We successfully made our trip from Florence to Rome with no problem. (Sorry for the delayed update, but our previous hostel only had 2 computers that offered internet, and no way to connect to it with our own computer). After arriving we quickly made our arrangements for our trip to Venice at the train station, and then made the long trek to our hostel, with our 40lb backpacks on. It's always a blast trying to find hostels with these things on our backs. We finally found our hostel after a nice 25 minute walk, and 5minutes of us staring around at where we thought the hostel should be, just to find a small sign telling us the door we were facing, was it. Once we got inside, we had to walk up 3 floors to get to the hostel doors. (The hostel was similar to the one in Nice where it was just a portion of the building occupying the 2nd and 4th floors). Also, we had to walk up 3 flights of stairs to get to the 2nd floor, because every building in Europe seems to start at floor 0, instead of 1. We went inside and were told that the check in wasn’t until 3pm and since it was only 1, we’d have to occupy ourselves for the 2 hours in-between. We ate some delicious pizza and then sat in a park with bums looking at a map until we could go back and check in (sitting with bums with Alex’s idea. He wanted to know what his people were like in Europe). We returned back to the hostel to find out that our room would be on the 4th floor. Since there was major construction going on inside the building (which was a joy to wake up to each day), we’d have to take the death trap elevator to our room. The elevator was wide enough for one human being and deep enough for about 3. It had a cage door that you opened, that was then followed by double wooden panel doors you had to enter to get into the elevator. We finally arrived to our room and put our things down once our dance with death was over on the ride up. We opted to take the stairs down, since nobody was actively sledging paint off the walls or ripping up the stair tiles. They saved these activities for 8am every morning. We made our way down the stairs and out into Rome. We decided to walk to the Spanish steps where we were greeted by several gypsies throwing magnets in the air that made a horrible buzzing, popping sound (which was supposed to make us want to buy them), and also by a man squealing while playing guitar. Neither noise was very pleasant. The steps were immense and amazing to say the least. There were tons of people everywhere sitting around and enjoying beers and wine. There was also a large group of people wearing Arsenal jerseys, since apparently they were playing Roma that night in the Champion’s League (Soccer). Once we had time to take pictures and serve as the background in several strangers’ pictures, we moved onwards to the Trevi Fountains.
The fountains had just as many people as the steps did, and were equally impressive. We each took turns throwing pennies backwards, over our shoulders, so that we would return to the fountains swiftly (or so I, David, believe is why we were doing it). We left the fountain after a little while and made the hike back to our hostel. Luckily for us, our hostel had a free pasta party each night (we only attended once) that we decided to try out the first night. The pasta wasn’t amazing tasting, but it was free, so it tasted good enough. We had also bought a bottle of 99cent wine (Don Simon), and drank that as well. After the “party”, we returned to our room where we met our 4th roommate and had a nice, short awkward conversation that included us telling her our names and that we were from the US, and her telling us she was from the Czech Republic. After the exchange, we decided to call it a night and go to bed.
Day 2 began with our roommate saying good bye and us never seeing her again as she parted ways with us as soon as she could it seemed. After we got over the grieving process of saying goodbye to a dear friend, we decided to go eat the free breakfast (bread and sugarless cereal) that was provided by the hostel. Once our stomachs were filled by the nutrients and minerals that are associated with sugarless cereal, bread, and jam, we headed off on a full day of site seeing. We got to The Colosseum around 11:30am and found out that it was closed until 1pm. We decided to walk around the outside of the Colosseum, as well have fake chariot races at the Circus Maxim. After the intense races, we refueled our energy with some pizza, and were ready for the Colosseum round 2.
Once we got back to The Colosseum for our second go around, we decided to jump on an English speaking tour of it, as well as the Roman Forum and the Palantine Hill. We couldn’t resist the tour since we were constantly being bothered by the tour promoters, party promoters for backpackers (PARTY AT THE COLOSSEUM), and overweight, C Grade gladiator impersonators. *A side note, Brittany told us all about these body builders who posed as gladiators around The Colosseum who everyone took pictures with. Well apparently they aren’t around at this time of the year, because all we saw were old, fat, short guys wearing sweatshirts under their fake armor and pretending to be gladiators. We (Alex and I) of course made a few comments towards Brittany about what she knew of body builders, and what they really looked liked. * Our tour began with our guide telling us all about the history of The Colosseum as he pointed out where Napoleon had rebuilt part of it, and how an earth quake had damaged part of the upper wall around half of arena, etc. He also began his quest to be one of the funniest, dirtiest, tour guides any of us had ever had the pleasure of being around. His Italian accent also helped him in this department. He then began telling us how only 6 virgins attended the gladiator games, and pulled a girl up from our group to show us what a virgin would have looked like. He then pointed to a lady in her 50’s and said, “Not you. You haven’t been a virgin for a long time”. Needless to say, we all laughed and comments like these flowed from his mouth for the entire hour long tour. As we entered the Colosseum, he pointed out to the “virgins” of the group to “Look at the Penis on the wall. It is a very Nice Penis. Look, look,” (Hence our entry’s title). He also liked to commonly high five one of the men in our tour (who decided he would answer all questions) when the answer was “Women.” This was the answer to the following questions: “Who wasn’t allowed to sit down and had to stand up on the top tier of The Coliseum?” and “Who wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom and got doggy bags instead?” Each time the guy in our group answered “Women,” our tour guide liked to high five him and say “YES, and that’s how it should be today,” in his sleazy Italian accent. Hilarious.
