Roma: El Primer Día

¡Hola a todos! I know that it has been a while, but that means I have so much to talk about.  As most of you know, I went to Italy, so let's start there.

We woke up at 5 AM to take a 6:30 AM bus for our 11:00 AM flight that landed at 2:00 PM.  Then we were in the land of the Romans.  Luckily, the Italians didn't clear away all of the ruins so we were able to see them right as we drove through the city.  Once we got to our super nice hotel, we dropped off our bags and then hit the city.  Unfortunately, unlike in Madrid, our hotel wasn't in the center, so we had to walk a little bit to all of the main attractions.

I'm the kind of person that wants to see everything on the first day and then take it slower for the next two days, so that's exactly what we did.  Our first stop was, of course, a Gelato store.  I looked and tried probably seven different flavors, but I finally settled on Kiwi and Strawberry, or fresa.  It was amazing, but a little too sweet for my liking, but I got to experience gelato where it is known to be amazing.

The first actualy place we went to was Piazza Novana, which was a plaza that had three fountains in front of this enormous cathedral.  Fortunately, it was open and free so we walked through it and it was beautiful.  Unfortunately, no photos were allowed, so I'll only have my memories.  There was one room that had a tomb and there was a piece of circular glass that revealed the bones of what looked like a small child.  I probably should look up what that who that was.

After we got our full, we headed to the next closest attraction, The Pantheon.  On the way there, however, we saw this amazing street performer break-dancing in the street with a huge crowd surrounding him.

We maneuvered through the crowd and went down a couple of side streets and found the Pantheon.  Unluckily, it was closed so we took pictures of the massive structure from outside.  More about that on the following day.

The next place we wanted to go to is called the Fountain of Trevi, a giant fountain depicting Greek/Roman gods that is a must see for anyone who goes to Rome.  There is a rumor that if you throw a coin over your shoulder and into the fountain, your true love will find you.  I only threw in a 5 centimo, or cent, coin, so I don't know how likely that will be.  But we did see a man throw a coin over his shoulder and hit a girl from our program, so he may never find his true love especially if he keeps attacking women with coins.

The fountain was very majestic with its statues of men, horses, and shells where water flowed over all of them.  We even saw a guy get up on top of the giant waterfall and do a back flip.  Apparently that was illegal because the police were there immediately to talk to him, but everyone still cheered.  What is legal, however, is drinking in public.  Rome does not have an open container law, so we bought some wine and sat by the fountain drinking it.

A building called the wedding cake.  More on that tomorrow!

As soon as we were done, we felt cold and decided to go back to the hotel to get some jackets.  As soon as we were leaving, we ran into three of our fellow APIers who had been in Italy for over a week.  They had originally planned to meet us in Rome when our flight was scheduled 2 days earlier, but that changed and they didn't want to cancel their flights, so they enjoyed a week and a half long trip to Italy.

We greeted each other as we would any long, lost friends and then started walking.  Their stomachs were empty and so were their pockets so we went on a search for a cheap pizza place.  We found one near the night-life center of Rome and stopped to have a bite.  Then, since all of us had been exhausted from a long day of traveling, we went back to the hotel.  We sat down in one of their rooms and they quickly whipped out a deck of cards.  They had played President, a game the Cotton Family is no stranger to, but with all of the wrong rules.  I showed them the light, and we played a few competitive rounds were I had three terms as president.  Then we played Hearts.  I didn't think anyone would know how to play on this trip, but this one kid did and we tried to teach the others.  He played ok, but I think I'm better (he releases the queen like a hot cake) and it will be interesting to see what happens when we have weekly card nights.  Yes, apparently other people share my passion for cards.  We also found out this other girl plays Hearts with her family, and I think she's pretty good.  I can't wait.

So that concludes my first 8 hours in Roma.  I saw a lot of buildings and found out new facts about the people on my trip.  I will soon write day two and three (and four doesn't really count). And hopefully, I remember to tell you about today because it was very interesting as well.

A funny sign