One of the many things I love about Rome is that its history is written in the architecture- and you can't help but notice it because it's everywhere you go. It's not only in the obvious places like the Colosseum, Saint Peter's Basilica and Vatican City, the Panteon...it's also in the cobble stoned streets, the plentiful piazze, the hundreds of mind boggling statues and fountains, churches, museums and everyday modern buildings that were built to include existing ruins. It is beautiful; and the more you stop and think about the actual act of building these structures the more impressive they become. It's crazy!! I love it!!!!
I spent most of my time in Rome just "roaming" around town (ha, dad joke - sorry couldn't resist!). I befriended a couple of French boys, Tom and Sebastian, who I shared a hostel room with and tagged along with them for a day of adventuring. Tom spoke a little English and Sebastian spoke Italian so between the three of us we were able to communicate. We started or day in Vatican city for most of the day where we were surprised by a appearance from the Pope!
We could tell something was going on as we approached the piazza because of the masses of people, which also explains the bumper to bumper bus ride over.
After the excitement of the visit died down we self toured the Basilica and decided to pay the five euros to walk five hundred some stairs to the top. I posted a couple pictures of the view and of the walk up. The higher up you climb the walls begins to slant inward towards the stair case and force you to lean sideways (you can see it in one of the pictures I posted earlier). The view from the top was 360° of Rome as far as the eye could see. Pretty rad.
The remaining of the day we wandered around from site to site, and I revisited the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain by night with another friend I made! The following day was similar, although I was solo this time and made a conscious mistake to not bring a map. Of course I got lost and by the time I figured out where I was and how to get back to my hostel my feet had paid the price. Needless to say, I ended the day with some pretty gnarly blisties!
And that pretty much sums up Rome. Today I travel to my first farm near a small town called San Potito Sannitico. Super excited! My fingers are crossed for a stress free day of travel...
Ciao ragazzi, a dopo!
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