Italia! Part One: Roma!

I'm surprising myself with my promptness in writing this up. I arrived home in early afternoon yesterday and chilled out for the rest of the day. Today I was lazy for the morning, but am currently in the Surbiton Wetherspoons with a full belly and a cider in hand. And so, Italy.

Pardon, this write-up may be a bit choppy. I tried to write everything that happened down at the end of each day, but this is translated directly from my journal, so it's still a bit note-like.

Roma! -Day One (Saturday)

+ Bella and I met up in Central late on Friday the 13th and then made our way to Stansted Airport. Remind me never to go via Stansted again. It's a little bit sketchy and a lot inconvenient to get to. Though, to be fair, Heathrow is also not terribly convenient to get at. It's just generally weird to get from where we are to an airport. But once at Stansted, we got some food around midnight and then curled up for a couple hours sleep. Of course, we were curled up on the cold, hard floor, so it was less than ideal, but it was sleep and I needed it. At about 3 am, we woke up to check in and go through security for our 5.40 boarding time. Luckily, there was a Starbucks on the other side of security, so I grabbed a vanilla latte. We were surprisingly chipper for the ungodly hour and so little sleep.

+ Ryanair is a jerk. Not only are the sketchy (they're the cheapest flight for a reason...), but their standards for carry-on (only one piece, not one and a personal bag, but only one, and a very, very small one piece at that) meant that I had to pay an exorbitant amount at the gate to put it in the hold. Stupid Ryanair. Luckily, the other two flights we had (neither with Ryanair), I had already paid to put one bag in the hold, so I was set.

+ Had a not terribly interesting flight, touched down in Rome at 9.40 local time (8.40 London time and 3.40 am home time). Italy has the easiest security-and-baggage-claim I have ever been to. We were out, with a bus ticket to Termini Station, the hub for getting from the airport to the city, by 10.07. Got on the 10.45 bus, hit up Termini, in the middle-left of Rome, by 11.15 or so.

+ Managed to navigate the crowds (omg, Italians do not know how to queue! They're one giant quivering mob of pushy limbs and loud voices in languages I do not understand), the Metro system, Metro tickets and getting off at the right stop all on 3 hrs of sleep, no food, and with luggage. I was inordinately proud of this feat, given that I get cranky only one of the three, not to mention being in a new place where I don't know anything that's happening around me. Got off the Metro at Flaminio, which we quickly found out was the hub of central Rome, and took the overground to Prima Porta, where we waited for the free shuttle bus to our hostel.

+ Our hostel, Tiber Hostel and Camping, was just that: both a hostel and a campground. Which was a little strange, but not as strange as what we found out after we checked in: the rather swanky restaurant on the grounds ended up being the best food we had all trip. Our first meal in Italy was (for me) a proper Italian cappuccino and spaghetti with tomato sauce, smothered in cheese and real tomato chunks. It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. I would say that's an overstatement, because I was so hungry and just in need of food, but no. A second meal (dinner the next night) with a different choice of food proved to be just as, if not more, delicious.

+ After our late lunch, we got back on the overground, back to Flaminio, and back on the metro to the stop Repubblica, where Bella led us to a bookstore she'd read about on a list of the 13 best bookstores around the world. Among the notable interesting things was a travel moleskine (I love moleskine journals and this was created specifically with world travelers in mind) and Claude Levi-Strauss (a famous anthropologist) in Italian.

+ We continued walking and ended up at Piazza Venezia, at a giant monument built by [insert famous Italian name that I can't remember here] which also housed their own Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

+ From there, up Via del Corso, the big main road in Central Rome. Lots of shopping and tourist stuff. Very cool.

+ Up to Piazza del Popolo (where the Flaminio station lets out) then over to a side street where we found delicious pizza (margherita, mmmm) and our waite, a nice older man who wanted to show off his city. He took a look at our maps and pointed out all the best sites to hit. Very sweet and cool. And after that, gelato! Mmmm, Nutella and chocolate chip (stracciatella)!

