Rome - Part 1

Rome Day 1 (arrived 6pm)
I had been warned a gazillion times about Rome being a sketchy city and so when arrived at the train station after safely taking the train from the airport (after over an hour of waiting for my bag), I was on high alert. My hostel was near the train station and so I walked over, checked in, and went back to the grocery store in the train station to buy groceries for the weekend. While in line for the check out, I saw a policeman apprehend some guy who was acting erratic and I started to get really nervous. I walked quickly back to the hostel and hoped that Jasmine and Winnie would arrive soon from Greece. I started to calm down and joined some other people from the hostel at a free wine and cheese. Lots of yummy fruit and crackers for me. I chatted with a few people, including an Australian girl who I had met in our hostel in Salzburg. Fun!
I settled into the room and by 11pm, Jasmine and Winnie arrived. Hurray! We stayed up for a while, exchanging stories, making a rough plan for the next day, and then it was bedtime.

Rome Day 2
In the morning we set off for Trevi Fountain and en route managed to see Bernini's Four Fountains representing the four seasons, as well as other beautiful fountains and magnificent buildings (the Quirinal) and churches. I started to lose track of which church was which but I did enjoy the cool relief they provided from the outside heat. After enjoying Trevi Fountain, we walked toward the Roman Forum, which looks like a giant archeological dig site. En route, we stopped at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The Forum was not well labeled but still still managed to get a sense of what we were looking at using the guidebook (for once, it was not completely useless). After the forum, it was up to Palatine Hill, where the rich Romans built their homes. The remains were lovely to look at set against the many flowers. Next it was a brief picnic lunch before conquering the Colloseum. I think the outside is perhaps more magnificent than the interior and I've been told that if I had seen Gladiator, I would have appreciated it even more. I did enjoy, however, the exhibit on the Eros, containing many sculptures and old pottery. After the Colloseum, we wandered past the Domus Aurea (Nero's home), and slowly back toward our hostel.
We ate dinner in the courtyard of our hostel - a nice feature! We had heard that Trevi Fountain was pretty at night and so after dark, we returned to the fountain. Even more spectacular than it had looked during the day, the crowds were huge. We bought gelato at the nearby San Crispini, recommended by both of our guidebooks, and by all 3 of us, now that we've tried it. There really is a difference between excellent and mediocre gelato. Next it was off to the Spanish Steps. Again, it was very crowded, full of people just hanging out and drinking. We saw a group of teenage boys breakdancing, as well as a guy playing guitar. We decided that since we had metro passes, we would take the metro on stop to Barberini Square where we could see the Tritan Fountain. We walked down the metro only to find that it was closed, without any explanation. I hear that happens a lot here. We walked underground to the other side of the metro station, which involved several tunnels and flights of stairs and eventually got outside, next to a dark park. Sketchy city + dark park + not really sure where we were = kinda freaked out. Jasmine calmed me down and soon we found a major street and were directed toward Barberini Square. We ended up walking home along a similar route that the metro would have taken and though my feet hurt, we got to see some ritzy storefronts and bars as well as some fancy cars along the way. Needless to say, I was happy when we eventually made it back to the hostel.

Rome Day 3
This morning we set off early for Trastevere, which involved taking a VERY crowded metro.. had to elbow my way on and off! We got to our stop, and walked across the bridge over the Tiber river. Not the most impressive river through a city that I've seen this trip, but not bad. We walked to the Porta Portese, home to a huge flea market on Sundays. We spent 2 hours rifling through the tables of clothes and assorted other items and eventually I settled on shirt that I liked. Felt like I had spent so long in the heat of the flea market that I needed to get something. Next we stopped by a cookie shop that Jasmine and Winnie had read about and then we checked out the S Maria de Trastevere church (I think). Beautiful gold grid looking ceilings.

After Trastevere, we crossed back across the river into the Jewish Ghetto. We went on a tour of the synagogue and museum and learned a lot about the history of the Jews in Rome. Magnificent synagogue built in the early 1900s and well as the smaller Spanish Synagogue full of artifacts from the 5 synagogues that were demolished when the Jewish Ghetto was rebuilt after the emancipation in the early 1900s. We had a mid afternoon meal in a kosher dairy restaurant and I was VERY excited about my panzerotto.. and in keeping with the kosher restaurants from home, they screwed up my order the first time, and nearly corrected it the second time. Delicious. We also tried deep fried artichokes, apparently a famous Jewish food from this area.

Next we set out for the Pantheon. The building is not so impressive until you stop and ponder how exactly they built the dome without the aid of modern technology! I had the unfortunate misadventure of slipping while attempting to sit on the floor (trying to take a cool picture) and my hand holding my camera hit the stone floor. Stone floor + force = one cracked camera screen. I was/am pretty bummed about it but the memory card can still capture pictures that I shoot using the viewfinder. I guess its back to using my camera in the old school style.
We looked at one or two more sites and then hopped a bus back to the hostel. Its amazing how exhausting it is to be out in the sun all day. Its only 8pm here right now but all I want to do is go to sleep! Tomorrow we are going to the Vatican, which means we need to get up super early. I'm really looking forward to it.

Officially caught up in my updates. Hope things are well with everyone at home.
-Rachel