Rome

Our flight from Madrid to Rome landed us at the Fiumicino airport, almost an hour’s car-ride away from anywhere a tourist would want to be in Rome, so by the time we shuttled in and dropped off our increasingly-heavy backpacks at the hostel it was past 10:00 p.m. But our time in Rome was limited, plus we’d read a lot about how striking some Roman monuments are at night. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain, which was indeed neat at night, and also still extremely crowded.

The reason that the Trevi Fountain is surrounded by tourists at night.

We then made our way down to Capitoline Hill to be impressed with the nighttime view of the ancient forums and the Colosseum. This was a good idea because there was hardly anyone there, something that can probably only be experienced at night. I stood on Capitoline Hill by myself for a few minutes. There were a few cop cars parked in the area, and local Romans seem to take advantage of the only time tourists don’t trample around here by going on romantic walks through the ruins or partying in front of the Colosseum.

Just a few hours of sleep later, we returned to the Colosseum. The place looks much different during the day, largely because it’s completely packed with tourists and tour-guides and people trying to sell crap. We joined the long entrance line, which moved pretty quickly and got us inside the amphitheater in 40 minutes or so.

We went quickly through the ancient Roman ruins, grabbed a couple panini and some gelato, and ran to the bus station. We hardly saw any of the city, but for only being in Rome 18 hours I don’t think we did too badly. We’ll be back in Rome for at least a day or two in a few weeks, in between our two Italian host families. I have already been to Rome and to a few other Italian cities that we’re planning to visit when I came to the country with Bethel’s Italian Renaissance Art class four years ago, but I’m happy to repeat my experiences for Alan’s sake. There are some things one just has to see when visiting Italy!

Alan eating kiwi gelato in front of Santa Maria Maggiore. No big deal.