Roma weekend

Last weekend we took a group trip to glorious ROMA! We left on Saturday morning and took l’autobus, a little less than 3 hours to get there. We got to the bus station in Rome and had to take the subway into the center of the city…the trains here are complete 1980’s New York style with massive amounts of graffiti everywhere, I personally liked it. We got off the train and as soon as we walked out the door BOOM the Colosseum! It was such a great feeling to see it, my 3^rd time but I could really appreciate it. We did not tour the actual inside of it but I have done that before so I was not too heartbroken. Our hotel was very close to the Colosseum (Colosseo) so we stopped for some pictures then made our way to the hotel. It was a complete typhoon on Saturday though; thank god I had my umbrella. After a trek in the rain we made it to our hotel- Kolbe Hotel Roma. It was a 4 star hotel and very nice. The beds were more or less card board boxes with no bounce but we had a really nice bathroom to make up for it, a beautiful lobby, and a delicious breakfast on Sunday morning. Our room phone rang on Sunday morning and scared the crap out of us, but we answered and it was Elena telling us there was breakfast for us and we seriously sprinted down the hall. They had all types of fruit, pastries, eggs and bacon, juices, and this awesome machine that made all different types of coffee and tea drinks at the push of a button- it doesn’t take much to impress us!

Saturday once we got settled in the hotel we headed back out equipped with umbrellas. Our hotel was very close to the Roman Forum so that was our first stop. I must have been so annoying because I could not stop commenting on how beautiful everything was and just how amazing it is when you think about it. We stopped on a walkway/hill that overlooked the forum and took pictures and got a great view of everything. Everything in Rome is just so large it is crazy that it was constructed so long ago and so much is still well preserved. We then moved on to Capitol Hill (Campidoglio) with the square designed by Michelangelo. This hill was once the religious and political center of Ancient Rome and is today still home to the city’s government. On top of all the buildings there are statues and in the center a copy of the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius on his horse. We then made our way down the grand stairway that leads to Piazza Venezia.

More pictures were taken in Piazza Venezia and we proceeded to make our way to la Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). The streets were pretty cramped with all of the umbrellas but we made it there and it looked beautiful even in the rain. After throwing our coins over our shoulders and making wishes we headed to Piazza di Spagna! Afterwards we parted ways with Elena and people did some shopping. We all headed back to our hotel and got ready to go out to eat. We went to a grrrreat din din over the river. We were walking and just picked the restaurant on a whim but it turned out to be perfect. I ate some delicious chicken parm and loved every bite. The workers loved us and gave us a free bottle of wine which was very nice. A few of the girls on the trip had friends studying in Rome so went and checked out their apartment…it is basically like a dorm back at UMass and made us love Siena and our situations so much more. Rome was sort of disappointing in the sense that there are so many Americans walking around and whenever we would go into a store or anywhere really, we would speak Italian yet everyone would immediately just respond in English. Oh well! After we saw their apartment we went to an irish pub for a while which was fun but people were looking forward to going to a discoteca because there are none around Siena but we decided not to, they are expensive so it’s probably for the better. Then Sunday it was gorgeous weather and we went to the Vatican City! There was a crazy amount of people there, they had a concert-ish thing going on, religious of course. It was really amazing to be there (again) and look around and see so much detail everywhere. Then at noon the Pope....THEE POPE....came out of his holy window and blessed us!! It was amazing. He had such a soothing voice. There were so many people there and it was really loud and as soon as the Pope came out of the window it went basically silent and it was awesome. I could understand a lot of the things he was saying which made me feel good. So yup, last weekend just got blessed by the Pope! After that we tried to go to the Sistine Chapel but it closed early that day for some reason so that was disappointing. I was not too heart broken at the time b/c I have seen it before, of course I wanted to see it again, but some other people were extremely disappointed. We are going to take a day trip back soon and hit what we missed though so it's all good. We also went in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City and saw all of the tombs; it is huge and amazing and gorgeous. Then we just went shopping and got some deelish pizza. Then some of the other girls wanted to get some purses....and as you probably know they have legit the black market there. SO they started to ask this guy about them, my friend Colleen wanted a Louis Vuitton bag so here we are trottin on over to the sketchy purse guy. They started haggling with him...he wanted 60euro initially then they got it down to 25 and were trying to get it to 20 but he was being not helpful so we started to walk away...mind you 20 feet down the road to the next sketchy salesman. Mid transactions the guy completely grabs the purse back from Colleen and does not say a word and just starts sprinting down the road. We were just like hmm and then we turn around and see the Carabinieri walking down the road in the distance. It was crazy how fast they all scatter!! So they sat there twiddling their thumbs and then one of the guys comes up to us with a cell phone and is like "Ok follow me" and he is on the phone with the guy that ran away and 5 minutes later here he comes with the bags again. Christin got a LV bag and Caitie got a cute Prada bag and then we seriously booked it. Sketchiest thing of life. I was not involved but it was crazy...if you get caught buying one of those you can get fined so much money. Might as well just go to the store and get a real one haha. But after that we made our way back to the hotel and we all took the train to the bus station and got on our way home. Our driver was so intense and told Colleen to basically shut UP when she was laughing and then he proceeded to SPEED us home...literally booking it the whole way. And then here we were in Siena. Haha my weekend in hyper speed yet still taking up a novel of a space! I feel so fortunate to be here. I think Rome is gorgeous and I am amazed by the size every time. It’s interesting because we all love traveling and seeing new places but we are really feeling like Siena is our home. We love its size, beauty, atmosphere, and it’s always a nice feeling when you learn how to get around and know the streets of the city :)