We got to the Seville airport early that thursday morning and it was time for our first ryanair experience. They cause so much freaking stress! They have a very strict carry-on bag restriction, and my little suitcase just barely made the cut. I was still stressed because a woman was coming around with a box that she would put on top of everyone's bags to see if it met the restrictions. Ridiculous, right? And if it's too big, they charge you 35 euros! Somehow I was able to get right by them without checking me.
So after a 3 hour very shaky flight (did I mention ryanair pilots also suck?), we arrived in Rome! It was soo cold and windy! We went straight to our hotel and we were greeted by the awesome manager. He was so helpful! This was the first time any of us have travelled/organized a trip all on our own so we of course had tons of questions for him. He handed us our set of 3 keys (this place was really locked down! Which made us feel very safe). So we went up to the 5th floor where our room was and it was beautiful! There was one double bed that Lindsey and Catherine shared and 2 single beds that Brittany and I had. The bathroom was cute and very clean and we had a balcony terrace! We were in love. And very impressed! Because it was such a nice hotel for such a cheap price! It was even cheaper than some hostels we were looking at! So if anyone is going to Rome, I highly recommend staying at the Euro Quiris Hotel.
Our wonderful hotel room :)
We were very hungry so we checked out the restaurant across the street called Andrea's. Here, we were served by Andrea himself! He was a cute Italian man that didn't speak English. Catherine ended up ordering for us which she didn't mean to do but suddenly he took the menus out of our hands and decided what he was going to serve us! Let me just say: I know it's common sense that the food in Italy is amazing, but this food was INCREDIBLE! I thought I had died and gone to heaven. He kept bringing out dish after dish for our appetizer. First was the bread with a very spicy dipping sauce. Then the wine. Then the thinly sliced ham on top of fresh mozzerella (definitely my favorite!) He also brought out a plate of 2 different types of pizza, a vegetable plate, and pepperoni/sausage things. And when I didn't think my stomach could expand anymore, out came more bread and the main dish! It was a fettucini with a creamy/cheesy sauce and bacon bits. Absolutely delicious. And Andrea was so friendly, we just couldn't say no to all the food he wanted to give us! His wife also worked there and he had an adorable little granddaughter running around. It was a true Italian family establishment and such a nice welcome into this lovely country!
Our delicious dinner!
That night we walked around apparently the bad part of town (it seemed like Rome’s china town). Then we went back to the hotel with the intention of taking an hour nap. We fell asleep at 7:30 pm and ended up waking up at 10 am the next day!! We slept for freaking 14 hours. I was soo tired the next day because I overslept.
So what was first on our site-seeing itinerary for Rome you ask? Why, the Colosseum! When you walk out of the metro, BAM the colosseum is right there! Quote of the day: “Dude. We’re in the Colo-freakin-sseum!” We were immediately approached by a guy who convinced us to sign up with his tour group. For 20 euros, we were able to skip the 45 min wait to get in, paid for our 12 euro entrance fee, got a tour, and got a tour of the roman forum as well! I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. Afterwards, we walked around and found a Michael Jackson impersonator! Then we ate at a restaurant that sucked. Our food was served on paper plates and my ravioli was not filling or even that amazing. We probably should’ve read the sign that it was a “cafeteria/snack bar” and it was written in English! Total tourist trap.
Inside the Colosseum!
The Roman Forum
Later that night, we decided we were still hungry. So we went back to our first restaurant across the street for a late night meal. Right when we walked in we were immediately welcomed and remembered! We sat down at the same table as before and we started off with some wine and bread again. This time we got to order for ourselves =) but silly us for thinking the main course was all we would be getting! We were in Italy, where they lovee to feed us. And of course we knew we’d be paying for everything Andrea brought out, but we just could not say no to his smiling face! So he brought out pizza yet again. Then our main dishes: I got the classic spaghetti! Sooooo good. I can’t express how good this food was. For dessert, he gave us all tira misu! Yum yum yum. And then…his creepy friends showed up. Well, actually only one was creepy. The first one, in his 40s, was very nice. But he opened up a pretty heavy topic out of nowhere: his wife died a few months before out of the blue. One minute she just hit the floor and was dead. It was so sad! Then another guy showed up (the creepy one). His name was David, balding, and in his 40s, and was verrry creepily hitting on Catherine the whole time. I was oblivious to most of this until the end (probably because Andrea kept bringing out wine after wine for us girls. 3 bottles!). In the other room there were drunken Australians singing “that’s amore.” But they left earlier than us. Actually we were there until 2:30am and we knew it was time to bolt the second David’s creepiness got out of hand.
Me and Brittany with Andrea haha
The next day we started off with the Spanish Steps where we ate some gelato and enjoyed the beautiful day. While we were there, we felt ourselves slowly getting surrounded by European boys. One by one they came flocking to our area. The walls started closing in and suddenly one was almost brushing shoulders with me! We were like seriously, out of all the steps on this thing, you choose the ones near us?! If we didn’t leave when we did, I guarantee that they would have made a complete circle around us haha.
Lovin' me some gelato!
Enjoying life on the Spanish steps.
