Rome, Lazio, Italy
Yikes, it's another long one... If you are going to attempt this fateful endeavor, then kudos to you and I wish you great luck and may all of the ducks be with you.
Sunday, February 18th
We went to the Life Church again, which means we became squished sardines in a can, my favorite game to play and always a fun time.
On our way back we saw that an antique fair had been set up in the park right outside our building! Neato.
I had a fun time taking some pictures and trying not to buy anything, however, I did find some cool vintage postcards and a hair scarf for a pretty sweet deal, but I'm still calling it a success as I only spent about 8 euro. I did think for a solid 7 minutes that a rack of cashmere vests were 35 cents each, though. Turns out I forgot what the euro symbol looks like. How embarrassing.
Monday, February 19th
Today was pretty uneventful, but my interior design class was super fun. We started on our midterm project which is using our classroom as the space and designing the interior for ourselves as the client, with the story being that I am going to live in this room for a year. Basically, I get to make my "future home" Pinterest board come alive! I can't wait.
During my stats class I got a notification from the school that some LdM students were robbed at night in the city and telling us to be careful and not walk alone at night. Lucky for me, I get to do exactly that after my stats class every Monday. Maybe if I put on my mean face, I'll look intimidating, and the bad guys will decide to rob someone else. One can always hope, I guess. I hope I'll learn by the end of the semester when to be a friendly person and talk to and help the strangers, and when to put on my mean face, avoid eye contact, and walk as far away from them as possible. As of now I've made absolutely zero percent progress on this, as we have met helpful strangers and have had good experiences but have also heard the horror stories. Someone please help.
I also had a really strange experience on my walk. I saw a woman in the distance coming toward me and I thought to myself "woah that's a tall woman". But as she came closer and walked past me, I realized that we are the same height... Am I really that tall??
Tuesday, February 20th
In my design class we learned some things which I found quite interesting. We discussed the Golden Section and how it is everywhere in nature, and that Leonardo de Vinci made a painting showing how the golden section is in every human being (starting with our belly button). That's so crazy to think about, and in that moment, I found myself pondering existence and how the perfect design of our bodies and nature aligning to the Golden Section reveals that there must be a designer and creator behind it all!
Later today as I was peacefully reading, I learned from my olive romance book a fun tidbit of information that would've been helpful to know about a two weeks ago. Apparently, olives have to be cured in brine or salt before being eaten and therefore can't just be plucked straight from the tree. Hence Ginger and I's encounter with the nasty olives that we plucked from a tree in San Quirico. Well, at least we know they weren't poisonous or had been tampered with.
After a 3-hour nap, a quick cry session, and a yummy dinner, we decided to go out and find some pastries on which to munch.
As we were walking out of Il Santo, Kinley said something to Ginger, to which Ginger responded to by running back to the unsuspecting guy we had just passed and bombarding him with questions about a certain author that they apparently both read. When you know you know, I guess. He seemed equally enthused about said author and they chatted enthusiastically for the next like 10 minutes.
While we were waiting for Ginger to finish her emphatic conversation, Kinley decided it was a good idea to walk on a chain fence and almost died. But don't worry, Morgan and I were there to catch her, so all was well.
I also learned that Kinley has a fake tooth where I will soon have a fake tooth and she also had a chain drag a tooth around in her mouth just like me! We have almost identical oral adventure stories, although I had braces for way longer than her, so I think I won that competition. To be fair, she was the first to get a fake tooth, so I guess we are even.
Once we finally got a move on, we wandered around in search of pastries but instead found a tiramisu place called Pompi which supposedly had the best tiramisu in all of Florence. The BEST tiramisu?? Well, we just HAVE to try it then, won't we? We each got different flavors to share between the 4 of us, and I have to say, it was definitely the creamiest and most delectable tiramisu I've had. Kinley opted out of the 5-euro bite of tiramisu in favor of a 3-euro ice cream trough which I guess was pretty good as well.
Then we finished the night off with some gnome fighting and watching a hyena drink water... I don't know what to tell ya, just go with it.
Wednesday, February 21st
After waking up early to finish some more paperwork (I thought I was done after the first week but no. I will never be done), I sketched in Piazza della Repubblica for a while for my sketchbook class, then headed to the Santo Spirito Market for an LdM activity. The activity was basically just them showing us where the market was and then setting us loose there, but it was still pretty cool. Lots of cashmere and discount clothes which I couldn't buy due to the lack of room in my suitcase. But there were some beautiful plants, so of course I had to buy some new friends to take home with me. I got both of them for only 2.30 euro total! What a steal for a cure to my loneliness and depression (totally kidding, you don't have to be worried about me I'm doing great, I promise).
Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you our two new members of the Pucci Bucci Family. In case you were wondering, these are all very real authentic Italian names. Look them up if you don't believe me.
If you want to be an honorary member of the Pucci Bucci family, you can send me a song request to sing to them.
Today in my sketchbook class we learned that I have not improved since 7th grade and I'm STILL horrid at watercolor (shocker, I know), and after a tiny bit of a stress breakdown, my professor came to my rescue and saved my horrible artwork from the horrible destruction I surely would have caused. After he fixed it and showed me how to better create texture it looked slightly less demented, but I've still got a lot of work to do. But that's what classes are for, right?
