Letters From London: Rockin' in Rome

An old adage once said that Rome wasn't built in a day. We took a little spin off from that; we explored Rome in a day.

That day went by pretty quickly as well.

Our day in Rome began with the evening before. Our flight from Copenhagen landed in the late afternoon, so we had to get to the city, and the hostel, quickly for our night tour around the city. However, getting a taxi was nigh on impossible and the airport was a ways out from the city center.

Plot spoilers: We missed the tour. But that's okay.

What we DID do, was climb into a big black van (a car that was hired for us), with a nun and an American couple. Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, but we made it out fine. Even if our driver decided he was done with Roman traffic and actually started driving on the train tracks to bypass the road.

After missing our tour, we went to a local restaurant recommend by a friend of Rachel's. The pizza was some of the best I've ever had, but our waiter couldn't take his eyes off me. He told me he liked how I flipped my hair, calling me bellissima, winking and blowing me kisses as we left, much to the amusement and horror of my friends; I was blushing all the way home. I may also add that he slightly resembled John Travolta, which made things even weirder.

We arrived back at the flat to find that we had two male roommates: a skinny, quiet one, and an older, more awkward one, just still young enough to still be hosteling. The hostel was comfortable enough. Our original plan had been an AirBnb, but it ended up not working out. In the morning, though, we were refreshed and ready to explore.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. Instead of waiting inside for tickets, we went to the Roman Forum across the street and got a better deal on tickets, we could visit the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palantine Hill, after only ten minutes of waiting, as opposed to six hours.

The Colosseum was surrounded by men in gladiator suits, charging an Euro for a picture. We ignored them completely and charged straight for the magnificence ahead of us.

It was everything that the books promised it would be. History had just come to life. No words I could use could do it justice.

Next was the Roman Forum. Basically, the Forum is a main area. It was a center for commerce, full of important buildings and the ruins of small shops. Palantine Hill sits regally on the cliffs above, shadowing what was once a thriving center of Roman life.

We also saw a cat. Kalli named it Minerva, after the goddess, and Amy wanted to feed it crackers. A day in the life of us.

After trying and failing, as always, at Roman transportation, we took a taxi to our next stop, Vatican City, where we toured the museum beyond the City's walls, seeing art and history around every corner. Growing up with an artist for a mom, I was fully able to appreciate everything I saw. I even cried in the Sistine Chapel, even though we were being herded through like cattle by grumpy security guards.

The Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain were closed that day, to our immense disappointment. We had been hoping, like thousands of tourists from all over the world, to throw coins into the fountain to make a wish.

Our group retired early that night. The next morning, we were taking a train to Naples, and from there, we would be feasting our eyes on even more history in the ruins of Pompeii!