who said you cant see rome in a day?
well to be honest i was doubtful but i am happy to say that we successfully covered the major sites in one day. how i dont know ... possibly the longest day ever be we did it.
alright so we did alot in one day so i will give u a quick overview and then post alot of pictures.
we decided to take a slow train from florence to rome, because not only was it cheaper, but a 3.5 hour train ride meant that we could sleep! all of our traveling has been fairly short 1.5 to 2 hours trips so by the time were settled if we were lucky we could get in a quick nap before we had to wake up (so we didnt miss our destination) and by this point in our trip we were absolutely exhausted. all wanted to do was sleep in, but there is no time for sleep!
when we arrived we had to venture to our hostel which we booked closer to the airport because when we left rome, our flight was at the crack of dawn. well good choice for the day we were leaving but until then, our hostel was in the middle of now where and we had to travel a solid 40 mins to get into the main city. and let me tell u this 40 minute trip was not pleasant. we went from the train to a metro, where we had to switch lines and then to a bus and then from the bus stop walk to our hostel. well i figured out the trains fine, and then we made it to the bus where i asked the drive about the stop we were supposed to go to. and he so calmly responded with, 'i dont know where that is'. seriously?! as if my anxiety wasnt through the roof as it was.
side note: although looking back the trip from the main train station to our hostel seemed to go over smoothly, at the time i was bugging out. the whole not knowing where you going and not being able to ask anyone because they dont speak english thing, no so much fun. after we had to sit on a metro covered in graffiti and had to watch out bags like hawks because some women was being sketch and circling us. although, after florence we were a bit skeptical and paranoid about everything, but still this women was creepy. she was standing next to me and erin and then when we took out bags off and held them in front of us, she got out of the car and got back on and stood next to jade and rachel... def sketch.
anyway.. we arrived at our hostel. which was the icing on the cake. it looked like an abandoned building. i literally stopped in front of it and just laughed, because i didnt know what else to do. well, i guess this is why people say not to judge a book by its cover because once we were inside, it was completely different, pretty nice actually. apparently they dont value first impressions in rome because this place looked like crack alley.
alright so we did alot in one day so i will give u a quick overview and then post alot of pictures.
we decided to take a slow train from florence to rome, because not only was it cheaper, but a 3.5 hour train ride meant that we could sleep! all of our traveling has been fairly short 1.5 to 2 hours trips so by the time were settled if we were lucky we could get in a quick nap before we had to wake up (so we didnt miss our destination) and by this point in our trip we were absolutely exhausted. all wanted to do was sleep in, but there is no time for sleep!
when we arrived we had to venture to our hostel which we booked closer to the airport because when we left rome, our flight was at the crack of dawn. well good choice for the day we were leaving but until then, our hostel was in the middle of now where and we had to travel a solid 40 mins to get into the main city. and let me tell u this 40 minute trip was not pleasant. we went from the train to a metro, where we had to switch lines and then to a bus and then from the bus stop walk to our hostel. well i figured out the trains fine, and then we made it to the bus where i asked the drive about the stop we were supposed to go to. and he so calmly responded with, 'i dont know where that is'. seriously?! as if my anxiety wasnt through the roof as it was.
side note: although looking back the trip from the main train station to our hostel seemed to go over smoothly, at the time i was bugging out. the whole not knowing where you going and not being able to ask anyone because they dont speak english thing, no so much fun. after we had to sit on a metro covered in graffiti and had to watch out bags like hawks because some women was being sketch and circling us. although, after florence we were a bit skeptical and paranoid about everything, but still this women was creepy. she was standing next to me and erin and then when we took out bags off and held them in front of us, she got out of the car and got back on and stood next to jade and rachel... def sketch.
anyway.. we arrived at our hostel. which was the icing on the cake. it looked like an abandoned building. i literally stopped in front of it and just laughed, because i didnt know what else to do. well, i guess this is why people say not to judge a book by its cover because once we were inside, it was completely different, pretty nice actually. apparently they dont value first impressions in rome because this place looked like crack alley.
the picture doesnt do the sketchiness justice.
i swear.
but on to the more interesting stuff. we woke up bright and early the next day because we only had one day in rome so we needed to get a move on. once we arrived in the city, we decided out best bet was to do a bus tour because it was the easiest way to get to everything. all of the sites were scattered all over the city and for us to try and figure out how to get to each place would have wasted to much time. i dont know why we didnt do more bus tours when we went on trips. they are very convenient they drop you off in front and come around every 15-30 mins and you just hop on when your done and go to the next stop.
First Stop:
The Colosseum
we ended up lucking out because the week we were in italy was 'cultural week' and site and museums throughout italy had free entry ...score!
Next Stop:
Vatican City
St. Peter's Basilica
and then we went to the vatican museum
Laocoön and His Sons
i tried to get a photo of the ceiling, but the people were crazy strict about talking and taking photos and i figured getting kicked out wasnt really something that i wanted to happen.
after we spent hours in vatican city between going through building and waiting in line, we hopped back on the bus..
Next Stop:
The Spanish Steps.
the girls on the steps.
at this point i was very cranky and didnt care what so ever about the steps so i took the picture, we walked up and down, chilled for a few minutes and then bounced. so needless to say i dont have much to say about the steps other than that they look just like any other set of steps that could be in any city.
the on going joke of the day was that every large set of steps, was the spanish steps. yes, very dumb and silly .. but pretty entertaining while sitting on a bus.
Next Stop:
The Trevi Fountain
i was SO excited .. it was definitely my top sight to see while in rome. for those of you who dont know my obsession with the lizzie mcguire or if you havent seen it, the whole movie is filmed in rome. and ever since ive seen the movie ive wanted to go to the trevi fountain. so of course as soon as we arrived i scoped out the area to try and place the clips from the movie to the actual area. i havent decided wether or not they actually filmed the whole scene in that area but it was still really exciting!
making a wish!
Last Stop:
The Pantheon
so at this point, we have been out all day and are absolutely exhausted, hungry and it has started to rain. so we were all over sightseeing. but we pushed through and shuffled to our last stop. it was already late so we assumed that it would be closed, we would snap a photo and then go to dinner. well little did we know it was still open. as we're walking down a little side street, kristin was in the front and saw it first. mind you that kristin has already been to rome, so she was pretty much our tour guide for the whole thing. but she still loves sightseeing and is always excited for where we are going. well sure enough she runs up turns around and with a bug smile on her face goes
"good news guys, its still open!!!"
we all just froze.
[insert awkward silence]
as soon as we heard her say that,
we kissed the idea of dinner anytime soon goodbye.
luckily it wasnt that big so we went it,
looked around for a bit and then bounced for dinner.
overview of our day:
6 major stops
after this... we were a little delusional
followed by the most important stop of the day..
GELATO!
oh . my. god.
its delicious.
after our long day we headed back to the metro and ventured back to our hostel.
Phrase Of The Day
Goodnight
Buono Notte
[ bwoh-nah noht-teh ]
Hi / Bye [beautiful]
Ciao Bello
[ chow bell-ah ]
bunono notte italia.
Next Stop:
Athens, Greece
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