14 April - 18 April: On the search for pasta sauce

First stop: ROME, ITALY

For Semana Santa, I started my trip with three other girls in Rome, Italy. We were so excited to go everywhere and anywhere. My first impression of Rome was that it was an interesting mix of touristy and historical. There would be people from all over the world, with their sun hats and cameras in the fondo of beautiful historical ruins. 
I believe we were very good with hitting all the hot spots. Furthermore, we were very lucky because we happened to be traveling during "Culture Week in Rome," where all the municipal and state museums and monuments are free. We saved a lot of money this way. 

On the evening of our very first day, we immediately headed out to find the Trevi Fountain, after walking past the Spanish steps (which I had no idea, but is the widest staircase in Europe). My host mother told me that the fountain will be located in a very nonchalant, un-monumental area, and it was true. We were using this very detailed map and we were in an area with tall buildings and narrow streets. Then we turned the corner, and there it was! Finding important sites was like this a lot in Rome because the city was filled with them at every turn of the sidewalk. 

Trevi Fountain

Close-up

 Did you know that about $350 in worth of coins are thrown into the fountain each day?! They use the money for the needy. It shows just the incredible number of the masses of people that visit the fountain each day. I think that's also why there's always police standing around there..so people don't jump into the fountain to steal coins. jaja It's said that people must make two wishes for the fountain. The first is a personal wish and the second is to ensure that you will return to Rome. We didn't do it this day, but we made the two wishes on our last day.


DAY 2:The next morning, we walked around and ran into what we thought was a really huge and pretty building, which turned out to be National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, a very sacred place. We understood the importance of it when we got yelled at by security by trying to take a piggy-back picture in front of it.

We entered the Pantheon, which is this tall domed building. We were ashamed to realize that we did not know anything about the place, but we found out it was built to be a temple to all the gods. The center of the ceiling opens into the air. Kings are also buried here.

for lunch, we had good pizza again!! @

<-- Piazza Navona is a plaza that attracts a lot of artists from all over the city. We saw tons of painters selling their artwork and people getting their portraits or caricatures drawn. But truthfully, I thought it would be a prettier plaza from what I've heard, but it wasn't that gorgeous. After roaming around for a bit more, we headed back to our apartment. Except the store that we planned on going to was closed, so we didn't have pasta sauce! So we walked into a pizza store and, after much confusion and mix of words, asked if we could buy their sauce. We weren't able to, so we made do with a can of tomato chunks and we added flour, wine, salt and sugar. We also had wine and wine cookies to crumble over our meal! It was pretty good for our first cooking. Afterward, we went next door to buy two scoops of gelato each.

our very decent home-cooked meal =)

Pickpocketing: We were always warned, every city, every country we went, about pickpockets. By this point, we could have turned a blind ear to all the advice, but luckily we were on the more paranoid side. On our way home, the three girls and I rode a very crowded bus. I had both my hands grabbing the handles to avoid losing my balance. Before I knew it, the guy in front of me, who had his coat over his hand, had gone past the button on my messenger purse and had already opened the zipper all the way. I caught him just as he was trying to grab something in my purse. I was freaked out and told my friends, "Hey, I think this guy just tried to pickpocket me." Another friend, who becomes audacious during these situations, grabbed the side of his pants pocket and yelled, "I think this guy has your camera!" She proceeded to stick her hands down the guy's pocket and took out a cellphone, that wasn't mine. I followed suit and stuck my hand in his  pocket too, and took out a wad of 50 euros and yelled, "I don't think this is mine!" The guy took his belongings and stood there awkwardly until the bus stopped at the next stop. It was scary and funny, but...always watch out for pickpockets.


DAY 3: This day was a big day for us. We were to visit the COLOSSEUM!! All of us were so excited. The one uncomfortable thing about Rome was the subway system. There were only two lines, red and silver that ran on opposite diagonals across the city. The bus system was too confusing for us to learn within two days, so we opted to walk. Sometimes it was hard, but the exercise was good for our gelato-ridden bodies. Because it was free, the line wrapped around the Colosseum. But the people were let in pretty quickly and before we knew it, we were inside the Colosseum, the largest amphitheater ever built in the Roman Empire. It was the site of gladiator battles, executions, and performances. It seated up to 50,000 spectators. It was huge. 

Now, a lot of the amphitheater is ruined. The seats and stairs are so weathered down so that now they look like slides. A whole side of the wall is gone. But they're doing a lot of reconstruction and they even have a mini museum area on the second floor, so I'm curious to see what it will be like in the future! 

          After enacting a couple of scenes from the Gladiator, we met up with a friend and her friends and ate paninis at a famous, hole-in-the-wall kind of place. I ordered the panini with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled chicken, and red peppers. It was delicious...all the flavors coming together, mmmmmMM mm. 


As a closing to our day, we piggy-backed on a group of visiting Spanish students and got into the Capitolini Museum, which is located in the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed and created by Michelangelo. The museum held the famous statues of the Capitoline Wolf suckling the siblings Romulus and Remus. It is said that Romulus founded the republic before it became an empire.


So, what is SPQR? We saw these initials or acronyms everywhere, from engravings on Ancient Ruins to government walls and even on manhole sewage covers. I finally looked it up when I got home and it stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, which means the Senate and its People, the ancient republic government of Rome. 


DAY 4: Time to meet the pope! We got up at 8 AM and left the house by 9 to go to the Vatican to meet the Pope. We were careful to dress somewhat conservatively, because we heard that we wouldn't be allowed in if we were scantily clad. On our ride towards the Vatican, we kept wondering to ourselves what kind of Spanish accent this group of chicos on the subway was speaking with. We guessed all the regions of Spain, tried to also identify the flag they were holding up, and gave up. Of course, we realized how dumb we were when we found our they were from Mexico. We also wondered for the longest time what were these large plants that people were carrying into the Vatican, and of course, we happened to be visiting during Palm Sunday, and everyone was carrying palms. It's good to be aware and knowledgeable about stuff.

view of the Vatican from afar

Thousands of people came to see the Pope. It's amazing how much influence he has on so many people. We each received guides for the session and it was a pretty thick booklet. It was an experience seeing all the speeches and just the masses of people. 

ending the day with drinks

In the evening we finally found the aperitivos place, Freni e Frizoioni, that we were looking for! Aperitivos are appetizers, and here we pay for a drink and basically have an appetizer buffet. It was sooo good. You could tell it was a popular place because there were lines of people waiting to get in.






DAY 5: Move-out! We packed all our backpacks and suitcases, moved out of the apartment, and set out to explore Rome for one last day. We couldn't miss the Sistine Chapel so we headed in that direction. Before we could even see the chapel, we came across a very very long line. After passing time with more gelato, we finally got in, four hours later. Maybe it was because the long wait and the built-up anticipation, but the Sistine Chapel didn't astound us. We did rush pass the Vatican museum just to reach the Chapel. It was very beautiful and it was so cool to be able to look upon Michelangelo's artwork; I suppose we were very tired and whatnot.

This last day was a rush of trying to do everything we weren't able to. For example, after the Sistine Chapel, we trekked across the city to find the best coffee in Italy. 

Italy's version of the iced coffee

Then we trekked across the city again and had our last meal at a family place called Osteria da Olindo, where we saw the mom in the kitchen cooking our last pasta. It was home-made and delicious, like all the pasta and pizza we ate in Italy.



Rome was a feast for all the senses.  I loved hearing Italian on the streets. It almost sounded like music, with its melodic ups and downs. It was strange looking upon the same ruins that people walked through a thousand years ago. We came across tourists and languages from all over the world. The food of course, was incredible wherever we went. And I will miss the gelato forever.