Roma!

Sorry it's taken me a little while to write about Rome... I guess I've just been lazy and not wanted to do anything today after my quiz in Italian. Anyways, Rome was awesome! I loved it, but I am really glad to be back in Siena. I don't think I could have studied abroad in Rome. It's huge and I don't know how much I would like having to take the metro or the bus to class. It's also dirty and I rarely heard Italian spoken there. It was pretty frustrating when I asked for something in Italian, people would either just answer me in English or pretend like they didn't know what I was saying. I started to appreciate Siena so much more after going to Rome. People actually try to help you out when you mess up speaking Italian and they are patient enough to let you practice. I definitely feel like I'm getting to know the language and culture much more than if I was anywhere else in Italy. For me, there's also too many tourists in Rome. We have our fair share of tourists in Siena, but not to the extent that Rome does and they aren't as crazy it seems. After a weekend in Rome, I was ready to get out of there and come back here.
I basically did everything touristy there is to do. We got into Rome at about 9am Friday morning. When we got off the bus, we had to figure out how to get to the train stop that we needed to be at. At first we thought we were at that train stop and were a little worried because the area we were in was a little sketchy. But we managed to figure out that we needed to take the metro to a different station and then make our way to our hostel. It was pretty easy and straight forward to get to the hostel from the metro stop. We stayed at a hostel called The Yellow and it was pretty decent. Since we couldn't check in until 1pm, we had to leave our bags there in the reception area. Then we decided to make our way to the Vatican. It was extremely nice out (probably around 60 and sunny) and we were all carrying our jackets wishing we hadn't brought them with us. Luckily, we bought our tickets for the Vatican online ahead of time, so we got to skip the line for tickets. There are about 50 museums inside the Vatican so we had no idea where to go. We went to a few random ones that were a little odd. Then we just followed the signs that pointed towards the Sistine Chapel. I think they purposefully put the Sistine Chapel at the very end so that you go through 10 random museums before you get there. And by the time you get there, you just want to leave and are exhausted and don't want to take any pictures (you aren't allowed to anyways). Had I not been so ready to leave and eat lunch, I would have enjoyed what I was seeing a bit more. We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel and it was pretty cool. I managed to snap a few photos without the "guards" noticing. The amazing part is that Michelangelo painted the entire thing by himself and hung from the ceiling in order to do it. Apparently he hated the Pope, but he couldn't say no to the Pope. So, he just added certain things in that basically said "f*** you". For example, I heard that he painted an animal's butt above the chair the Pope sat in, so it was right above his head. He also had some people making gestures that were offensive. Little subtleties that Michelangelo added in that make the Chapel so interesting.
Then we made our way to St. Peter's basilica. That was really cool! I went with Amy and Jenny to climb up to the top of the dome. There were a ton of steps and by the time we got to the top we were all out of breath. When we got closer to the top, the walls started tilting so it felt like we were walking up the stairs drunk. We finally made it to the top and were able to see the entire city of Rome as we walked around the dome. From that angle, Rome is massive. You can see it go on for miles. The views were awesome and I'm glad I made the hike up to the top. We went back down and into the basilica. St. Peter's is the biggest church in all of Italy. Inside it is gorgeous. I could have taken millions of pictures but it doesn't do it justice. Seeing it in person is jaw dropping. Just the colors alone are beautiful, then add in the architecture. If you ever go to Rome, that is one place you have to go. It's free and definitely worth it.
We decided to walk around a bit after that and since we were all starving we looked for a place to have an early dinner. We felt like we were ripped off for that dinner because for the amount we paid we should have gotten twice as much. Afterwards, we wandered around a bit more and found out that we were really close to the Pantheon. So, we tried to go in, but it was closed for a few hours because of a special mass. So, we ended up making our way back to our hostel to check in. By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 7pm. We got our stuff and went to our room. Since there were 5 of us the first night (and 6 the second), there was a random girl as the 6th person in our room. We opened the door and realized that she was still in her bed. She heard us come in and told us we could turn the lights on. Apparently she woke up at 3pm but just stayed in bed until 7. She had an interesting story that we are all still a bit confused about.
