Bon Voyage: Rome: Cappuccinos, canoli and coming out!

Two weeks ago, I had my Spring Break at AUI. We left Ifrane on St. Patrick's Day and headed to Rome. When we arrived, we rode a bus for about an hour, until we arrived in Rome. Upon arrival, we grabbed a bite to eat and checked into our hostel for the night. The room was empty, aside from one man who slept in the corner. He was a pretty active sleeper. As put by one of my fellow exchange students, Rebecca, "It was like sleeping beside a zoo."

The next day (Friday), we wandered around Rome.

We found the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs (Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri) . The church was beautiful, especially the interior.

We rested for a few minutes on a fountain facing the basilica.

We walked by Trajan's column, which lit up with the colors of the Italian flag at night!

We also walked by the Palazetto Venezia quite a bit, but didn't go inside.

Our first lunch in Rome was at a small cafe. I had pizza! Everyone got prosciutto on their pizzas because we have been deprived of pork in Morocco...

The most exciting aspect of lunch (and most meals) for me was the coffee. The cappucinos in Rome are AMAZING! Also, the cups are more appropriately sized than most found in Morocco (this one was essentially a bowl). :)

We also split a cannoli!

We found quite a few touristy stores like this one, where Kim found a lovely Rome hat. I also bought a pocket knife here, which I somehow managed to get through three airport security lines haha...

I enjoyed the Pope bobble-heads too!

After playing email tag all day, we finally got ahold of the woman who we rented an apartment from. We had to wait in the pouring rain after being rejected from her building three or four times, but eventually, our friend Fulvia pulled through!

We walked to the Colosseum, which was only a couple blocks from the apartment. We didn't go inside, but returned later. The graffiti across the street from the Colosseum was pretty interesting too!

One of my favorite foods of all time is Nutella. And it was EVERYWHERE in Rome. The Nutella crepes were amazing!

We visited the Trevi Fountain, which was beautiful, but always crowded. We actually saw a proposal here!

I figured I should include a picture of gelato! This is Nutella gelato, which I bought down the street from our apartment. We ate entirely too much in Rome, but the food was glorious!

We also tried a couple different wines. This one is a pinot grigio, which was pretty good. The most we spent on a bottle was 12 euros, which is fairly expensive for poor college kids (about $18).

For breakfast, we usually had fruit with corn flakes and bread, which definitely saved us some money.

On Saturaday, we headed to the Colosseum again and actually went inside. We paid to have an official tour guide, which was interesting, to say the least. While we waited, a group of actors approached us and asked if we would mind being in their film. In the scene they shot, the actors grabbed our clothes with confused looks on their faces. I think they were supposed to be from another time period? Haha..

Once we got inside the Colosseum, our guide described the kinds of events which would take place in the arena. He compared the fights and performances to Spiderman and Superman. He also told us about the three activities that Romans liked to share with others and always made them feel wonderful afterwards. These activities included eating, making love, and going to the bathroom. He also compared the building materials to Legos...Yes, he was quite a character.

For lunch, we went to a nearby restaurant called Coming Out. I ordered salad, which has been painfully absent from my diet for the past two and a half months.

Afterwards, we walked around to a few more churches. I can't remember all of the names, sorry! :(

Some of the rosaries in the churches were really beautiful.

Lilies are my favorite flowers! :)

We walked around more and made our way down little alleys and streets.

Here is Trajan's Column at night!

On Saturday night, we ate at a restaurant relatively close to our apartment. We had a slightly insane waiter from Egypt, who made the meal quite entertaining. We also sat beside a set of twins, both of whom were planning to run the Rome Marathon the next day. Since they looked exactly the same, one of the twins told us we could take a picture with just one of them haha :)

On Sunday morning, the Rome Marathon was held. The start and finish line were right beside the Colosseum, only a few blocks away from our apartment. I asked a policeman where the finish line was and he gave us special passes to get behind the barrier blocking the crowd from the finish. I definitely asked the right person for directions! We had an amazing view!

We stood directly behind the podium where the awards ceremony was held. The overall winner for the men's race was from Kenya and the second and third place finishers were from Ethiopia. For the women, the top three spots were occupied by Ethiopians.

Some of the Ethiopian runners rested on the stairs nearby after the race.

Rebecca and I were quite happy with our VIP passes! :)

The only negative aspect of the marathon was the fact that the entire city was blocked off for it, which made it incredibly difficult to get around for most of the afternoon.

We did make our way back to the Trevi Fountain, where I found the best cappuccino of the trip! It was pretty too!

While we wandered around the Medici Villa, we found some pretty intense roller bladers...

There were also tons of Boy Scouts (or at least the Italian equivalent). Kim was rather amused...

On Monday, we headed to Vatican City.

The ceilings leading to the Sistine Chapel were beautiful. The chapel itself was actually much smaller than I expected. I recognized some of the art from my Italian Renaissance class. I'm sure all the honors kids who have taken Cookie's class can relate! :)