Roaming Through Rome

I have dreamed about spending a whole day in Rome, Italy all my life. My family and I this past Christmas finally took the plunge and bought tickets to Italy for the holidays. It was all that I expected, and then some.

My father and I would wake up really early in the morning, which is something that I hardly ever do, and we would go wandering through the streets of Rome to find delicious coffee and pastries for the rest of our sleeping family. We had a little trouble with the language difference and figuring out the money but after a few failed attempts we caught on. One day my dad and I went down the street to a little coffee shop that was run by the cutest Italian couple you’d ever meet. The owner only knew a little English and we only knew a few words in Italian, but we were able to communicate with our hands as a way to show what we wanted. He was so sweet and would always assist us in everything we needed. He even slipped us a few extra doughnuts on our way out and wished us a Merry Christmas.

It was a perfect start to my day. We hopped on the bus around the corner from our apartment and stopped at the famous Coliseum. We read about all the history and battles that occurred there and soaked in all the beauty of the ruins. My younger brother was a whiz with the map and somewhat confusing bus schedules so we got around pretty well. Our next stop was to find the Trevi Fountain. This was the fountain of all fountains; at least it was to me. I had been dreaming about tossing a coin in there ever since I’d seen Hilary Duff do it in one of her movies. To get to the fountain you had to squeeze through these tiny alleyways and pass by a fair share of beggars. But when you started to hear the sounds of the water roaring, you knew you were close and everything else around you was a blur. The only thing that matters is getting there. You round a corner and BAM, there is it, the Trevi Fountain. I had never imagined it to be so big and beautiful. They say you can never really appreciate something until you are there in person, well they are right. I love it even more now that I have been there and taken about 700 pictures of it.

Once I peeled myself away from the fountain and vowed to return again one day my family and I walked over to the Spanish Steps. We thought we were lost for a while but once we heard the music playing, we knew we were close. There was a musical festival going on at the bottom of the steps and having that there just made the whole experience that much sweeter. When we arrived there it was already sunset and the sun was setting just opposite the church at the top of the stairs. We climbed the numerous steps and just stood in awe of the beauty below us.

Every single building, person, food, landmark, or scent that I encountered on that day is ingrained in my head. I will never forget that magical day in Rome and I look forward to going back there again and reliving it once more.