After dinner we went on another hunt for pastries, although since it was 8:30 pm most bakeries were closed except for this one place that was a restaurant, bar, and bakery all combined in one and was open till midnight! It's called Ricordi and is now my favorite establishment in all of Florence. One of the servers found us wandering outside like lost puppies and brought us into the lovely bakery section. The lady behind the counter was so sweet and patiently explained all of the pastries to us as we each tried to pick one out. I got a cream-filled (called Chantilly apparently) croissant, Morgan and Kinley got cream puffs, and Ginger got a berry cheesecake, which we all switched, swapped, and shared. After the first bite of my cream-filled croissant I was immediately in heaven for the cream was the softest and sweetest cream I'd ever tasted, and paired with the flaky doughy croissant it, was an absolute dream come true. Each one of our pastries kept surpassing even our wildest dreams until we were all delirious from the sugar high of the best pastries we had ever tasted. After finishing each last morsel of the pastries, the server came over and gave us four tiny little pastries on the house! It was the sweetest thing. They were also so incredibly delicious and we were ever in their debt for such kindness. And our total for the evening was only 10 euro even with though we sat down and everything! It was truly the most magical, delicious, and wholesome experience, and I would 100% recommend going to Ricordi if you are ever in Florence. Heck, you should even fly over to Florence from wherever you are right now to get a taste of their fresh, magically delicious pastries. They told us to leave a review on trip advisor if we enjoyed our experience, so you better believe I left a glowing review for them on every platform I could find.
On our way back to Il Santo, I looked up from a brief laughing fit to see a tall Italian guy walking toward me. We locked eyes for a moment, he smiled and winked at me in the midst of the bustling city street, and then went on his way. I was in shock for the next few minutes, attempting to come back to reality after an experience I had thought only possible in books and movies. I think I've had the full Italian experience of my teenage dreams now, so if this is my last day on earth, I can die satisfied. Just kidding, only the Lord can truly fill my heart, but you get my point. It was a magical moment I shall never forget.
Thursday, February 22nd
We actually began learning some things in Finance today, but the professor just went full speed ahead and now we are all thoroughly confused. When she gave us a problem and told us to use this complicated formula to solve for the present value, the entire class was clueless as to what to do as she never really explained what the variables represented. When she began to explain it, the whole class basically attacked her saying that what she was now writing was completely different from what it said on the board, and that her calculations were wrong. Yikes. I mean, I would've appreciated a little clearer of an explanation but yall don't have to attack the poor lady like that. Just watch a YouTube video on it later, that's what I'm gonna do.
Tonight's my night to cook again, so yay, stir fry noodle dinner! Sike, Ginger and Kinley ditched us for a bible study that was like an hour train ride away, which I guess is an acceptable excuse. We moved noodle dinner to Sunday, so all is well. They better be back in time for the movie, cause we rented out the Cinema Room of our dorm / hotel / living quarters.
They were, in fact, not back in time for the movie. I should have guessed. That's ok, Morgan and I just had a lovely night with the Cinema all to ourselves... once we figured out how to get in at least. We went down there and tried to scan in with our room keys, but the door would not budge. Apparently, you had to go to the front desk to get the key and the remotes. They really take their Cinema Rooms seriously, I guess.
Once in the Cinema Room, we found it to be quite satisfactory, with rows and rows of cushy couches (to which Morgan commented that she didn't want to know what has been done on these couches. Thanks for that, Morgan), and a giant projector screen with a giant speaker.
It ended up being a lovely time. That is, once we finally got everything set up after about 5 minutes of attempting to turn the thing on, another 15 minutes trying to figure out how to turn the sound back on after it randomly turned off, and another 10 minutes picking a movie to watch. We eventually settled on La La Land, which transported us to a world of jazz, tap dancing, and Ryan Gosling. So that's how we spent the next 2.5 hours, me fully emersed in the musical magic, and Morgan studiously speed writing a paper she accidentally didn't do, while occasionally glancing at the movie. We definitely stayed up later than we should have, with our impending early morning the next day looming over our heads, but La La Land was worth it even though it crushed my heart once again.
An entertaining comment made by yours truly a tad later in the night while attempting to pack for Rome and apparently also research milk:
“Oh no it says that drinking more than 3 glasses of milk a day leads to an increased mortality rate!”
Continues to chug milk.
Friday, February 23rd
We got up at a heinously early hour, actually for real this time (4:45!! AM!!!). All the times I have said that in the past do not compare. I was just a wee child back then. I have learned so much since then and have grown in ways I never could have imagined. After finishing up the packing and carrying out a 10-minute version of our morning routines, me serenading Morgan with ABBA songs and her giving my pained looks, we met in the lobby to gather with the others. We waited and waited for Vince, but despite our messages to him last night that read something like "VINCE!!! MEET IN THE LOBBY TOMORROW AT 5 AM OR WE WILL LEAVE YOU BEHIND", he wasn’t there. We called and texted but we couldn’t miss our train, so we had to dash. As we were practically running to the train station, Vince messaged us that he just woke up and where was the train station because he was going to run. Yikes, good luck Vince!
We got on our train a few minutes before it left, anxiously waiting for Vince as he ran around trying to find the platform. We were sitting in our seats about to show the ticket lady our tickets, and right as the train started to leave, we heard a frantic banging on the window. Vince! We looked to the ticket lady, all with the same question in our eyes, but she shook her head. The doors were officially closed, and Vince was not allowed on the train. As we looked back to Vince with the bad news written on our faces, he looked back at us with wide eyes full of terror and regret. We waved solemnly, the train slowly beginning to leave.
“Oh dear,” Kinley said, as she stared at her reflection in the window and drank her yogurt. Poor Vince. He was now spamming us with texts, asking what he should do. We told him to go to the ticket booth and get the next train to Rome., so he got a high speed one and ended up getting there at the same time as us! See? No harm done, besides Vince's wasted money and the insanely high level of stress we now had.
“Do you want one?” Kinley asked pointing to her nature valley granola bar box.
"A granola bar? I’m ok, thanks”
“No, look,” Kinley opened the granola bar box to reveal 2 sandwiches.
