As where to begin on such an amazing trip! To sum it up the past 6 days have been surreal, I wouldn’t change anything, I loved every moment and want to go back already. But here goes my in detail analysis, particularly for my parents ;)
Wednesday Night:
Project Week began that afternoon. It was such a beautifully sunny day many people went to the Cliffs to lie in the sun and listen to music, but I packed and went to the gym- knowing I wouldn’t manage enough exercise in Italy (oh I was wrong).
Since we weren’t going to have Open House like we normally do on Thursday nights we decided to use the money to have a House barbeque. So that night we brought all the sofas out of the Day room and sat by the portable fire cooking burgers and sausages. It was such a ‘Morgannwg family’ moment, I loved it.
Thursday:
We left campus at 8 that morning and took a 2 hour bus ride to Bristol airport- I fell asleep next to Keke from Bolivia. Then a 2 hour plane ride to Rome, again I fell asleep next to Joaquin from Uruguay.
We took a half hour bus into the centre of Rome where we got dropped off at Termini, the main station. Our group were playing the tourist role perfectly, taking pictures of every monument, tree and dust bin along the way. Cities do excite me, but I know I will always be an island girl.
We arrived at the Youth Hostel by 5:30 where everyone agreed that we MUST have pizza for dinner. I went with the people I was sharing a room with walking until we found a nice-looking restaurant. I had a delicious half of salmon pizza (usually have a pizza will fill me up perfectly, but turns out these pizza’s had such thin crust I wasn’t fully satisfied). We were able to order our first bottles of wine as well, as for the first time we were all in a country where the drinking age was 16. Everyone was quite shocked at the ‘European way’ of charging for the place settings that we were at, 8 euros for the napkins? What? Evenso it was quite a cheap, delicious meal.
We then got recommendations to a good Gelato restaurant and I experienced my everlasting love for hazelnut ice-cream, it’s like Nutella – but better.
Back and ready for bed by 10:30, so relieved to have hot water in the showers- had heard some sketchy things about Youth Hostels… early night for such a big day in the morning, quite excited!
My room: Paula: Germany, Coral: Spain, Alma: Spain, Sara: Jordan, Lian: Netherlands, Proma: Everywhere, Sofie: Norway and I J
Friday:
Wake up at 9, had the 3 euro breakfast but wasn’t that impressed. It’s fact the way to win my heart for a good breakfast is yummy cereal, or pancakes. Neither did they have L
We left at 10:15 as a group (35 of us on the trip with 3 teachers), I have many pictures to put up of the sites. It feels we did everything! On the first day we went to: Piazza del Popolo (saw the Trident roads), Temple of Hadrian, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon – at which point we all split up.
I spent the rest of the day with a group of the second year guys where we went to see the Trevi Fountain. I actually got to see a man propose to his girlfriend while there- what a magical place to have a proposal! We stopped at a fancy restaurant where I had some Lemoncello with Rhys from England and Aliaume from France got to experience good Italian wine.
We finally spent the rest of the afternoon in the Villa Borghese, enjoying the warmth of the sun compared to AC weather. I was so happy for feel some semblance of heat again, it’d been too long.
We made it back to the Youth Hostel by 6:30, where we had our check-in.
Saturday:
This was possibly my favourite day. I look back on it and think of just how perfect it was. We all woke up and were walking by 10 to the Colesseum; it was only about a 20 minute walk. As we got nearer it became more amazing, just to think that I had finally seen something that I’ve heard about all my life of being truly extraordinary- the amount of history and lives impacted from this building was impeccable for me. We went inside and walked all around for an hour or so. I ended up sitting down and reading the tourist book about it- they came in such handy with the maps in the back and the amount of walking that we ended up doing. I imagine that I walked over 10k most days.
There was a demonstration of some sort going on near the Colesseum, they were protesting workers rights, all wearing construction helmets and being quite passionate about their cause- though of course I didn’t understand any of it. We all went inside of Palatine where we split up into smaller groups.
We walked around the old ruined city for awhile and then exited to have lunch where I had a pizza with Rhys, Akib from Bangladesh, Yassine from Morocco and Leo from France. I was really happy to get a chance to know them all better, it was great in some ways to get to know people I hadn’t had the chance to at AC yet.
We then just went walking, wandering. It was really good for me not to plan and set time restraints on everything as I tend to do at AC, just to go with the flow and see where it would take us was blissful. We walked past the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and my favourite the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument- I thought it was so beautiful in all of its splendour- possibly more than the Colesseum even though this one was only a couple of hundred years old.
We then found ourselves by the River Tiber and decided to buy Gelatos and go down to the Isola Tiberina. We then leaned against a wall and all fell asleep with the sun warming our cheeks and just in complete bliss. It was probably the best nap of my life, no kidding people. Even succeeded in getting a bit of pink in my cheeks!
That night I stayed in and got to know Akib really well- we’ve become great friends from this trip and I’m so grateful for it! He’s hilarious; we even tried our second Italian delicacy: Disaronno.
An amazing day.
