Roma <3 (July 4th-9th 2009)
Saturday
Arrived in Rome about 10pm, met up with Lucy and her friend Pamela at half past, rushed to Lucy's flat to change out of my travelling clothes and throw my lenses into my eyes (not literally) then raced off to the main station Termini to catch a train with about 400 Eramus students. We headed off to a quiet station 80 miles outside of Rome, and waited for the minibuses to turn up to take us to this villa, hired especially for an Eramus party. It was 12.15am at this point. We waited. We waited. One coach turned up, obviously 40 seats + 400 people needing seats doesn't work! Coach left, we waited, another came (40 seater again), we waited. We waited. No alcohol and growing tiredness made us all quite irritable! Eventually we manage to force our way onto a coach at 3.30am using a number of vicious tactics like elbowing people in the face (gotta be done!). The villa was actually gorgeous and we did some dancing and drank some 2 Euro drinks. Lots of people jumped into the pool too. We left at 5.30am because we were growing tired. The party would have been great if we'd arrived at 1am as we were meant to! We got the train and Metro home and went to bed at 7.30am!
Reunited with Lucy - hadn't seen her for six months previously!
Pamela, me and Lucy
Me in a dewy field at 5.30am, waiting for the first train of the day!
SundayWoke up at half 11, groggy as hell. Only one thing for it - steak for lunch! After we had delicious steak and salad at a local cafe, Pamela went home to watch the Wimbledon and Lucy and I decided to do some sightseeing (well, she's seen the sights numerous times but still!). Cue tons of walking and hoping on and off of trams and different Metro stations. Roman travel is AMAZINGLY good value. I paid 4 Euro for a three-day travel card which could be used on all buses, trams and the Metro! Here are some photos from our sightseeing:
Posing by the Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti (Spanish Steps)
Arch of Constantine
The ancient ruins
The Colosseum
Lucy and I at the beautiful Trevi fountain
All that walking just had to be rewarded with gelato (Italian ice-cream)! I had one scope dark cherry and one Baileys. So good! We then looked around the shops, everywhere had a saldi (sale) on but I didn't buy anything because my whole wardrobe is full of new clothes as it is! I was really impressed by the Roman fashion though, totally get why it's one of the high fashion capitals of the world.
In the evening, Lucy and I met up with Pamela again and their friend Sophie at a bar, where you had to buy one drink (I chose a yellowbird cocktail - banana liquor and apricot brandy with lemonade!) and then you could eat as much as you want from their food selection of various rice, pasta, salads and warm breads. Really scrumptious!
The cocktails have clearly hit....
After eating, we walked by the beautiful Tiber River (below) and looked at all the stalls by the side of the river.
We stopped for chocolate liqour shots - even the shot glasses are edible chocolate :D
Monday
Monday was a lazy day, lie-in, lunch in at Lucy's followed by a train ride to the nearest beach outside of Rome. We met up with Lucy's friends Julia and Sonja and sunbathed the afternoon away/swam in the beautiful ocean.
We returned home then got ready to go out to Loft, the Eramus student night they go to every Monday. The club was 10 Euro entry then a free bar till 2.30am! Awesome! I met some really nice guys and girls there who Lucy knew, and we all did lots of dancing till dawn!
Tuesday
Tuesday morning was spent sunbathing & reading in a beautiful park by Lucy's house.
Then Lucy and I met up with Sophie, Oliver, Elena and Phillipe to get the train to Lake Albano, where the Pope famously has a villa overlooking the lake. It was tremendously beautiful. We rented a pedalo, went to the centre of the lake and spent two hours chatting, listening to music, swimming and sunbathing!
Sophie and Lucy
We got the train home then Lucy, Sophie and I went for dinner at a really great restaurant. We had to wait 1hr for our pizza because it was so jam-packed but the food was worth the wait! It had about 10 different toppings on it, for only 8 Euro! Then we went onto a bar called Cocanga, where the drinks were 3 Euro each. We met up with tons of Eramus people and the boys all got very drunk, stripped to their boxers and dived into a nearby fountain in the middle of a busy square! It was hilarious - until us dry, sensible girls were expected to help hold them up whilst they struggled to redress themselves later on ;)
Us getting ready for dinner and Cocanga
Wednesday
My last full day, so we had lunch in (Lucy taught me how to make the perfect bruschetta!) then we went to a deli in the centre of Rome, where I bought Luke a limoncello (lemon liquor) bottle and a wild strawberry liquor bottle. I bought some chocolates for my family, biscuits for work people and some multicoloured pasta for Luke and me. Ours was bows with coloured stripes and I haven't got a photo to show you, but the below photos shows the exciting pasta colours & styles available:
We then got the Metro to the Vatican City where we went into the stunning St Peter's Basilica. It was literally the most beautiful Church I've seen. Every inch of the wall had some carved detail, there was so much gold and it was all so grand yet careful & delicate. My photos just can't do it true justice!
We rewarded ourselves for all the walking by having banana and dark chocolate tiramisu, my first time having it and it was gorgeous. Wednesday night we went for dinner with Sophie to a quaint little restaurant. Lucy and I shared figs with parma ham, we'd both never had figs before and they were delicious. We then had pasta carbonara and it just blows all British imitations out the water! It was far far superior! Sophie had mozzarella salad followed by pasta with mushroom. I paid for Lucy's as a thank-you for her gracious and generous hospitality :)
We then got the Metro to Julia and Sonja's house where we met some people, hung out and drank strawberry fragola (vodka) till we were merry!
Thursday
Last day :( We got up, went to sunbathe/read in the park for an hour then onto a nearby cafe for a delicious pasta lunch. We then went to the main station and I got the train to the airport. Really sad to leave Lucy and Rome behind, but I was welcomed back by Luke who I had missed terribly! I'm very happy I was able to go to Rome, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience such a vibrant, beautiful city from an insider's perspective. I was able to be a tourist but also see life through Lucy's eyes, as she's lived there for a full year almost and has learnt so much about Roman life. She also knew the best places to go for taste and value for money and helped me with my mission of trying lots of different foods and drinks whilst I was there. All in all, an amazing trip filled with great company, delicious food, tasty alcohol, beautiful sights and scorching hot sunshine! Thank-you Rome, I'll return to you someday soon <3