Shay's Italia Adventures: February 2011

Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao from Italia!! Sorry it's been ten years since my last blog post. Two weeks ago we spent the weekend in Torino again with people in the group and took it easy since we are about to travel for the next 4ish weekends. So anyways we left for Rome last Thursday and luckily they allowed me on the airplane without a passport (thank you Blue Panorama Express). So we get to Rome and meet up with the other five people in our group, grab a quick kebab and head out! We explored different areas of the city and kept it pretty relaxed as we had to get up early to conquer Rome the next day. Our tour guide once again was Rick Steves. This man seriously knows how to write one mean travel guide of Italian cities and lays out the days for you PERFECTLY!

We woke up Friday, had our free cap and pastry and headed out. We purchased Roma Passes (which include free metro and bus for three days, entrance for free into 2 tourist locations, and discounts on other main attractions. An amazing deal!!) We headed straight to St. Peter's Basilica and it was unreal. We waited in line for about an hour but it was completely worth it. Everything in Rome left me literally speechless. I felt so blessed to be able to see all these amazing and ancient monuments. This is such incredible history in this city, you can't even believe it. We climbed to the top and after almost having a panic attack from it being super cramped, saw an amazing view of all of Rome. After St. Peters we headed to check out the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel. Once again, Jessica took about thirty thousand illegal pics. The chapel was amazing and after spending all day at just these two locations we were exhausted and headed back to our hostel (which was also very clean and nice as well). We all got fresh and headed to dinner. We found this little Italian spot and had molto vino. Jessica and I shared the calamari and a shrimp dish, and for an appetizer we all got to try the typical roman pasta. It was an incredible meal and before we went out for the night we wanted to do a little more exploring. We went to the Spanish Steps (overrated in my opinion) and the Trevi Fountain. While we were at the fountain, two couples got engaged in a matter of like 30 minutes....TALK ABOUT CLICHE. We had a few drinks and headed out! We found a couple really fun bars and passed the Colosseum for the first time on the bus to the clubs. What a sight!! After going to a few places we went home to get a few hours of sleep before our next big day.

Saturday, once again after our free cap and pastry, we hit the ground running and headed straight to McDonalds and then the Colosseum. We spent a few hours there because honestly people, this is straight up gladiator status (and yes we did rent the movie immediately upon returning to Torino. I love thee Russell Crowe). I think the Colosseum was one of my favorite sights to see in Rome. You have seen it in movies and in pictures but none of that does it justice. PS the whole time we were in Rome it was like 60 and definitely T-SHIRT TIIIIIMMMMMEEEEEEE. After seeing the Colo we got lunch and went to the Roman Forum/Palentine Hill. That was also so full of history. It was amazing to think that this area was where all the politics/speeches/parades/everything went down. We saw where Caesar was cremated, among with countless other famous structures/statues/landmarks. Later we went to the Pantheon (right before it closed) and took a few pics and looked around real fast. The first two kings of Italy were buried there along with Rafael. It is so awesome to see things that you have seen only pictures of in real life! After playing on of my roommates Sartaj's Indian torture games outside the Pantheon, we headed back to get ready for a night out. We went out to a few bars right by the river and eventually made our way home once again.

Our last day we were sad, as half of our group left but the five of us remained, determined to get blessed by the POPE, yes THE POPE. It was about half hour long in total and he started with a prayer in Latin I believe and then in Italian. Every time he would say it in a different language people from that country would cheer and wave their flags. Such a cool experience and definitely once in a life time. From there we got another incredible roman lunch complete with their traditional pasta and headed for the Catacombs. They were a little challenging to get to but after about 40 minutes we found the area and it was extremely rustic. We had caps in a small brick cafe when suddenly a heard of a thousand sheep (fish as Jess likes to call them) come running down the road (which was apparently the first Roman highway dating back to 300 BC.) We captured this in a video and then headed to the Catacombs which were unfortunately closed. Finally after heading back to the city center we checked out the National Museum of Rome which had a couple very famous sculptures. We were so exhausted and finally had a nice dinner and went to bed early to leave Monday morning. Thankfully I was let back on the plane and got back home to Torino safe and sound. Rome was the best trip I have been on thus far. We will see how it compares to Venice and Verona which I leave for in about 12 hours :) Absolutely can't wait!!! I will blog sooner next time to tell you all about Venice and Verona. Until we meet again...Ciao ragazzi!

**More pics to come, our internet is none existent....