Rome- Day 3 & Arriving in Florence

On our last day in Rome, we had to check out by 11 am, but the hotel was nice enough to keep our luggage locked up in a room behind the front desk so we could see a few more sites before we had to catch our train to Florence at 3:15 pm. First, we went and saw the Spanish Steps, and then the Pantheon. By this point we were experts at catching the metro, so we got on and as soon as we got off at the Spagna stop, the Spanish Steps were right around the corner. Not too far from the Spanish Steps, about a 10-15 minute walk, was the Pantheon, and not too far from both of these sites is the Trevi Fountain.

After seeing these last two sites, we made our way back to the hotel to grab our luggage, and then we headed to the train station. Buying a ticket and catching the train to Florence was a lot easier than we thought. The train ride from Rome to Florence on a high speed train is about an hour and a half, and the ride is beautiful. Once we got to Florence, we took about a 5 min cab ride to our apartments, which we easily could have walked, but after spending an hour and a half trying to find our hotel in Rome, we thought it'd be best to take a taxi here. Once we got to our apartments, we were able to unpack and settle in for a while until we went to dinner around 7:30. We had a three course dinner, which consisted of a quiche and bruschetta for an appetizer, pasta with tomato sauce as the first course and chicken wrapped in ham over potatoes as the third course. Then, we got some sort of flan looking dessert. After dinner, we took a short walking tour around Florence in order to become somewhat familiar with the town. We saw the court house, several piazzas, the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the Duomo and several other sites around town. 

After this, we made our way back to the apartments where we hung out with some people in our program for a while and then went to bed. The next morning we met the group around 8 am and we went to our school, Lorenzo de Medici, for an orientation. At this orientation, I realized that there are several other schools (I think around 12) that are studying abroad here as well and going to the same school as us. After the orientation was over around 1 pm, we became familiar with the Lorenzo de Medici library and the building where our cooking class is going to bed. We then grabbed some pizza for lunch, and came back to our apartment and took a LONG nap! After our nap, we showered and met everyone for dinner at a palace in town, and on the way to dinner we ran into Pauly D and the Situation from Jersey Shore! After dinner, we went and saw our friend Hannah's apartment over by the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio bridge. We hung out there for a while and then Sarah and I made our way back home. Tomorrow we are meeting around 8 am, and we are going to be taking a day trip to Siena! 

Rome- Day 2

Today, we woke up around 9 am and had some fruit for breakfast from the hotel. Then, we made our way to the metro to go see the Trevi Fountain. Despite the hectic crowd, this was the most beautiful site we saw today. We also each threw a coin in the fountain and made a wish!

After we saw the fountain, we roamed around for a while looking for a place to eat, and we finally found a quaint pizza place. The pizza at this place was wayyy better than the pizza we ate for lunch the day before. 

After eating, we made our way back to the metro to get to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. As soon as we got off the metro a woman came up to us asking if we had a reservation for the Vatican, which we didn't because you have to make the reservation online 72 hours ahead of time, and we did not know this until we tried to book it last night. She was trying to scam us into going on a tour through her company so we wouldn't have to wait in lines by paying 40 euro. We told her we were just going to try our luck in the "2 hour lines" at the museum instead because we didn't want to pay that much because it only costs 8 euro to get into the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. Only making it a little further down the street, we ran into a man telling us the same thing. He kept saying the lines were 2 hours long and we really should just buy a pass through them for 35 euro. After hearing this from several people we finally decided to just pay the 35 euro to not wait in the lines. Little did we know, as soon as we got to the Vatican and made our way up the stairs to get our tickets scanned, there was absolutely NO line to buy a ticket. At this point, after sitting in the sun for about an hour listening to the tour guide tell us about the Vatican, which is it's own country, and then pushing our way through the crowds in the Vatican, we were completely over it. Finally, we made it out after a 3 and a half hour tour. 

After we left the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, we saw St. Peter's Basilica from the outside, and then we made our way back to the metro to go home. Once we got home, we took a nap and then had dinner at a restaurant a few streets over from our hotel. Tomorrow, we are going to see the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and the National Roman Museum before we head to Florence! 

Rome- Day 1

We first arrived in Rome around 9:30 am Italian time. I flew by myself, but I met up with four other girls in my same program (Sarah, Hannah, Becca and Danielle) at baggage claim. Once we left the airport, we bought a train ticket to take the train into Rome. I actually met a woman on the train who was from Raleigh, NC, who had graduated from the textiles program at UNCG, and she knew a lot of my teachers at State! Once we got to the Rome Termini (the main train station in Rome), we began our search for our hotel. It took us about an hour to find our hotel, when it was only a few blocks away. We were soooo tired, hungry and about to pass out once we got to the hotel. After checking in and hanging out for a little bit at the hotel, we made our way through Rome to do some site seeing. First, wanted to buy a Roma Pass (a pass that lets us have free transportation and free admission into 2 sites), in order to save some money. We thought this would be an easy thing to do, but apparently everyone around here thinks everything is so close, when in reality it is A LOTTT further than they initially explain when asking for directions. We ended up having to go back to the train station, which seemed a lot closer this time around, and we bought the Roma passes there. Then, we took the metro to the Colloseo stop, and as soon as we got there and got out of the metro station, the Colosseum was literally right in front of us. Here are a few pictures that I took while we were there. 

After the Coliseum, we went to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. 

After seeing these sites, we got back on the metro and headed back to the hotel. We were going to stop at The National Museum on the way, but once we got half way there, we decided we were too tired and headed to the hotel instead. We napped for a while at the hotel and took showers, and then we went to the restaurant next door to the hotel, Mama Angela's. Hannah and I ordered cheese and spinach ravioli, Becca and Sarah ordered lasagna and Danielle ordered pasta with tomato sauce. It was definitely delicious! After dinner we walked across the street to the Yellow Bar and got our complimentary welcome cocktail and then called it a night!