Freedom Traveller Rome

We arrive in Rome. Wow, I am so excited. We get off the train and there are peddlers and vendors everywhere. We looked at our travel guide very well on the train, so I know exactly where to go. We walk through everyone and go straight to the Freedom Traveller's Hostel. It is 18 euro/ night and we get free internet [long waits though], free breakfast, and free plate of pasta for dinner. Can't beat it with a stick. The three of us go to our room, and then go down to the internet. We are too lat...

I arrived in Rome at around 9 this morning. They gave us free tea and some sort of Italian cake with dried fruit. I love free food these days. I dropped off my things at the Hostel and went to the Vatican, even though the Pope isn't there these days which is a disapointment because he is supposed to be at the Vatican until August. The good thing was that the Vatican was free today. I had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, which I didn't find too bad and then you got to go through security....

I really only had one day to see most of Rome (excluding the Vatican) so I had a really packed day. It started off waiting in a long line at the train station to get reservations for the rest of my travels in Italy but I managed to get all the reservations I needed. I then went to Santa Maria Magiore. Then I went to Saint Pietro, where there is Michelangelo's statue of Moses. The outside of the church is actually sort of plain and inconspicuous. I then tried to make my way to the Colisseum. P...

I cannot believe I am actually here. I didnt have an adventure quite as good as last time, but it was still not normal. My flight from Dulles to Madrid took off TWO HOURS LATE. Making us all miss our connections. Luckily they speak english a hell of a lot better in Madrid than they did at Aeroflot in London. To make it worse, the plane was full of damn children, like 50 of them under 5, most of them screamers. I got zero sleep. Bad service, even to someone like me, who doesnt usually notice i...

i am in rome trying to block out the sound of trashy techno and italian television news in my luxurious hostel "freedom traveler" (jk on the luxurious part). things have been far from the spring break cliche. amazing, but nothing like you would imagine when hearing spring break and rome together in a sentence. yesterday it hailed golfballs, today it is freezing but sunny and all i can think is that either global warming or global freezing are coming into effect in a rather inconvenient way. w...

Photos for this blog are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredten/s ets/72157594150791221/ All roads lead to Rome. Well that's what they say anyway. My road has brought me here. Right now its a little after midnight, and I am laying in my bed at my new hostel in Rome. All the lights are off and there is a couple from Sydney in the bunk right next to mine. There are only 6 beds in this room. I met the other people in this room and everyone seems cool. At least they all speak English. This h...

Well we arrived in Rome during the day again...its so nice to arrive to a place when there is still daylight! We walked from the train station and had a little trouble finding it, due to the fact there was no sign on the outside of the building...but we found it! It was a cute hostel, the beds weren´t bunk beds so that was kind of nice. We shared our room with two Sweedish Girls they were pretty cool! Our first night we just kind of hung out, had our FREE DINNER!! It was just a plate of pasta...

Today we left Heart of Tuscany this morning and took a side trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. We were all amazed at the tower, we thought it would be taller! We of course, took the traditional tourist photos of pushing and holding the tower, ate our lunch and boarded yet another train!! We arrived in Rome in early evening and found our hotel. We are getting pretty good at finding hotels and getting around in new cities! We were pretty tired after our long travel day, so we called it a ni...

Today was a great (and very tiring) day in Rome! Cassie and I took a walking tour of Rome while Kim and Sarah explored on their own. Cassie and I saw a really cool church that from the outside, looked like a normal building, but inside, there were huge statues and marble everywhere! It was so pretty!! We were also able to see catacombs, which are human bones in an artistic form. It was kind of creepy, but really cool at the same time!! We saw capital hill, where Italy's Tomb of the Unknown So...

So I arrived in Rome. The train station, Roma Termini, is so huge its like a mall! Wait, it is a mall. There is tons of shopping, kiosk vendors and even a supermarket. The hostel, Freedom Traveller, was kinda dodgy. I found the staff a little cold and I was not too excited about the set up. Jane got locked in the bathroom for what seemed like forever but we rescued her when she threw the key over the top where it literally bounced into my hand. We picked up two Aussie girls Lauren and Kate th...