Sometimes, you just have to look at yourself in the mirror and say "When in Rome."

I've been in Rome since Monday afternoon (it's currently Wednesday morning here), so I'll paraphrase the past few days since I only have a short time:

-Night 1: I met other fellow travellers in my hostel and walked around the city with them shortly after I finished my leftover food from Florence (a loaf of bread ('ciabatta', but not like any ciabatta I know from the US) and a  ball of mozzarella cheese which was YUMMY)). We walked to the Piazza del Popolo, a big square recommended to be the place to start a visit to Rome, and ate at a restaurant pretty close by. From there, we walked to the Spanish Steps, talked to a drunk homeless man for a while,  got gelato, and walked to the Fontana di Trivi, a beautiful fountain carved out of an enormous piece of marble. All in all, a really  enjoyable evening!

Day 1: Went to a bar across the street for breakfast (not a bar with alcohol.... they serve coffee drinks and pastries, and you eat standing up), which was delicious and cheap. Then, the people I met last night and I tried to go see the Vatican, but the line was literally several blocks long, and none of us really wanted to see it that badly. So, we saw the Pantheon, ate lunch at a restaurant recommended by a friend of one of the people I met, and then found the ruins of Rome, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. Photos soon, I hope!

After we left the Colosseum, we went off in search of a gelato place rumoured to be the best in Rome. And it was. Searching for about 10 minutes on the street where it was supposed to be yielded no results, so we decided to find another place. Turned a corner, found it almost instantly. The flavors of gelato they offered were so unique: I had their signature flavor, made with honey that surprisingly wasn't overpoweringly sweet. Other delicious flavors included whiskey, chocolate rum, pine nut, and many others.

The evening was fairly quiet: we cooked our own dinner in the hostel kitchen (pasta made with a ghetto sauce: tomato puree, onions and garlic sauteed in red wine, salt, and sugar) and sat around chatting with another traveller we met from Argentina. I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to book a hostel in Venice for Thursday and Friday nights, eventually giving up when the reception area closed at midnight.

Day 2: I just booked my hostel/campground (yay adventures!) in Venice, and I'm currently figuring out my itinerary for the day. I want to do a Pines of Rome tour, where I go to see the Borghese gardens, the catacombs, Janiculum Hill, and the Appian Way while listening to each movement of the piece while I'm there. I'll blog  on how it works out :-)