Day 20: Sundays in Rome are No Fun....

Frustration of the moment: Freaking everything is closed in Rome this weekend! We keep finding nice restaurants to go to, and then they're all closed. T__T And it's so hard to find hours for restaurants online...

This morning we woke up early planning to go to the Vatican Museum since every last Sunday of the month is free admission! However, Stephanie needed to shower in the morning, and even though she woke up early, one of our other roommates apparently got up and just jumped into the shower right before she had a chance! Later she said that she was still drunk and had tried to shower with her clothes on this morning LOL.  Anyways, by the time we got to the museum, the line was HUGE, even though the museum hadn't even opened yet. It literally stretched all the way to St. Peter's Square, which was probably a couple thousand people. o_O

The line stretched all the way around the outside of St. Peter's!

We stood in line for a bit waiting to see how fast it would go, but then decided the couple of hours we'd wait in line wasn't worth the admission fee we're saving, and decided to go explore other parts of the city. In retrospect, we totally should have planned to go to the Colosseum or something, because then there would probably be less people over there... Instead we walked back across the river and visited Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. I personally LOVE fountains, so these are some of my favorite spots in Rome! Planning to visit the Trevi Fountain again at night, when it's lit up! Afterwards, we went to a fancy gelato place featured in the NY Times! I got their special honey gelato, but even though it was good I don't think it's worth the high price... (It was 2.70 for a small! Usually smalls are 1.50-2, and give you WAY more gelato too)

Fountain of the Four Rivers

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain <3

Around 1 or 2pm, we ran out of energy and things to do, so we headed back to our hostel to chill for a bit. I ate my "lunch" of random snacks/dried fruit and then napped, while Stephanie tried to go out for lunch but couldn't find anywhere good that was open... And we didn't head out again until 6 haha. We tried to go to the Colosseum, since it was supposed to be open until an hour before sunset, but then when we got there we realized the last admission was at 6:15pm >.< (It was now 6:40) So instead we looked for a place to eat. All the places we had looked up were closed (Sundays are ridiculous here!!) but we wandered into a side street and found a cute looking family-run Italian restaurant. We ordered a bruschetta to share and a pasta each, and Stephanie ordered a 1/4 liter of house wine! (The 1/4 liter was the same price as a glass, but then we realized it was probably because they were of comparable size because the glasses here were huge!)

The bruschetta was good, but I was super disappointed in my pasta! :( It was some sort of pasta with cacio cheese, pepper and truffle, and even though I didn't know what pasta it was, I figured it would just be some sort of noodle. Nope! It ended up being these flat squares of pasta that had a sponge-like consistency; the texture was like the spongy flatbread you get at Ethiopian restaurants, and totally did not mesh well with me! I don't even remember the name, but definitely going to think twice next time I try to order a pasta I don't recognize! >.< Luckily, I was already pretty full (from snacks and from filling up on the free bread), so I didn't mind not eating much pasta. (Stephanie ordered fettucine, so I was able to share some of hers as well!)

After dinner, we went to the gelato shop right next door called Ciuri Ciuri. It was super cute, and I got a almond and stracciatella gelato! The almond was really good! (Stracciatella not so much) And then I was SUPER full afterwards. >.< We headed back to the Colosseum to watch the sunset and then take photos. It's so pretty at night when it's all lit up! Afterwards, we walked back to our hostel and called it a day. Too much walking today, my feet are tired :(

Almond and Stracciatella! (Stracciatella didn't have enough chocolate though...)

Colosseum at night!

On another random note, there are spigots all over Rome with free running water, to fill up your water bottles! (Some people also just drink from it) It's interesting because in Florence and Cinque Terre, all of them were faucets you had to physically turn on to get the water. But here they're just always running! I wonder where all the excess water goes...

Free water at the Trevi Fountain!