The Big Picture of Rome

6 buses and two planes later, I am safe after my trip to Rome. This trip was cheap for a reason—traveling was not the most direct route. The only time we actually used public transportation however, was to and from Rome, once we were there, map in hand, we walked everywhere.

I’ve decided I like hostels—a lot actually. They are inexpensive, welcoming, and you get to meet a multitude of people. Lindsey, Terese, and I slept in an 8 person mixed room. Every night all the beds were occupied, and we never saw the same people for more than 2 nights. I thoroughly enjoyed coming “home” exhausted, and hearing about everyone else’s travels. The conversations in the room most nights would be in Spanish, which was interesting. Though everyone knew English, Spanish was many of the other travelers’ first languages, so lucky me; I still got to practice my Spanish.

I never however, got to use my superb Italian skills. I ever had a hand written dictionary of 20 useful phrases that I thought I should know. Everyone however, knows English there, or if I had to, I would resort to Spanish as a second option. I was blown away at how easy it was to spend the weekend in Rome. The city was incredibly easy to navigate, our hostel was in a prime location, walking distance from every sight we wanted to see, and we didn’t have to worry about a language barrier, as there was none. Tours for all the museums could be given in English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese or Korean. On the topic of the overall museums, nearly everything was free. It was “European Days of Patrimony” and the last Sunday of the month, which apparently translated into all admissions being free (which the exception of the Sistine Chapel, which god forbid, I had to cough up 8 Euros for.

The food of course, as anticipated was phenomenal. I love Italian food. I really was struggling to ever be hungry, as it was too hard to resist eating all the wonderful food. We ate gelato on the Spanish steps. Were serenaded outside the Trevi Fountain while enjoying our three course meal. Devoured pizza and calzones at an outdoor patio on a side street. Really, we quite enjoyed the Italian diet.