Ciao Ciao!!

The past week I have been in Rome visiting my friend Whitney, who I know all the way back from the old STA days.  Whitney went to Sion but we met through Melissa.  Despite the St. Teresa's/Sion "rivalry," we all hung out together and became a big happy family.  Such a sweet little history.

Anyway, Whitney has been in Rome since January.  She is quite brave: she actually took French in school, but went to Rome by herself without knowing any Italian.  By now is practically fluent-- well, almost.  She lives in an apartment near the Vatican with 5 other girls, none of whom knew each other before moving in.  I got to stay with them, which was amazing, because staying in a hostel by-myself would have been a little sketch.  They were from all over the US, and it was fun to just meet some new people.

So I arrived on Monday afternoon and Whitney and I dove right into the sightseeing mode.  We went to a bunch of the piazzas, which are big open squares usually with a fountain or monument in the middle and cafes, stores or churches lining the sides.  I have never seen so many churches- literally one on every street.  That night we went to dinner with Whitney's friend Michelle's entire family who was in town visiting for spring break.  Michelle has 5 younger brothers and they all look so much alike.  Her family was quite entertaining and the pizzeria was incredible.  The food in Rome was amazing- thin, crispy pizza with almost anything you can think of on it and tons of different types of pasta, bruschetta, focaccia, salads... it was amazing really.  

The next day we went to the market and picked up some blood oranges.  I had never heard of them before, but they are delic.  They are like regular oranges, except they are red on the inside and have a slightly different flavor.  From the market, we went walking around, strolling through the winding cobblestone streets until we came across a landmark.  Rome was unbelievably big, and you couldn't walk more than a block or two without coming across some amazing building or piazza or famous monument.  We saw the Pantheon, Spanish Embassy, stopped and ate some blood oranges on the Spanish Steps, had a little picnic in Villa Borghese... it was quite a day.  

The weather was UNBELIEVABLE the entire time I was there- sunny, 70's and beautiful.  They said it had rained five days in a row the week before and that this was the best weather so far of the year, so I was pretty lucky.  (The last morning was a little chilly and overcast while I was on the way to the airport, but no prob.)

That night we went out to dinner at another small restaurant in Trastevere, which is an old part of Rome on the opposite side of the Tiber River from the rest of the old central part.  It has a bunch of winding cobblestone streets, little cafes and restaurants everywhere, sort of the bohemian quarter of Rome-- so cute.  Dinner was amazing again.  From there we went to a few pubs and bars.  We were with people from Whitney's program and all her friends from school, all Americans, and it was great.

The next day was still more sightseeing.  We went to a long relaxing lunch at a small cafe, ate on the sidewalk out front.  In the afternoon, Whitney had to study for her midterm the next day, so her friend Kelly and I went walking around.  We went into St. Peter's Basilica, which was pretty overwhelming.  It's huge.  From there we walked down the Tiber River, past the island and saw a few temples and churches.  Then we walked up to this little orange tree park that had a great view down to the river and overlooking the city.  You had to walk up a long winding road to get to the park, then we kept just walking along the street.  There were a bunch of little churches hidden up there, including the one that the pope had said Holy Thursday mass in.  Anyway, we were walking along this little road and all of a sudden you come up to a huge green door, like 15 feet high.  When you look through the keyhole of the door, there are green shrubs inside the gated garden and the opening on the other end perfectly frames the dome of St. Peter's in the distance.  It was really neat, and something I had never heard of before.  That night we hung out in Whitney's apartment and watched some 30 Rock on the internet.  Classic.

The next day Whitney had to be up at 6 in the morning to register for her classes next semester (midnight at home...the time difference is so annoying.)  So we got an early start on the day and got some coffee from the cafe downstairs.  The guy that works there is friends with Whitney since she has been going there since January and offered to take us on a tour of Rome the next day.  Then straight to the Vittorio Emanuele, which is a relatively new monument that the locals don't like too much.  They feel it was selfishly built and doesn't fit in with the rest of Rome's architecture.  We walked up in it and through the museum, mostly just to see the view from the top, which was amazing.  It overlooks the entire Roman Forum, the Colosseum and many other ruins in that area.  We got drinks in the cafe and the top and had a few more oranges.  From there we walked down and saw the Colossuem close up, all the ruins, all that.  It is hard to look at them and actually realize what you are seeing, it seems so surreal.  It was really amazing.  We went to lunch in Trastevere again, got some sandwiches and sat in a piazza.  We also got some gelato.  (Actually, we had gelato everyday I was there, always from a different place.  It was so good, and since the weather was warm it was very refreshing and delic.)  

Whitney had her midterm that afternoon, so I let her study and went to the Vatican Museum solo, which was probably better since in museums you are mostly just reading the info and walking around looking at things quietly anyway.  There was no line, I walked straight in.  I decided to get an audio guided tour so I would know what in the world I was looking at, which ended up being really interesting.  You have a little walkie-talking looking thing and just type in the number and hold it up to your ear and it tells you all about everything.  The museum was incredible, everything in it was beautiful.  It takes at least 3 hours to walk through the whole thing, then the final room is the Sistine Chapel.  It was just like pictures, but ten times cooler in person.  It was beautiful, also somewhat surreal to be standing in.  

Whitney and I met back up after her test and hiked over to the Trevi Fountain.  We tried to find some short cuts and ended up just getting a little lost, but in a city like Rome, getting lost is still fun because every street is so beautiful, it was like being on a movie set or in a postcard.  Eventually we found the Trevi Fountain and threw in our coins, which is supposed to make it more likely that you will return to Rome in the future.  There were people everywhere, big tourist spot.  They say they pull over 3,000 euros out of the fountain every day, then donate it to charity.  

On the last night in Rome, we ate dinner at one of Whitney's friend's apartments, who made enchiladas.  They were delicious and it was nice to eat something different.  You don't find a lot of mexican food over here and we were all really excited about chips and salsa.  After dinner we met up with Whitney's baker friend and they took us to the Colosseum at night, all lit up, which is beautiful.  We also went to a park that overlooked the whole city, and you could see all the monuments lit up, popping up out of the rest of the city in the distance.  It was so beautiful and unreal to see.  

The next day I was on my way back to Alicante.  I am really proud of myself for traveling and flying alone.  I was very nervous, I don't know why, but there were no problems and it was actually kind of nice to just sit in the airport and read my book.  Well, if you read all of that, I'm impressed.  I kind of rambled, but that was Roma.  So fab.