My First Day in Rome

After leaving Prague I arrived at Fiumicino airport. The airport isn't that close to Rome but there is a train that will take you directly to the city. I had a little bit of trouble finding my way around the airport but I bumped into an older German lady from Dusseldorf that was also heading to Rome. She spoke English and Italian as well as German of course. Since we were both headed in the same direction we headed off together to find the train. When we stopped for directions she spoke in Italian which helped out quite a bit. I thought it was funny that when I suggested we ask for directions she said it was a good idea otherwise we would "walk for kilometeres." Ha. I kept thinking "walk for miles! miles!!!"

Anyway, I got off at the main train station in Rome: Termini Station. My first impression of Rome was: what a dump! There was graphite everywhere and trash all over the railroad tracks.


I then proceeded to walk in the wrong direction but it let me to this. I still don't know what it is, but it's some, apparently, insignificant ruin. There was no name of the site on my map and no tourists. Oh well.

An old broken dome.

I finally started off in the proper direction for my hostel, Legends. Along the way there were public fountains and people were drinking from them. I would late try some of these water fountains when I was at the Vatican, thinking it should be fine because it's Europe, however I got a small case of the runs afterwards.

People drinking from a fountain.

Map of Rome I got from Legends

By the time I checked in it was already evening and all the sites were closed. I asked for recommendations of what to see and was told I could go see the fountains. It was actually a good idea. I wandered around Rome from the Termini Station all the way to the Vatican on my first night. I found the streets really annoying because the names would change every block (and I use the word block loosely). It was a huge pain to get back to Legends that night but I eventually made it. My pictures are pretty terrible from my first night. The nightime shots just didn't turn out very good.

Piazza della Repubblica

Piazza della Repubblica

Basilica

Fountain del Tritone

Fontana di Trevi

They say if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the Fontana di Trevi you will return to Rome. I showed up at night and there was still a huge crowd of people here, many working their way down to throw a coin over their shoulder. I worked my way down an threw my remaining useless Czech Krowns into the fountain. Hey, I didn't read anything about them requiring which kind of coins needed to be thrown in there. I did really enjoy Rome and do want to go back some day.

Fontana di Trevi. This picture sucks, I have a better one from another day, but this was the one I got on my first night in Rome.

The Spanish Steps

The fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps.

Rome reminded me of Disneyland. There are all these attractions, you just have to follow the crowds and they'll take you to the next one. Along the way you'll run into great shopping (if that's your thing, it's not mine) and great eats.

Piazza del Popolo

A lion fountain at Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

I thought this was kind of interesting. I thought statues like this were only in Egypt. I guess you can see Egypt's influence here.

A statue of a woman at Piazza del Popolo. It's only a statue but she struck me as quite pretty for a stone carving.

Some random place I thought looked cool.

Piazza Navona Fountain

Campo de Fiori

Campo de Fiori - now an open air market during the day with trendy restaurants and cafes in the area. However back during the age of Romans public executions used to happen here.

Castel Sant Angelo

Basilica S. Pietro from Ponte Sant Angelo