Week 6, Rome, & Fiorentina

Okay okay, so I think I may be the worst blogger ever since I never give myself time to update my life. Currently, I have about five weeks left in Florence, yet I have not written in here for about a month and a half. However, I have given myself time now, on this long Easter weekend to finally catch up. I wanted to write this blog so I can always remember my time abroad, and I'm determined to finish it!

Delicious!!!

So week 6 started off with me not doing anything on Monday; as usual I was lazy and stayed in all day, catching up on my blog as I last posted. Now, later that night after Katie got back with Ariela, and Ashley come back from class, we decided to go to Cesarino's. Ashley and I ended up getting pasta with white bolognese and cheese sauce, while I think Katie and Ariela both got risotto. We decided to get dessert afterwards, and I got a piece of chocolate cake, while the others split a slice Parmesan and honey cake and a caramel cake.

Later that night, Ariela, Ashley, and I went out to YAB. We tried going to Eby's first to let Ariela experience an Eby's shot, but we discovered that it isn't open on Monday's... shame. YAB was fun, Ariela had lots of fun, and it felt good to be a good host.

Note: Now since I haven't updated in so long, I don't remember lots of details from class or my day.. I've been jotting down what I've done for dinner and for going out in my planner so I could remember the gist of what happened that day.

On Tuesday, Ariela left to go back to Paris. Katie, Ashley, Meghan, and I finallyyyy booked our train tickets to Rome this weekend that night, which was pretty stressful because the TrenItalia website sucks.
Wednesday night I went to Club Twenty-One with Ashley, which was pretty fun. We got back decently early, which was good because I have my 9 am cooking class on Thursdays, and have to wake up at 7:30. However, for some reason, we decided to listen to music when we got back, and just ended up signing till about 4 am! With only three hours of sleep before I had to wake up, it didn't surprise me when I checked my phone the next day, only to realize that my class was about to start. I still went to my Italian class at 3:00 though, and since I had missed my class, it gave me time to pack for Rome.

Meghan and I showing off a Fathom poster.

I forgot what time our train was at, but we got to Rome at about 8 or 9 pm. The hostel we stayed at was Pop Inn Hostel, and the guy at the front desk was super friendly and funny and gave us a list of things to do and explained how to get to the areas of night life. Our hostel room had a bunk bed and two single beds, and Ashley and Katie took the bunk bed. Out of all the rooms we could have gotten, we somehow ended up in the "Superhero room."

We ended up going to one of the areas where our hostel guy recommended, Campo di Fiori, where we ended up having a relaxing night sitting outside at a hookah restaurant and did some hookah, drank wine, and had food (I got spring rolls- yummy). Unfortunately, this did not fill us up, and when we got back to the area of our hostel, which was right next to the Termini train station, we gave in and got McDonald's where I got a milkshake and fries.

The next day, we went to get breakfast courtesy of our hostel, which ended up just being a croissant and juice. Soo filling! We then started our long day. It was actually a beautiful sunny day, perfect for sight seeing. First, we took the bus to Vatican City, where we went to St Peter's Basilica, and then to the Sistine Chapel. We spent so much time there, and I was pretty tired, but we still had so much to do. We got a quick lunch nearby, I believe I got pizza, and then we were off to see the Pantheon. Afterwards, we walked to the Trevi Fountain, where we took our touristy pictures of us throwing coins into the fountain, and then just sat around basking in the sun. I just really loved how there were so many fountains in Rome; there aren't many in Florence. Finally, we decided we should probably get going to our last stop: the Spanish Steps. It was late afternoon, and we got there and just hung out even more on the steps. We were pretty much surrounded with PDA couples at this point, which isn't that surprising because Europeans (especially Italians) do not seem to care who's around them. We eventually decided to walk back to the hostel so we could shower and get dinner. My contacts had been bothering me all day, and I was feeling a little miserable at this point, despite having a wonderful day. We walked about half way to the hostel before getting really tired and just finding a bus to get us back. We got dinner somewhere close, bought some wine, and got ready to go out.

Anna and Allison had just gotten back from Berlin and Amsterdam and were too tired to go out, so they just recommended going to one of their favorite clubs, Gilda. However, Gilda sucked, because apparently there was a fashion show that had been going on earlier, and there were so many old people there still. We didn't want to wait around for it to possibly get better, so we just left and went to Scholar's Pub, which we heard was good. Scholars ended up being fine, Ashley got a drink and then we just chilled there for a while. There was one girl about my age, who was flirting with this guy who could have been her dad! It was soo creepy and weird. After a while, we decided to finally just go back to the hostel since we had a lot more sightseeing to do before leaving.

So Saturday, we got our breakfast and walked to the Colosseum, which was beautiful, and then met up with Anna and Allison for some lunch. We went to the Circus Maximus, where the Chariot races occurred, and got lunch somewhere close by. It wasn't the best meal, but we were pretty hungry and didn't want to search for something better. Anna and Allison also didn't really know the area well enough to know good places to eat. Afterwards, the two of them left, and the rest of us went to the Roman Ruins, which was beautiful! It was still very sunny, and we ended up staying there and relaxing until 5:00, when it closed. We walked back to the Colosseum, where I was going to be quickly meeting an old friend from sleep away camp, Katie. While we were waiting though, we suddenly see this protest going on in the street, and they were causing such a big scene! After quickly chatting with Katie and catching up a bit, we had to go back and get ready to leave Rome. We went to the Termini and got some dinner before catching the train. The train ride home was 3 and a half hours, and we got back to Florence around 11. I received a text from one of the Kikuya kid's who we played Jenga with a few weeks ago, and it seemed like they wanted to meet up (they didn't end up doing so). Anyway, Ashley, Katie, Meghan, and I did want to go out since it was Saturday night and we didn't really have the most fun in Rome. We met up with Margo and went to Kikuya and then Twice. Ashley ended up running into this guy from Space named Gerald in Kikuya which was funny. Ashley, Katie and I thought we were going to go to Mr. Pizza for some food when all of a sudden I realize I'm missing my wallet. I started freaking out and we brought Katie home before searching for it. We went back to Kikuya, which was closed, but they actually had found it! I was so lucky to have not dropped it in Twice; I would have never seen it again.

After our busy weekend in Rome, we went to a Fiorentina vs Cesena soccer game on Sunday through our program. It was really exciting to see everyone dressed in purple, showing their Fiorentina pride, and I even ended up buying a sweatshirt. The fans were insane during the game. They were cheering loud, and singing, and were all in purple. And Fiorentina ended up winning 2-0! They didn't score a goal until halfway through the second half, which made it really exciting to watch. That night, we made chicken parm for dinner with garlic bread and salad.

Here's some pictures from my weekend in Rome:

The Vatican

The Pantheon

Inside of the Pantheon

Me throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain!

Colosseum!

Fiorentina fans!