My hostel method of only booking one night at a time worked extremely well in this case. The Yellow Room, my 7th hostel, was terrible. No common rooms, no kitchen. So I booked my second night in the same hostel as the Irish couple, called Freedom Traveller. Freedom Traveller is pretty much a one-man show, run by a lean older guy who speaks gravelly English and superb Italian and wears a Red Sox baseball cap. He cooks two huge pots of pasta every night for free dinner for his tenants, who I suspect from personal experience he knows are out boozing and not taking care of themselves... just a hunch. It's also the cheapest hostel yet, at 12 Euros.
I had a nice time in Rome. It actually felt good to be able to look like a tourist and not stand out, at all.
Here are some observations:
1. There are cats everywhere in Rome. Even on postcards. Next to the ruins of Largo Argentina, located about 20 feet below current ground level, where you can see the three buildings on the steps of one Caesar was killed (stabbed by every member of the Senate, give or take a few), there is no signs for Caesar but every sign of the cat sanctuary that is here.
2. Spaniards love their ham; Italians do love their gelato (and pizza).
3. Italians do not make good beer. Stick to wine, Italy!
4. Lines for the women's room being longer than men's is universal. (The only place I've ever not witnessed this to be true is in McMurphy's Uptown Tavern, an Irish sports bar in Amherst, MA, where there is no mirror for women to hold their attention for even a split second - this being, I think, the great difference.)
Matt was a great guide for the forums, and the colloseum. We saw them at night, it was quite spectacular. I saw St. Peter's Basilica at night as well. I spent a full afternoon in the Vatican Museum, where I was pleasantly surprised at how the Sistine Chapel was, if you can believe it, actually smaller than I had anticipated it. I particularly enjoyed seeing the forums, with the arc that begins the
But,
for me, Rome was enjoyable but not wonderful, and Matt and I schemed up
a trip south, to the island of Sicily!