She graduated from Smith College. She went to a lot of job interviews and didn't get any of them. So, she decided to buy a one way ticket to Europe and she's been in Europe for the past 9 months. 9 months!! We all thought that was crazy. I can understand a couple of months, but at this point, I think it's time to figure out what you are going to do. For the first 2 months she was here she "woofed" (worked on organic farms in exchange for room and board). Now, I think she just parties all the time and doesn't do anything else during the day. She came in at 3am when we were all sleeping. All of us woke up when she came in and none of us slept that well after that. Especially since about an hour later she got up and threw up in the trash can outside our room. Of course we could hear everything. It was disgusting. I was afraid she would puke on one of us, in the room, or on our stuff. When we woke up in the morning, there was blood on the floor outside our room, which we know was from her. I just don't get how that is fun every night and how you are happy with your life when it gets to that point.
Anyways, on Friday night before we went to sleep we decided to go find the Trevi Fountain. It was really pretty at night and there weren't as many people there compared to during the day. Before we got to the fountain though, we had a little mishap with the metro. At the last second, I realized that we needed to get off. Katya and I made it off safely and Mary managed to get off, but she did get stuck in the doors. She squeezed out of the doors, while Jenny and Amy were still on the metro. They just got off on the next stop and met up with us at the Trevi Fountain. We tried to find a bar to go to, but of course Friday nights are dead all throughout Italy, so we just decided to head back to the hostel, especially since we had all been up since 5am. We got on the bus that would take us back to the metro station near our hostel. The problem was that we were taking the one that went in the opposite direction. We didn't realize that the last stop came and we were the only ones left on the bus. The bus driver realized this and ended up pulling over on the side of the road and told us to get off, while laughing at us. We managed to find the bus going in the right direction and rode it to the last stop (which was our stop anyways). We're really good at the whole transportation thing... Once we got back to the room, we all passed out in a matter of seconds.
On Saturday, we got up and got breakfast at a nearby place. I got waffles with nutella and whipped cream. I know,  more of a dessert... It was good, but it was a little too sweet for me (I never thought I would say those words). Then we went to the Colosseum, which was really cool. We just stood looking around at everything. So awesome! Then we went to the Roman Forums, which was probably my favorite part. They were huge! The Roman Forums are the ruins that have been found due to excavation and they are still finding new ruins today. It was really nice walking around and I didn't really feel like I was in Rome at that point besides all the ruins around me. It seemed peaceful too even though there were tons of people there. There were trees and grass and it felt more like a park in the middle of a huge city. We were all pretty tired after that since we had walked for a while and just sat down for a bit. Nearby was the memorial for the first king of Italy so we climbed up a bit of that to check it out.
Then, we went to get some lunch in front of the Pantheon. Best. Meal. Ever. And the cheapest too! We got bruschetta, a drink, and either pizza or pasta for 10 euro! And it was amazing! The bruschetta was delicious and the cheese on the pizza just melted in your mouth. So good! Then, since we were right next to the Pantheon, we went inside to check it out. The columns in front of it are the largest single piece ones in all of Italy. So, all the other columns were made in more than one piece. As we were leaving the Pantheon, Amy found 50 cents on the ground and went to pick it up. She found out that it was stuck to the ground and the guy who did it was cracking up at us as we walked away laughing ourselves. We did part of a walking tour that was in Rick Steve's guide book. It brought us to the most famous gelateria in Rome. It was really crowded and insane in it and you couldn't even see all the flavors that they offered. I ended up getting caffe, stracciatella, and some oreo flavor. It was pretty good, but I would never go there again solely because of how crazy it was.
We found a small mall type thing nearby and there was a Zara inside so we went in. I instantly fell in love with the store and found lots of things that I wanted to buy. I resisted that urge and decided to wait until I am in Florence this weekend to shop a bit. Then we went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it during the day and throw a coin into it. Since the Spanish steps are really close, we went there too, but it was extremely crowded so we only stayed for a couple of minutes. We went back to the hostel and got ready for the night. We did a pub crawl which ended up being lots of fun.
On Sunday, we basically just chilled until we had to catch our bus back to Siena. We walked around for a bit and went to see the Castel Sant' Angelo, which was pretty cool. We sat on a bench at the top looking out at the beautiful views. For lunch, we tried to go to the Hard Rock Cafe since we were all craving hamburgers. Unfortunately it was about an hour wait and we didn't have that much time. So we just got a sandwich somewhere and made it to the metro station and eventually to the bus. It was a good weekend, but it's definitely nice to be back in Siena. :)
P.S. Tomorrow I will put up some pictures from Rome :)