che bella, roma!

monday night, i got back from my favorite trip so far. as usual, i took entirely too many pictures and can't stuff them all into this one post, so i'll divvy it into two parts. on to numero uno!

helen had graciously invited me weeks ago to come to rome for easter weekend, and of course i couldn't pass it up! i'd been to italy once before, in the 2000 jubilee con la mia famiglia. i reckoned that this time, with a gaggle of other 20-somethings, things might be different!

so, on good friday morning, i woke up at 4:45 in the morning to high-tail it to stansted airport (ps, i'm not going to detail EVERY boring thing, but that morning felt so strange that i had to document it here. you're welcome?). as i walked to the tube stop, rather than hearing the usual hum of traffic on mile end road, the air was filled with birds' singing. because the streets were so empty, their voices sounded incredibly loud, and the entire scene became very surreal (made more so by the fact that i was still half-asleep) i'd never seen the neighborhood so empty...i didn't encounter a single person on my walk.

i half-expected to be on the tube alone, but once my train arrived, i was surprised to see that every seat was filled by a miserable-looking person. no one wants to be on the tube at 5 in the morning.

a few minutes later, i caught my express train from liverpool street station, and on the ride to the airport the sky outside looked gorgeous as the sun rose. it was pink and blue with dusty, lavender clouds--it reminded me of a giant easter egg!

the plane ride itself was typical, though there were a couple monks on the flight! i knew i was headed in the right direction.

i arrived in rome at midday. as soon as i stepped out of the airport, i was dizzied by the blast of sunshine and warmth. although it felt vaguely nice, i couldn't help but feel like my skin was curdling under the rays. england, what have you done to me?!

well, i finally got out of the sun as i boarded the bus that runs from ciampino airport to termini station, in central rome. on the very hot ride, we passed an italian trailer park (i had thought that those were limited to the us of a!)--then, without any reason whatsoever, our bus pulled over and idled for about 20 minutes. the italians on the bus started shouting complaints, but the bus still did not move. there was literally no reason why it pulled over. mamma mia!

i took the opportunity to chat with the american fellow sitting next to me. i quickly wished i hadn't, as he had a very loud voice, and kept saying "eye-talian." luckily for me, though, he had a map of the area around termini, which i studied in an effort to figure out how to find my hostel.

we eventually made it to termini, and i determinedly decided to try to find a map whilst not looking like a tourist. i had a feeling rome might be a bit sketchy for a solitary traveling young lady. indeed, as soon as i stepped into the station, some older creep walked by whispering "ciao, bella!" into my face.

well, the station had no maps, so i decided to wander. very luckily, i found the hostel's street--via cavour--and began my hunt for the hostel. dunce that i am, i remembered the number incorrectly. i had remembered it being 210, when in fact it was 201. so, i was on the wrong side of the street, half-desperately looking at the buildings' doorbell signs, when i spotted two euro teens similarly looking up in hopelessness. they looked nice, so i approached and asked if they, too, were looking for victoria hostel. they were, and we began our quest together. one was named yuri, from latvia, and the other guy was from belgium. the belgian hadn't booked anything (for easter weekend in rome, clever), and blithely said that if he couldn't find a place he'd sleep on the street. apparently he had done so in brooklyn! those euros sure think differently!

finally, with a heavy stroke of embarrassment, i realized my mistake and led the boys to the other side of the street. we rang, and the lady in the hostel refused to buzz us in. by this time, i had been in contact with helen and the rest of the group, who were just down the road at the roman forum. i decided to screw the hostel, and travel around the rest of hte day with my backpack (a decision i later regretted, with sore shoulders!). i bid my new euro friends adieu, and at last was reunited with dear helen-cat and her fellow american interns from edinburgh.

monument to vittorio emanuele

in front of the forum, backpack in tow.

the group decided to press on to the fontanta di trevi, stopping first to have a taste of gelato. i got a scrumptious tiramisu cone, and obliterated it in about a minute.

maps of rome were a bit confusing, so it took us a while to find the fountain. once there, we of course tossed in our coins, took pictures, and tried to avoid getting pick-pocketed.

we then headed to the spanish steps, a popular destination! helen and others opted to climb to the top, but i languished at the bottom (too hot!).

the plaza in front of the steps. we def didn't pick a popular weekend to come to rome...

after all that sight-seeing, we were ready for some italian food! so we stopped by the hostel (and i was finally rid of my heavy backpack), which in fact was some italian lady's apartment. she had just put a few bunk beds into a spare room, and that magically made the place into a hostel. haha, not that i'm complaining--it was only 20 euro a night, in the middle of rome!

we headed to a place called "Neumache," or something like that, that had been recommended to the group. dinner was sooo good. i had fettucine all'italiana, since it was basically the only thing on the menu that didn't have meat (good friday, remember!). you could tell that they made the fat pasta noodles themselves, they were squishy and doughy and utterly delish. we also had a nice bottle of the house red wine, and bruschetta with very ripe tomatoes.

after, we walked to the coliseum for stations of the cross--the pope was coming! apparently everyone else in rome knew about it, too, because the place was teeming with people. we got relatively close to the pope's platform, but also had arrived about an hour and a half early. we stood in the pressing crowd, and my legs were started to get pretty tired. once the stations started (and were conducted in italian), helen and i took turns sitting on the ground because our legs couldn't take it anymore.

the event itself was really nice. we were surrounded by people speaking all sorts of languages, there were lots of priests and nuns in the crowd, and the pope spoke to us! hooray! here are pics:

