When in Rome...Do Stuff

I "slept in" today, which meant I got up after 8. Most of the other girls in my room had already up and went, allowing me to get ready in relative privacy and quiet. I tried to keep my pace slow, but inbred habits (thanks, Mom) prevent me from strolling for too long.

My first stop was the Musei Capitolini, home to some amazing statuary and other bits of ancient Rome. From colossal statues of Marcus Aurelius and Constantine (poor Constantine was in impressively-sized pieces) to the famous wolf statue with Romulus and Remus, I enjoyed wandering through the blank gazes and broken noses of the museum's collection. My favorite part was a selection of busts of Roman women, with the emphasis on their elaborate hairstyles. In fact, a lot of the museum's focus was on the cultural context of Roman statuary, making it popular with history and art history students (who get in for 2 euro, the lucky dogs).

I dragged myself down from the museum and back into the streets of Rome. I sauntered past the blindingly-white monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (also known as "the wedding cake"), examined Trajan's column, and wandered to the Trevi Fountain. As the hour drew closer to 14.00, I returned to the train station to meet Chelsea, a classmate of mine from Perugia. She had a few hours before her flight back to the States, so we dropped her luggage off at an office in the train station and set off for a little mini-adventure before her departure. She was glad for a chance to wander around Rome, and I was glad for some companionship. My internal dialogue gets stale after a while.

We found lunch, which can be a little difficult around 15.00. We went to the Trevi Fountain and took pictures and threw in our coins, which is supposed to guarantee our return to Rome. We wondered if our chances or quality of said returns were lessened if we threw in a two cent coin versus a whole euro or two.

If the quality of my return trip is based on how much I threw in, let's just say that there aren't any 5 star hotels in my future.

We went to the Pantheon, marveling for a short time at its beauty before realizing that Chelsea needed to go back to the train station ASAP. The nearest metro station, funnily enough, was right next to the Spanish Steps. Since it wasn't high on my list of places to go (Perugia's steps take precedence in my heart), it was nice to stop for a minute or two for a picture and have a reason to move on.

I didn't want those flowers...

After shoving the half-wilted roses back into the hands of a dedicated vendor, we hopped on the Metro and went back to the Termini. It took a bit of a jog and the help of some moving walkways, but we got Chelsea onto the express train to the airport just in time. It was also just in time, conveniently enough, for me to call it a day.