La Dolce Vita: Roman Holiday

Hello! I am back safe and sound from Rome and had an absolutely amazing time! It was even more amazing than I remember it and I appreciated it more a second time as I was able to see more sites and spend more time at them. My roommates and I were up at 5am on Saturday because we had to be at the buses at 6am, it was an early morning but definitely worth it! We arrived at our hotel around 9am, checked in, put our luggage in our rooms, and immediately went back downstairs to start our day. As I was walking around Rome I could immediately see the differences between Rome and Florence; Rome definitely has more of a "city feel" and it is much larger than Florence. It is very easy to walk everywhere you need to go in Florence; this is something that I love about it. We went to all the "typical" tourist places such as the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and the Colosseum on the first day and I could have easily stayed at each one of these places for hours on end. All of the detail in Roman architecture is simply breathtaking. I was unable to visit the Pantheon on my first trip to Rome and I am so grateful I got to see it this time; it is a must see if you ever go to Rome! As my teacher was telling us about the architecture and history of the Pantheon, I was trying to wrap my head around the thought of the people designing and building it thousands and thousands of years ago but it is unfathomable to me. I am still in awe. We ended the first day at the Colosseum (not a bad way to end the day, right?), and we had the rest of the afternoon/evening to ourselves. Our teachers gave us each a bus ticket so that we would be able to get back to our hotel...and this is where the adventure began...

We followed the instructions on how to get to the bus stop and we were instructed to take either bus #40 or #64 (to which our teacher warned us that it is the most pick-pocketed bus in Rome) and it would to take us to the main train station, and our hotel would be about a two minute walk from the train station. As we were walking up to the bus station we see bus #40 driving away so we waited for #64 to come around and we got on. Now, in Italy, when you have a bus ticket you MUST get them stamped by the machine on the bus; this puts an expiration time on your ticket so that people don't use the same ticket for days, weeks, etc. Officials sometimes get on random buses and check "random" people's tickets to make sure they stamped it. So, we all handed our tickets to the roommate that was closest to the machine so she could stamp them all. She came back, said she stamped them all, and put them in her bag. Well, at the next stop an official got on the bus and came right up to us and asked for our tickets. She handed him all the tickets and come to find out, only five out of the seven tickets had actually gotten stamped, the other two had not fully gone through. He asked to see two people's passports so two of my roommates took out copies of their passports and gave them to him; and then he told us we had to get off at the next stop. We got off and he was explaining that it is a $100 fine for each ticket that is not stamped and we tried to explain that someone tried to stamp them but did it didn't go through but is English wasn't very good and most of us know very little Italian. I'm pretty sure he could tell that we were all freaking out so I'm pretty sure he just did not want to deal with us so he ended up lowering the fine to $50 total. Problem solved? Not quite. Now we are lost in Rome, no idea where we are, with no bus ticket, and no idea how to get back to our hotel. Great situation to figure out who does well under pressure and who does not. A couple of my roommates freaked out (with good reason), but the rest of us decided we did not have time to freak out and just had to figure it out (and soon) because it was getting dark. We took out our maps to see if we were in walking distance to our hotel...too bad the street we were on was not clearly visible on the map; and if you have even been to Italy, you know that everything is crammed very close together so it can be difficult to distinguish side streets on a map. So we just started walking to see if we could find a main street that would be easier to find on the map. As we're walking, I see these huge pillars that look oddly familiar but I didn't want to say anything until we got closer and knew for sure where we were. We ended up right in the middle of St. Peter's Square. I immediately started laughing because I thought it was hysterical that we accidentally ended up in Vatican City right in the middle of St. Peter's Square; however, most of my roommates did not find it as amusing. I took out my map and found Vatican City then I looked for the street our hotel was on "Via Cavor"...yep, they were on complete opposite side of the map. We obviously realized that it would take forever to walk back and far too expensive to get a taxi back so our only option was to get more bus tickets and get back on the bus. All of the tobacco shops here sell bus tickets, and there are a lot of tobacco shops so it was not too hard to find one. We bought our tickets, went to the nearest bus station, waited for the #64 bus, and we were soon on our way back to our hotel. As soon as we got on the bus we each stamped our own ticket and double checked that they were all stamped correctly. I have never been in a more crowded, confined space than the #64 bus in Rome, Italy. It was so overcrowded with people (some who clearly had not showered for a few days), so I stood in the same spot with a death grip on my purse because like our teacher warned us, it is the most pick-pocketed bus in Rome...they also told us that older men tend to get very "friendly" on this bus and not to be afraid to "elbow" someone...very reassuring. Luckily I did not have any such encounter. I over heard the couple next to me talking in Spanish saying that they needed to get off at the main train station and that it was the next stop; I told my roommates to get off at the next stop so we all got off and asked a police officer where "Via Cavor" is and he pointed to the next street over. Finally, we saw our hotel and I have never been so happy to see something in my entire life! We were all so relieved yet so exhausted that we got a quick dinner and then went to bed, as we had to be up at 6am the following morning.

Can you guess where we went with our school on Sunday? Yep, St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican; but no one else in our group can say they saw it at night with the Christmas tree all lit up (ahh, the silver lining). Again, if you are ever in Rome, these two places are a must see! They are both so gorgeous and breathtaking, I could have stayed at each place for hours just admiring the paintings on the ceiling and walls. I cannot explain how mesmerizing it all is, but please go if you ever have the opportunity (but be sure to get there before it opens and just wait in line, it will be well worth it). It was an incredible weekend filled with fun adventures, yummy food, and of course some of the most famous and beautiful sites in the world. I love Rome, but it made me realize how happy I am to live in Florence and how much I love it here!