Our tour turned out to be hilarious, and educational. Unfortunately, our time with the amazingly funny tour guide ended after an hour, and we went on the second part of our tour of the Palantine Hill and Roman Forum with a Scottish tour guide who looked a lot like Christian Bale. He was funny as well and very in the know when it came to Roman History. His tour was very good, but unfortunately, did not have as many highlights as the previous tour. After our second tour was over, we stayed in the Roman Forum for a little while longer, before we got kicked out once it closed. We then headed back towards the hostel, and had another pizza dinner on the way. We (and by we, I mean me, David) also bought some Peroni, a local beer, on the way home and drank that as we messed around in the hostel’s common room & crappy internet. The day had been pretty long and tiring, so we went to bed shortly afterwards.
The fountains had just as many people as the steps did, and were equally impressive. We each took turns throwing pennies backwards, over our shoulders, so that we would return to the fountains swiftly (or so I, David, believe is why we were doing it). We left the fountain after a little while and made the hike back to our hostel. Luckily for us, our hostel had a free pasta party each night (we only attended once) that we decided to try out the first night. The pasta wasn’t amazing tasting, but it was free, so it tasted good enough. We had also bought a bottle of 99cent wine (Don Simon), and drank that as well. After the “party”, we returned to our room where we met our 4th roommate and had a nice, short awkward conversation that included us telling her our names and that we were from the US, and her telling us she was from the Czech Republic. After the exchange, we decided to call it a night and go to bed.
Day 2 began with our roommate saying good bye and us never seeing her again as she parted ways with us as soon as she could it seemed. After we got over the grieving process of saying goodbye to a dear friend, we decided to go eat the free breakfast (bread and sugarless cereal) that was provided by the hostel. Once our stomachs were filled by the nutrients and minerals that are associated with sugarless cereal, bread, and jam, we headed off on a full day of site seeing. We got to The Colosseum around 11:30am and found out that it was closed until 1pm. We decided to walk around the outside of the Colosseum, as well have fake chariot races at the Circus Maxim. After the intense races, we refueled our energy with some pizza, and were ready for the Colosseum round 2.
Once we got back to The Colosseum for our second go around, we decided to jump on an English speaking tour of it, as well as the Roman Forum and the Palantine Hill. We couldn’t resist the tour since we were constantly being bothered by the tour promoters, party promoters for backpackers (PARTY AT THE COLOSSEUM), and overweight, C Grade gladiator impersonators. *A side note, Brittany told us all about these body builders who posed as gladiators around The Colosseum who everyone took pictures with. Well apparently they aren’t around at this time of the year, because all we saw were old, fat, short guys wearing sweatshirts under their fake armor and pretending to be gladiators. We (Alex and I) of course made a few comments towards Brittany about what she knew of body builders, and what they really looked liked. * Our tour began with our guide telling us all about the history of The Colosseum as he pointed out where Napoleon had rebuilt part of it, and how an earth quake had damaged part of the upper wall around half of arena, etc. He also began his quest to be one of the funniest, dirtiest, tour guides any of us had ever had the pleasure of being around. His Italian accent also helped him in this department. He then began telling us how only 6 virgins attended the gladiator games, and pulled a girl up from our group to show us what a virgin would have looked like. He then pointed to a lady in her 50’s and said, “Not you. You haven’t been a virgin for a long time”. Needless to say, we all laughed and comments like these flowed from his mouth for the entire hour long tour. As we entered the Colosseum, he pointed out to the “virgins” of the group to “Look at the Penis on the wall. It is a very Nice Penis. Look, look,” (Hence our entry’s title). He also liked to commonly high five one of the men in our tour (who decided he would answer all questions) when the answer was “Women.” This was the answer to the following questions: “Who wasn’t allowed to sit down and had to stand up on the top tier of The Coliseum?” and “Who wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom and got doggy bags instead?” Each time the guy in our group answered “Women,” our tour guide liked to high five him and say “YES, and that’s how it should be today,” in his sleazy Italian accent. Hilarious.
Our tour turned out to be hilarious, and educational. Unfortunately, our time with the amazingly funny tour guide ended after an hour, and we went on the second part of our tour of the Palantine Hill and Roman Forum with a Scottish tour guide who looked a lot like Christian Bale. He was funny as well and very in the know when it came to Roman History. His tour was very good, but unfortunately, did not have as many highlights as the previous tour. After our second tour was over, we stayed in the Roman Forum for a little while longer, before we got kicked out once it closed. We then headed back towards the hostel, and had another pizza dinner on the way. We (and by we, I mean me, David) also bought some Peroni, a local beer, on the way home and drank that as we messed around in the hostel’s common room & crappy internet. The day had been pretty long and tiring, so we went to bed shortly afterwards.
New photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/euroexplosion
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