Nutella should be its own food group

So what did the almost-classics minor do when she went to Italy?

Went to Rome, obviously.

But seriously. You don't study abroad in Italy and not go to Rome. That's like going to Anchor Bar and not eating wings. Unthinkable. But, because everyone who studies abroad in Florence goes to Rome, you run into the problem of finding someone who actually wants to do the same things as you in Rome and who has the same weekend open for it that you do. Because Rome is not a hop, skip, and a jump away. It's a tedious four hour train ride away, and it's so sprawling you can't expect to take it all in during a day-trip.

So what did I do? I found a like-minded person with the same weekend free and we went for it!



The she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus etched on a wall by the Tiber river.

Now, my school over here (Lorenzo de Medici) actually has a campus in Rome, meaning I could've studied there instead of Florence. So while there, I couldn't help but compare everything to Florence to see if I had made the right decision. The answer was a resounding yes, yes indeed Florence was the better option. Everything you want to see in Florence (which the exception of obvious, non-city related attractions like the Chianti wine region) and located in a helpful one mile radius spiraling out from the duomo. Rome, on the other hand, is not so helpfully arranged. Even a trek to the Trevi Fountain from the nearest subway spot to the Trevi fountain took us a good ten minutes. I'm already commuting next fall, I didn't need it in the spring. So overall, though Rome was beautiful and rich in its own right, I'm glad Florence is my home base.

Staying in Rome also merited my first hostel experience. I booked the cheapest one possible, and fully expected to wake up with rats in my bed. But the Peter Pan Hostel (yes, I know) was surprisingly nice, despite the fact that it was a twenty minute commute by bus and train to the city center. But really sealed the deal for me was the hostel's pet pig and puppy! They would play together in the morning, and it was adorable.




I miss my puppy.


The grounds of the hostel.


The Ethiopian restaurant we ate at. I know, this pictures are way out of order.


Ethiopian food. Don't worry, we ate pizza the next night to make sure that we were being appropriately Italian.


Friday, Randi and I hopped on the train, went to our hostel, dropped out stuff off, and headed right back into the city to see the Gallery Borghese. It was definitely the most beautiful art gallery I've seen so far, and I've seen quite a few art galleries at this point. Cameras were strictly prohibited, so you'll have to take my word that Bernini's sculptures are breath-takeingly beautiful, especially his Apollo and Daphne sculpture. He sculpts her hair transforming into leaves. I don't think Michelangelo could even top that.








Saint Peter's Basilica, which I did not go into because I am a moron. But also because we had just spent 3+ hours in the Vatican museums.


This is what my brother looks like when we wakes up in the morning.

Bengal's portrait.

Ancient Greek in the Vatican musuems. They liked to steal stuff from other cultures.

I got excited when I saw this picture because I thought there was a unicorn in the background, but there wasn't.


Anubis. Again, the Vatican stealing stuff that isn't theirs In this case they had a whole musuem of Egyptian arifacts.


My highly illegal picture of the Sistine Chapel ceiling! Remember when we mined that out George?!


Spiral staircase while leaving the Vatican musuems.


Okay, so this is a good story. After Randi and I left the Vatican, we tried to get into this park for forty five minutes and failed. So, we walked back to the main city center, but what did we find on the way?! Another park! So we climbed to the top of the hill and took pictures until the cabarineri (Italian police) told us to get down. So we did. But, what they failed to tell us was that the pack was closing. Five minutes later when we tried to leave, the gates were literally padlocked shut. After not being able to get into the other park, we were locked in this one. Awesome. Some italian men saw us stuck behind the bars, and taking pity on the due ragazze americane, they called the police for us and stood vigil as we waited ti be set free. We caused quite a sensation amoung the passerbys, even earning applaus from the crowd when we finally escaped! It was like when a cat gets stuck in a tree and everyone watches even though its not that exciting.


The one good thing about being locked in the park is that it let me get this picture.


Rumour has it that is your throw a penny into the Trevi Fountain, you'll come back to Rome. But all I had were five cent pieces, and I don't toss five cent pieces away.


The ruins were my favourite part of Rome, hands down. You don't study Latin everyday for two years of your life and not appreciate the ruins. But I never actually thought I would SEE them.

We had to check out of our hostel the morning we saw the ruins, so Bengal came along as well.



Looks kind of like the Arc de Triomph? That's because orginally, a Triumph was a giant parade/celebration held in ancient Rome for a successful war general. Having a Triumph was amoung the highest honours a Roman citizen could recieve, and was one of Cicero's favourite things to whine about since he didn't have one. Nepolian, being Nepolian, couldn't resist building one in France to symbolize his own military conquests. Oh Nepolian, you are something.



Let me tell you, I was having a field day reading all the Latin on these ruins!

After a day of seeing the ruins in the sun while carrying all of our stuff with us, by about two Randi and I were ready to head bak to Firenze. So, after epically runnung through the train station and making our train with only minute to spare, I passed out listening to the Smiths and was reunited with Kara and Arielle in our apartment at last.

Things I learned? Rome is awesome, but not as awesome as Florence. But for my first weekend away, it was a good one!

For the record, these are not even a quarter of the pictures I took in Rome, the rest of them are here (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=561287236#!/album.php?aid=160897&id=561287236).