So, to console ourselves after that dreadful experience, we had a train picnic consisting of white bread slathered in about a pound of butter and jam. It was delicious Kinley, I promise. Please don’t hurt me.
Once we arrived in Rome, we brushed up on our pickpocket code words, then made our way to find food after stealing a trip to the restroom. We popped our head in a few places, but eventually moved on from them for one reason or another, deciding that they were too not-yummy looking or expensive. After about 20 minutes of searching and battling the strong winds attempting to topple us, we found a nice little place that was cheap, looked yummy, and the sweet lady let us sit down for no extra charge! There, Morgan and I split a sandwich (look at us being thrifty with a $3 meal) and we all impulse bought tickets to a supposed combination opera and ballet for that night.
Next, we headed to Vatican City which is, get this, a DIFFERENT COUNTRY. INSIDE OF ROME. Yeah, I know I’m uneducated and yall probably already knew this but let me have my moment. After going through some relatively intense security, we got in and made our way through the maze to the museums.
“Guys! The mosaics!” Ginger exclaimed, attempting in vain to share with us her appreciation of the craziness of all the tiny pieces of an ancient mosaic standing the test of time and making it all the way to the present mostly intact.
Then, we began our long journey through all of the museums. There were so many. SO many. You will hear more about this later. As I was moseying around the old things, I subconsciously began eavesdropping on an Italian tour. A tour. In ITALIAN. And I partially understood it! I have reached nirvana. The peak of my life. Granted, I didn’t understand every single word, but enough to get the gist of what she was saying. Something about the painting being famous because there is an important lady with a light shining on her.
We then traversed about until we found our way into a mummy museum. I went into the next room while the rest of the gang was staring at a particularly mediocre mummy, and when I went back to find them, they were GONE. I retraced my steps back into the next few rooms to see if they had moved past me, but they weren't there either. I tried calling them, but they didn't pick up. Eventually, I got a message asking where I was, and explaining that they were in the "main room" and to “make my way out”. Ohh so they left, that explains it. So, I went back the way I came, fighting the current of fishes filling every inch of space. I fought and fought, weaving and pushing my way through people, before finally reaching the light. But, once I stopped to look around, they weren't there either so I messaged them that I had left and asked where they were. Turns out they were still in the museum, but just super far in. The heck?? Morgan, why did you tell me to make my way out if you were farther in the museum? At this point I just decided to give up and said I'd wander around in the courtyard until they were done. As I wandered, the violent winds attempting to carry me into outer space, I traveled across the courtyard and saw a mysterious looking archway, which, of course, I went through it to see where it led. It opened up into a beautiful hallway with high, arched ceilings and was filled with statues and busts everywhere you turned. Wait, there's Kinley! No way. After our lovely family-reunion moment, I wandered around with them for a little, but they were going pretty slow. Don't get me wrong, I love art and history, but I can only take so much staring at old things, so I decided to wander round on my own.
Through the matrix I wandered, right, then left, through some fancy arches, then through a fancy corridor, until I had no idea where I was anymore. I didn't even know museums could BE this big. Hadn't I already looked at that statue? Am I back where I started or is this just another painting that looks identical to the first?
Somehow through my hectic wandering, I ended up in the Sistine Chapel. Woah, cool famous place painted by a famous painter! ....Yeah, that describes about half of the things in Europe. It was beautiful, of course, but I got kind of weird vibes, so it wasn't really my favorite thing. Maybe it was the mass of people crammed together, or the stewardess people walking around reprimanding people for taking photos and pushing people towards the center. Or maybe it was the lack of any place to sit combined with my festered-up mood and the ach in my back caused by carrying my backpack and large purse around all day. Either way, yay, more pretty historical things, but not really my jam. I later found out that apparently Michelangelo (yeah, the painter of the Sistine Chapel. That one) didn't even like painting the Sistine Chapel. If the guy who stinkin painted the whole thing didn't even like it, why should I?
Click here to see the video I took of the chapel before I knew it wasn't allowed and got reprimanded by a fancy butler-looking man. (Shhh don't tell anyone). Also, I looked up why photos aren't allowed, and it used to be that this guy bought the rights to it, but that contract has been over for 3 years now, but they decided to keep the photography ban in place in order to preserve the art from the flashes. An interesting factoid indeed, its existence in this blog being primarily to make me feel better about my rebellious footage and decision to post it on the internet.
I quickly made my way out of the over-rated and over-crowded chapel to find my way back to the others and found myself wandering through another whole maze of museums. Too much museum!! Aahh!! In this moment I imagined that whoever had designed this museum surely must have been wicked and was plotting to trap all of the unsuspecting tourists inside by confusing, overwhelming, and exhausting them until they gave in to the sweet respite of death. As my steps grew quicker and my insides more anxious, I realized that I was slowly melting into the never-ending labyrinth of corridors, sculptures, and columns. I was gasping for breath but swallowing water instead, which proved to only further my demise. When I finally came around back to where we had started, I desperately searched for help, but the crew was nowhere to be found. I looked at Life360 to try to find them and just GUESS where they were. The stinking Sistine Chapel!! No way in heck was I going back there again. So, I wandered around the courtyard once again as the winds picked up and rain began to fall. I sat on a bench and read for a while until I grew cold, and after an update from Morgan that they were "slowly but surely" still moving through the labyrinth museum of death, I decided that I'd had quite enough of this museum from my worst nightmares, and I was just going to meet them at St. Peter's Basilica as that was where we were headed next.
