Bienvenuti a Roma Termini

This was our official greeting into the enchanting city of Roma. Two big pillars in the main mall of the Termini train station had this lit up in green lettering. And so our time in Roma began on Tuesday, June 20th. The train ride from Venezia to Roma was relatively short--only 5 hours and in a lovely modern train with lots of leg and luggage space. Our hostel was only a 5 minute walk from Termini. The walk served as a preparation of sorts as to what we were to expect in our days and nights in Roma. The streets were loud and congested. There were people coming at us from all different directions. Phone booths everywhere with various people going up to them to check for forgotten change in the slots. Luggage, handbag, belt, sunglass, etc. vendors lined the sidewalks. Our directions were straight forward and we got through the streets with no problem... we were just extremely cautious for crazy drivers in both cars and scooters. The taxi and scooter drivers are the most vicious of them all. The other drivers are crazy too but those taxi and scooter drivers are driving like they´re running from the law. The city, at least what Beth and I had seen thus far, wasn´t exactly what we were expecting. I think it can be paralleled to going to Paris for the first time... Ahh, the city of lights, romance and love... but it is a big city... with crime, TONS of people, the reality of life including packed and stinky subways and crowded streets with potholes. Such was Roma for us during our walk to the hostel. Tons of crazy drivers, trash everywhere, overflowing dumpsters, graffiti on almost every building we passed... including our hostel. We managed to make it to the hostel safely and were given room number 25. Keep in mind that we came from the lovely hostel in Venezia, fully equipped with AC, mini fridge, TV WITH MTV and our own private, very clean bathroom. Enter ¨Hostel Beautiful¨ in Roma... not very beautiful! We opened the door and could immediately smell the sewage system. It was dark b-c the light bulb really didn´t illuminate much. We did have our own bathroom but we couldn´t stand to be in there for very long b-c not even our beauty products could drown out the stench. We agreed that this was our first real ¨hostel¨ on the trip and that it was all part of the adventure. We had many things to see on our itinerary in Roma so we set our to see the Spanish Steps at the Piazza de Spagna that night. We made it there and encountered all the other 500 tourists with cameras, snapped a few shots and headed to find some pasta and Coca-Cola (Europeans do not call this beverage Coca as the Latinos back in the States b-c as was pointed out to me, Coca is a very different thing) before we called it a night.