Day 8: Venice, Italy to Rome, Italy

Although we had plans for when we arrived in Rome, we didn’t really have a strict schedule. We checked into the hostel (Yellow Hostel), and then had a day of exploring the city. This would be a tour with the entire Contiki group hosted by our tour manager. He made a lovely tour guide as we made our way throughout Rome waving his umbrella in the air to make sure we all followed him easily.

Our first stop for the day was at the Trevi Fountain. The fountain is just as beautiful as it seems in all of the pictures and the movies. The biggest difference here is that in the movies, there is always like 3 people or maybe even no people at the fountain. This is so wrong, as the area surrounding the fountain was absolutely mobbed. There was only one thing to do to gain the courage to go into the crowd to snap some pictures: eat some gelato first. There is a gelateria right across from the fountain called Antica Gelateria Trevi, and the gelato was just as delicious as the one in Venice.

After stuffing my face with gelato, a few of us, Sophie, Lachy, and myself, decided it was time to brave the crowd and go take some pictures in front of the Trevi Fountain. Even with there being 1000000 people around, we were actually able to grab some great pictures, and Lachy, even got a funny video of me attempting to flick a coin into the fountain over my shoulder. The coin like barely moved and just flopped in the water. It was terrible, but so funny, so I am happy we got it on tape!

After everyone was done snapping pictures and eating gelato, the group wandered towards the Roman Pantheon. This is where the group sort of split, some people wanted to go into the Pantheon, and some wanted some Italian coffee. I wasn’t really in the mood for coffee, but I also didn’t have it in me to wait in the gigantic line to get into the Pantheon, so I just went with the coffee people. We went to Sant’ Eustachio Il Caffè (I think), and mostly everyone indulged in a caffe corretto, which is essentially a boozy coffee. I took a taste of one of the girls form the group, and was happy I didn’t purchase one for myself. Those puppies were STRONG…tasty, but strong

While everyone was buying their coffees and roaming around the Pantheon, Lachy and I decided to wander around the area and just check out the architecture (and run around like children). We had way too much fun just goofing around, but it is one of my favorite memories form the trip. A carefree afternoon in great company.

We met back up with people who toured the Pantheon, and Doug showed me his pictures from inside. It was really cool, and hopefully one day I’ll get to go back and check it out. We had finished our exploring for the day, and it was time for our included dinner for the night. This was a family style, Italian meal, and was absolute yum. They served a few different types of pizzas and lots of wine. I was sitting across from the kid who broke his shoulder the night before, and I have to say, it was entertaining watching him try to handle the pizza as the cheese just formed gooey strings from the tray to his plate, but he was very insistent that he didn’t need help. *shrug*

Technically, for most of us it was our last night together. I don’t know if you remember, but this specific Contiki tour was split into three sections, so there were people coming and going at different points. Tomorrow was Doug and mine’s last day, along with a bunch of other people, so obviously, we all had to go out and have a few drinks together after dinner, right?!

We went to the bar in our hostel (Yellow Bar), which had an upstairs as well as a basement. Our Contiki group essentially took over the basement of the hostel bar. It was an absolute blast. We were all emotional (and pretty drunk) just saying how we didn’t want the trip to end. People were playing drinking games, just catching up, and making some final memories all together. The time came when we would slowly trickle out of the bar and go back to the rooms for our last night in the hostels together.

I went back to the room, which I was sharing with Sophie and two other girls. A few hours after I got back to the room, the door burst open and a few girls from the tour flew in. One of the girls was beyond sick, and honestly I felt so bad for her because we’ve all been there and we all know it is the worst feeling in the entire world. (Flashback to me in Krakow). From that, I barely slept the rest of the night just because I wanted to make sure I was awake enough if she needed anything, because hey, I’ve been in her shoes, so no sweat: it happens.

Day 9: Rome, Italy

I woke up the next morning as cranky as ever, as you could imagine, but I wasn’t going to let my tiredness ruin my day. We had a big morning planned. Rob told the few of us who were suppose to be leaving, that there were some extra spots on the tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. YES. WE’RE IN. We all followed Rob to a meeting spot outside the Colosseum and were handed off to a young, female, Italian tour guide. Apparently there had been some miscommunication between the tour and Contiki because according to our tour guide, we had one additional person in the group that was not accounted for original.

You’d think since it was one person, she would do her best to rectify this situation? Nope. She basically closed her eyes and pointed to a random kid from our group and said “ok uhhh you, you cannot come on the tour, sorry” and that was the end of that. At random she picked someone to not be able to go on the Forum and Colosseum tour. Isn’t that awful? He was absolutely PISSED. Can you imagine going all the way to Rome and not being able to go on a tour you paid for? At first, I felt guilty because a few of us were add-ons, but clearly there were miscommunications because it was only off by 1 person not the 8 or so additional people that joined in that morning.

I did my best to put my personal guilt aside and enjoy the tour. I also had the fact that I was exhausted from being up all night, but hey made the best of it. The Roman Forum was really cool to see. Even though it was all ruins, you can get a good sense of what it looked like many years ago if you have a good imagination. The Colosseum was unbelievable. It was absolutely huge. We wandered around a bit, and at this point completely strayed from the tour guide. Quite honestly, she was pretty useless and not interesting at all.

Pictures of the Colosseum are the best from farther away. We got pictures from the edge of the Roman Forum before we went into the Colosseum, and they are some of my favorite pictures from the entire trip. Just four random Americans, who didn’t really know each other, and quickly became lifelong friends laughing and smiling together.

Inside the Colosseum was just as fascinating as the outside. Again, it was mostly in ruins, but you could just picture it filled with Italians watching gladiators do their thing down below. It was really awesome to see. We finished our Colosseum tour around lunchtime and were excited to have the free time but didn’t really know what else to be doing. It also had started pouring, and we were cheap and continued to walk around rather than calling a taxi somewhere.

We finally all agreed on a place to eat, and Angelo had insisted that we could walk. He was the one who found it, so fine whatever, I wanted to take a cab (because you know RAIN), but we walked. Well after walking through the streets of Rome in the pouring rain and arriving at the restaurant absolutely drenched, the restaurant was closed. CLOSED. Can you imagine my fury? I was already cranky from my lack of sleep, but now I was hungry and wet too. An awful version of me to come in contact with ask anyone.

We finally found another spot and regardless of being wet and cranky, I couldn’t dismiss the delicious food. What were a few more funny moments to add to the memories anyway, right? We stuffed our faces with delicious, fresh, homemade Italian meals, and then made our way out to do some souvenir shopping. We ended up at a mall and I was hoping to find some new sneakers to replace my sopping wet ones, but I wasn’t too lucky. Everything there was quite expensive.

After we finishing shopping, we went back to the hostel to say our goodbyes and have one (or two) more drinks before we left. Doug and I had reservations at a hotel near the airport in Rome, so we didn’t have to be up too early before our flights the next morning. We grabbed our suitcases and quietly got into the taxi to head to our final hotel of the entire trip, and I just started to tear up. I was not ready for this trip to end, but alas here we are…The End.  

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Read my entire journey throughout my Contiki series!

Contiki Series
Part I: Why Contiki? Day 1 & 2: Vienna, Austria
Part II: Day 2: Auschwitz, Poland
Part III: Day 2 & 3: Krakow, Poland
Part IV: Day 4: Banska Bystrica, Slovakia and Budapest, Hungary
Part V: Day 6: Lake Bled & Ljubljana, Slovenia
Part VI: Day 7: Venice, Italy
Part VII: Day 8 & 9: Rome, Italy