Rome, Italy

When buying tickets to Rome, we noticed that each day there were two trains that were about 4 times cheaper than the other trains. Turns out that these are “regional trains” that stop more frequently and weren’t going to have aircon…. but hello?!?!? We spent 16 hours on buses in Nepal that would trump any train air-con or not! So we bought the cheap tickets, and crossed our fingers. As the train approached we noticed the windows in every car but two were wide open… we boarded one with closed windows and whalah! We had a whole section of aircon it to ourselves!

That night we headed straight for the Coliseum area to find a pub to watch the Italy soccer team play Germany in the Eurocup. We were pleasantly surprised to find ample options of outside big screens and with Italy’s victory, the streets were in a roar of excitement, filled with scooters honking and people hanging out of cars waving Italian flags. It only takes a few steps outside of the Coliseum metro stop to realize just how close the ancient sites of Rome are to the city center. It’s a jaw-dropping experience to see the Coliseum up close, especially at night with soccer fans rallying around it.

For the classic tourist sites (Trevi fountain, St Paul’s Cathedral, Vatican City, etc…) we did a double take by visiting them during the day, had a siesta with gelato, and then went back to them in the evening to see them lit up. The evening walk was much cooler, and more impressive.

Just walking around Rome and bumping into deep archeological digs or humongous columns could have kept us busy for days; however, Roma had an additional plan for keeping us busy. We rented a room just outside of the city center and ended up with a long and interesting tale regarding our host’s daughter’s school’s English program’s foreign tutor. In short what initially sounded like a rather peculiar request by our host turned out to be fun story that we’ll share with you over a drink sometime.