rome.

bryndia arrived in rome and met at the hostel after their seperate journeys from florence. the two had booked two beds in an eight person dorm at alessandro’s palace, a hostel that came highly recommended from various backpackers they had met. When they arrived, they understood why. The hostel was about a five minute walk from the train station, and manned by a staff of really friendly, international kids who were full of advice.

Bryndia made their way up the four flights of stairs to the dorm where they met their first friend, frankie, a 19 year old baller from south carolina who immediately got the check of approval as he was bumping the cuts off of the newest wayne mix tape. Soon after bryndia’s arrival, two girls from thailand, a guy from brazil, and two aussies filled up the room. Bryndia immediately made friends with dave and rachel, a newly engaged couple from sydney who were backpacking around europe for four months. The four of them got to know each other over free pizza and five dollar bottles of red wine in the hostel bar downstairs. Frankie joined them, accompanied by a fly beezy from georgia (“zee country! Not zee state!”), who he proceeded to woo over the course of the evening and bring back to the hostel room late night... we were all asleep. Ahem. You know what that means. (BOW CHICKA BOW WOW.) All in all, bryndia felt real good about rome after their first day: they had made friends!

The next morning, bryndia awoke leisurly and set off on a walking tour of bernini’s art. India having been a bernini fanatic at sarah lawrence and writing a hefty conference paper on some of his work, acted as tour guide as they circled the city and ooed and ahhed at his moving marble. The two visited the ecstasy of st teresa before heading down the spanish steps, checking out the piazza del popolo, and throwing coins over their shoulders into the fontana de trevi. A bit pizza’d out, the two tried their hand at the local chinese joint for lunch… it was gross. A little nap in the hostel (you gotta juice those afternoons when the dorms will be empty) and the pair walked to the colosseum only to find that it closes at sundown, or, in bryndia’s case, a little earlier. Upset but enjoying the outside view, the pair circled back and checked out the ruins… piles and piles of roman ruins everywhere… grabbed a slice of coconut off of a street fruit vendor, and headed back to the hostel. There, they met up with dave and rachel and found an italian retaurant around the corner that served them free glasses of champagne and big bowls of pasta. After dinner, dave and rachel headed to bed after a long day, and bryndia posted up in the hostel bar again, meeting more international travelers while sipping on a five euro bottle of vino rosa.



The next morning, bryndia awoke at the buttcrack of dawn to beat the crowds for vatican city. Almost trampled and suffocated on the subway line, one of only two that run through the city, the pair barely made it alive to the vatican. (it should be noted that the reason rome only has two subway lines is because every time they dig a hole for a new one, they find another pile of 3000 year old ruins. Pretty cool, they guess, but it makes public transport tricky.) when they arrived at the doors to vatican city at 830 am, there was already a hefty line which soon grew to wrap around the entire wall… miles and miles of all different kinds of people, big groups of children in matching bright baseball hats, hourds of tourist groups bouncing off of big buses. Bryndia was smugly proud of doing their traveling independently.

Vatican city is hard to decribe without depending on cliches. Of course, everyone has seen a picture of the sistine chapel, but no one really understands what it is, what it means, until you have actually been there. The grandness of it all is overwhelming. To stare up at the cielings in the raphael rooms and think of how many people have walked on the floors, have seen the same paintings, have stood in awe in front of the michelangelo frescos and masterpieces… it makes you feel like you’re really witnessing something big, something special. Bryndia tried to latch on to different english speaking guides where they learned little tid bits about each work of art they saw. Bryn was particularly found of the story of constantine room by raphael (“in hoc!”) while india got into learning the stories of all the apostoles, particularly bartholomew and his skinless body. The two made their way down the spiral staircase and exited out to st peter’s square where they admired the outside, but skipped the inside, as the line to enter literally wrapped aronud the entire square.



On their way back to the hostel, bryndia walked over the ponte st angelo, another bernini favorite, the marble angels of which each carry a relic from jesus’ last days. Their faces were all so full of emotion, india could have sworn she saw them blink down at her. One more stop at the pantheon which was, disappointingly, covered in scafolding but, encouragingly, across from a mcdonalds, where bryn downed no less than four cheeseburgers and india indulged in soft serve. The two walked leisurely back to the hostel, stopping in various small churches and parks, and brainstormed about where to head next. Upon arriving back at alessandro’s palace, the two realized they had to hit the road again in the morning so they booked a dirt cheap flight to santorini greece after finding that the 24 hour boat ride from italy was unavailible (thank god). (take note: flying to greecian islands isn’t as expensive as you think its going to be. and the Grecian airlines have the cutest flight attendants and best meals, voted by bryn, for 2010.)

After this was taken care of, the two got back to sight seeing and returned to the colosseum where, this time, they got in! here, they mostly pretended to be gladiators, practiced badass sword fighting moves, and read about the different animals that Russell Crowe would have fought against. (Ostriches! Rhinos! Hippos!) back in the day, a stadium wasn’t just a stadium, but a full on tail gate extravaganza. The colosseum had running water up to every level of the seats and each section came equipped with a fire pit to throw some shrimps on the barbi to snack on while you watched fools get murked.



After taking millions of panoramic shots on bryn’s fancy digi cam, the pair met up with dave and Rachel, grabbed a picnic of hella wine and cheese, crackers and meat, and strolled to the Spanish steps to watch the sun set. The stairs were filled with all sorts of internationals and they soon became a group of ten, sharing their travelling stories and laughing at a flasher up on his balcony do little dances for the crowds applause. The night concluded with kiwis-on-a-stick from the fanciest mcdonald’s ever and learning that dave was not only a big brother Australia star but an accomplished author! Such a modest boy, that dave. (buy our friends book here: http://www.boomerangbooks.com.au/Breakout/David-Tchappat/book_9781741108163.htm)

The next morning, dave and Rachel and bryndia hopped a train to the airport where they split ways, only to meet up again, later that evening, on the island of santorini in Greece.