We came in on a Saturday evening so we started off with the basics , Spanish steps, piazza de popolo, and then made our way to the Trevi fountain. The fountain was closed, completely dry and you aren't allowed to throw coins in, that was a let down. We did have a bit of a heads up from some girls that we met in Naples who had to deal with the let down on arrival. It was a definite bummer.
We went out got some food and then headed to a local bar. Which ended up being more of a complication to find that either of us anticipated. We searched for bars, which mostly resulted in cafes and snack bars, the searched for pubs, drinks and club, latter we realized we should have searched taverna, you live and you learn. Nothing resulted in a decent place so we started to wounded aimlessly. Our hostel was right in the middle of all the great sights but not in a great area for night life. There was nothing close so we wondered around long enough to find a place to get a drink that ended up being like 15 min from our hostel so not to bad, but finding it was an adventure.
Sunday we found out that the Pope makes an appearance when he is in town from his window terrace. He says a few words and then you can say a prayer with hm. I a not Catholic and neither is Andra so neither of us knew the prayer but it was still really cool to be able to see the Pope. For this reason I say that we had good timing in Rome but there are several factors that choose to work against us. After seeing the Pope we went and got a coffee and some lunch before heading into Vatican City, this was dumb. If we would have know you have to go through security and the line grows ver quickly we would have skipped lunch and went straight to the line. We waited in line for 2 hours before we got in and went searching for signs for the Sistine Chapel, that is after all the main attraction that you would wait hours in line for. We followed the crowd into the only chapel that we could see, St Peters. Beautiful and not to be over looked by any means, but we saw no line for the Sistine. Finally I caved and looked it up on my phone, turns out it is closed on Sundays. This is where our bad timing continued. We took advantage of St. Peter's and walked to the top of the dome ever looking Vatican City. All I can say is stairs. There were so many, being slightly closterphobic the never ending spiral stair case that you can't see the being or the end to is a little nerve racking but worth it in the end the view was spectacular.
After spending the majority of our day in lines we planned to go to the coliseum before our train at 11 the filling day. We got to the station at 8 to drop off our bags, this took 45 min. We hustled up stairs to the ticket counter to get our tickets stamped then head over, this took another 45. From the train station the coliseum is 25 min walk, 20 via public transportation and 15 with cab. We spent too much time in line for the second time and didn't have time to see the coliseum! So frustrating! So aside from being able to see the pope Rome was a bit of a let down.
Italy has soooo much to see it is more than you can see in a life time let alone 1 month, and I am very happy for what he have been able to see and experience while we have been here, so I am letting go of the things we missed and focusing on all the among things that we have done and what we are still going to see and do.
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