I'll be honest, I had this really great blog planned and written out for my experiences in Rome. And then I got bored with it, meaning you would too. So I will simply go through and recap my experiences there:
First impressions: Rome is smelly, crowded, and overall a disappointment. Yes yes, go ahead and cue the jawdrops. I was over Rome the instant I got off the train. However, I was severely tired, and had just arrived from a very quaint, quiet, and non-touristy area of Italy...so of course I was a bit overwhelmed. We then arrived at the hotel where I had to pay a ridiculous amount to get wifi and then upon arriving in my room I saw the bathroom. I looked around for the shower, quickly realizing my worst fears were being confirmed. That small shower head posted up in the corner of the bathroom with a small drain & slight platform was my shower for the next three days. No curtain, no walls, just an open corner of showering hell. Needless to say, I was gross and only showered once--and I was a little bit tipsy to dull my senses enough to forget about the lack of confinement of the water around me.
Rome's Second Chance: Our first visit was St. Peter's Basilica, aka Vatican City. As we drove through the streets of Rome I began to accept that Rome is pretty freaking sweet. You can instantly see why Rome is the eternal city, the ancient feeds into the Renaissance, and the Renaissance feeds into the new--all of what we see today is built up from the ruins of Rome. Rome was in ruins because of people though, not earth, wind, and fire like most people assume. The Vatican is a perfect example of this. Romans would steal marble, metal, and pillars from various ancient Roman structures to build all of the beautiful structures we see in Rome today, like St. Peter's. The Pagan relics and buildings were destroyed to make one of the holiest places we recognize today--now if that doesn't blow your mind I don't know what.
The Colosseum and the Forum were great, and our guide was fantastic. We also had another fantastic guide take us around St. Peter's and Oscita, the original and most important port for Rome.
The best part of Rome as far as non-touristy attraction is concerned, was finding an Irish Pub where the bartenders all spoke English. The people were so nice and having a beer with gregarious Brits we didn't know was fun. Oh and they had free wifi which was also a major draw.
My suggestions for a visit to Rome:
Go. It's definitely worth it just to see the history. However, I was quickly over being there because of all of the inconveniences. There are about a million and one gypsies looking you up and down to see if they can pickpocket you easily, and if they don't try to chase you down you also have incessant gypsy men trying to sell you roses, creepy dolls, or worse yet, weird electronic stuffed animals...kind of like a furby? Rome is constantly filled with tourists, so you will also have to deal with the overpriced food, overcrowding, and being taken advantage of to gain access to wifi. After being in a place like Genoa, it was hard to not want to go back there.
Which leads me to why I'm in love with Florence. It is city life, and while touristy, it isn't as jam packed as Rome. It's my favorite city yet, actually. It's young, vibrant, decent pricing, and great shopping. More to come from my experiences here, but I think that is a long enough blog for now :) hopefully I can update again tomorrow!
Happy Tuesday everyone, and buonanotte :)
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