calling from some city...

Last day in Rome! The time here has absolutely flown by. I feel like the trip is going to go by really, really quickly from this point on. Sara woke me up at 9:30 and my day got started. We decided to go our separate ways in the morning. Scott’s been fighting off a cold so he slept in and planned on wandering on his own later. Sara wanted to see the Vatican Museum, so she headed there (Scott and I have both been before and while I would love to see it again, it would have been a very long wait and its expensive, so maybe next time). I wanted to go to the National Museum of Rome because it has an impressive collection of ancient art, and I didn’t see it last time. It was also nice to split up for a few hours so we can do things we each want to do, at our own pace. 

So, the museum was an easy place to find, right next to Termini train station. I’m glad I went because it was a really cool museum. The two main floors houses huge ancient Roman statues, with a few thrown in there as well. There was a large collection of just statue heads, but there was some impressive full body statues as well. I really like ancient art just because I think it’s so cool that these statues have been around for so long and many are so well preserved today. The basement floor was also really cool because it showcased a huge coin collection, from the ancient times all the way up to the 1990’s. It was pretty cool to see the progression of the coins and to see how money was used and made throughout history. There also was a small collection of ancient jewelry- too bad Sara was not there with me to appreciate it. The top floor was mostly mosaics which I didn’t find too interesting after seeing the first couple. But overall, very cool museum and definitely worth the price of admission. 

After I went to Campo de Fiori for lunch- a delicious sandwich from Forno! I also grabbed a piece of fruit from the outdoor market, just like old times. I then took the 8 to my old neighborhood to try and visit my madre. Unfortunetly, she was not there. It would have been really nice to see her. I walked around my neighborhood for a while and ducked into some shops because it was really hot out. After a stop at Punto, I went back to Large Argentina and caught the bus to Castellino, where I got an apple pastry- delicious. It was then time to meet up with Scott and Sara at the Colosseum.

We toured the Colosseum first and then headed over to the Paletine Hill and Roman Forum. Even though I’ve already seen these sites before, I enjoyed seeing them again. I especially think the Colosseum is amazing. It was a fun visit but the heat made it very tiring and so we headed back to the hotel. We just got back from a great last dinner in Rome. I just wanted to find a restaurant that served tortellini because its my favorite italian meal and I hadn’t had it yet. Luckily the restaurant we chose had a fantastic tortellini al ragu- the meat sauce was delicious and it was perfectly cooked. Then I got gelato from the place next door and switched up my usual order (strawberry and cookies n cream) for cookies and nutella mix. It was sooo good. Right now we are back at the hotel. I’m gonna pack my backpack up and get to bed early- we on our way to Sorrento in the morning, but are exploring Pompeii for the day on the way.