My map said that St. Peter's Basilica was right near the Sistine Chapel, so I began taking the same route I had earlier in hopes that there would be a path from there to St. Peter's. So once again, I ventured out through the corridors, weaving through the snail tours and picking up my pace as the walls began closing in on me and I felt the sense of claustrophobia setting in. I finally reached the Sistine Chapel again, looking for another path that would lead to St. Peter's but everywhere I looked, all the signs pointed towards that stinkin Sistine Chapel. I wandered back and forth, becoming increasingly anxious, until finally deciding to go through the Chapel once again with the hopes of finding a route to St. Peter's on the other side.
I barged through the chapel, dodging and weaving as the butlers tried to conform me to their ways. I finally reached the light on the other side but boy was I wrong. The only path to take was the one that lead back through the museums to the beginning again. The whole thing was just a giant circle. A trap. Twas then that I looked around me, at all the tourists hoarding around the random old artifacts like minnows around a swimmer's foot, my mind screaming "THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! IT'S A TRAP! GET OUT! SAVE YOURSELF!".
In my haste and distress, I bumped past the mass of strolling tourists and in the process got caught on a person's sweater as tears of stress slowly began rolling down my face, my impending doom starting to set in. This is it for me. This is how it ends. I think I've led a decent life and served the Lord the best as I could. Farewell.
Alas that was not the end, but close to it. I barely made it to a bathroom where I let out the tears I had been holding in, then picked myself up with the only thing I knew would help. Milk. And a croissant of course.
I sat in the garden with my milk and nutella filled croissant, the creamy milk and flaky pastry slowly but surely mending my broken and worn-out soul. I thought back on what had gone so horribly wrong to cause such a reaction in me, and realized it was probably a combination of the 4 hours of sleep I was running on, the aching and soreness persisting throughout my entire body from carrying heavy things for hours, and the 4 STINKNG HOURS spent in this giant museum trying to cram historical information into my brain. I love art, I love appreciating beautiful things, and I find history to be quite interesting in small doses, but I'm no Ginger, even I have my limits, and I think I have found that they are way under 4 hours of museuming.
The rest of the crew messaged me saying they had finally finished and to meet up with them so we could go to St. Peter's Basilica. After walking around the courtyards and talking to a nice worker man, we learned that there was in fact no conceivable way to get to St. Peter's from here other than exiting Vatican City, walking all the way around the edge, and then re-entering at the Basilica.
So that's what we did. As we were walking out of the Vatican, we passed by the hordes of people waiting to get in (which was way more people than before) and I wanted to shout at them “Save yourselves! It's not worth it!! Don't fall into the trap!” However, I had restraint and did not, because I didn't want to inform the crew just yet of my slightly horrifying experience and put a damper on theirs in the process. It's like 2 weeks after now, so it's time for the truth to come out. Sorry guys, I didn't want to spoil your sunshine but sometimes I'm (insert valley girl voice) just SO OVER being a tourist, and Friday was one of those times.
As we were walking around the wall of the Vatican I noticed palm trees scattered about between the buildings. Crazy, Rome's usually super hot, with tons of tourists and palm trees. It's like the California of Italy. Just kiddingggg. I couldn't insult Rome like that. Double jk, I promise I don't hate California, I just like to pick on it sometimes because I don't prefer the crowds and the hot weather, but there are plenty of great things about California. There are also great things about Rome, I just hadn't discovered them yet at this point in time.
Once we finally reached the square where St. Peter's Basilica reigned, we were stunned and filled with awe by the beauty of the building and the columns... until we saw the line to enter St. Peter's. I'm not even joking, it was one of the longest lines I've ever seen in the world. While the free entrance was great, Kinley and I took one look at that line and said "absolutely not". 2 hours in line was not worth it, no way. We began wandering around, appreciating the columns and the fountains until we spotted Ginger and Morgan heading for the back of the line. Excuse me, what??? Ok yall, good luck with that. See you in December! (Credit to Kinley for that line. I originally messaged in the chat "see you in like 5 days" but then Kinley said December and because I have a flair for the dramatic - in case you hadn't noticed already - I decided that would better suit the blog) Apparently Ginger was quite determined and would not be leaving Rome without going inside St. Peter's, so she told us she was going to wait in line and that we could go to a coffee shop or whatever until she was done / at the front of the line.
Kinley, Vince, and I decided to explore a little before deciding what to do, so we wandered over to a large fountain (in terms of water), which in combination with the strong winds, resulted in a nice spray. After spending a few minutes giddily spinning, smiling, and laughing whilst getting in a nice quick shower, we split up and wandered about the area. I ended up reading by the large tower - thing in the middle (yes, I know, a very accurate description of an important historical monument, I'm sure), and watching people do their touristy things, which surprisingly included a group of guys playing leap frog.
After about 30-45 minutes, the crew were actually almost to the front of the line! It had moved way faster than I thought. I joined them in line, had a little nap on Morgan's shoulder, and soon enough we were inside the famous St. Peter's Basilica!
Upon entering, I was stunned by the pure magnitude of the space and the number of elaborate decorations covering every surface. We saw the real La Peita di Michelangelo (apparently the one we saw in the Vatican Museums was FAKE. Why would you make a fake version of a famous statue and put it in a museum that's like a 15-minute walk from the original?? I've got no clue), and I learned an interesting tidbit about it. Apparently, a Hungarian terrorist wacked Mary like 17 times, but then they fixed it so it's all good now. I just want to know how he got in 17 hits! Security must have been slacking that day.
While wandering the Basilica, attempting to appreciate the beauty and take some cool photos, I found myself being chased by some sort of catholic procession taking place. It seemed like everywhere I went was the wrong place because it was the next place that the procession was heading. Ahhh. Every time I tried to sit down or look at something, a guy told me I had to move. Vince, another victim of the procession, found me and together we mourned our unfortunate plight.
