When In Rome...

Well it was finally suitable to use the saying "when in Rome.." by the early mornings of Thursday, October 24th when we rolled in the train station from our 2.5 hour train ride from Florence that same morning. We stopped at a grocery store and my first breakfast in Rome consisted of an apple and chocolate milk, about 3 euros and absolutely delicious. Haha. We stumbled upon a beautiful church which we sat in front of to eat and then wandered in to check it out.

We continued our walk....

Taking in all the beautiful sights and slowly approaching the Colosseum!!!

I literally can't even believe I was there. It felt like a dream. The line to get in was so long but when we first arrived in Rome we all bought a Roma Pass which is good for 3 days and allows you free public transportation, free entry into 2 museums and some other discounts. So worth it! So we got to cut the line and we were in the Colosseum within 20 minutes. The only downfall was the intense smell of the sweaty Europeans and tourists. So bad! lol. But it wasn't over there because we saw some more amazing ruins and unbelievable sights!

And onward we walked! The Trevi fountain next? I think so!!! 

Of course I had to make a wish...

And why not drink some of the trevi fountain water too? 

And obviously we weren't done yet....time to walk up the Spanish Steps! 

And yes, we did all of that in one day! Then we went back to our awesome apartment we rented and all cooked dinner, cheap and delicious.

Friday, October 25th, another day of amazing sightseeing was in front of me. We headed out around 10:30 and were off to Vatican City! The photos below are just parts of what I saw and can't even believe I experienced. 

Yeah it was just a little crowded... Smelly tour group central! After we made it through the Vatican museum, we lucked out and didn't have to wait to get into the Sistine Chapel. No photos allowed again but I mean....come on....

And right as we left we walked down an amazing hallway...

...which then lead us out to St. Peter's Square! 

And our last sight to see...Saint Peters Basilica. It was too beautiful in there. Once I walked in I got the goosebumps (Mom, I now know how you must have felt, especially when you saw the pope lol).

It was finally time for some food so 3 of us headed to this awesome Salad restaurant that was recommended in Rick Steve's Rome guide book (my roommate Sam is all about Rick Steve). This salad was too good to be true....pine nuts, pineapple, mango, I was in love (Michelle, if we ever go to Italy together, we are hitting this place up everyday! You would die). 

And I guess every meal must be followed with some gelato right? Even though I'm pretty sure I've already eaten my body weight in gelato during my entire time in Italy, so worth it.

Next we ventured off through a beautiful part of town and did some shopping. I controlled myself luckily. 

What an exhausting day. We headed back to the apartment, relaxed for a bit and then some of us were off again. We were headed towards another restaurant that Rick Steve's guide book suggested but before that we figured, why not stop at the Trevi fountain again and see it during the night time. 

It was even more beautiful the second time. Then we headed to the restaurant where I got another banging salad! Oh and we each got a free glass of Sexy Wine because we had the Rick Steve's book with us. But our waiter was so awesome he even gave us each a free refill! Apparently, our waiter is actually friends with Rick Steve's son, he showed me a Facebook conversation that they recently just had to prove it. Haha

Then we walked towards another fountain we stumbled upon and guess what we did there.....ate more gelato! 

And I made a wish in this fountain as well! We headed back to the apartment and everyone was too tired to go out but we had some wine. Everyone fell asleep but I kept my party going and drank some wine over Skype with Michelle and Erin who were getting ready to go out back in Astoria (I miss you guys, thanks for keeping me company!). 

What a great way to end the day. 

Saturday, October 26th, our last full day in Rome. A really relaxing day. Did some walking around town, window shopped and went to a different L'insalata Ricco (that awesome salad restaurant). 

I also found all the ingredients in a supermarket to make my families famous bean dip aka the stinky feet dip. Haha. Everyone loved it! Then it was time to get ready and see Kill the Noise! We got there around 10pm and it literally cost 10 euros to get in. I didn't see his whole set because we left pretty early. Probably wasn't the best decision to drink that cheap 5 euro rum back at the apartment before the concert. We all made it home safely and with only about 3 hours of sleep, I woke up and was ready to leave for our 8:30 flight to Barcelona! It was a rough morning to say the least...taxi, plane then bus ride...all the motion was no bueno for me. Lol. (Mom, don't be worried, I'm fine now). 

Rome, you were good to me but Barcelona here I come! 

Florence Adventures

Tuesday, October 22nd at around 6:15am our train came into the station. I was finally in Florence and ready to venture out with the 6 other people I am traveling with for now. But we didn't exactly start off with happy adventures. Unfortunately earlier on the train ride, one of our friends got her purse stolen...and yes everything important was in there; license, wallet, train tickets, boarding passes, credit cards. Although there were 6 of us in the cart, someone must have came in at a point that we were all sleeping (we did have a pretty awesome setup. We reclined all the chairs and basically had a huge mattress). Luckily we only had probably an hour or less left until we were at the final stop. We reported the stolen bag on the train, reported it when we were at the station and then headed towards the American Consulat to get her a temporary passport. All in all, things were sorted out in time. 

After a couple hours of sorting things, we were free to roam because we couldn't check into our apartment until around 2pm. So in the meantime.....

We stumbled upon a little restaurant and got pizza of course. Then we finally headed to our cute apartment that was located right above part of the market they always had going on. I've never seen so much pleather in my life (Mom, you would have been in your glory at this market. Haha). We ventured out more and then headed to a cool restaurant outside for dinner and then had the best gelato for dessert! 

This was my first glass of wine (it was their house Chianti) in Italy. 

Oh and did I mention my banging stuffed pepper? Holy crap, so amazing. 

Italy doesn't have Jello-O. Why? I ask myself that question everyday. So after a while in the kitchen I was able to whip up some Jell-O shots using this Gelatina in Fogli and it consisted of sheets you had to soak in cold water for 10 minutes then squeeze them and put them into hot water and stir until they dissolved, very interesting to say the least. Moreover, my goal of making Jello-O shots was complete. 

Wednesday, October 23rd, we set off for more sight seeing and delicious food. 

Oh yeah, I saw the David. No big deal or anything. :) Photos were prohibited but hey sometimes a tourist has to do what a tourist has to do.

And these were just some words of wisdom in the museums bathroom. 

The gorgeous Ponte Veccio bridge that we walked across and was basically taken over by jewelry stores one next to another.

Not sure what this statue was but it was a cool thing to stumble upon! Then we headed towards Uffizi which is the oldest museum in the world! I got to see so many paintings I was forced to study in my frehman year at Purchase in my art history courses and seeing things like the Birth of Venus or all of the Madonna and Child Enthroned made me really appreciate them that much more. Absolutely amazing. Photos were also prohibited here but of course...

Haha I was sneaky sneaky.

7 o'clock rolled around and we made reservations for this place called the Yellow Bar. Damn was their pizza good. 

We passed by some live music on our way and this was the icing on the cake that made me feel like I was really in Italy. Next of course we got gelato for dessert. I could eat pistachio and hazelnut gelato for every meal if it was acceptable. Haha. We headed back to the apartment, got out things together because we needed to be up at 5am the next day to catch a train to Rome! So we just hung out in the apartment and entertained ourselves. 

Yes, that is boxed wine and it was only about €1.50. Sketchy? Maybe. Poor traveling college students? Yes. 1am rolled around and I realized I should probably sleep.