IT'S DA POAP!

we were completely exhausted after it ended, so we hit the hay to get up early for st. peter's and the sistine chapel the next day.

on holy saturday, we took the extremely crowded metro to vatican city, which was even more ridiculously packed. the line to get in was about an hour and a half, so we instead opted to wait for the sistine chapel, which was closing early in the afternoon.

st. peter's square!

once inside the musei vaticani, the journey to the chapel was quite long. being students, our group was too cheap to buy into a tour, audio guides, or paper guides, so we fended for ourselves and made our way to the famous ceilinged room. here are some pictures i snapped along the way

philosophers!

funnily, on the way, i ran into the belgian bloke from the day before. what were the odds of seeing him again, in a throng of thousands of people? weird!

once inside the actual chapel, we weren't allowed to take pictures. but, we did see the famous "creation of adam" painting!

on our way out, i peeped out the window

before heading back to st. peter's to wait in line, we needed food, so helen and i stopped at a little roach coach to split a "ciambella," a giant donut-like pastry that tasted like panettone minus the fruit chunks. we then only had to wait about half an hour before going into the famous basilica.

flowers for the easter mass!

look at the death skeleton with the hourglass! freakin sweet

sorry for the bluriness!

unfortunately, a lot of things were blocked off because of the massive amount of tourists. we were catapulted pretty quickly through the basilica, so i resolved to go back alone on monday, to really take my time. after we made our way through, it was time for another gelato! helen and i went to the famous "old bridge" gelateria, and i got a nutella cone...my favorite of the trip.

enjoying our gelati on a patch of grass. i look stank nasty!

but of course, our day's work wasn't nearly over. we still had stuff to see! we metroed it to the piazza del popolo, another tourist hotspot. it was scenic enough, with a giant obelisk in the center, but the most striking thing about the visit was our experience with a local hustler.

i haven't mentioned yet--rome is full of crooks and bullies! they're all trying to rope you in, and our group was starting to get sick of it. this guy in the piazza, holding wilting flowers, came up to the girls in our group and insisted they take some. despite us YELLING "no! no!" he shoved them into lauren's hands, and walked away saying "regali!" meaning "gifts". we decided no harm done, and were walking away when the guy came back and took vince (the only guy in our group) aside, rubbing his fingers together in the international sign for "PAY UP." that's when we all got mad, and helen (wonder woman that she is) got the brilliant idea to threaten to throw the flowers on the ground. it worked!

the obelisk

piazza!

still huffing about the hustlers, we decided to find the villa borghese, a reportedly pretty park near the piazza. we followed a sign that pointed down a sort of highway, and followed the sidewalk for about 20 minutes...until it dead-ended in the middle of nowhere, on the side of a freeway. we saw a park on the other side of the highway, and surmised it was borghese. i figured we'd be able to run across, jump the median, and make it into the park once there was a break in traffic.

i tried doing so, running across the highway only to discover the median was too high for me to jump (and i was too chicken to try), and ran back. we backtracked, and ended up running across the highway anyways, once the median broke.

the only way into the park was climbing a wall, and i felt badly for the girls who were wearing dresses. let's just say they gave passing cars something to remember! people in the park were staring at what i'm sure they thought were crazy americans, as we sketchily clambered into the park. luckily, it was well worth it! the place was gorgeous, a sort of oasis away from the busy roman streets we'd been traversing.

during our meander around the park, we found the museum of modern art!

taking a break

check out that sculptured statue bum!

after that excursion, we were quite ready to head home and make some dinner plans. two other americans in the hostel invited us to dinner with them in campo dei fiori, a popular little square with restaurants, bars, and the like. we joined them, and planned on maybe hitting the italian clubs afterwards.

we'd heard that clubs were really strict about girls looking...er...presentable, so i wore some high heels just in case. epic mistake. the walk to campo was about 20 minutes, the majority on cobblestones. my heel kept getting stuck in the cracks, and i eventually had to hold onto helen's arm to avoid breaking my ankles. i stumbled about three times on the way there...oh dear!

we picked a restaurant with reasonably priced food, and enjoyed some wine and conversation while listening to the street musicians and watching the passerby. it's fabulous to eat outside in italy--warm and entertaining! i got rich lasagne for dinner, and had a few more glasses of red wine. i can't wait to be legal once i get back to california! wine with every dinner!

after letting our dinner digest for a while (restaurants here don't shove you out once you're done, they let you chill! it's really nice), we got gelato again (i got cioccolato!) and explored some local bars. unfortunately, they weren't too exciting, and were filled with americans and rather questionable locals. helen and i were knackered, anyways, so we went home a bit earlier than the rest of the group (at about midnight).

i knew i couldn't walk in my heels anymore, so we managed to find a (free?) bus to termini station. the walk there was quite interesting. you would think that italian men had never seen bare legs before in their lives. our dresses weren't even short! we tried to laugh off the slimy stares as we made our way home.

termini was different, though. there were a couple of men standing nearby, who would NOT take their eyes off us. i began to get a little nervous, so once the metro arrived i pulled helen into the next carriage over. they followed. we went to the other end of the carriage, and to our relief didn't alight when we did, at cavour. as we made our way out, they just kept looking. fools! helen and i totally could've kicked their butts, though, so no worries.

anyways, i've written quite enough about my first two days in rome. part II will be arriving shortly. ciao for now, amici!

bacio,
lilly