After my program ended, Mom met me and we went to Rome! We had a several hour layover between Mom's arrival and our flight to Rome, so we dropped off my giant suitcase at our hotel near the airport for when we returned to Paris and ate lunch there before returning to our airport for our flight to Rome! The bed and breakfast we stayed in had a service where you could be picked up and driven straight to the apartment by this cute little Roman lady named Muna. She was absolutely adorable and gave us lots of tips on where to eat, shop, and the best ways to get around Rome. I was obsessed with the BnB itself, which was located on the fifth floor of this old Roman apartment building. You walked in to a kitchen with a tiny little front desk, and three different bedrooms branched off from the hallway in the back. Our room was phenomenal, with a clean and updated bathroom, a queen sized bed, a twin sized bed, and a balcony that overlooked the street down below.
Mom and I dropped off our bags and freshened up a bit before heading to dinner at a little restaurant down the street. After a long day of travel we were both starving. I got a quinoa, asparagus, and cantaloupe salad, and we shared cocktails before picking up Tiramisu from the I Love Tiramisu shop on our street and bottles of water from a store next door. We returned to the room and watched Queer Eye on Netflix and ate our Tiramisu before finally falling asleep.
Our first day in Rome took us to Saint Peter's Basilica. Mom always said that it was one of the most amazing places she'd ever been, and had shared with me her vivid memory of the statue of Saint Peter whose toes had been rubbed smooth by passersby kissing and rubbing them. As soon as we walked in, overcome by emotion and awe and a sense of wonder, I began to cry. I can't exactly explain it, but being in there was one of the most amazing moments of my life. To see something so cherished and so sacred to my religion, shared with people of all religions from all over the world is such an incredible experience.
We went to the gift shop after spending as much time as we could inside the Basilica and bought matching rosary rings. It's become a tradition that we buy matching rings whenever we go on a "girl trip", and we'd found the perfect Roman rings. After our time at Saint Peter's Basilica, we found a little restaurant for some (shocker here) pasta. This is when I discovered Penne al Arrabbiata for the first time. It changed. My. Life. Honestly, I fell in love with this sauce. For someone who loves pasta as much as I do, to find a new pasta creation that changed pasta for me forever was HUGE. I had penne al Arrabbiata three times on the trip, skipping out only one time for spaghetti with veggies after we went to the Colosseum.
Prior to our time at the Basilica, we'd done some light shopping in the Italian boutiques, and continued to do so on our way back to our bed and breakfast. After some showers, naps, and recuperation, we continued our day in Rome by visiting the Colosseum, taking in the structure that was older than my country by hundreds of years. We grabbed dinner on our way back to the bed and breakfast and finished the night off in a similar way as the night before, watching Queer Eye and eating Tiramisu.
On our third day in Rome, Mom and I ventured to the Trevi Fountain. The metro stop we exited at spat us out right near the Spanish steps and a strip of incredibly expensive designer stores. As well as a cafe that served the best cappuccinos we had on our trip. As mom and I sat in the piazza, drinking soy cappuccinos and eating Roman croissants, I couldn't help but marvel at how incredibly happy I was in that moment. I mean, I was in Rome, drinking cappuccinos with my mom. Life truly couldn't get any better.
Once we were sufficiently caffeinated, we found the Trevi Fountain -- it would have been hard to miss, what with the crowds of people around it. We sat and tossed our coins (leftover Canadian coins) over our shoulders, before leaving the crowded area to do some souvenir shopping. Once we were worn out, we bought some Gelato and made our way back to the hotel, after all, the Women's World Cup final was on.
I'd been following the U.S. women's team during my time in Europe, particularly after having attended the U.S. vs. Chile game in Paris. To have been able to see them in person and follow the games every country I went to, it was an amazing moment to watch them win with my mom in Rome. We cleaned up after the game and headed to another restaurant for pasta in our last night in Rome. And , surprise, surprise, I had penne al Arrabbiata and mom and I split a bottle of prosecco. And, of course, finished the season of Queer Eye we were on in our bedroom.
On our last day in Rome, Mom and I had bought tickets for a group tour of the Vatican museum. We'd packed up all of our things before leaving, setting our suitcases in the lobby of the bed and breakfast as we no longer had our room. We excitedly made our way to the metro and walked up to the museum. dodging the people on the streets trying to sell us tickets. Once inside, we found our tour group and we set up with earbuds and packs that would allow us to hear our tour guide. To be frank, from the very beginning it was a disaster. The fact that it was ninety-some degrees aside, we could barely hear our tour guide, and with ten tour groups of twenty or so people each, the hallways of the vatican museum were congested beyond what was comfortable. The tour itself was scheduled to be four hours long, and by the time it took to get through one hallway, it wasn't hard to see why. Finally fed up, dripping sweat, and unable to hear or enjoy any of the information that the tour guide was trying to share, Mom and I turned over our ear buds and packs and decided to finish our tour through the museum on our own. Even with the crowded hallways, we made it through much faster than our tour group, making it to the Sistine Chapel an hour ahead of schedule. Admittedly, I was disappointed by the Sistine Chapel. I found it incredibly difficult to enjoy the art with security guards forcing you to keep waling back the mural of the last judgement, and the bodies all pressed together, trying to all look at the same paintings in such a small space.
However, once we got through the chapel, the hallways of the museum were practically empty, allowing for us to enjoy the artifacts all the better. Once we finally got through, we grabbed lunch, and GUESS what I ordered. Yup. Penne al Arrabbiata.
Then, dripping with sweat, we grabbed some Gelato, as our favorite Tiramisu place was closed, and sat in the lobby of our bed and breakfast (with no A/C) for two hours before we finally got to go to the airport and board our flight back to Paris where, thankfully, our hotel had AC.
Despite our disaster of a last day in Rome, I fell so in love with the city. To be completely honest, I think that if we hadn't had such a bad experience at the Vatican museum, neither Mom nor I would have been ready to leave Rome, so I suppose it was the little push that we needed in the right direction. Divine intervention, if you will. We also decided that if that was the worst experience we had during this trip, we couldn't complain too much. After realizing we'd finished all the Queer Eye episodes available on Netflix, we binged a show called Cheapest Weddings (about dirt cheap Australian weddings and the couples who threw them together), and fell asleep, excited for our week (and my last), in Paris.