Sunday:
We ventured outside of Rome on Sunday! We walked for an hour and then took the train for another hour to Ostia, where we ended up being in what used to be a harbour, more ruins of old crumbling walls and history beyond my capacity to comprehend. It was an ENORMOUS place, I don’t think I looked at half of it.
We took another nap in the sun, as soon as it goes under a cloud or the trees make shadows I wake up cold. But that gives me a perfect hours nap, how convenient right?
Sunday evening was by far my favourite! It started off as just a casual dinner somewhere that looked quite nice? I was with Rhys, Akib, Leo, Yassine and Aliaume. However Yassine and Aliaume were determined to go to an ‘authentic’ Italian restaurant (which Rhys and I found hysterical… how could you not find authentic Italian in Rome exactly?). So we were following a guide book of recommended restaurants, the ones that ‘weren’t too touristy’. Whatever, I was simply going with the flow. We didn’t leave until about 8:30 and then had to take a long bus ride to get to the right area. However when we made it to this AMAZING restaurant, turns out it was fully booked and we would have had to make a reservation. By this point we were understandably pretty darn hungry. So we ask Yassine and Aliaume if we could pleaseeee just go to the one right next door- it looks good enough. They disagreed and wanted to go another half hour in the other direction to find another. So they left and we sat down.
I had Gnocchi at last! It was home made and delicious, though it was a bit too fishy for my liking. We all were trying to be sensible so were only ordering main courses and water, but even so everything that happened was just SO funny. You know those kinds of days where no matter what happens it’s hilarious? Well that was what was going on. We couldn’t stop laughing. Not when the waiter saw two of the guys switching plates, not when they were convinced into getting chocolate cake, not when we got the bill and couldn’t figure out how to split it. Not when I ordered a cappuccino trying to experience everything and felt like I was drinking burnt bark. The night was full of belly-aching laughter, and I loved it.
Once we left the restaurant we realized we didn’t have the Bible (or guidebook) so we just started walking. Turns out we had unintentionally made it to the wall around Vatican City! We got on one bus to figure out it was going the wrong way, got off and within 5 minutes almost got on the same bus.
Akib used his ‘brown card’ to find the directions to McDonalds, where the boys ordered Happy Meals and tried for five minutes to translate the word Salt to the cashier. Oh the laughter. We got to the Metro and 11:25 to see one leaving, and it said it was the last one- at which point I started getting teary eyed, knowing we were agessss away from the Youth Hostel. Thank jah we were wrong, and made it on the last one on the Sunday night. I’m struggling to describe the night, but it was epic. I made such great friends that night. I’m really glad I managed to just let things happen and turn out how they were meant to all along.
Monday:
AH! I’m typing this all out and feel it’s basically an Extended Essay in itself. Well here is another AMAZING day. Vatican City. Wow.
I woke up at 8:30 and went to have a Cornetto with Marmalade (which is basically a croissant they cut open and fill with an assortment of things) with Paula, Sara and Nick. It was delicious! We sat in front of one of the many churches and ate our yummy food. I did miss eating muesli for breakfast, not going to deny it- but when in Rome!
We took the metro as a group to Ottaviano and walked around the Vatican Museum. It’s actually the first proper museum I’ve ever been too, and don’t think it will ever be topped. So many years of history, so many hours of work, so much detail… it was bewildering. I wish I could go back and spend hours in each room, there was just so much to take in. It was quite a maze and there weren’t any exits, you had to go all the way through- so by the end I was feeling very claustrophobic and desperately wanted to get some fresh air. Before we ‘escaped’ we made it to the Sistene Chapel, where we weren’t allowed to take any pictures and were constantly told to be quiet. It was SUCH a beautiful room; I was awed at its magnificence.
The next part was possibly my favourite (though I know I’ve said this before, it’s hard to choose just one!). First we went to the square right in front of St Peters Basilica and sat down in the sun and just took in the splendour of where we were. Then we went inside. My oh my. I’m not particularly religious, but did go to a Catholic school for 7 years and know a decent amount about the religion. This gave me the chance to teach Akib everything that I knew as we walked around- for a Muslim he was so excited and inspired by everything- he was like a little puppy for the whole time we were in there.
I even got to send a postcard to my parents in Vatican City. Hopefully I managed the address right, I was a bit worried about that part.
Tuesday:Travelling back. I felt the trip was long enough, we fit so much in four full days and walked the city. I really think we walked more than some of the Project Weeks that specifically went to walk the countryside and such.
Walk to Metro, Bus to Airport, Rome-Bristol, Bus back to AC.
We arrived at 7:30, ah to be home. In the time that we’d been gone all of the Daffodils had blossomed. It was beautiful.
Now rest.
Food:
As a short note, the food was good in Rome but if I’m perfectly honest I’ve had yummier Italian food outside of Italy. This is probably because we were students, in big groups not looking to go to overly posh restaurants and were in extremely touristy areas where things were already overpriced. So yes, the food was good- but maybe I should have followed a guidebook more religiously? Nah.
