pizza in roma
Happy hump day! Although the current state of the world and shelter-in-home orders can warp our collective sense of time, you’ve made it halfway through the work week! Congrats! You may have noticed some aesthetic changes that have been made to the blog! I hope you like them as I felt that some much-needed updates were definitely a bit overdue. My boyfriend and I laughed yesterday as I noticed and exclaimed, “babe! my blog is the same color scheme as my bike!” And if you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s post, “cinco de mayo: the best Mexican food in Dublin,” you can click here to catch up!
Speaking of my bike, I mentioned before that I’ve been taking bike rides through the neighborhood (wearing a mask and sunblock, of course, as well as some sweet shirts my best friend Bianca made for me) to help break up my daily routine and destress from the state of the world. One of the streets in this part of Los Angeles is lined with Cypress trees, and as I was riding my bike yesterday (pre-Cinco-de-Mayo tacos and margaritas), it took me back to where I actually was a year ago today - Rome, Italy!
This time last year I took myself on a romantic getaway for one to visit Italy to celebrate the end of official class sessions for my Masters degree and to check some things off my bucket list. My trip began in Venice, which I will definitely write about another time, and continued with a train ride through the Italian countryside to Rome!
My first impression of Rome when I stepped off the train was one of positive overwhelm. Rome was a true hustling and bustling city, and I'd wanted to visit Rome in real life ever since Lizzie McGuire sang, "hey now! hey now! this is what dreams are made of!" I grabbed my backpack (I travel very light when solo trippin'), vowed not to fall for any Paolo-like games the Italian boys might play with American girls, bought a multiple-day transit pass I could use on all subway and bus systems, and walked my way through the vespa-lined city streets to find some pizza before figuring out how to get to my AirBnB outside the city center (singing so much of The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack in my head... "Why notttt take a crazy chance?!").
The pizza I found was incredibly delicious and incredibly cheap. As someone who prefers to make her own pizza (unless ordering from Branco’s), I appreciate the high quality, low cost deliciousness I found at Pizzeria Andrea. It was a wonderful welcome to such a beautiful city. With a full stomach, I made my way back to the train station to find my way to my AirBnB. It ended up being a couple train transfers and bus to my home-away-from-home in Rome, but I stayed in a private room in a house where there was one other traveler who left after the first night (thus giving me an entire house to myself for $20 a night... SCORE).
I got my room setup with all my stuff, showered, and unpacked a few groceries I’d picked up from a market down the street. I ventured back out to experience a day-to-night walking tour I'd booked for myself along the cypress-lined streets of Rome to the Coliseum, which I will write all about for tomorrow’s post (with lots of great photos)!
Have you ever experienced that travel fatigue I had where all you want to do after a day of travel is make yourself something to eat and then totally veg out and plan exciting things for the next few days? If you’ve had a similar experience, I’d truly love to know! As someone who tends to push herself a little more than she should sometimes (especially when traveling - FOMO is real), I’d love to hear from any like-minded travelers out there! Thank you so much for reading, and, as always, if you have any pressing questions or if you want to discuss something further with me, please subscribe in the e-mail submission box below, follow me on Instagram or Twitter, or reach out to me on the “contact” page. I’m so grateful you're here and that I’ve been getting a lot of really great, fun-to-read questions and feedback from a community all over the world. Especially during this time of uncertainty and pandemic, it's important to find your tribe and surround yourself with good; we're all in this together. I couldn’t do this without you! So THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
Johny
P.S. - If you want to catch up from the beginning on this series of adventures, here's a cheat sheet to the posts (in order in which they were published):
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