Today our program provided us with a free tour of Palatine Hill, the Forum, and the Colosseum. We had to take the metro to get there, which we hadn't done before, and when we found our nearby Metro station, it was locked. So were three other entrances. We somehow got in and were told by security personnel that we had to use a different stop. We found a different stop and it, too, was closed. Damn Italians. Eventually some kind locals offered to lead us to where the security people told us we needed to go, and we Metro'd our way to the Colosseum. We thought we were going to be late, but we ended up getting there just in time.
They divided us up into small groups of about 10 people, and our tour guide happened to be a woman who will be my Ancient Roman Civilization professor. Go figure. She was super cute and super excited about everything. She was also real nice to my flatmates and myself and let us run ahead to a kiosk to buy some sustenance [in the form of Sour cream and Onion Pringles] because we didn't have time to eat breakfast. So we munched our way all over the Palatine. Unfortunately, she took about 45 minutes just straight up giving us a lecture about the history of Rome, so we had to rush through everything. But - are you ready for this - here's some random trivia for you: Rome was founded in 753 B.B.C. [before Buddy Christ]... on April 21st. Which happens to be the day I was founded, too! So Rome and I both have big birthdays this year, and we are planning quite the bash.
Anyway, it was such a trip to walk around the Palatine [one's of Rome's disputed seven hills - it's basically the birthplace of Rome] and know that underneath the ruins we were walking through were many palaces and houses of previous emperors that went back way before the birth of Buddy Christ. So much of history has taken places under our footsteps; politics and wars were planned and played out, dictators and empires were overthrown, and entire civilizations lived their lives and left behind incredible monuments that we only have broken pieces of today. It was giving me shivers just thinking about it.
Our guide actually spent so much time explaining everything to us that we didn't make it to the Colosseum before it closed, which was a big bummer, but she felt super bad about it so she offered to buy our tickets to the Colosseum some other time. It was just as well, because we were all tired and hungry and therefore extremely grumpy. It's Sunday today, and at least in Rome, on Sundays, everyone goes to church [or makes ritual animal sacrifices in their homes or something secret like that] and nothing is open. Even though we were in such a heavy touristy area, we had s very hard time finding somewhere to eat for dinner that wasn't an expensive sit-down restaurant [a lot of the sit-down restaurants charge you for actually sitting down in addition to the cost of your food]. Thankfully we found a pizza place, and not a moment too soon; I'm pretty sure that one minute more and we would have started clawing each other to death and eating the remains. I guess that would have been somewhat appropriate seeing as we were at the Colosseum and all. Hmm.
So after another piece of tasty pizza [tonight mine was quattro formaggio (four cheese) with spinach] we made our way back to the bus stop, where we had an unusually long wait [usually we only have to wait a few minutes for a bus to come - there's no actual schedule for the buses, they just go in circles all day]. When the bus finally did arrive, we were shocked and displeased that it was already packed - and I mean packed - when it came to a stop. We decided we would shove ourselves in there anyway, because we were not about to wait another 25 minutes for another bus. Oh my god. Sardines have more breathing room. And Italians are brazen and pushy, so even after another half-dozen people and a man with a baby in a stroller somehow managed to squeeze in behind us, people at later stops would throw themselves into the bus and yell and shove until the doors had enough room to close. And all these old women insisted on moving to the front of the bus. So we're standing there, with barely enough room to plant both feet on the ground [I kid you not], and these little old women and shoving behind us, so if we weren't close enough to our neighbors already, we could now smell what they ate for dinner. It was superfun. We were barely even able to get off at our stop - the doors actually closed before one of my flatmates could squeeze her way through the mush of people, and we had to make a scene and bang on the doors so she could get out.
Let me tell you, our apartment never looked so wonderful.

NOTE: Our internet in the apartment isn't great, and all five of us are using it at the same time to upload pictures, so I will add in my photos later. I know the links to larger versions of the photos in the last post are broken, so I'm working on fixing that, too. Eventually, in addition to posting a few photos in each post, I'll be linking you all to photo albums on Flickr [no, there's no 'e.' I'm not an idiot] so you can see many more photographs of my life and live vicariously through me. Or something like that.

Also, I've been tracking how many people read this blog and other stats, and apparently I have consistent readers in Japan, Romania, and Switzerland. So a special hello to those people [and of course hello to everyone I actually know], thanks for finding me interesting!