Rome

I'll do my best not to gush. Rome was Rome. First of all, it's a devious city. I have never in my life been so lost in a city or in the mountains. We had three maps between us, one person who spoke Italian, and the first day we spent an hour completely turned around and wandering. In the end we were only ten minutes from our hotel and of course felt collectively silly for getting so mixed up. The streets are laid out with no purpose, no rhyme or rhythm, and what's even worse is how they are named. The same street can quite literally take a 15 degree jog to the left after two hundred yards and suddenly its a new street. It took me two full days of watching the sun go down to believe that was west. So in a sense, Rome beat me up. Never had that happen before.

I'll throw this out there and see how I feel about it after some reflection: Rome may be Rome, but I like Sevilla better. I know I have some bias and more experience and therefore more comfort with Sevilla. However the cab drivers at the airport screwed it up from the get go. We got in around 10 PM and the Ciampino airport is about 8 miles outside the city center, or a 15 minute train ride. We had the option of waiting for a 4 Euro bus ride to the city center or taking our chances with a taxi. The lines for the bus looked forever long so we opted for the taxi. It was a stupid decision for many reasons. Lets count the red flags: 

• every single cab driver looked like a murderer. 
• Nobody was taking cabs. Everyone was waiting for the bus
• The girl in our group who spoke Italian had a conversation with the guy and communicated to us that according to him, the area around our hotel was currently closed to car traffic so he would be taking us to a train station.

You get the idea. Our friend thought he meant the Termini station, which would have been 5 minutes from our hotel and not a problem. But no. He took three or four turns and dumped us outside the Ciampino station on the other side of the airport and demanded 20 euros for his services. Normally Eddie and I would have protested being screwed over so hard, especially since we had no idea how to utilize the train to get where we needed to be and it was now almost 11. But, you know, murderer and all. We paid. 

Long story short, it seemed a whole lot worse than it was. The train saved us money in the end, and coming back we had a much better understanding of the train and bus system so it only cost us 3.60 E a person. Public transport over here is just generally better. For example, in Rome one can purchase a train and bus ticket good for an hour. You can get on the tram system then get off and catch a bus then get back on the tram, or vice versa, or whatever you feel like as long as it is within the hour.

So the start of our adventure was a little rough but nothing awful. The hotel location was perfect and we got a great deal because we were staying four nights. The silver lining of the first evening was the little restaurant we found still open at midnight. The pizza was unbelievable. I have quite a few pictures of us with pizza because it was 1. delicious and 2. cheaper than pasta and 3. enough food in one serving. The food was amazing in general. One of the girls' dads we were with told her to take us out for dinner one night and put it on him. Brave of him. We took full advantage to say the least.

We walked for 5-6 hours a day for three days straight so we saw just about all of it. To the pictures.

I don't know who this guy was but the sinister nature of the Catholic Inquisition was palpable.

Fishbowl--handmade Italian pottery

These little water spigots are everywhere in the neighborhoods and side streets. The water is delicious.

This little plaza was tucked away in the warren near one of the street fairs. It looks almost Spanish, or at least very similar to neighborhoods in Granada. Beautiful.

View looking down from our hotel room. That fruit stand stays open until 3 in the morning. Very late by western standards, way too early for those accustomed to Spanish nightlife.

This church was just down the block and the bells going off at 8 AM calling the faithful to mass stopped being quaint after the first time.

Melanie was excited.

This was taken from the top of the Spanish Steps, which are beautiful and all the rest of it but what the hell were these guys doing? At first I thought 'Oh cool they must be actual professional racers doing a promo for something.' But no. Just regular Italian guys all dressed up in their matching outfits. It seems stereotypical but every single Italian guy around my age looked like a greased up peacock. It was ridiculous. They give the Spaniards a run for their money in the pride category.

Crowd around the Trevi fountain.

Pizza! The crust is much much thinner, crispy, flaky. The sauce is obviously better and the toppings more delicious.

Ah, bones. This was creepy and so so cool. I fail to understand who would take the time to sort through thousands of years of bones to collect all the same ones to put together mosaic-like conglomerations, but here we have just that.

The city is especially beautiful around the river as it is in full-on fall mode right now.

And all these are from around the Vatican. We didn't go inside unfortunately. Budgets were tight on the food front, much less museums etc. It's just an excuse to go back.


All in all, it was an amazing Thanksgiving weekend. It ended too quickly and despite our prolific pace we didn't do everything I would have liked to. I will have to go back eventually.