I have ever tried. I will bet that even the people who don't like red wine will love this one.
After a very pleasent dinner, Sara and I headed back to our B&B to get a decent nights rest.
Day 2 to be continued hopefully tomorrow.
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