bella roma

omg its june already!! even tho its a bit delayed, this post is actually about my trip to rome like 2 weeks ago. exams start tomorrow, so im just procrastinating right now. so during our 4-day weekend, katherine, rachel v, rachel h, and i went to rome. we actually skipped all of our wednesday classes to catch the 5h15 train from Nice. i slept like 1 hour that night, but its okay cuz i caught up a little on the non-stop trenitalia ride from ventimiglia to rome. trenitalia may be cheaper than sncf (french trains), but theyre really old, loud, stuffy, and have no ac. that ride probably started our "allergies" in rome. we arrived in termini station in rome around 14h, where we purchased our retour tickets. then, we headed over to our hostel, which was like 5 minutes away. it wasnt the fun-est hostel, but we had our own room and bathroom, so i was happy. and the beds and pillows were a lot better than mine in my homestay. after settling in, we left to grab dinner and do a little evening sightseeing. on our way to the Trevi fountain, we saw like 5 piazzas and fountains (rome is full of them). and we accidentally stumbled upon the Spanish steps too, which was filled with tourists, just like every other monument in rome. at the Trevi fountain, we each threw a coin in over our shoulder, which means we're going to return to rome some day. then we headed back to the hostel and called it a night at like 10 PM. i slept for like 11 hours that night and the next day, we spent sightseeing in the ancient city. we went into the colosseum, roman forum, palatine hill...dont remember the rest. all i remember was that the rome was really hot and dusty, but the amazing pasta and parmesean made up for it. we ate so well that weekend. we returned later that night for the colosseum pub crawl, where we met some awesome ppl (mostly americans) and had an amazing night in rome.

the next day, we saw the pantheon and some other monuments, mistakenly went to the hugest museum ever, which kinda killed the mood cuz it never ended. but not complaining, i still prefer that to studying for exams in nice. we headed over across the river to Trastevere for gelato and dinner (so cheap! and amazing food!!). it was the cutest, most authentic-Roman part of town. later in the evening, we headed over to campo di fiori, skipped the sunked ship, which couldve been fun, then headed over to sloppy sam's, where we got free drinks (yay!!). but they all closed early, so at 2 AM, we went clubbing in Testaccio to get our "italian" experience. lets just say it was a cultural experience. the following morning, we made it to breakfast, then headed over a cross to river again to Vatican city, where we spent hours at St. Peter's Basilica (love it)!! we attended mass in italian, went up the tower for free, grace a katherine's friend, the super-cute italian basilica-security guy. then, in the afternoon, we headed over to vatican city museum where there the line was supershort, cuz everyone thinks they have to get in line at 6h30 to make it before the crowds. props to hostelguy for that tip. saw the sistine chapel and stuff, took a long late-lunch break at the cafeteria, where everything was overpriced, then headed back to the vatican museum. we were there until closing, and it was like empty by 4 PM. a herd of young priests ran by, which caught me by surprise cuz i thought all priests were old. one of the touristy giftshops even sold a calendar of "sexy priests" as coche called it. anyway, we bought all of our souvenirs that evening, then had a super-long, but amazing dinner near our hostel. the waiter was in love w/rach v, got us special-off-the-menu-best-tiramisu-ever when they ran out (free for rach!) the house chardonnay frizzante was equally amazing (and only 6 Euro!) that we ended up having 2L. that night, just chilling w/the girls, ended up being the best night in roma. the next morning, we checked out of the hostel, stopped by the grocery store where we got food for the trip home and Italian sparkling wine, which is cheap enough just cuz its not Champagne, which is so overpriced, too bad we dont have good non-champagne sparkling wine in France. the entire ride to Genoa, rach v and i were eating 5 minutes. we probably confirmed our carmates', the Italian couple's suppositions that Americans are fatasses, but they were nice. We didnt have time to look around genoa, but enough to get some amazing fast-food pizza and fried mozzarella balls, cuz we had to hop on our train to ventimiglia. after we transferred to sncf (w/AC!!), a ton of people (lotsa british ppl) hopped on at monaco, cuz it was the last day of the Grand Prix (also the last day of the Cannes film fest). and i realized all i did the whole day was eat [a lot] and bum around on a train. getting away for the weekend was amazing, as was the city itself. i miss traveling and cant believe i only have a week left in Nice!!