So I arrived in Rome two days ago and the first thing that struck me about Rome was how many Americans there were there and how many people spoke english. When I first arrived in Cagliari I was surprised by how few people spoke english, but that became the norm. I got used to having confusing interactions with people, and I guess it felt more authentic. I never encountered another American in Sardinia outside of our group. People in America have never heard of Sardinia so almost all of the tourists are European. At one point I was at the hostel with Alec and a woman came up to us and asked if we were American. She was Canadian and we talked about her travels. I felt like it was so novel to have a conversation with a native english speaker outside of our group. Well in Rome there are Americans everywhere. This makes me appreciate Sardinia for feeling like a more immersive experience. 

So I landed in Rome, figured out how to take the train into the city from the airport, and when I arrived at the hotel so they said they had no record of me booking a room. I arrived one day before my tour was supposed to start to I booked an extra night through my tour agency, but something was amiss and they did not book me a room. I spent about an hour trying to figure this out with the hotel staff and finally they just gave me a room and said they’d work it out with the agency. 

The next day I waited for Micah (friend, future roommate) to arrive. They finally did and we got a coffee and pastry at a cafe and just hung out in our room for a while because they’d been traveling for almost 24 hours and were very tired. In the evening I met with my tour group and found that there were only two other people: a young Australian couple named Holly and Jamie, which was funny because my friend Holly would also be joining us on this trip. Our tour leader is an Italian girl named Serena. She explained to us that she’s a tour leader and not a tour guide. Tour guides in Italy need to be licensed and they can only practice in one region. Tour leaders can travel around, but they can’t give information in front of monuments or they could get a fine. So we talked about what the trip would entail and then went out to dinner together. Holly (current roommate) arrived in the evening. 

The next morning we went on a little walking tour of the sights of Rome. We started at the Spanish Steps which I thought were pretty lame. They’re just steps with fountain at the bottom. 

Sorry I have pictures of me with all of these things but they’re on Holly’s phone and I wanted to write this post before I forget what we saw. I’ll add photos of me later. 

Next we went to the Trevi fountain which I did really like. It was much bigger than I imagined and the sculptures were cool. You’re supposed to throw coins in the fountain and make a wish and Serena said that they say if you throw one coin you’ll return to Rome, if you throw two coins you’ll meet an Italian guy, and if you throw three coins you’ll marry an Italian guy. I was the only one with small coins so I gave mine to Micah and Holly, thus giving up my opportunity to marry an Italian guy. 

Next we went inside a cathedral and the funny thing about this cathedral was that it was supposed to have a dome roof but they ran out of money while building it, so they painted it on the inside. 

Then we saw the pantheon which I thought would be cool but for some reason I just didn’t like it. Too dirty. 

Serena was telling us about these two artists who made a lot of the sculptures in Rome and how they feuded with each other. One of them designed this elephant sculpture to be placed in front of the other one’s house. The elephant is showing it’s ass to the house and it’s trunk looks like it’s giving the finger. 

Saw a square where the fountain was designed by one artist and the church behind it was designed by the other artist. One of the statues in the fountain is shielding his eyes at the church. 

We walked by the town square where Julius Caesar was stabbed. It’s under maintenance right now so a bunch of cats have taken up living there. Can you spot them all?

 There are two cats in this picture but one of them is under the tree on the left and just looks like a blob.

We walked past the roman forum. Didn’t spent a lot of time looking at this. It’s kind of cool how all the old roman stuff is below grade. Rome has a lot of stuff under ground because the city is so old and people just keep building stuff on top of stuff. 

I can’t remember exactly what this building was but it’s a government thing and it’s a memorial to one of the world wars. Serena says the locals don’t like it because it’s too big and it’s not a nice shape. I liked it because I’m American and we like big things. 

Finally we got to the colosseum. It was ok. We only got to see it from this angle and it was pretty crowded. 

The whole tour was really fun. Serena was a great tour leader *not guide* who gave us a good amount of information about everything. We saw all the monuments/sites from the outside (except the church) so we didn’t have to buy any tickets or wait in lines. We also didn’t spend too much time at any of the sites and I really liked this format because I’m not very patient and once I see something I’m like “ok that’s what it looks like, let’s go to the next thing.” It was nice that our group was only six people in total because we were able to get around pretty easily. Serena says a lot of old people book these trips so we’ve also lucked out that we’re all young folk. Good times in Rome! Not too much time though. After this walk we took a break for lunch and then got on a high speed train to Florence, which is where I am as I write this. 

Arrivederci