Touring Rome

My roommates didn't wake up until 2 today so I spent my morning catching up with Ken and hanging out in the apartment. It was pretty fun. Around 4, when everyone was up and showered, three of us (Corina, Joana and I) went out to explore Rome. Our adventure started when we were waiting for the bus. Of course, the bus we want is always the one that comes 45 minutes late. That's one thing I am quickly learning about Italians: they have no sense of what it means to be on time and lines are non-existent. .I guess you can tell they are always late by the way they drive. Stop signs and stop lights are mere suggestions as are speed limits. It's terrifying and a little annoying. The lack of lines is very strange for me. You can find them at tourist attractions but in the bar...no way. You just crowd around and wait until someone helps you. It doesn't bother me as much as it bothers other people but I do not like to see someone who came in behind me get served first. Oh well, it's something I have to get used to when living in Italy. I found this picture online this morning and I thought it was funny and very true.

First we stopped at the Colosseum to take pictures and act like tourists. Then we went to the forum and took as many pictures as we could since we didn't feel like paying to go in. We decided to actually go into the Colosseum and the forum on the last Sunday of the month because the entrance fee, to the Colloseum at least, is free.

Then, we wandered through Rome, ran into some IES friends and ended up at the Trevi fountain. Of course, we took more pictures and got some gelato. It was delicious! I got lemon and chocolate gelato (as usual). While we were sitting by the Trevi fountain an italian man took our picture and was telling us all about how much he loves america and he told us we should visit his library. He also told us that if we studied at his library we would learn to speak perfect italian. He was an interesting guy but he didn't want to stop talking to us!

After that, we wandered around and went in shops until a lady yelled at us and told us we couldn't touch all the clothes. I'm not sure how we were supposed to see what was there unless we pulled it out and looked at it but whatever, we left. We wandered some more and ended up at the Spanish steps. We didn't mean to, we were trying to get back to our apartment but it was a very pleasant surprise. We took some more pictures and decided we really needed to get back to our apartment and make dinner (it was getting close to 7:30).

We found our way back to the IES center and took the bus back to our apartment. Of course, we can never make it back to our apartment before getting some food so we stopped at a little pizzeria and got some pizza. It was absolutely delicious (diced tomatoes and mozzarella).

It was a pretty busy day so I should take a nap! But before I do, here are the rest of my pictures:
Touring Rome