After about 20 minutes, I had had my fill of Basilica, especially after the 4-hour museum fiasco, so Vince and I headed into the lobby-area and sat in one of the exits which had a cool bench inside. There, I read my book as we waited for the others and watched the rain begin to drizzle.
Soon enough it began POURING POURING, and since Vince and I wanted to drop our stuff off at the hostel before dinner and the opera, we decided to head out to the hostel on our own and meet the others at the restaurant. In hindsight, splitting up is usually not a great idea, but hey, bad ideas are when adventures happen, right?
We attempted to make our way to the hostel, which was on the complete opposite end of the city (30 minutes travel time total). We wandered for about 20 minutes trying to find our way to the metro but google maps was being annoying and we ended up taking a bunch of wrong turns. Let's just call it an impromptu walking tour of Rome in the rain. It was quite aesthetic though, wandering the streets of Rome in the pouring rain and pausing to watch the cars drive through puddles and splash unsuspecting pedestrians. It was honestly one of my favorite moments of the trip.
Once on the metro, I worked on my cool person metro stance. My germophobic mom would be proud, as it involves the use of balance and deep concentration rather than holding on to the poles which I'm sure are covered in all sorts of nasty things that I would prefer not to think about.
As blue hour began to set in, we walked through these strangely eerie yellow lights which cast a vibey feel throughout the arched passageway, which I was honestly enjoying quite a bit. After we had found our hostel, thankfully getting there shortly before another person so we could hitch onto their gate-opening skills, we headed up to the second floor where the lady said the check-in was. After banging on the door like maniacs for a solid 10 minutes with not a hint of luck, we had the idea to explore the next few floors where we learned that the 3rd floor was in fact where the check-in desk was. There, we paid some money, showed some ID's and finally got our key. Despite the fact that our room was located right by the door, meaning we would be the first to be killed in the case that a serial killer with a thirst for blood broke in, it seemed like a decent place, especially for only 17.50 euro each.
It seemed it was thing after thing today, as now we couldn't get the lock on our door to open. We went back and forth each trying desperately to jiggle the lock any which way we could in an attempt to open the door, anxiety increasing as we got the message that the rest of the crew was now at the restaurant waiting for us. After a solid 7 minutes, Vince somehow got it to open by some stroke of luck and after a quick survey of the room (beds looked clean so that's all that really matters), we dropped our stuff off and headed out.
As we exited the room, we attempted to lock the door so our expensive gadgets wouldn't get stolen, but whad'ya know, the door was just as hard to lock as it was to open. After trying to lock it for like 10 minutes, I finally convinced Vince that we should go to the front desk and ask for help. The guy came up, and with a strategic combination of twisting, jiggling, and pulling he got it to lock! What sort of witchery is this?? I said, "ok let me try to make sure I can do it too", but alas I could not. The guy goes "here look, you have to turn the key, then pull the handle towards you and jiggle a little, and THEN it will work. See? Easy Peasy." It was not easy peasy. After a few more minutes of trying, I finally got the trick, and we headed out (for real this time).
The restaurant that the rest of the crew was at ended up being all the way back at the other end of the city, so Vince and I decided to just grab some pizza at a place close to us and meet them at the opera. So long delicious fancy dinner. The thought was nice while it lasted. Apparently, Kinley accidentally ordered asparagus twice so, whew, I guess I dodged a bullet there.
Vince and I had a lovely, cheap 6-euro meal, and on our way out I accidentally stunned a poor man with my umbrella. I whipped it out as I was exiting, and he just stood there staring at me for several moments like I had just pulled a rabbit out of my head. Interesting.
As we headed to the opera, we heard a guy on a bike behind us yelling at people in the street in a half-grunting half-speaking sort of manner. We quickly moved out of the way in order not to be run over or otherwise attacked by this man, then watched in awe as he stopped not very far in front of us and quite an interesting scene played out before our very eyes.
He stopped in front of this girl, did his grunt / yell thing at her, to which she responded by pushing him back, and we thought for sure a fight was about to break out. I was getting ready to turn the other way and cross the road so we wouldn't get caught in whatever violence was about to occur, when the lady did something radically unexpected. She grabbed the dude's shirt, pulled him in... and kissed him! And they started making out right then and there, right in the midst of their brawl! What in tarnation just happened?? Vince and I continued walking with wide eyes, both utterly stunned by what had just occurred. Rome's a strange place at night.
We picked up some snacks (excluding milk, unfortunately) and arrived at the opera place which turned out to be an old church instead of a theater like I was expecting. We sat in folding chairs for about half an hour waiting for the show to start, and as I studied the "stage", I swiftly lost all hope that there would be any sort of ballet or dancing involved at all.
While we were waiting, I got to overhear quite an interesting conversation from the people behind me though. Some memorable quotes include:
“Wait you actually believe in God?? How do you convert?”
“Wait what if you don't get baptized as a child? Are you just screwed?”
“It's weird being a Muslim when you don’t believe in God” - “Why don't you believe in God?” - “You sure you want to have this conversation in a church?”
“I never prayed but I still feel like I had a spiritual connection”
Then later during a break:
“If it weren't for you I would have left after act 1”
During the rest of our waiting time, Vince showed us a Horton Hears a Who quote, and Ginger explained the storyline of the opera. All I can remember about it is that the main nobleman guy is named Alfredo (yes, like the sauce) and this sick prostitute Violetta (cough cough sick, not like "woah that's sick dude" sick) falls in love with him and then sells everything she has to start a future with him, but his dad comes along and is like no you will shame our family you must break up with him. So, she writes her breakup letter to him but then he walks into the room, and she confesses her undying love for him. But once he receives the letter, he thinks she left him for her ex, so then he goes to a party and picks a fight with her ex. There's some drama, she says loves her ex but she actually loves him, that whole shebang, and it ends in many tears. Then they jump half a year later when Violetta is on her death bed and her ex tells Alfredo that everything was his fault and Alfredo comes rushing to her side and professes his undying love for her. Violetta jumps up, no longer feeling any more pain, and they live happily ever after. Except as soon as she stands up, she falls dead on the floor. The end. Something like that, at least. It's called La Traviata if you want to look up a more accurate synopsis.
