Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday

Did I steal the name of this blog from the classic ‘Roman Holiday” staring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn? Absolutely, and with zero shame. One of the toughest decisions I had to make on the trip was where I was going to be spending my longest free weekend. For the longest time I was switching between London and Rome. This decision weighed heavily upon me the past few weeks before finalizing my plans. I then decided to do both, only I am staying longer after the program to fit in London. Rome was spectacular and the experience was only amplified with the presence of my brother. I was initially going to be traveling there with the majority of the group but later found out that my brother was going to be meeting me while in Italy. It is only fitting that I get in a bro-trip to Rome when our parents had gotten in a trip without the two of us to Rome earlier this year. Our parents gave us both a host of recommendations of places to visit while Rome which we treated more as guidelines. When first meeting my brother there we decided to go out that night and he was getting ready to bring out his lap top and his travel guides in the room to see where to go when I threw the book to the ground and treated Rome like I do every other city here, with reckless abandon and adventure. Not quite sure if what I just said makes grammatical sense but you get the gist of it. Rome from night one was an adventure that after having spent a month traveling felt all to familiar. At this point with the conclusion of the trip it all feels the same. I forget whether pertinent things about the places I have visited and often times find myself waking up forgetting what I had done the previous day.  I think it means I am ready to go home. Especially when you are in the pantheon in Rome reading an article and leave realizing you have no idea what you just read, or even what it had regarded. All the dates blend together, you don’t remember if that church you just toured was supposed to be a model building showing gothic or baroque architecture being constructed in the 13^th century ad or 300 bc. I am ready for home.

There are very few nice things that I can say about Italians and the Italian culture. Somehow they have mastered the art of being incredibly rude to you while taking your money. By this time in my trip you would think I would be used to this. I feel as though I have become numb to this treatment.  The service industry in America is something that I will never again take for granted. My brother not yet being used to this treatment was astounded that an economy being totally built on and dependent upon tourism could be as intolerable and biggity as they were.  Jon also did not know you could go to your local kiosk and buy water for 90cents rather than go and spend 3 to 4 euro for that same bottle of water but from a vender in front of the colloseum.

I have now finished venting on my feeling towards Italians and would like to take this moment to pay homage to and appreciate the history and things that I got to see in Rome. My favorite part of it by far was either the mosh that was the colloseum, palintine hill, and Roman Forum or the Vatican most notably St. Peter’s Basillica. Having been raised in the Catholic church and attending private school for 10 years of my life it was really important and special to me that I one day make a pilgrimage there. It did not disappoint to say the least. In the Vatican there are 4 rooms that were painted mostly by renowned artist Rapheal. To say that I could have spent 4 hours in these rooms (1 devoted to each room) would be an euphanism.  While in Rome I had the best Italian food to my recollection.  It’s gonna be hard to ever justify buying a 5 dollar hot and ready from little ceaser’s or even thinking about paying a visit to the local cici’s. While visiting these beautiful places I was decently perturbed to find that the student discounts to get into the museums only applied to EU residents while in Rome…. Ohh ya and they make you pay a city tax for even having been there.

In the end Rome is a must see for absolutely anyone form any nationality, religion, and sex. I had lots of fun with my brother and got a nice reprieve from the norm that I have gotten used to here in Europe. And now for the city that I am most excited for Berlin. Ich bin ein bear.