The European Extravaganza!

When in Rome...

We read an article in the free newspaper here at the hostel that said that the increased heat (approximately 2.5 degrees Celsius) this year in the Mediterranean is expected to keep tourist numbers low in Rome... Well, we took the heat, but the amount of sun our skin has absorbed today has adled our brains quite a bit and destroyed our short-term memory. Although we got plenty of sleep last night, it feels like we have not slept for days. I guess that traveling to 4 cities in as many days will do that to you (5 cities if you count Innsbruck... which we choose not to).

We remember getting to the train station in Florence about 25 minutes before ours was scheduled to depart. The problem was that they don't like to post the platform number until approximately 3 minutes before the train leaves (or in some cases, 3 minutes after the train was supposed to have left). Our Italian vocabulary is expanding at an alarming pace, and we were able to discern that several other Eurostar Italia trains were delayed by about 35 minutes, so we feared that this might also be true of our train to Rome. Thankfully, we found out the platform of our train with 2 minutes to go, and Steph used her BBC Italian language lessons to ask where car 9 would appear on the platform.

Once on the train, we fell asleep to the symphony of cell phone rings. For some reason the Italians really like techno-songs or muzak versions of classical oeuvres. When we got into Rome Termini, we made our way to our hostel, the Beehive, which is fabulous. The place is really clean, and our dorm even has a ceiling fan to help stave off the hot Italian sun. It is really more like a hotel (with a little art gallery in it! and a cat!), and we certainly won't mind spending some extra siesta time here (and, because it can't be said enough: Take that, Wombats!). One really nice thing about the hostel is they provided us with a free map of the city and also a recommendation guide of places to eat and things to see. After perusing through that for a little bit, we decided to get a move on and start working our way through the itinerary for the day.

The American girls we had met at YoHo (in Salzburg) had told us that above all else we should take the bus while in Rome. However, we don't take advice well (especially from people who eat Pringle sandwiches and survive on Nutella), so we decided that the best way for us to get a feel for the city was to walk it. We've been building up quite a tolerance to long distances, and we figured we could handle it. As it was noon, just a few minutes outside, we realized that it was going to be very hot, but we had the whole afternoon ahead of us and just wandered along at a lazy pace. Also, we are super backpackers who don't let weather get in the way: rain or snow, hot or cold... we'll withstand it all, and have fun while doing it. Take that, American postal service! And the weather! We have realized that traveling through the city is just as enjoyable as seeing the destinations, so why be so worried about getting directly to point A? We just look at the map, ascertain the general direction we should be heading for, and walk. Take that, map!

One of the results of our laissez-faire navigational attitude is that instead of making it directly to the Spanish Steps as we had planned, we actually stumbled across the Trevi Fountain (stop 2 on our planned route)! We took some pictures, filled our water bottles (not in the actual fountain, of course), and obviously did the requisite coin toss over the left shoulder so that we may some day return to Rome. It was here that we really faced our first rush of tourists; although they were in Florence, nothing ever felt overrun by them, but they were literally crawling around the Trevi Fountain.

We then made our way to the Spanish Steps, where Steph began to get angry at the large number of tourists who were just sittting on the steps, and were therefore ruining her photos. Even postcards of the thing have tourists on them! This was also our firs encounter with the fountain police (who can be identified from the regular police, as they wear white instead of blue). One lady had the gall to stick her feet into the fountain (a huge no-no!) and got a whistle blown at her. She scooped her shoes up and skulked of in shame. I remarked that some tourists seem to be taking the whole "The fountains have clean water" a little too far, as the extent that people go to fill their water bottles is a little ridiculous... and yet.

Next stop was the Pantheon. We took a short break from the heat by perusing some shops. In one we found the best shirt which said on the front "Don't take a diet", and on the back said "Believe in Jesus!". Another great one had the Virgin Mary on the front and it said "My son is fabulous!". If they weren't so expensive, Steph would have bought them because offensive shirts are always great. It is up for debate as to whether she then would have worn one to the Vatican tomorrow.

It took us a bit to find the Pantheon because the map we were given from the hostel doesn't have every street listed on it (strangely it is missing the streets that have establishments that they recommend for gelato and food...). We therefore had to rely on the tourist signs placed about the city. The Panthenon is really spectacular to behold from the outside (we understand why invaders chose not to burn it down), but the inside is marred by the reconstruction that is going on. One side was covered in scaffolding which really detracted from the whole experience.

After this, it was off to the Piazza Navona. It seems to be the Mont Martre of Rome as it is filled with cafes and artists. The fountain police caught a few more people sticking their feet into the fountain, and as a means of exacting revenge, forced them to put their wet feet into their shoes rather than letting them dry first. We looked at the cafes and contemplated getting gelato right there, but we knew the telltale signs of poor quality gelato. First, anything extremely brightly coloured means lots of artificial additives, and the pistaccio was electric green... certainly not seen in nature. They did at least have the metal tubs, rather than plastic, but we decided to find a different, less expensive, place. As we were leaving, we heard a large commotion as a group of Americans tried to figure out why the woman at the counter would not accept their money. They couldn't understand why she kept saying it was no good. Of course, it turns out that they were trying to pay the 10 euro bill with 10 british pounds. Nice. One guy got really frustrated, and asked her if she wouldn't just take American money instead. Dick!

We ended up finding cheaper and really good gelato just outside of the piazza. We tried some of the local speciality flavour which is custard mixed with marsala wine. Yum!

We began looking for a place to eat dinner, as we were feeling like splurging for a real meal having spent no money all day (except on ice cream). Unfortunately, it was only 5 pm, and most restaurants here don't open until 6ish. So we began to wander back to the hostel. Again, without the aid of the map, we ended up stumbling onto the Imperial Forums, in the ancient part of the city. We hadn't really planned to ever see these, but since they were there (or rather, since we were there) we wandered through and took some pictures. We ended up getting kicked out because they closed at 6, and it was about 6:30 pm at this point, but we hadn't seen any signs from the area we had entered from. Ah well! As we made our way up the street, we realized the Roman Forums were across from us and the Colliseum was peeking out from the base of the street. Although we were tempted to check them out, we figured we did not want to ruin Wednesday's itinerary. After all, if we did everything we had planned for two days in one, what would we do with ourselves? The schedule would not stand it!

After spending some more time people watching, waiting for the city to cool as we planned our route home, we set off once more. Nothing really interesting happened, although both of us are rather disappointed in Italian shoes so far. If your frickin' country is in the shape of a boot, you'd think they would design some nice ones, but no!

We eventually did find a place to eat dinner (I got to have real vegetables! That were green!), just around the corner from our hostel. It is only 10:15 pm, but we are completely exhausted, so it is off to bed. We have a big day ahead of us (hopefully we won't see the Pope) in Vatican City, which opens at 8:30 and is at the complete opposite end of Rome. We were probably only 20 minutes away by foot today, when we were at Piazza Navona, but we will splurge tomorrow and get a bus card.

posted by Laura @ 7:42 pm