The opera was beautiful but we were in the back and the floor was flat so we couldn't really see anything. I was also super sleep deprived and exhausted so I ended up falling asleep on Kinley about half way through. Hey, it was like 3 hours long, don't judge me. I was just appreciating the music in a different way. I woke up just in time to hear the finale, applaud, and exchange wow-that-was-so-good's with the others.
Here's a link to a little snippet of the opera with which to enchant your ears.
We headed back to the hostel and I immediately fell into bed and passed out. I'm not even joking, I didn't change or brush my teeth or anything. I found out later that Morgan plugged in my phone so it wouldn't be dead the next day. Thanks Morgan, I don't know what I woulda done without ya.
Saturday, February 24th
Shiver me timbers was my first thought when I woke up in the morning, besides foggy memories of another dream involving running away from someone intending me harm. I vaguely remember waking up at random points throughout the night, shivering, and thinking something along the lines of: someone pleaseee turn on the heater, or at least set me on fire.
Besides the lack of warmth through the night and the midly disgusting communal bathrooms, the hostel wasn't bad for being the cheapest one we could find. Since we only booked one night, we had to check out when we left at around 10 am, but the lady offered to keep our bags for us until we left on our train that night.
Against our better judgment, Vince and I decided to leave some of our stuff in the sketchy hostel closet for a few hours. Brilliant idea, I know, but the alternative was another whole day lugging around 2 bags, and I certainly didn't want a repeat of the museum fiasco. I at least made sure to move all my valuables to my purse before leaving my backpack, so all that was left to steal was some clothes and a toothbrush. Sorry to disappoint, little thieves.
As we walked through the streets, heading for our first item on the agenda, I noticed that through the streets wafted the savory and herbal scent of olives. I love that each place has its own unique scent (when it's not being overpowered by the smell of smoke and weed, that is).
We arrived at the City of Water, a tour which took you under the Trevi Fountain. It was a pretty cool vibe, and I tried to listen to the little box of recordings they gave me, but after the nightmare museum from yesterday I was a little historied out, so I just wandered around and looked at the old rocks, occasionally snapping a photo here and there.
We then traipsed past the massive hordes of tourist to the above ground part of the Trevi Fountain. We took some pictures of course, and some of the crew took turns drinking from the famous little crossing water-stream thing. After staring at the pretty statues for a good while, we finally escaped the suffocating tourist crowds, and went in search of some food.
Along the way, we came across a fruit stand and Morgan and Ginger bought some giant over-priced seedy grapes, and then we went into a cafe. They didn't have many options for food that would give me sustenance for the day, so Vince and I left in search of a relatively cheap panino. On our way there, a little boutique caught our eye with their bright yellow lemons decorating every inch of the place. We exchanged glances that said "ok, we HAVE to stop in here", and after wandering about for a bit, were offered samples of Limoncello. Interesting, but yup I still don't like alcohol. I bought some water.
We finally found the restaurant and it had a fancy cave vibe which was awesome, but we got our 6.50-euro panini as take-away in order to save some money. Once we had acquired the panini, we went in search of a nice place to sit and stumbled upon the Marcus Aurelius Column. Sweet. So, there I was, sitting by the fountain, contently munching on my panino and gazing about the square when it began to drip sauce and tomatoes all over me! I had to stand up and lean over the bag as the entrails of my panino slid out into the oblivion.
After purchasing about 8 postcards for my wall collage, we met back up with the rest of the crew as well as some new bird friends, as Kinley had created a bond with another pack of birds by feeding them bits of her potato chips.
We then headed to what Ginger proclaimed to be the BEST gelato shop in all of Rome (yes, I know, quite the claim to make), which is called Giolitti. The price actually wasn't that bad either, it was about 3.50 euro for 2 flavors in a small cup, while the same amount had cost me about 4.50 - 5 euro when I'd gotten gelato in Florence.
They had so many cool-looking flavors, but I ended up choosing nougat and cream (of course) for my 2 flavors because how else are you supposed to compare the quality of gelato other than tasting the pure gelato untainted by the other flavors? Also cream / vanilla is arguably the best flavor so... fight me on it if you dare. And be prepared to lose.
After finishing our delightful gelato (idk about the BEST gelato in Rome, I think I'd have to try all the other gelato shops in Rome in order to come to a conclusion such as that) and part of the crew getting kicked out for laying on the ground near a government building, we decided to wander the city, starting with the Pantheon.
As we approached the Patheon, we were awestruck at the beautiful columns and the man singing opera in the square. I got up on the stairs by the fountain to get a better view (without the hordes of tourists which at this point seemed to be determined to constantly surround us at all times) and snap some photos. Once in the Pantheon, it was pretty cool, but I was surprised by how similar it looked to the inside of St. Peter's Basilica. The rest of the crew chastised me for saying such a sacrilege thing as that, but when I showed them a pictured and asked whether it was St. Peter's or the Pantheon, they actually had to think about it and almost couldn't tell. So, hah. Not that it's not beautiful, but there are definitely many similarities. You'll see.
As we were wandering about the Pantheon I noticed some leftover chocolate in Morgan's teeth and she tried to get it out, but with no luck. She made a comment about needed to brush her teeth in order to get it out and I said something along the lines of "Well you have your backpack with you right? Why don't you brush your teeth right here? You know what, I DARE you to brush your teeth right here in the middle of the Pantheon."
