Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
My plans for the day were optimistic. I wanted to squeeze all of the main attractions of Rome into one day! I started off walking from my hostel down to the colosseum and along the way seeing a church. The colosseum was amazing though it looked different than I thought it would inside (perhaps biased by Hollywood's interpretations). With the ticket into the colosseum I could also access two other ruins nearby - palatine hill and the roman forum. I didn't realize it was such a large area and I spent more time than I thought I would in that area. I booked it north to the trevi fountain and there I had my first Italian gelato; yes, it was the best ice cream I've ever had! From there I visited the Pantheon. Many of these old roman sites have become Christian in nature which was another thing that surprised me. I then went up to the piazza del popolo, a place that was in the film angels and demons. I was walking to my final attraction when I passed a building with lots of police, news crews, and people collected outside. I had seen the area blocked off earlier by police so I finally asked some people I had overheard speaking English what was happening. They said that the new Italian prime minister was expected to come out and they were waiting so that they could get pictures of him. I decided I would join them since I was only a block away from the piazza navona and I could always just pass though there on the way to the hostel. We waited for hours then when we had determined a time when he was expected we took a break to warm up and eat dinner. When we returned we waited some more and saw some people emerge that the camera crews followed but it wasn't the prime minister. Slowly the crowed dwindled and when we asked again we found out the guy had left earlier (possibly while we were eating)! We then went through the piazza navona then north to the Spanish steps and over to the Vatican to try to catch the metro. The metro was done for the night so we walked all the way back to our hostels!
- comments