Gelato makes the world go 'round

Don't let the delay fool you; Rome was really fun, despite the fact that it's taken me over a week to write about it. I flew from Madrid to Rome last Friday morning to meet up with my friend Adam, who's an SCU student studying in southern Spain. After finding out that American University was delaying my plans to visit Santa Clara by four months, it was especially nice to see a familiar face. The chance to return to Rome was fantastic, too, since Mom and I had visited it three years before, and I loved it.  Therefore, I was excited to return and feel like a pro.

Less successful: our hostel booking. Adam and I had planned everything via Facebook messages, which, all things considered, worked out pretty well. After making our way from the airport to the city center, we showed up to the Hostel Mosaic. The owner asks us for the name of the reservation, and I say, "Adam," since in one of our conversations, he had said that he was booking. Of course, that was met with a panicked response and, "Wait, I was supposed to book for you?"

Oh.

See, on all the other trips I've done, one person makes the reservation and the downpayment, so that in addition to having a place, making sure that we're in the same room. I didn't even think to check that Adam was thinking the same thing. So, there were about 10 minutes of panic because, what do you know, there happens to be a giant study abroad conference in Rome that very weekend. Therefore, every hostel room in the city is booked. The owner of the hostel, a super sweet Italian man who fortunately spoke great English, even called his sister, who owns another hostel, to keep me from sleeping on the street. When that didn't work, he had one last idea.

The hostel had just reopened after some massive remodels, so only the first two floors were available. However, he was willing to make an exception out of desperation to open a room on the third floor, which was done, but not completely furnished. I didn't care one bit. Literally, our decorations were a night table/mini armoir and a roll of toilet paper. But I had a bed!

(If you ever go to Rome on a budget, I now wholeheartedly encourage you to stay at the Mosaic Hostel. Super nice people. And newly remodeled means no bedbugs!)

Literally, first thing we did in the city was go find pizza. And it was so good. Now, Spanish food has not been as bad as I had thought. In fact, oftentimes, it's pretty good (at least Basa's cooking). But golly, pizza. Mmmmmm. (Homer Simpson moment)

Then after settling a few more things at the hostel, we headed out to see the city!

Of course, first major thing we run into was just some ruins taking up an entire block. No big. This is why I love Rome - literally, you turn the corner and stumble upon some archaeological dig. So fantastic.

I don't remember what the significance of this is, but it's known
as the Wedding Cake...

Adam, contemplating the Roman Forum

We wandered around for a while despite the fact that it got dark ridiculously early, and then got pasta for dinner. Pesto. Mmmmmmm.

And then Nutella gelato. Mmmm.

Saturday, we got to the Colosseum just in time to join the masses for tourist time. (Despite visiting in the middle of November, rather than the middle of summer, Rome was still filled with tourists, many of which were Americans, too). Despite the lines, it wasn't too bad.

Enthusiasm!

Opposite of enthusiasm? (Just shrugging off the Colosseum...)
(But not actually)

Then, we got more fantastic pizza for lunch and hit up the Roman Forum to examine more old things!

I'm honestly amazed that some of these are still standing.

The days seemed to go by really quickly, but the sun also started setting by 4:30 every evening, so I was thrown off. However, that gave us more opportunities to see the Trevi Fountain at night (and we did, multiple times). Of course, the tourists joined us...

Such an epic fountain; it's impossible to capture
it all in one photo.

Oh yeah, another place that got multiple visits - Giolotti for gelato.

Seriously:

It's the best ice cream/gelato/frozen dairy product I've ever had in my life. I do not say this lightly. Such happiness.

Sunday was our Vatican day, which was probably a silly plan - or lack of a plan - looking back on it. We didn't bother to check the times for everything - which meant that we didn't get into the Vatican Museums (home to the Sistine Chapel). I especially felt guilty about this because Adam hadn't made the connection between the Museum and Michelangelo's famous ceiling, so he didn't even know what he was missing until it was too late.

We still made it into St. Peter's Basilica, though, which was still fantastic. Mass was even finishing up as we entered, so we heard the attendees singing and saw the closing procession as we walked around - which sounded really cool. It always amazes me that in all of these epic cathedrals we see, people actually go to weekly mass, and it's probably a completely normal experience for them.

We descended into the crypt, got glared at by a nun (I don't know why she did, but I felt guilty nonetheless), and climbed the many, many stairs to the top of the dome. Oh, it doesn't hurt that we reached the top at sunset. Rome's kind of pretty, I guess.

Looking down on the world's smallest country

Hi all!

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

After more pizza and another visit to the Trevi Fountain, we headed back to the hostel to sleep before waking up at 3:30 in the morning to head back home. But... I tried to sabotage this attempt, too! We had bought our bus tickets, planning on taking a 4:30 bus that would barely get me to the airport before my 6:15 flight. We show up to the train station, tickets in hand, not realizing in our tired state that we had to exchange said tickets for boarding passes. There was already a huge crowd when we showed up a half hour early; however, we didn't realize what we needed to do for 20 minutes, so all the passes were gone. 

So, we had to take a taxi to the airport, which was more expensive than I wanted (really, I'd rather have gone and bought more gelato), but I made it back to Madrid safely! All in all, a great trip. And now I've gotten around to sharing this with you, I really should go work on an essay that's due this week, but I think I might sleep instead. You all should feel so special...