"Maybe I should"
"You TOTALLY should. Then you could say that you brushed your teeth inside the Pantheon!"
And guess what. She DID! We found a somewhat empty area and she pulled out her toothbrush and brushed her teeth unashamed. I'm so proud of you Morgan.
It was at this point that Ginger's friend in Rome messaged her that he wanted to meet up so off she went. Once I'd had my fill of the Pantheon, I decided to walk around outside to try and get some cool photos while the rest of the crew (besides Ginger who was now galivanting across Rome with her aforementioned mysterious friend) finished soaking up all there was to soak up (mostly tombs) in the Pantheon.
I wandered around and stumbled upon a beautiful square, which ended up being Piazza Navona (keep this in mind for later) and was surrounded by many ancient towering buildings with a ginormous fountain in the center.
I then spied a large crowd, and as I grew closer, I was elated to find a street performer dancing with a large hoop. I quickly notified the group chat with a message something to the effect of: guys come quick to Piazza Navona and see the hoola hoop guy!
Morgan and Kinley didn't come in time to see the hoola hoop guy but after a few minutes of wandering around, we happened upon another street performer! This guy was some sort of clown, and as I was watching him performing his stage magic, he was kinda heckling the audience a little, telling people to stand on the line or come into his circle or some other thing. As I was watching, my phone started to vibrate and I saw that it was Vince, who was absolutely rampant in the chat, asking where we all were. I picked up the phone and started to tell him that we were watching a clown but then the clown comes over and stares at me and motions for me to hang up the phone! To this day I can't tell if he did it for the bit and some audience engagement or if he was truly offended at me taking a phone call during his show. I guess we will never know.
Here's some footage of the show for your entertainment.
We then decided to head to the Forum to meet up with Ginger, and as we were heading there we walked past one of those guys who freezes and looks like the wind is blowing super hard. I stopped to take a photo, which I guess encouraged him because he told me to come and stand there, and hold this and that and stand like this and wear these glasses and hold this umbrella while I pull your hair. It was quite an experience, but what can I say, you have to live a little in order to get the real memories.
We made our way to the center of all the happenings in Rome (tourist central, for sure), and wandered about, exploring and taking photos. We climbed up these giant steps where there was a beautiful view of Rome, and then peeked in the church at the top. We wandered about some more, passing by beautiful buildings, statues, and people getting married, then finally found the Forum and attempted to connect with Ginger. The Forum was so cool, with all of the ancient ruins from years and years ago.
"Guys, just imagine, this is probably where all the Christians from the biblical days were martyred"
We finally found Ginger and decided to mosey over to the Colosseum, so we walked through probably the biggest street in all of Italy, which had monuments every which way, and was filled with street musicians and tourists to the max. It was a sight to behold, as we came across the Pink Pianist (my very clever name for him as he was a pianist dressed in, you guessed it, all pink - even the piano!) and stared at him for a while. We watched some street artists make colosseums out of spray paint, and for each street musician / artist we found, we spent less and less time watching them until I was practically having to run to catch up with the crew. They had places to be, apparently. Towards the end of the walk when they were really booking it, I found these guys playing guitar and I wanted to stay and listen for a little cause I love guitar and I felt bad that they didn't have a crowd around them like the other musicians, but I was sadly pulled away in order to spend a "decent" amount of time at the Colosseum before we had to leave.
We had already been staring at the Colosseum from afar for about 15 minutes but it's like the one thing that everyone who goes to Rome does so I guess we have to. That's what happens when you are a tourist I guess, you become a sheep and the only way to survive is to follow the herd. Whoever thought of being unique and maybe going to places besides the ones that everyone tells you to go to which are hoarded by tourists must have been absolutely insane. Just kidding, the Colosseum was pretty cool and I got some cool pictures, but in all seriousness, I felt my tourist energy draining, and the desire to go somewhere decidedly not teeming with tourists growing immensely by the hour.
After spending about 20-30 minutes at the Colosseum and running into Chris (a guy from LdM that we met at church) randomly, we quickly found our way to the metro in order to get to the hostel and pick up our bags before the deadline they gave us. We rushed over there, arriving just 1 minute after the cutoff they had told us, but thankfully they were still open, and our bags were surprisingly still there and fully intact.
The plan had been to get dinner before our train, but time was slowly running out so we just grabbed some cheap food at the train station. I got a little mini pizza which was decent, as well as a cheesecake for Morgan and I to split which was absolutely delectable. The guy almost didn't sell me the cheesecake because it was apparently still frozen but after some groveling, he finally yielded to my wishes.
Once we had gobbled up most of our train-station dinner, we went up to the area near the platforms and waited for the giant board to tell us which platform our train had been assigned. We waited and waited, eventually huddling by a wall to gather up our strength before we began the next portion of our journey. It got to be about 7 minutes before our train was supposed to leave when we finally got assigned a platform, but rather than being a number like all of the others it just said "PF". What does that mean?? I didn't see any signs for a platform called "PF". So, I asked one of the people in uniform by the gates what it meant, and they said that it was in fact a bus, not a train, so it wasn't with all of the train platforms. First of all, how did we manage to book a bus on the train-booking app? Second of all, why would they have a bus up on the board of a TRAIN station? I then inquired as to where we would find said bus, and she just pointed a certain direction and said "outside". That's helpful, thank you.
