Roman Holiday

I know have been rather remiss in blogging and for that...I extremely apologise! But here's my weekend and in an hour or two I'll create another post for my week so far because honestly, who likes loooong posts?

This past weekend I was in Rome for two days, visiting some friends. I left my apartment around 2:30 a.m. and was in Rome and talking with friends eight hours later. It's rather marvelous how you can travel so easily over here. I've been to Wales, Ireland, and now Rome. It's not even this easy to travel to different States from where I live.

Can we talk about how it seems everyone but England drives on the right side of the road and not left? After spending five/six weeks in England, I've grown accustom to having to dodge traffic coming from the "other way." So it threw me for a loop. Also, when people say that you are taking your life into your own hands whenever you are crossing the road...they really mean it. Italians are even crazier drivers than England because they just don't care! Which bleeds into the fact that them queuing up is a mass of people who can slip in front of you without you really noticing unlike Europe where they queue up in an orderly fashion...not complaining, just very different from what I'm used to.

On Friday, my friend Parker showed me all the sights of Rome. We went to the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus, the Forum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and much much more. It was pretty much like a hit and run for all these sights but that didn't diminish their beauty one bit. Juxtaposed against a modern city that's full of hustle and bustle, these strong monuments of time stand strong and keep remembrance of a time long past. Oh what am I babbling on about? You want to see pictures!

View from Parker's balcony

         

The Colosseum

The Spanish Steps

This is where I came across my first set of Rose Sellers. What they do is tell women they're pretty, give them a rose, and expect the guy to pay for it...I mean, it's a neat idea except they get rather belligerent if you tell them no.

Trevi Fountain

I believe of all of Rome, the Trevi Fountain was my favorite part of it all. I took so many pictures there and I made Parker stay there through Sunset so I could see the lights come on. It was absolutely fantastic, I'll remember it forever.

Later that night I got to really know the roommates and friends of theirs through a game of Apples to Apples. I had never played but this was one of the best card games I have ever played. We had things like Corrupt Italy, Lazy Europe, Natural Puke, and many other fun combinations. The night was an absolute blast. I know of a couple of girls I met that night whom I hope to continue to be friends with because they were beyond fun to be around. Of course, a lot of us could barely keep our eyes open (namely me) and soon passed out in order to be ready for a fun day the next day.

On Saturday, Parker, Greg, their roommate Shelby, and I went to a wine tasting in Tuscany. Yeah, you heard that right, TUSCANY! It was so cool to leave the city and see the countryside. I think it's rather important not only to see the big cities of a country but also to see the countryside and the smaller places because then you get more of an idea of what the country is like. As we left the city, the rolling hills and mountains stood tall in the mist and there was so much greenery that it was kind of weird having just traveled from England where Autumn is in full swing.

The wine tasting was wonderful. The owner of the vineyard we visited took us through the entire process, let us take a look at his land, before heading over to his storefront and tried different wines and ate beautiful food. I made several friends from the Rome school and it was more fun than I could have ever imagined.

The countryside

The owner and the fermentation process

The Vineyard

The Cellar

The Wine

It all looks absolutely fantastic doesn't it? Oh, those smaller bottles at the very front are dessert wines...want to know what dessert wines are made of?

Moldy Grapes...yum!

We were in Tuscany for a while before heading back to Rome where I was able to watch a beautiful sunset going down behind the hills.

Gorgeous

After we got back home, everyone got ready and we went out and enjoyed the Roman nightlife. The cities were absolutely packed with people which confused Greg and Parker who had never seen the streets so packed in quite a while. It just reminded me of England. We met up with a couple of Parker's friends, a couple of American guys and several Swedish girls. They were all fantastic and made my night even more fun. Getting to know cool, new people from all over the world (even if they are from the States) is exactly why I came to study abroad.

Well, that was my Roman Holiday. Full of fun, education, wine, pasta, and friends. I couldn't have asked for a better time in Rome.

<3,

Dre