Rubbing my eyes, awakening myself from the four-hour bus ride, I glance out the window of the bus and, to my surprise, I see what look like Roman ruins! But they aren’t like Roman ruins… They are actual Roman ruins! We’re in Roma!
With a whopping temperature of 102 degrees, we settle into our rooms and let the heat pass before we go on our first scheduled tour of the city. My friends and I go out to lunch at a little café that is thankfully open, despite most places being closed on Sundays. I get a pompano (tomato) e mozzarella sandwich, which is classic for me! For a cool down dessert, I have a wonderful ricotta granita (think of an all natural slushy) with cinnamon pera gelato on top. *Mmmm* valisimo!
On our way back from the hotel, we stop at a shoe store that sells the most beautiful handcrafted leather boots in Italia! I fall in love with a pair of light brown leather boots that would be a perfect essential for my fall wardrobe, yet they cost 169€. Yikes! What to do?
Later, on our group tour, we go to a palazzo, where there is a magnificent Roman fountain with statues representing the four rivers. We also learn that the palazzo once had a long pool, which has now been filled. They used to fill this pool with crocodiles and have canoe races. They sure liked the fight-until-the-death sort of competitions in Roman and medieval Italy!
From there, we head to the Pantheon, which interestingly has a huge skylight hole in the center of its dome, so that when it rains, all the rain water drains into the holes in the floor. Huh… Also held in the Pantheon are the tombs of the founders of Roma and Italia. After a look at the biggest – not to mention most gorgeous – fountain I’ve ever seen in my life, we ate some good pizza and rounded off the night with another granita, but this time of latte menta, with a dollop of cioccolato fondente!
-Phoebe
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