Us surrounded by our circle of Italian men
Next stop on the list: the Trevi Fountain! It was beautifullll definitely one of my favorite spots in Rome. It was very crowded, but we managed to find an area that we could take all of our pictures. Afterwards, we travelled around stopping at Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Campo di Fiore, and crossed the Tiber River into the Trastavere area to find a place to have dinner. We came across a nice and reasonably priced place. I had a nasty salad (remind me not to order a salad at a restaurant until I’m back in the states. I always forget they don’t use dressing. My senora makes yummy salad. I’ll just stick to hers). But my lasagna was delicious! After dinner, we got lost for a pretty long time. But Lindsey, Brittany, and I were so enthralled in our conversation about 90s music and Disney movies, that we didn’t even notice we were in a sketchy part of town until way later! But we made it back to the hotel eventually, no worries.
Making a wish! ;)
That night Lindsey, Catherine, and I did a pub crawl with a group that this guy at the Spanish steps told us about. We met outside the Colosseum and talked to these 2 australian guys (one was super annoying and would not shut up. The other one was cool) and their Italian friend whose name was FABRIZIO!!! (titanic anyone?!) I can’t believe I met an Italian guy named Fabrizio. My life is complete. We went to 2 clubs, and our immediate thoughts were that Spanish nightlife is so much better. Which is completely true, nothing compares. But it was cool to see how the romans party! And let me tell you, people aren’t kidding when they say Italian men are the worst of them all! They are seriously vultures! There was not a moment when we weren’t completely surrounded by guys trying to dance with you and grab you. It was a bit much.
Getting attacked by the vultures!
After only a short few hours of sleep, we woke up on our last day in Rome =( We went to Vatican City! So the last Sunday every month, it’s free entrance, so we knew it would be crowded. But we never imagined it would be as crowded as it actually was! The line was wrapped allllll around the walls. We never would have got in if we waited in that line. So we were approached by a girl who sold us on a tour of everything as well as being able to skip that huge line all for 20 euros! She told us that “Italians love their free stuff” so apparently every time the Vatican is free, 90 percent of that line are Italians! We still had to wait quite a bit to get in. But once we were in, we got a tour of the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, and we went inside St. Peter’s. I would love to go back when it’s NOT a free Sunday so that mobs of people aren’t pushing me. So word of advice: do NOT go to the Vatican on a free Sunday (or any Sunday for that matter probably) because you will end up having to pay anyways just to skip the huge ass line!
Only part of the line to get in.
Looking rather tired in the Vatican Museum.
Vatican City
Then we found a restaurant to eat at where we had an awesome waiter named Carlos who loved us because we spoke Spanish. He was from Columbia. I had one last yummy plate of real Italian spaghetti and then he brought us some free tira misu and limoncello shots =) Then we got our last Italian gelato and ate it by the Trevi Fountain- sooo pretty at night! Anddd then it started to POUR. And I realized I left my umbrella at the restaurant! So we went back and there was a group of workers from the restaurant standing out front smoking. I was looking down but then realized a guy was right in front of me so I looked up, and he was using my umbrella! So I stopped and said, “oh. That’s my umbrella!!” He was a man probably in his 30s, smoking, and holding a rainbow polka-dotted umbrella! Haha.
So it was miserable getting back to the hotel in the pouring rain. My suede boots are not cut out for that kind of weather! But we made it back and realized we didn’t have a way to get to the airport (our flight was at 6am so we wanted to get there at 3:30). A cab would have cost 70 euros! So we were like uhh lets find a different way. So the 4 of us literally ran all over the train station trying to find a way to the airport. Catherine and I went on a hunt for the bus that was supposedly really cheap and takes your right to the airport. After running allll over we finally found it! however, we met these really nice English people and they told us they were about to get on the last bus (at 9:30!) and they said the next bus would leave at 4:30am so we took the risk and did that.
We napped for a few hours and then went to the bus station at 4:15 only to find out that the 4:30 bus was sold out! But the next one was leaving at 4:50. We started to freak out because it was cutting it reallyyyyy close to when our plane would leave! But there was nothing else we could do. The bus came and only took 25 min to get to the airport. We ran into the airport because we only had an hour! And low and behold: a hugeeee line for security. I seriously thought I was going to have a panic attack. We split up into 2s so that 2 of us would wait in line for security while the other 2 went to go get our passports checked. This definitely saved time, but the clock kept ticking and we were nowhere near getting our bags checked. We asked what happens if we miss our flight (because right then, it was looking like that was going to happen), and the rude ryanair guy said our ticket would get tossed out and we would have to buy a new one. He didn’t know when the next flight to spain was and he said it would be 100 euros to replace. Hell no! so I was getting even more stressed. But then angels must have appeared or something because while we were waiting for security, Lindsey heard a security guard shout something about the flight to Madrid! It turned out he was letting everyone on our flight to the front of security because we were about to miss our flight! HALLELUJAH!!!!! So we went through security and we made it onto our flight to madrid! From Madrid, we found out the next bus to Seville wouldn’t leave for another 4 hours. So we chilled in a café and then boarded our bus at 2. There was a homeless guy on there who REIKED!!! I thought I was going to throw up and I would have if I had to sit next to him. Thank god I didn’t! but the bus took about 7 hours and then we were home sweet home in sevilla =)
6 a.m.: boarding our plane home. THANK GOD.
That was definitely a trip to remember! Italy was incredible and I would love to go back! But maybe when it’s a bit warmer.
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