on the battlefields of rome dec 2010

So, it's been just about a month into grad school and so far, everything is not as bad as I expected to be. Sure, I'm busy, but I don't really mind the busy-ness. While grad school is taking over my life, it's not kicking my butt. I can complain about how short the weekends are, but I can't complain that school is boring. At all. At least my 8 am class isn't bad at all. I mean, it's nothing like kickboxing class, but hey, what's more interesting than talking about weapons of mass destruction at 8am? (I'm supposed to be writing my 10 page paper as well as a 5 pg paper for French.)

Despite my...... busy-ness, I'm going to make some time to repost this traveling section to Rome, Italy in Dec 2010 just before Christmas (because I procrastinate like a pro.) 

So, after the first French final exams were over, I was eager to get back to traveling. My finals had ended on the 13th of Dec, and I was leaving for Italy on the 18th. During the first 2 weeks of December, it snowed in Lyon! Super exciting times. It was such a nice feeling to hear the snow crunch under your feet and feel the frosty air on your face. Definitely a feel of Christmas. I just remember eating a lot of chocolate and having mulled wine during those 5 days. 

So, on the 18th, I woke up at an ungodly hour of 3:30am, because our flight to Rome is at 7am. We flew easyjet, which closes their gate 40 minutes before taking off. Because Elliot and I lived really close to each other, and the center point for the 2 of us was the Hotel de ville metro station, we met there at 5am. After taking the metro to the train station at 5:30am, we found out the Rhone express (to get to the airport) wasn't working! Both of us were thinking, crap! We're going to miss our flight. 10 minutes later, some random Lebanese guy jumped up and said, "Hey! I've got a car and I need 3 more people." 

We sprinted after him, me with my large backpack and Elliot with his suitcase. Definitely an epic early morning workout. We were one of the last people to make it on the flight. Our other buddy who was supposed to go with us missed the flight and had to pay another fee to transfer her flight to Monday (giving her only one day in Rome). 

After getting to the airport in Rome, we took a 7 euro bus to get to the center of the city. Fortunately, right next to the bus stop, there was a hotel, so we went inside to ask for directions to our hotel. The hotel we stayed at is called Osimar Hotel. It was a little hard to find, but great rooms and free breakfast for a really good price. After taking a wrong turn, we finally managed to find our hotel, dropped off our stuff, went to lunch and passed out for 2 hours. By the time we felt fully recuperated enough to go out, it was 3pm.  Since it was a sunny day, I insisted on visiting the Vatican city. Metros in Rome are relatively cheap - 1 euro per ticket to be used within 75 minutes.

                                    

We were wondering if we'd see the pope that day:
- Would the Pope look out his window and think.."hmmm, should I grace the people with my presence?"  or
- Would he look out the window and think... " Ugh, those darn tourists!"

At the heart of the Vatican

Near St. Peter's Basilica

They had a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle of the Vatican! We were slightly too late to enter St Peter's Basilica, but we did go to the Vatican museum, which contained the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican museum was basically a maze, with continuous signs pointing to the direction of the Sistine Chapel. Just when we thought we were finally at the Sistine Chapel, the museum taunted us with another hall. Finally we got to the Chapel. Under the dim ceiling, we saw the famous painting of Michaelanglo. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but luckily for me, because I'm so short and flexible, I managed to take some shots of the ceiling. Unfortunately for Elliot, he wasn't able to get much because the moment he even tried to raise his cameras or adjust the lens, we were yelled at by the Italian security personel with his booming Italian-accented English " NO PHOTOS PLEASE." Needless to say, it was hilarious listening to that.

At the Vatican museum

Sistine Chapel

Christmas tree at the museum!

My first gelato of the trip

After leaving the museum, we just wandered the streets of Rome, found some gelato, and bought some roasted chestnuts and had the most delicious Italian food (not to mention it was cheap). This restaurant had the most peculiar translations on their menus. We were laughing so hard that the waitress started giving us weird looks.

Yes, this dish is called, I roar to the Oven.

(Photo courtesy of Elliot)

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a Carrefour to stock up on snacks. Needless to say, we stopped by the wine section out of sheer habit and saw this huge bottle of wine for 2 euros. No hesitation to buy it! The whole entire night, we were watching TV (weird MTV music and film) and kept asking each other "More wine?"

Finally, at the Colosseum!

The second day, we set out to see the Colosseum. (FYI: the breakfast at our hotel was freeeee. And if you want to find cheap hotels, go to: priceline.com. That's how we found all our cheap, yet awesome hotels there.) It was pretty amazing to see it, after reading and learning about it for years. The structure represents Roman architeture and design and could hold up to 50,000 spectators. When I touched the stones, I felt like I was touching history (total nerd status).

This picture makes me look 12. ><

After spending about 2 hours there, it started to rain, so we had no choice but to go back and get our rain gear. I can't remember what we had for lunch, but after getting our umbrellas, we just wandered around the streets of Rome. We did see the Momument to Vittorio Emmanuele II and went on an epic search for the bathroom in a McDonald's. We saw a sign for that and followed it, but it JUST WASN'T THERE. Instead, we stumbled upon the Pantheon. It was a nice surprise but I still had to use the bathroom. So, Elliot was kind enough to tell me to just to go a gelato store near by and he'll buy gelato. Thank goodness for that. Following that we went to the Spanish steps to wait for 2 more friends who were also in France studying abroad. Glorious place to be, and just fantastic views.

Momument to Vittorio Emmanuele II

The Pantheon

The spanish steps

On our last day in Rome, our other buddy finally showed up. She went to the Colosseum, while we went to the park near by called Palestine Hill, where the original seat of government was. Now it is in ruins because it was ransacked by Christians (because there were Pagan temples) and robbers. We later wandered around Rome, went to the Trevi fountain, and had good Italian food once more. I just remember that everyday in Italy, I had a gelato and cappuccino. This whole entire time, for some ridiculous reason I couldn't stop laughing all the time. Maybe I was high from all the sweets and coffee? Who knows?

Palestine Hill

Next to the toilet, there was this

Trevi Fountain

So at the Trevi Fountain, it is said that if you throw a coin in there, you'll find your true love. We all thought we'd chuck a coin in there.

Attempting to drink water from the fountain

NOMNOM

More NOMNOM

Cappuccino

TIRMASU

On the metro of Rome

Rome was definitely an interesting place to be and December was probably the best time to be there (Because there weren't that many tourists). I wish we had more time to explore Rome but perhaps next time!  Next stop, Venice!