July 2016

Day 1:

Renee & I landed in Rome and the first thing that I thought of was…the weather. It was HOT. So much hotter than Athens, Greece. So far, that was the hottest weather I’ve ever experience. I did not like it at all. I sweat easily and damn, I sweated a lot in Rome.

A culture shock for me was seeing that the street signs are built into the buildings. There’s no pole signs at the corner of the street. We stayed at NikaHostel and it was very difficult to find. The doorway was tiny. There was no banner and again, the sign was very small. It was difficult to open the door. We needed to buzz in but no one was responding or the machine wasn’t working at that time. We didn’t have wifi or data so we had to go to a market/nearby restaurant to find wifi to call and text our Host to open the door. Once we finally had the door open, we found out that there were no elevator to our floors. We carried up around suitcase sweating like crazy. The heat and our exhaustion got the best of us.

We waited in the dining room for a couple of minutes until our room was set. We checked in and relaxed for a bit, then explored the Colosseum and the ruins nearby. It was about a 15 minute walk from our stay.

This was right outside our Hostel.

Literally Rome-ing in sweat.

This was my favorite sightseeing in Rome: Piazza Venezia / Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.

It looks like a mini White House! I remember turning the corner and my jaw dropped. Before going to Rome, I didn’t even know that this existed. Not a lot of people talk about it, in my opinion. It was free to go in and explore. There was also a view at the top, but you had to pay for it. We didn’t go up there unfortunately. But other than that, I really enjoyed this place.

There were a lot of historic figures inside but this one caught my attention! Haha there was a free Barbie musuem/exhibit! So cool!

Pretty! Then, we saw the Roman Forum.

Then we went back to our hostel and rested. We then went to a restaurant/bar to watch the futbol game. We sat next to a nice and cute couple; one was from South Africa and the other was from the Ukraine. They just got married in Venice. We wished we got a photo with them.

The decorations inside the restaurant was super cool too!

It was awesome to see so many people dining outside while watching the futbol game! That’s literally the Colosseum in the background. How cool!

Day 2:

We woke up early to go to the Trevi Fountain. The metro was packed and super sweaty. It felt like a pack of sardines in there.

We were bummed that the Spanish Steps were closed down.

We got to the Trevi Fountain early and couldn’t go down yet (it wasn’t even open) – and the fountain is not even on. They were cleaning and collecting all of the money in a huge net. The Trevi Fountain is a lot smaller than I thought. It looked huge in the Lizzie McGuire movie and photos haha. We took a gazillion photos here haha. We had to get our best shot ofcourse!

*Hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of*

Once the gate opened, we rushed to the front to take photos without having anyone in our way/background haha. Ofcourse, we made wishes too! #SpartanUp – we wore our college colors and didn’t even planned that!

Then after the Trevi Fountain, we had pasta for lunch.

We went back to our hostel, rested, and went back to the Trevi Fountain in the evening. It was just as pretty, but MUCH cooler at night.

& we ended our day/night with Gelato, yum!

Day 3:

The next day, we went to Vatican City to go to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was beautiful. I wore a tank top that day but brought a scarf to cover my shoulders.

I watched Renee prayed and it brought tears to my eyes. When she was done praying, we both hugged each other, teared up, and had a moment together. It was halfway of the trip and we knew we were almost home to see our families. It’s a memory that I won’t forget. Renee, if you’re reading this, love ya, girl!

After this, we walked upon Castel Sant’Angelo. We didn’t go inside because it was 10 euros – I believe. So we took pictures outside and walked over bridges.

The castle looks like a mocha chocolate cake to me.

After we crossed the bridge, we randomly turned at a random road and ran into…

The infamous Gelateria Del Teatro! One of my friends, Elli, recommend it and we weren’t even searching for it! The gelato was so good but it melted so fast.

Thank goodness Rome had a lot of fresh and free water fountains everywhere! It was seriously a life saver. We washed our hands from the sticky gelato and refilled our water bottles.

Then we walked to the plaza and called it a day 🙂

Day 4:

On our last day we went to the Colosseum, went sovenior shopping, and ofcourse, we can’t leave without eating some pizza!

Tip: Order your tickets online or go super early in the morning to get them, so you don’t have to wait in a realllly long line at the Colosseum.

Thank you Rome. You were hot. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I would go back here. And if I do, I will not go during the summer months, it’s way too hot. You can finish Rome in about 2 full days. Other than that, everyone was nice!

As always, thank you for visiting Vivian’s Ventures. Have you been to Rome? If so, tell me in the comments/reply section of your experience. What should I do there if I go back? If you haven’t been, tell me what you are planning to do there. Any questions or comments, let me know.