A Slightly Disappointing Weekend

Rome, the Eternal City.  Rome, the City of the Seven Hills.  Rome, the City of Love.  Personally, I’m not sure that any of these truly apply to the city anymore.  Maybe the City of Letdowns.

We finally made it to Rome this weekend on a class trip, and I have to say I was a little disappointed.  Everyone really talks Rome up, telling us about how great the city is for its history and amazing culture.  While yes, the city does have an amazing history, I definitely think that the culture has been trampled under the feet of the millions of tourists that pass through every year.  The calm and laidback atmosphere that you can find in almost every Italian town has been replaced with a constant barrage of people trying to sell things or get you to sit down at their restaurant.  You barely get a seconds peace as you walk through the city in search of the history that Rome is famous for. Honestly, I would not want to stay in Rome for more than a night after having been to some of the other cities in the country.

Anyway, we started our day in Rome at Cinecitta, the Italian version of Hollywood.  It’s pretty removed from the city center, but has a very quiet and peaceful feel to it.  We toured the various sets and sound stages, led by a lovely young woman who told us about the history of the site.  After walking around the area, we were allowed to look through the museums that they had, which were filled with costumes and directorial pieces from the movies that were produced on site.  In fact, several American productions were filmed here, including Gangs of New York and Rome. 

One of the Roman Sets

A Roman Triumphal Arch 

clashing with an Egyptian set!

Next, we headed back into the city center.  After hopping off the metro, we walked through the streets until we arrived at the Trevi Fountain.  Of everything that I saw this weekend, this was truly the greatest sight.  After walking through dingy, crowded streets for some time, we rounded a corner and there was the fountain in all its glory.  It is absolutely amazing that these works were created without modern technology and that it has stood for centuries.  The beautiful white marble gleamed in the sun and the water positively sparkled. Despite the crowd around the fountain, I could have sat there all day.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the plan. After a moment to take a couple pictures, we continued on through the streets of Rome to get to the Pantheon.  The pantheon was cool as well, but since the inside has been converted into a Christian Church, it just doesn’t quite have the same majesty of the Trevi.  All the niches are filled with statues of Mary and other saints instead of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. 

Interior of the Pantheon

We had lunch near the pantheon before moving on to the Colosseum, which was a bit of a letdown thanks to Hollywood.  Movies always portray it as a massive, awe-inspiring work of engineering, which it definitely is, but it’s not quite as big as the movies portray.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a really amazing sight and I would love to spend some time there without all the other tourists, but it was a little underwhelming.  We walked by the Roman Forum and took some pictures, since it was already closed by the time we finished the Colosseum.

We were spending the night in Rome so we could head towards the coast for the weekend, so we went to check into our B&B before heading to dinner.  As we walked towards the address, we got a little worried because it wasn’t the greatest part of town.  Thankfully, the actually B&B was in a decent area and the room was very nice.  We headed towards dinner, which was delicious.  It took forever to get a table and then they thought we had already been served so it took even longer to get our food.  We were probably at the restaurant for about 2 hours just to get a couple plates of pasta.  However, there were a couple highlights to our meal.  There was a young man sitting behind me, maybe 15 years old, who kept getting up and tripping on my chair.  I was mildly frustrated with it, but as he was leaving he said the cutest thing: “Excuse me, miss, but your hair is on point!”  Absolutely adorable. After dinner, we went to an Ice Bar. We put on these lovely little poncho-parkas and went in to have a couple drinks.  Honestly, the drinks were rather disgusting, but it was an adventure nonetheless.  We had two awesome bartenders, including one who was Italian by blood by Irish by nature.  As some of our group did shots of vodka, he did an entire cup of Jägermeister like it was a shot.  He talked with a constant stream of profanities and was telling us that no Italians know how to properly speak Italian (to which his Italian colleague 100% agreed). 

Me and my Poncho Girls!

The next morning, we traveled three and a half hours by train to finally make it to Meta, which is where our B&B for the weekend was.  It was an adorable little town with a nice beach and delicious food.  We checked in, grabbed some lunch, and then headed toward Sorrento.  Sorrento was also another letdown unfortunately.  Everyone has been telling me that I have go to Sorrento because it’s so amazing but I really didn’t get it.  It is a very touristy town that has some of the charm of the smaller Italian towns but none of the character.  It didn’t even have a proper beach, which Meta did have.  Sorrento is famous for its Lemoncello and other lemon products, which I did buy.  I got some delicious lemon candies, and then went back the next day to get some more.  Unfortunately, several members of our group were not feeling well.  There seems to be a bug going around!  Anyway, we ate some delicious waffles before heading back to Meta to put the sickos in bed.  After our first location for dinner was closed, we happened upon a wannabe British pub called Covent Garden.  Thankfully, it was absolutely delicious!  I had some amazing barbecue ribs that I pretty much polished off.  Oh my god were they good!

Sorrento Harbor

Cliffs in Meta

Courtyard of our B&B

The following day, Michael left ridiculously early so he could catch the ferry to Capri while Ryan and I slept in.  We got up and checked out before heading down to the beach in Meta, which was gorgeous.  I really wished we had spent the day there instead of in Sorrento! We met Michael in Sorrento, grabbed a quick lunch, and then hopped on the metro so we could catch our train out of Naples.  I ended up in a section with an older Italian couple who were absolutely adorable.  They even offered me one of their sandwiches, which smelled amazing, but I was almost to Arezzo.  Overall, not a fantastic weekend, but at least there were no major incidences!