Alright... now to my adventures in Rome! Rome was the international excursion included in my exchange program with API. So the only thing we had to pay for was our lunches/dinners and anything we wanted to buy for souvenirs. It was really nice to have everything else planned and paid for!
waiting int he airport:
Our flight was suppose to leave BCN at 1140, but unfortunately it was delayed due to some stupid strike going on in France, and therefore our flight could not leave as we have to cross France's airspace on our way to Italy. LAMEEEE. Fortunately our flight was NOT cancelled, and was just delayed for about an hour/hour an a half. So we didnt end up leaving until about 130ish. We flew with AlItalia, who I will NEVER fly with again! I have never feared for my own life so much than my 2 flights with them (there AND back)... omg. First of all there was a lot of turbulence, and ok so maybe that's not the pilots fault, but landing was a whole other issue, the plane kept swinging side to side as it was landing and I honestly thought i was going to die, and began to freak out a bit with my hands covering my face and shaking my head.... NOT FUN. anywho, long story short we made it alive, just late.
We were suppose to have a bus tour at 3pm, but unfortunately that was going to have to be rescheduled because we didnt arrive at our hotel until about 330pm. So we rescheduled our bus tour for 5pm. The only downside of this is that the majority of our bus tour would be in the dark instead of in the day. Once we landed, we had a couch bus take us to our hotel. It took about 50 min to drive from the Leonardi Da Vinci airport to the downtown core where our hotel was. As we got closer to the downtown core, we experienced Italian traffic at its finest. Basically italian drivers dont really obey street signs they're more like decorations than anything. As we headed to our hotel we passed the Colosseum and I was able to get a glimpse of it as we drove by!!! It was such an incredible and epic thing to see, as it's HUGEEE, like pictures do not do this thing justice.
Once we arrived to our hotel we had some time to get checked in, and go grab some food before our bus tour. So myself, Andrew, Anne, Lexi and Idin went on a mission to get our first taste of Italian pizza! Now in Barcelona, it's hard to find stores that just sell pizza, or stores that sell good pizza, but in Italy, it's kind of like Tim Horton's where they are on every street corner! So after evaluating a couple options we decided on one. Now the interesting thing in Italy about pizza is that there is not a set price for a slice, they price a slice (haha that rhymed) by its weight! I got a pizza that had beef and potato slices on it, and it was delicious!! They had all kinds of flavours and with all kinds of toppings.
Once we had our fill of pizza we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the group to go do our bus tour. But because it was rush hour it took our group like 30 minutes just to be able to find a spot for the bus to meet us, and for it to navigate through traffic. This was a bit frustrating because we wanted to do our bus tour so our day didnt feel completely wasted with our flight being delayed and such. FINALLY we got on our bus tour, and we had a tour guide, Olga (originally from Russia, but has been living in Rome for over 10 years) give us a very in depth and informative tour of Rome. Though our tour was done at night, it gave a completely different perspective and feeling about the city of Rome. It was beautiful because all the major monuments and areas of the city were lit up. We saw everything from the Colosseum, to the Vatican, the Mouth of Truth, the Travastere area, Emmanuel Monument, Castle D'Angelo etc etc.
At the end of the tour we came back to the hotel and got ready to go out for dinner! I went out to dinner with a bunch of my friends from API. We decided to go to the Travastere area to find a nice authentic restaurant to feast on pasta and italian wine of course! We took the metro (subway) from our hotel to a station near the Travastere area and then walked the rest of the way. The metro however was probably the SKETCHIEST thing of life. First of all it's disgusting, and dirty and COVERED in graffiti. This was the one thing I didnt like about Rome was its metro and how dirty the city is (as there is graffiti everywhere - which is a shame). Now everyone appreciates Barcelona that much more as it's impeccably clean and its metro is state of the art awesome.
We found a restaurant that had relatively good prices for food, and we sat outside where there had empty old fashioned wine bottles hanging, with lights, and greenery around us. It was a beautiful place to eat and just relax. I ordered a liter (? maybe... could have been more..) of house red wine with my friends Holly and Darcey which only cost 7 euro, and provided us each with 3.5 glasses of wine.
The wine was delicious. For a started I ordered bruchetta, which came on a large piece of lightly toasted white bread, with fresh cut tomatoes, covered in italian olive oil and some fresh herbs. it was the best bruchetta I think ive ever had. For my main dish I had spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and spicy hot peppers. Once again the BEST pasta I think ive ever had, it looked plain, but the flavour was incredible. I never wanted it to end haha, and paired with the wine... ugh, best meal ever.
After dinner (a little tipsy from the delicious wine) we decided to venture to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night. On the way we stopped at the Mouth of Truth to check it out. The Mouth of Truth is a large piece of stone that has a face on it, with an open mouth. You're suppose to put your hand in it and if you are a bad person who lies a lot it's suppose to bite off your hand lol. Unfortunately it was closed because we didnt finish dinner until 1130/12... but it was still cool to see. We walked onwards to the Trevi Fountain, but of course on the way had to get our first taste of italian gelato. I got a stratachella (spelling?? sorry Lauren!!) flavour, which is vanilla and chocolate piece in it. It was to die for, Ive had gelato in Barcelona, but NOTHING compares to the gelato in Italy.
After devouring our gelato we found the Trevi Fountain around 1am. Now the Trevi Fountain is a major tourist attraction, and still at 1am there were still alot of people around it. The fountain is HUGE, and incredibly detailed, and at night it's spectacular, it has lights shining on it, and with the crystal clear blue water it's beautiful. My friends and I took some pictures infront of it and then did the ceremonious coin toss into the fountain while making a wish. And no im not going to tell you what i wished for because then it won't come true :P
After seeing the Fountain we headed back to our hotel, I walked home with Holly, Darcey and Phil. Even the walk home back to the hotel was amazing because there are so many things you come across that you dont even know what they are but are still incredible to see. Onto day 2...
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