The outskirts of Rome aren't so bad...

Moral of the story: Hotel Brunella was awful, and there was no room at the convents with the nuns. I found myself in panic mode at an Italian internet café, talking to my mom about where to stay, when I stumbled upon this Best Western. I looked at the map, and there appeared to be a Metro stop VERY nearby. I zoomed out and it was far from the city center - but there's a metro stop, so no big deal, right? WRONG - mainly because Google maps was displaying a not-yet-existing metro stop on "Line C." Imagine my surprise when I met my friend Flavia at the Colosseum and she told me that "Linea C" was still under construction. So...Flavia and I spent about 2 hours on buses getting out to this hotel near Tor Vergata, one of the universities in Rome. We asked the hotel desk, and there was a much easier way of getting out here - metro line A all the way to the end, and then Bus #20 for about 20 minutes.
Oh - another bit of excitement was that I asked Flavia whether or not I needed a bus ticket, and she told me it was no big deal that I didn't have one. Well... the public transport officer didn't seem to agree. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think that I got a ticket. I just know that he asked for my passport, then Flavia gave him 50 euros (I promise that I tried to pay her back), and then there were about 3 or 4 old Italian women literally SCREAMING at this man! He was not amused... I'm glad to see that if nothing else works in Rome, the cops at least still know how to write tickets!

I need to pause and say that at this point, I was ready to buy the next Ryanair ticket to Germany and stay in a hostel there. But Flavia and I took the shorter bus+metro route back into the city, and we met her sister and friends at a restaurant. It was so much fun, and I just felt so welcome and a part of the city life. There was also this ridiculous guy interviewing us about Campari Soda...he had me hold up the small bottle of red liquid to my eye as if it were a monocle. I came back to the hotel last night, and I slept well.

Today I did a bunch of sight-seeing at the Vatican, partially with Molly, who is studying abroad here right now (I went to St. Peter's Basilica with her art history class - so cool!), and partially on my own (Musei Vaticani e Capella Sistina). I will add some pictures tomorrow along with the sights that I see tomorrow - hopefully this will include some images of well-known places in Rome.

N.B. I don't like to take pictures of artworks in museums or of very sacred places/things. I was a little horrified today at how often people had their cameras flashing, but oh well.

Bis später!