Roma

Bryan, Ryan, and I made it to Rome safely! Here's what transpired yesterday:

For the most part, the transportation to Rome went smooth. We took the metro to the bus station and left early. I had an interesting discussion with a student from Poland the entire bus ride. We arrived at the airport early and waited for a few hours for the plane. I ordered another delicious panini while waiting. Our flight left 30 minutes later than expected; however, we arrived about the same time we were scheduled to arrive. Once in Rome, we purchased a bus ticket to the center of town (Termini). We walked about 5 minutes to our hostel, the Yellow.

While the Yellow does not have the same charm as the Oops, it is still a pretty nice place. This exemplifies more of a true hostel feeling. We are sharing a 7 person room without air-conditioning, so needless to say, the room was really hot. When we arrived in our room (about 24:00), our 5 roommates were sleeping; however, I noticed something very odd. One of the girls was wearing shirt that read...wait for it..."Dayton Tennis." I thought I was seeing things, but she was actually wearing a Dayton Tennis shirt. What are the odds, I thought. I did not have much time to think about it because I feel asleep instantly.

23.06.08

The first words out of my mouth this morning were, "Hey, do you go to Dayton?" to the girl wearing the Dayton Tennis shirt. It turns out that Katie is a recently graduated UD alum, and her brother (Steve) is a manager at ArtStreet Cafe with me! I could not believe it! We got a good laugh out of it. She is really friendly and has been telling us about her travels. You think that is wild? Keep reading, please.

We grabbed a small breakfast outside of the Yellow before our Roman journey. While sitting on the patio, sipping a cappuccino, and nibbing a croissant, a figure exiting our hostel caught my attention. I squinted my eyes for a closer look because it looked vaguely familiar to John Thunander, one of my friends from UD who lived on my floor last year. I thought, no way that is him. He turned around, and it, unfortunately, was someone else. NOT. It was really John! I ran up behind him, and he almost had a heart attack. We could not believe it! John started to yell in joy and gave me a hug. He just finished his UD Study Abroad session in Augsburg, Germany and was traveling for a week. He was accompanied with our Dayton friend, Joe Bauers, who is traveling before he begins his UD Study Abroad session in London and Dublin. Honestly, what are they odds that we find three Dayton people in less than 24 hours in Rome, Italy!?

Anyways, John and Joe were planning on seeing the same things we were, so they joined us for the day. Today was hot. It was easily in upwards of the high 80s, if not low 90s. Today was easily the hottest day of the trip.

We started our day, which was centered around ancient Rome, with the Roman Coliseum. It was taller and bigger than I anticipated it to be. The group decided to pay a little extra for a guided tour in order to bypass the 1 hour queue and to receive information about the Coliseum. The inside was really incredible. It would have been pretty cool to see 60,000 Romans in this place. I learned a lot about the Coliseum that I did not know. I knew that some pretty brutal things happened in this arena, but, by the end of the tour, I was a little disheartened to learn that over 1,000,000 people and hundreds of thousands of animals were killed here. Aside from engineering aspect, I was not that pumped up to go to a place that served as a symbol of death and brutality for public entertainment. Do not get me wrong, it was awesome to see and I would do it again, but I am not a fan of what the Coliseum represented in ancient times.

Afterwards, we had a guided tour of the surrounding ruins of the Roman Forum. It was fun to explore all of the ruins. I know we missed a lot of information about each of the landmarks in the Forum; however, one could easily spend a day exploring this entire area.

For lunch, we stopped at an outdoor cafe which turned out to be really tasty and a good value. We shared a liter of the house wine, and I ordered a margarita pizza (light tomato sauce and mozzarella). It was huge and delicious. The pizza was very thin and crispy. The style reminded me of what one would receive from San Francisco Oven.

My UD companions and I explored more of Rome. The city is not as big as I thought it was going to be, and it can be easily navigated by foot. There are tourists everywhere. You cannot escape them! We walked to the Trevi Fountain (Don't worry, Carmen, I threw a .01E coin in the fountain, ensuring my return to Rome in the future) and the Spanish Steps. We purchased gelato outside the Trevi Fountain. I tried their tiramisu flavor. I enjoy gelato a lot; however, I think it unfortunately suffers from over-hype. People rant about the greatness of Rome's gelato, but it was not that life-changing.

Now, we are all ready to rest and relax at our hostel. All of us our covered in sweat from the grueling heat. There is a small bar/cafe attached to our hostel (where I am blogging from actually), so it is likely that we will hang out here this evening. We are going to the Vatican on Wednesday because the Pope gives a public appearance on Wednesday mornings. That should be really exciting. Tomorrow will likely consist of visiting Rome's other famous sites, including the Pantheon. There are only a few days left on my European journey, so I need to make the most of them!