Tessily: Rome: Day 3!

The next morning I was set on seeing the Coliseum in the daytime, the Pantheon, and Roman Forum. However, there was an over achieving group of people that wanted to take an hour bus to Pompei and see the ruins. With my budget and our time constrictions I passed... and I wanted to relax and enjoy myself instead of rush around town. Also, if I am not going to pay for someone to tell me about volcanic, ashy ruins and mummies, then I am going to be bored and very confused. Not to say I was right... but we had the best day ever on Saturday (and sadly the site closed ten minutes after they finally arrived there.) Sorry not sorry Pompei, we will meet one day I promise!

A group of us set out to see the Coliseum again in the daylight, but along the walk I saw a bakery with a line out the door of real Italians. Granted I had not seen many since my main local interactions were with Malaysian street vendors and Asian kabob shop owners, but I knew this bakery was calling my name. After five minutes of awkwardly standing and disturbing the flow of customers someone came over to help me. I honestly could careless how much anything cost. I just pointed to the best looking pastries and the lady rang me up and sent me on my way. I now refer to that lady as the pastry angel and if I ever see her again I will kiss her feet. Moving on. By the time we got to the Coliseum there was a thirty-minute line, but I was too happy to care. Apparently the best strategy is to buy your ticket at the Pantheon or another tourist site with less of a line so you can hop it by the time you get to the Coliseum.

Breakfast of champions. These were my fresh out of the oven pastries. They had dates and apricots in big one and the little ones were creme puffs. HEAVEN!

Coliseum. I made it!

I kept thinking about my mom every time I saw I column... so this one goes out to you big lady!

My roommate Kara and I.

I loved the Coliseum, but in my mind I thought you could run up the stadium steps, so for anyone wanting to relive a Rocky moment- save it for the Spanish steps. All of the steps/seating has been eroded. Also, the stairs from the first to the second level of the Coliseum are super steep and dangerous for an able bodied twenty-one year old so beware if you have weak knees.

After that we moved onto these ruins that I could honestly say I have never heard of, the Roman Forum, nor did the signs they had there enlighten me on their historical significance. Kara and I were trying very hard to appreciate the ruins, but honestly if the trees and views were not so beautiful I would have rather been eating gelato. The signs literally said this a garden/playing field/path/meeting place - which is lovely, but they lost me because it was just a field with some bricks in a line. Maybe I should have sprung for the guided tour, but I did get some great shots at one of the higher points looking over the city.

Overlooking ROMA solo shot.

Very lovely ruins? African trees? Where was I?

Kara and I being confused at the ruins

This sequence of pictures makes me happy because...

...I look like I am in a girl pop group!

More Trevi fountain love

After sight seeing we passed by the capitol building and Trevi fountain yet again while constantly searching for cheap fake pashmina scarves. For our lunch break we were looking at the menus at two different restaurants that were next to each other, when the best thing to ever happen to student tourist occurred...they started haggling for our business. It was like they budget Gods were watching over me. One man threw in no service fee, then free wine, then free bread, then some more free wine... the next thing I knew there were Italian curse words flying; someone said someone else was in the mafia, and an accusation of frozen pizza to make matters worse (or better!) We settle on the restaurant that was accused of being in the mafia... who just so happened to have a very large man stand outside with us while we ate. I am not complaining I got free bread, no service fee, two free pitchers of red and white wine, free prosciutto on my caprese salad, and apparently a free security guard! Who says study abroad isn't teaching me about international business? When in doubt, work the mafia.