+ Took a walk to the Tiber River with our gelato, at which point I turned to Bella and said, "you know, this reminds me of the first time I walked across the Thames [this semester]." And she said, "disappointing?" Yeah, that was it. The Tiber River is a bit like the Thames in that it's dirty and less impressive than you think. Still nice, just a bit of an "...oh" moment.

+ After that we took all our transport back to the hostel and crashed for the night.


Roma!- Day Two (Sunday)

+ We ignored Bella's alarm enough that it finally turned itself off and so I woke up a couple times, but dozed pretty much all morning, before eventually rising around 11.30. We had no plans and we had no sleep, so I thought we were entitled to a lazy morning.

+ Got into Flaminio around 1, set off in search of food, and ended up at the Pantheon. Which is gorgeous. We didn't go inside, but we bought take-away panini (and cappuccinos, yum) and sat in the piazza and people-watched.

+ Walked across to Piazza Navona next (a very pretty marketplace with paintings I nearly bought for myself--a ballerina fixing her pointe shoes--and mama--a field of sunflowers and an Italian villa in the background), then wandered down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to a bridge, from which we could see the very impressive Castel San Angelo. It was once a fortress and a castle and a place where the pope could escape the confines of Vatican City (down one long walkway straight to St Peter's Basilica) and is now primarily for tourists.

+ Across the river, down Via Della Lungara to Via Garibaldi. Yes, I know he's a famous figure in Italian history, but all I can think of is Daffy Duck, a bald head, and "Meeester Garibaldi!" from Babylon 5. Anyway, we found our way up to a monastery to a beautiful, beautiful sight of all of Rome spread out beneath us. We were on Janiculum Hill, an important place in Italian historyhe sight of a very, very bloody battle, and one of the seven hills of Rome. It was raining and cloudy and gross, weather-wise, but it didn't matter because the view was amazing.

+ After which, of course, we promptly got lost. In the rain. In the residential area of Rome that wasn't even on our map. After panicking and going through my internal monologue that hates being lost, it was actually pretty cool.

+ Took the train from Roma Trastevere (which wasn't even on our map...) to Rome Termini and then took all our public transport to our hostel, where we had another swanky dinner. (2 sangrias! Spaghetti with bacon in the tomato sauce! Tiramisu! Tottenham v Chelsea on telly!) and then to bed again.


Roma! -Day Three (Monday)

+ In to Rome by 8.30 am, breakfast at a cafe down Corso: a Nutella cornetti (kind of like a croissant) and a cappuccino.

+ A three hour bicycle tour around Rome. I was a little (okay a lot) nervous at first, since it's been a least 4 years since I've been on a bike and the drivers (and pedestrians!) in Rome are completely and totally bonkers. But it ended up being a lot of fun, even if I went a bit white-knuckley in a couple places. We saw a couple sights we'd already been to (the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, for example), but then we hit the big sights in both old and modern Rome (the Colosseum is amazing and I wish we could've gone inside, but we had a timetable; and the Trevi Fountain, into which both Bella and I threw a coin the proper way: backwards, over our left shoulders with our right hands) and it was really, really awesome to see the city. I have an insane respect for bicyclists now, especially in big cities.

+ Made our way to the Spanish Steps and walked a ways amongst the expensive shops (Armani! Chanel! I actually touched a pair of Chanel pumps and just about died). I don't know why women are so masochistic when it comes to pretty things we can't afford.

+ Sat on the Spanish steps, in the sunshine, for a few hours. She read her book, I people-watched and wrote a bit. On our right was a tearoom that we had a very late afternoon tea in (Babbington's. Expensive, but worth it) and on our left was the Keats-Shelley museum with a plaque proclaiming this is the spot where John Keats died at age 25 and next to a sign that just said Byron and had no explanation. It was amazing. I love it, centers of art and culture that have lasted for centuries and will continue to do so for centuries more.

While I'm thinking of it, here have Benedict Cumberbatch reading Ode to a Nightingale, by Keats. Come drown in the beauty of it, like I am.


Next up: Tuesday, which was half Rome and half Venice, and then two full days in Venice!