**Warning this post is extremely long and is only our first day in Rome. Feel free to scroll through and just look at the pictures if you don't want to read the whole thing**
Coming into Rome was an entirely different experience than
anywhere we had been in Italy so far.
The train station was gigantic and filled with stores once you walked
past all of the train terminals.
We figured out how to get to our hotel, which ended up being a much
longer walk than I expected, and took a couple minutes to breathe before
heading out to check out the city.
Our hotel was in the perfect spot (I have to say J did a great job of
picking out our hotels!).
After we dropped off our luggage and headed out to
adventure. Being New Years Eve we
weren’t sure what was going to be available for us to see the next day so we
wanted to see whatever we could when we arrived. First we headed over to the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument,
which is home to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a gigantic building.
We wandered down the back half of the building to a piazza
and then towards the amazing ruins.
Being there in person and seeing how amazing it is now only makes you
wonder what it really looked in its prime. After taking it all in we headed back towards the main road
that connects the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument and the Colosseum. We stopped to take a look at the Trajan
Market, which just like the ruins, one can only imagine the impressiveness of
the building when it was brand new.
From the Trajan Market we could see the Colosseum directly
down the street and decided that it had to be our next stop. Along the road (which had minimal cars,
at this point pedestrians were the majority on it) we could tell they were
setting up for New Year’s Eve Festivities. (Side note:
Before we left on our trip I had Googled our options for New Years
festivities and found that either near the Colosseum or near the Piazza del Popolo
were our best bet for a fun evening.
We decided prior that we would definitely go for fireworks near the
Colosseum for a truly memorable evening.)
When we made it down to the Colosseum there was a long line
to get in, but all over there were tour groups trying to get you to pay to go
in with them. We decided to give
it a try since it included a guided tour of the Colosseum and we were
guaranteed to get in that day. The
tour ended up being pretty informative and although we would’ve made it in without
the tour group (the whole line went in while the tour guide was giving us a
talk about the exterior of the building), it was definitely money well
spent.
When we decided we were done checking out the Colosseum and
surrounding area we pulled out our map and figured out the next best route to
take to make it to the places we had in mind. Since we were passing the hotel on the way, we stopped by to
grab water bottles we had purchased earlier and set out again.
Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain where we threw in coins
together and took in the amazing sculptures. Unfortunately not many of our pictures of the fountain came
out clear due to the lighting.
From there we traveled across the Via Del Corso where there were
Christmas lights strung from the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument all the way to
the Piazza del Popolo!
We came upon the Pantheon by mistake, what a cool building
in the middle of a small Piazza, but couldn’t go in for another hour due to a
New Years mass being held. We
decided to come back later, so we headed to the Piazza Navona.
The Piazza was nothing like what I expected, while it was a
normal square, the empty space we had seen in other Piazzas was filled with
midway games and shops. What a fun
experience! We had some drinks and
split a ciambella (pretty much a giant donut) with Nutella. MMmm!
We were able to make our way back and into the Pantheon
(along with a huge crowd!). Such
an incredible building, J was curious what happened when it rained (since there
is a hole at the top), little did he know we’d find out on our last day in the
city! We ate dinner right outside
the Pantheon, not our favorite meal, but definitely an awesome view!
We still had plenty of time to kill before midnight so we
decided to make our way to a couple more sights. We made our way to the Piazza del Popolo, which is a really
nice square, but since it was cold out we didn’t end up spending too much time
there.
On our journey back to the hotel to warm up temporarily
before heading to the New Years festivities we stopped at the Spanish
steps. People were clearly
beginning their New Years celebrations early as many people were sitting on the
steps sipping out of bottles of champagne.
We warmed up back at the hotel and threw extra layers on and
made sure to put minimal things in our bags just incase. We thought our journey from the hotel
to where we wanted to watch the fireworks would take five minutes so we left
around 10:30 thinking we’d have plenty of time to hang out before
midnight. However, Italian police
had put up fences to control the crowd and so the road that would’ve taken us
there in two minutes was blocked off.
J and I felt like sheep as we shuffled down the crowded
streets, shoulder to shoulder with strangers. The closer we got to where we wanted to end up, the more
crowded it got. As we got to the
main road we started to hear loud bangs, but weren’t sure of the source. Then when we broke from the crowd it
was easy to see what the noises were; the fireworks we had seen street vendors
selling on every corner during the afternoon (everything from firecrackers to
M80s!) were being lit and set off in a large empty area surrounded people
waiting for the festivities to begin.
The fireworks were loud and scary; to me they sounded what I
imagined a grenade sounds like when it explodes. We made our way to the other
side of the crowd but were still pretty close to the fireworks area. I was actually taking a video of the
fireworks when one exploded and a fragment hit me in the hand! Man did it kill, but luckily for me my
hand was fine the next morning.
After that scare we decided to move further away from that area.
 |
| This drunk guy was egging the crowd on and ended up having fireworks and champagne bottles thrown at him |
The countdown to midnight began and we yelled along with the
crowd. Fireworks went off in
either direction (professional and nonprofessional). I didn’t think the sight could get any cooler, but then
people started to light and release floating lanterns. It was a real life version of the movie
Tangled (but far fewer lanterns)!
So many people said Happy New Year to us! Well more to J than me, every time I
turned around someone was talking to him. We waited about two hours before heading back to our
hotel in order to miss out on the crowds.
I can’t even tell you how quickly the two of us fell asleep.
Definitely the most memorable New Year’s Eve ever! I’ll write more about the rest of Rome
in my next post!
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