Since we only had a day and a half in Rome, we wanted to do as much as we could the first day. After getting pizza (of course) we decided to head over to the Colosseum first, which was really cool, and we paid to get inside which was a little pricey but worth it. (me and my interiors friend to the left)With our ticket we also got into this huge park that has tons of Roman ruins, including this strange cat cemetery which at first just looks like ruins and then you start to notice 1, 2, 5, 10 and more cats hanging around. We saw very little because it was so big, but we had a nice time outside and got some great views.
From there we continued to walk around and saw the other main sites: Trevi Fountain (we threw in pennies backwards), sat on the Spanish Steps (apparently that's the thing to do), walked by the gigantic Victor Emmanuel monument, and we went to the Pantheon but couldnt go inside because there was some type of service happening. So instead we got gelato! First I tried Macedonia, which was like a fruit mix, and Zuppa de Inglese which kind of tasted like eggnog. By this point we were pretty tired so we headed back to the hostel to change for the night. We had gotten a bunch of flyers for pub crawls at the Colosseum so we decided to do one of those. We got dinner (gnocchi) and then headed back over to the Colosseum. The pub crawl was fun, we met some students from the US (Minnesota I think?) as well as these 2 girls in the Airforce! We also had to take a bus to the second bar, and we found out that paying for public transportation in Rome is optional, you can just get on and get off wherever. So of course we did that without feeling too bad, as they say "when in Rome..."
The next day we headed over to the Vatican. When we got to St. Peters, the line was hundreds and hundreds of people long, wrapping around the whole inner pavilion. St. Peters is free, but you have to spend hours waiting in line to get in. We wanted to go but simply didn't have the time, so I suggested we just walk around the Vatican walls to see if there was anything else interesting. Luckily, we stumbled upon the entrance to the Vatican Museums and Sistine chapel, which we didn't know had a separate entrance, and there was no line so we went right in and the ticket man was very nice and gave us a student discount (most of the tourist attractions in Italy only give student discounts to those in the EU). There is a nice big courtyard right before the entrance after you pay and there are rooms literally full of old sculptures of busts and heads. You walk through room after room of sculpture, paintings, some old some modern, some rooms are very lavish with painted ceilings, and the floors are beautiful marble patterns. I really liked walking through all of the rooms, but some of my roommates didn't appreciate it so much so they were constantly waiting for me.
After a while we finally got to the Sistine chapel which was smaller and much dimmer than I thought, but still pretty amazing. People fill the room, all looking up (I would love to see a picture from above of everyone looking up) and there are various guards standing around to make sure you don't take pictures (of course I did - but you have to be discreet and I just kept hoping I was aiming in the right direction). It felt like a place I could spend hours just looking up, but we were on a time schedule and people were getting antsy so we left. From there we decided to head over to Campo Dei Fiori which is an outdoor market. We grabbed slices of pizza and of course, more gelato (this time I had nutella and straciotella (spelling?) which was a really good compination). We walked around the market which had vegetables, fruits, spices, pastas, flowers, pestos which we got to sample (so so good) and wine/spirits we could also sample - basically anything you wanted was there. It was around 2pm so we had to run back to our hostel to catch a 3:00 train.
We took the train to Florence where we met up with my old roommate Kate who is studing there. Unfortunately it was raining, and continued to rain the WHOLE time we were in Florence (see me and Kate, left), but having Kate there made it all better. She took us around to see some of the sites, including the Duomo which is absolutely beautiful - the colors are amazing and the patterns are great. I really liked it, but we werent able to stay inside. We walked along the water and down the little streets, and saw some more important buildings but I honestly can't remember what they were - it's really weird seeing a city for the first time in the rain. After a while we got hungry so she took us to this great restaurant called Yellow Bar. Apparently they have 2 seatings in Florence - one around 6 or 7, another around 8 or 9. We got in early and got a table right away. I tried a spicy spaghetti with homemade pasta, which was really good. (Oh, chicken was hard to find in Italy - when I asked for it in Rome they said they had a grilled chicken dish and when I asked what came with it they just looked at me and said it's just plain chicken - so not worth 10 euro). It wasn't a huge portion but it was just right - I noticed that I subconsciously slowed down my eating and enjoyed all of it, and it filled me up. From there, we were pretty tired and we didn't feel like checking out the nightlife, which is limited according to Kate so what else to do but... eat more gelato! She took us to a place that I thought had the best gelato where I tried chocolate orange which was really good.
The next day we met up with Kate early to go see the David. It was at this point, when I pulled out my wallet to pay, that I realized the £40 and €50 I had were gone. I was completely shocked and had no idea what happened - but we thought it might have been the girl we met who was traveling by herself and checked out before we were even awake. So that kind of sucked, but everyone was surpised how calm I was, but there was nothing I could do so I didn't want to dwell on it. From then on I felt like I shouldn't spend any money which kind of put a damper on the experience, but I was able to take out more cash and just keep going. So we finally got into the David which was cool - it's very big and just as amazing in real life. Again, pictures were illegal but I was going to take them anyway - until my camera died right as I was about to take a picture. But I walked around it a couple times and just enjoyed it without a camera. There are several other rooms in the museum which we walked through, but clearly the main attraction is David. After grabbing a quick pizza and pasta lunch we walked through one of the main markets and did some haggling. There are lots of stands and you're supposed to talk them down. Good thing Kate was there to help us out. After that we took a bus up to a place which I think is called San Michelangelo? or maybe Santa ? Not sure but it's a place on a hill that has an amazing view of the city - so we heard, but it was still pouring and hazy out so all we saw pretty much was... white. So I'm sure Florence is beautiful but I haven't really seen it! After that we were feeling pretty wet and hungry so we found a restaurant where I tried this Florentine dish that is basically like a minestrone soup, without the beans, with bread in it. It kind of looks like mush but it tasted pretty good.
By this point it was almost 6 so we headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff. We caught a shuttle bus to the airport and made it back to London by midnight and back to our flat by 1:30am.
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