Rome in the Winter feels like Spring…
Rome was one of those cities you don’t automatically fall in love with, but it grows on you. Rome is the kind of city full of art (by art I mean graffiti). The walls and the trains are covered in this form of art. Don’t get me wrong. Rome has some very talented artists, they are just displaying their art in the wrong places.
I arrived in Rome a couple of days before Christmas. It was the place where my brother and I were finally going to meet up. I was to go from one airport on the other side of town to an airport that was literally minutes from the coast. As soon as I arrived in Rome I hopped on a bus that would take me to the train station called Termini. This station is very impressive and the organization is out of this world. My bus ride to this train station was about an hour-long. Upon arriving I managed to track down a ticket sales person (the lady in the Tabacci booth) and I was soon on my way to meet up with my brother.
The tain ride was nice and smooth. I had left Paris at 4 am and I was tired. From a combination of trying to figure out what the heck the French had done to getting help to get to my destination, I was pooped. So I took a nap on the train. When I woke up, we were arriving at the airport.
When I arrived at the meeting spot I realized that there was a lack of communication from my family, my brother and myself. My sister told my brother to stay inside the terminal until I arrived, but I was not landing in that airport so I could not go into the terminal. I thought my brother was in the terminal so I had the airport page him a couple of times in hopes that he was paying attention and would come to the booth where I was at. After waiting for close to an hour, I went hopped on the shuttle and went to the arrivals hall of the airport. It looked like a ghost town. I was the only one there! Then I heard a sound and it happened to be the lady from United Airlines putting some things away. I begged her to check if my brother had hopped on that plane or not, and he had. She was so nice she even allowed me to use their phone and call my sister in Sicily so she could get along my brother via his iPhone. And it worked.
All along, he had been sitting a couple of feet away from me eating a pizza. I described what the lady in the information looked like to my sister and to tell my brother to wait next to her. I hopped back on the shuttle bus in complete relief knowing that when I would get to my spot I would see my brother. So I ran through the airport to meet my brother and the lady had switched shifts with a lady that was the complete opposite of what I had described. So I just stood there… and then I heard my name. Coming from the crowd was my brother. I had a complete sigh of relief and I just had to plant him a hug.
We were finally on this backpacking trip that took me a year to plan. We hopped on the train back to Termini and off to explore Rome.
As soon as we arrived at Termini we took our things to our hostel (free breakfast and dinner). Let me just tell you… every where you go people are smoking. I have a theory that as soon as children are popped out they are given some smokes. Everywhere you go, people are smoking and fill the room with a cloud of smoke.
Like I said… we went off to explore. And this is what we found.
Nuns taking pictures. It was funny to see how instead of using their focus on their cameras, they would actually move back and forth to get that perfect shot.
Of course, we had to check out the Colosseum which was something impressive if you get the tour. If you just go by yourself and have not done your research then it is just a Colosseum, so I recommend to get the tour.
The Vatican. Something very impressive, yet lacking in the Spirit. It is truly something impressive to see because it is something made by mankind. It is where Michelangelo’s La Pieta rests and where the Pope comes out to bless the Vatican on Wednesdays.
Random Fact of the Day: Did you know that there is only ONE painting in St. Peter’s Basilica? All but one of the art pieces look like paintings but are actually mosaics.
It is at the Fontana di Trevi where I wished for Whitney to say “yes” when I got back.
For more pictures check out the short slide show with more shots of Rome.
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Alex Castro
