ROMA (it's about time!)

I ended my semester abroad on a good note with what was by far the best trip of the semester! One of my best friends, Colleen, her boyfriend Phil, and his best friend Mark met me in Rome on May 21st.

I left Alicante on the May 20th and after a tearful bus ride to the airport I snapped out of my sadness and instead started looking forward to this last trip! Colleen and I had been planning this trip since last May so I really couldn't believe it was finally here!

My flight to Rome was supposed to include an overnight layover in the Liverpool airport, but my awesome dad sprung for a hotel room for me last minute so I didn't have to sleep at the airport alone. It was great! I stayed at the airport hotel that was right across the street. I checked in and went right to sleep and enjoyed the free breakfast in the morning. I caught my flight to Rome without a hitch and when I arrived in the Ciampino airport I began what was supposed to be my 15 minute journey to the hostel. I was told by both the bus driver and the information desk which bus to get on. I followed their instructions and for the first time in my 5 month adventure abroad I got completely, miserably, hopelessly LOST! The bus I was told to get on dropped me off at a random bus station in the middle of no where, where almost no one spoke English. I got some help from the extremely nice police officers but there was only so much they could do with the language barrier. Finally they got me to a bus stop. The bus ended up not being the right one (AGAIN) but the bus driver must have felt sorry for me because he went off of his route to get me where I needed to go and DIDN'T EVEN CHARGE ME (gotta love having restored faith in humanity!) Finally, after 2 and a half hours of being lost, I found the hostel. All of this wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for my miserable baggage situation. I sent my huge rolling suitcase home with my parents, thinking that my big back pack would comfortably fit all of my stuff. My over-optimistic mindset combined with Ryanair baggage weight restrictions led me to have one 40 pound checked bag and one 20 pound carry on. The only bag I had to use as a carry on was another backpack, so I was carrying an awkward 60 pounds of added weight the entire time I was lost... And it was hot! It was the closest I had come to breaking down and completely losing it all semester! When I got to the hostel I expected to find an annoyed and worried group of friends... I had told Phil if I wasn't there by 11:30am that I had probably been kidnapped by gypsies.. and by the time I got there it was almost 2:00! Luckily they had trouble getting the the hostel also and ended up getting there 20 minutes after I did. Everything worked out perfectly in the end. 

For our first night we were all pretty exhausted so we went to the Trevi Fountain first and grabbed dinner. This is when I knew this trip was going to be perfect. We had the best first meal in Italy and everyone in the group was willing to try everything ... We started what would become our nightly routine - get a bottle of wine and then pass everyone a taste of whatever dish we ordered. We all got something different and everyone's meals were amazing! Afterwards we wandered over to the Colosseum (beautiful at night!) and caught the metro back to the hostel so we could get a good nights sleep and everyone else could get over their jet lag.

Me, Mark, Phil and Colleen after we tossed in our coins!

beautiful!

 The next day we did the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon. The Coliseum was just as impressive as I remembered!

The Roman Forum

We got lucky with the Pantheon because right after we walked out, they stopped letting people in because it was closing for a private event! 

in front of the pantheon

the pantheon

us and our server from the restaurant!

 After the pantheon we set out to find a restaurant that Phils friend had recommended. She had studied in Rome and ate at this place 4 times a week and became friends with the servers. She sent Phil a picture with them and he printed it out. The directions she gave us were extremely confusing but after an hour of search and almost giving up, we found it! Phil gave the picture to the server and it was so awesome seeing his face lit up - absolutely priceless and so worth the search! All the servers just had the biggest smile on their faces and couldn't believe we came all the way to Rome and found their restaurant. They brought us out a round of champagne to celebrate. As we enjoyed our meal in the street under the canopy, an unexpected thunderstorm started dumping on us. We were lucky to be under cover - there are few things I love more than watching a good thunderstorm under a porch... It was awesome. The rain stopped just as we finished our meal (this was the trend for the whole weekend, so here's a shoutout to mother nature for that!)

After dinner we headed back to the hostel. Phil and Mark went out to get some bottles of wine and instead found the only bar open in our little town of Ciampino - Buddha Bar. Colleen and I had already changed into our pajamas but were convinced by the boys to just go as we were. We headed across the street and posted up at a table outside. Luckily we were the only ones there so we had no one to impress. After a few rounds of drinks we were joined by a group of 8 people who pulled up tables near us. We got talking and one of the guys asked me how I feel about Ryanair. I thought it was a random question but I obviously was honest and gave him 2 thumbs way down and said "it SUCKS!" this is when he informed me that they were all pilots or flight attendants for Ryanair.... oopsies! We got a huge laugh about that and luckily he didn't take offense and said "don't worry, we hate it too!" Next thing you know we were at the bar until 3 am drinking and talking to a bunch of Ryanair employees. It was the most awesome and random thing ever and ended up being one of the greatest nights of the trip.

me and leen with the ryanair flight attendants and pilots!

me and the boys enjoying our drinks at buddha bar

The next day we went to Trastavere, a small area in Rome with really narrow streets and lots of cute little shops. That afternoon we went to the Vatican, which was just as awesome as I had remembered. Afterwards we had dinner and made our way to the Spanish steps as the sun was starting to go down... Absolutely perfect! We spent that night drinking wine and watching youtube videos for hours in the hostel.

delicious lunch in trastavere - i got carbonara (traditional roman dish)

Me and leen at the Vatican

climbing the spanish steps

the storm cleared just in time for some perfect pictures!

in piazza de espagna

gelato on our last day in rome

Rome was so much better the second time around. I went in high school but didn't like it very much because it rained the whole time and was at the end of my trip. This was the perfect group to travel with and the good weather helped make it an awesome trip this time around! Ill never get over the Trevi Fountain... So beautiful!


Next stop... Greece!