I could of built up a story and then exploded with that line but I just can't contain it. I love it here. Instead of being in a hostel we are staying an an apartment in the city near the burrow of Campo Dei Fiero. It is magical. We are on the third floor in a full sized apartment and outside our door is a square full of restraunts and shops. In the morning a massive market moves in and they sell everything Italian, fruits, vegetables, clothes, spices, souviners. And at night artists, musicions, street performers, and peddlers come out to try to make money. The atmosphere is electric with the warm breeze and night life all around.
Not to mention the wine in Italy is decent even when it is only 2 euro a bottle! I think heaven is probably a lot like Rome.
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We had originally worried that we would have a hard time seeing everything that we wanted to in Rome in the four days that we are here, but that wasn't such an issue. We ended up being in walking distance to nearly everything. We walked to the Parthenon, Coliseum, the Forums, the Vatican and the Treve Fountain during the first two days that we were there.
One of the coolest things about Rome is that it is so clear that there is an ancient city amongst you. There was about a square block of ruins just 100 meters from our hostel that had been unearthed and fenced off and given to the cats. Seriously, it was like a cat zone with about 50 cats just roaming around the walls and caves in it.
We did our fair share of walking, but we also did more than our fair share of eating. I love Gelato, with a deep burning passion. I usually had it twice a day and we ate three real Italian meals a day. The lasagna was magical, the parmesan cheese they put on everything, the real Italian pizza... I could go on and on. I decided though that if I only get four days in this place I wanted to do it right.
Our last day was spent on a beach about an hour west of Rome. We took a train that cost a whole 4 euro. We wandered down to the warm, uncrowded beach and swam in the ocean and tanned to our heart's content.
At home I am considered the white one in my family, but in Finland I am dark. I was asked repeatedly if I was part Spanish, this was super annoying. I am also dark compared to my three travel mates who were quite crispy after our day in the sun.
Being on a beach in Italy was kind of surreal, when I really thought about it it just made me giddy. I walked up and down the shoreline and found pretty shells and a hermit crab. We laughed and played and got covered in the caramel colored sand. Eventually we washed off, got some gelato and headed back to our little square for our final dinner.
Dinner was good as always, with free bread and complementary champagne. We toasted to our amazing adventure before buying some wine and toasting some more in the apartment. In the morning we all left for our new countries at different times, Adam at 2:00 am (he didn't pay attention when booking that ticket either), Elizabeth at 6:00 am, me at 8:30 am and Natasha later that evening.
We all look forward to meeting again at the debriefing in December back on American soil!
* * *
Our last day was spent on a beach about an hour west of Rome. We took a train that cost a whole 4 euro. We wandered down to the warm, uncrowded beach and swam in the ocean and tanned to our heart's content.
At home I am considered the white one in my family, but in Finland I am dark. I was asked repeatedly if I was part Spanish, this was super annoying. I am also dark compared to my three travel mates who were quite crispy after our day in the sun.
Being on a beach in Italy was kind of surreal, when I really thought about it it just made me giddy. I walked up and down the shoreline and found pretty shells and a hermit crab. We laughed and played and got covered in the caramel colored sand. Eventually we washed off, got some gelato and headed back to our little square for our final dinner.
Dinner was good as always, with free bread and complementary champagne. We toasted to our amazing adventure before buying some wine and toasting some more in the apartment. In the morning we all left for our new countries at different times, Adam at 2:00 am (he didn't pay attention when booking that ticket either), Elizabeth at 6:00 am, me at 8:30 am and Natasha later that evening.
We all look forward to meeting again at the debriefing in December back on American soil!