I raced back to tell the others the news, and since we only had 5 minutes and now had no idea where we were supposed to find our bus, we began running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We proceeded in this manner for about 30 minutes. During those 30 minutes, we ran outside in an attempt to find a bus station that had a bus with our number on it, but with no luck. We ran back inside to try and ask someone for help, but each person we asked said something to the effect of "oh, that's not my department, go find such and such another person" and pointed in a vague direction. So, we followed the vague direction and went along the chain of people pointing us to other people until finally someone said to go to the Trenitalia helpdesk which was on platform 3. So, then we ran back to platform 3 in search of the Trenitalia people. At this point, I really didn't understand what all of the running was about because we had already missed our bus and we never quite understood what we were meant to do once we got to wherever we were being told to go, but I figured splitting up would be worse, so I just trailed behind.
Once we went through the gates, Kinley and Ginger were already running down the platform, so what else was there to do but follow them? I wished we would just stop for a second to think up a game plan instead of just running wherever people told us to go, but they seemed to know what they were doing, and I didn't have the energy to catch up to them and ask. We kept going farther and farther down the platform, going up and down stairs and all around, searching for some sort of help office. Why would a help office be located ON the train platform? I have no clue, but it was the only lead we had at the moment. We traveled so far down the platform that I no longer saw glimpses of light from the station behind us, and the vibe had become what I would describe as dark, desolate, and quite sketchy. At some point we gave up, seeing as there was no office-looking building in sight, and turned around with defeat. As we came back to the beginning of the platform, what did we see but the Trenitalia helpdesk! In our stress, confusion, and haphazard running we had run right past it.
We quickly explained our dilemma to the lady, hoping she could switch our tickets to another train, give us a reimbursement for the train (or rather - bus) we missed due to the confusion, or something of the sort. She said that unfortunately there was no other route of the same variety (a long bus that connected to a train), and we should have looked more closely at our tickets because we would have seen on them a little symbol of a bus instead of a train. She told us we just had to book another train and we could apply for a refund online.
Thankfully, there was another train to Florence leaving in about 15 minutes but that one cost about 55 euro rather than the 25 euro we had originally paid for our train. At this point, we just wanted to get home, so we paid the extra money and had a relatively speedy return home. We were all a little annoyed at exorbitant 75 euro we spent to train home, as we did not have much hope for a refund since it was technically our fault for missing the bus. Although, I think anyone would have been confused and caught off-guard by the fact that the "train" they booked was actually a bus and therefore did not leave out of the train station. Now we know for next time, at least.
The train was quite rickety, which led to several people falling on me throughout the course of the trip, due to the unexpected jerking of the train as they attempted to walk past. Each time this happened, Morgan and I shared a look, and after about the 3rd or 4th time, Morgan said "I guess people can't help but FALL for you". Haha. Thanks Morgan, always there to brighten the day with a pun.
When we finally got back to our room, I went over to the window and opened the curtain to find, to my utter shock and horror, that Tucci Pucci Bucci and Mucci Pucci Bucci were dead!!! They were so young, with so much life ahead of them... I quickly poured water into their little dishes as fast as my legs could possibly take me in order to try and save them from wilting away. We had only been gone 2 days so they couldn't be DEAD dead, right? They were just a bit sad and wilted from not being watered for a few days and I could nurse them back to health, right? Besides, google said that they were only supposed to need watering once a week, so maybe they were just being needy and trying to get attention. For those of you on the edge of your seats, waiting with anticipation to hear whether or not Pucci and Mucci survived, I will spare you the anxiety and tell you now that I was successful in bringing them back to life!!
To take my mind off the stressful times we had had in the past few hours, I decided to watch a movie. Namely, Return to Me, which Morgan had said is one of her favorites and involves Italy in some way, so of course I had to watch it. Part of the way through the movie, the main girl's dad made a comment about a painter not being a true painter unless they have painted Piazza Novena (in hopes of encouraging her to go to Italy) - which is the square we visited today which had all of the performing artists!! Super cool. And then, at the end of the movie, there was a scene of her painting in Rome, and she was painting right in front of the Pantheon!! Another place that we were today!! I shared this moment with Morgan as we practically squealed with glee with the thought of standing in the exact places that the movie had referenced and filmed.
I don't know what it is, but I've found recently that I have a thing for going places that are referenced, filmed, described, etc. in books and movies. When I went to Ireland, I remembered a movie I had watched that had scenes in the Dublin airport, the cliffs of Moher, and some other famous places in Ireland. I have pictures with me holding a picture of the scene from the movie while standing in the exact place they were with a stupidly giddy smile on my face. Also, when I was in high school, I happened to read two books right after each other which took place in Romania, so ever since then I have wanted to go. That may or may not have been the main reason why I convinced the fantastic four to go to Romania with me for a weekend. Hehe. I also read a book that took place in Florence.... Do with that what you will.
That's pretty much it for the day. I will leave you with one last parting nugget of information, a spontaneous idea gleaned from one of my random midnight entrepreneurial moments of inspiration. I'm not quite sure how it came about, maybe something to do with discussing tourists and how it seems like there are these places everyone "needs" to go just for the sake of going to them so that they can say that they went to them. As I was getting ready for bed, I turned to Morgan and said something to the effect of "they should have Pokémon cards for tourists. I bet that would be a successful industry". So, there you have it, tune back in on a random day around midnight for some more brilliant entrepreneurial ideas. But you have to promise not to steal them and make millions off of them. I haven't had my ideas patented, but I promise I WILL find you and I WILL come after you if you do.
Now that I have successfully filled your mind with new stories and adventures, and given you some inspiration for your own entrepreneurial endeavors, I will now say farewell and goodnight. Without further ado, here is Photo Dump alla Roma.
Check back in... at some point. I'm not going to set a deadline for myself this time because we both know that that's not going to end well. I don't know when the next one will come, but it will come. Have faith in me.
Until then.
Arrivederci.
