... Act like romans? (aug 2)

"when in rome, act like romans" overheard when in the colosseum by a Herman father walking behind us. Well, we knew what he meant...

On august 2nd we had a full rollercoaster day. We started with the roman ruins (the roman forum), which is now my second favorite site.. We had an audio guide that we barely used, but seeing the ruins from hundreds of years bc and being able to touch them was out of this world. We went from the forum to the colosseum (which us actually called the fluvial amphitheater), my current number one site. That makes the sagrada familia (In Barcelona) my number 3 and the flamenco ballet in Madrid #4.

We took so many corny photos in the colosseum, pretending to battle each other, while the camera was on timer (is this what the Romans do?) This often resulted in someone walking across our photo haha

on our way to and from the colosseum a man named victor (I remember because it sounds like the name of a gladiator and we were at the colosseum) tries (and succeeded) to sell a on tickets to a pub crawl event. Originally we had no desire to go out, but he convinced us with the value of an hour worth of free drinks and pizza, a pub location, a boat location and a club location. You had us at unlimited pizza. Sold. Plus we got a free t-shirt :)

After the colosseum we did our best get to all the sites we'd missed, starting with the Vatican Gardens. When we hopped on the tour bus to get us there it was already nearing 3pm, and apparently the last tour that the company runs or the Vatican Gardens is at 130pm, so we missed that opportunity, wasted an hour getting there, and we had paid for it on our pass. If anyone has plans for Rome, I would recommend getting the "Roma Pass" (30€) not the "Omni Pass" (85€)

After our attempts at Vatican Gardens we got back to the pantheon so i could take photos ( the first time I'd lent my battery to guys we were touring with because yet only had the one day and their battery was out in he same model camera as mine). We also it gelato on be way, of course, and then after baye and I split up. I wanted o go to the campidoglio national museum and baye wanted to go back home to rest.

So, on my way to the museum I was obviously trying to take self photos.... And while on one bridge, overlooking done of the ruins, a man named Fabio stopped me and asked how I was enjoying Rome (I very obviously stood out as a tourist). He was really nice and very happy to share information about his city. He told me history about the surrounding buildings, such as the years they were built and for what purposes, asked what I'd been to see so far and recommended some places, showing me on my map. He asked if he could show me around, but I told him I really wanted to get to the campidoglio museum, which he said was great and really close by (but of course I already knew that). So for the 5 minute walk to the museum he showed me 2 incredible lookout points to see the roman forum (much better than the one I was originally at), spoke to officers in Italian about why a road was barricaded off (turned out to be because the mayor was staying in the building and security bc he was leaving soon), then was able to sneak me through the gates so I could fill up my water bottle AND take the shortcut to the museum.

The square out front if the museum was designed by Michelangelo, Fabio explained. He told me about the pillars/statues and said that the statue in the square I'd the man on the horse can't remember the actual name of it) was a replica I'd the original one thats in the museum I'm going to. That's where he left me to go into the museum.

However, they would t let me in. My Omni pass, at least I thought, was supposed to cover 2 museums and we'd only been to the castle, but they said only 1 and could tell me all the places I'd been in to. I got a reduced rate with the pass, but still didn't want to pay 10€ so I decided to go walking elsewhere.

So to summarize, the Omni pass got me into the Vatican museum (worth 12€) with line skip, the colosseum + roman forum/palentine (worth 12€) with line skip, and to castle St Angelo (worth 8€). We didn't make use of the Vatican garden (worth 24€). Or the city bus tours (worth unknown but I think about 30€), and we only used our audio guide in the colosseum and roman forum, so I do t think we got the full 85€ value even with line skip. Oh well.

As I walked away disappointed, I set out for an ATM and a backpack. I had started out with a drawstring pack from roots, and within 3 weeks, the amount of times opening/closing it the fabric wore out at the top, and recently ive been carrying it around on my hip like a baby since the strings won't hold it up anymore.
After successful errands I returned to the fountain of San Maria, near our hostel, because I'd only had photos at night and I really did want to know what the creatures in each statue were supposed to be. It was the first fountain (well, first anything really) I'd seen in Rome, and I really liked it. So I sat here and thought for a while.

Then it was pub crawl.

The free t-shirt we got for signing up says "rome's ultimate party". We also got vouchers for a free shot and a free mojito, because the rest I'd the free drinks were beer or wine. So for the freebie hour we got a mojito (finally, after Barcelona it was weird bit to hear the word every 5 seconds), 2 beers and a tequila shot, and 2 pieces of pizza. This lasted us the night, on top of the drinking contest we had to do!

They lined up all the girls, and while pouring beers they had us yell out where each of us is from. This is how We met totally awesome Canadians Kim and Natalie. Best friends in ten seconds EVER. We were laughing about bow the Canadian girl from Toronto (who won) must have cheated haha.

At midnight, a select few who knew it was my birthday shouted happy birthday in the streets for me. I didn't have a birthday cake or drink or dinner or anything on my actual birthday (with the exception of virtual cupcakes from my sister, and my moms card that I opened 4 days late because I forgot I carried it with me!) but that night, victor (the guy who sold us tickets) snagged me a pink pub crawl bday shirt :D
Its by no means attractive, and the list of things on the back that I've supposedly don at the pub crawl is only about 50% true... But I love it :)