ROME TRIP

Me and my 3 dearest girlfriends have known eachother for about six years now. We went to university together and even though we had to go on different paths, cities and sometimes even countries, we still managed to keep an awesome friendship. We made it our unspoken tradition to take trips together, at least once a year, spend birthdays together and in crisis situations, when we really need and miss eachother, just sit in the car and go spend a day together at one of us's cities.

We had already traveled to Montenegro, Austria, Slovakia and Barcelona together, so this year we spontaneously decided to go to Rome. Our main reason was the On the run tour, Jay-z and Beyonce concert, on 8th of July, so my most organized friend Wendy didn't waste any time and just bought us all tickets. Later on we booked flights and accommodation and we were ready to go.

Unfortunately, our friend Susan couldn't go with us in the end, because she chose to spend days in Portugal with her special friend. I was kinda upset about it at first, but then I decided to support her, because I understood that everyone needs some D in their life and deserves to have a romantic trip when on vacation (which she absolutely deserved since she works harder than most people), so I was like you go Susan, you have a wonderful time and we still love you. You can follow her traitor journey @janamaljic 💓. Tell her I sent you and tell her to bring me gifts.

DAY ONE

My trip started by meeting my dear friend Wendy. I love her because she is one unique soul. She has fire red gorgeous hair, perfect skin and her own style and she is very confident and strong. Wendy is also the most responsible, creative and organized person ever, but above all an incredibly supportive friend who will always be there for you.

We started by taking a direct bus to Trieste airport. The bus was ridiculously cheap, about 5 euros per person (Flixbus) and it took us only 2.5 hours to get there. The Trieste airport pretty much looks like it's abandoned, because it's almost empty, you pass through security in a minute and it's kinda new, so it looks very sterile.

Send help pls

Our flight lasted about 1 hour so we sat down and prepared for a relaxing quick trip to Rome. Unfortunately the universe had a different plan for us because there was a SCREAMING BABY sitting behind us. It was like this the whole flight and we wanted to kill ourselves. 

I don't understand why people bring babies to planes. It will not be comfortable for them and certainly not for the people sitting around it. Of course, I don't blame the baby because it must be awful for it, the pressure in the ears and everything. I blame the babies parents for doing this. How is this comfortable for your baby? Or you? Or all of us? Is it fun to watch the baby kick my friend's seat for an hour? I think not lady. On the bright side, this served us as great birth control, because we won't be risking having any of that noise for some time.

Meet up

@valentina.wendy

After this God-awful experience we went to meet our friend Debbie who had already arrived to Rome. We took the metro there and met her at the Colosseum. ROME TIP: The metro ticket for 3 days in Rome costs 18 euros, but don't buy it. Travel by bus because no one checks your tickets there, so you can go around for free through the city. Be prepared that the buses don't really follow their timetables and are often late, but hey, it's free.

Debbie looked great. She has this "I will wear whatever the fuck I want and be extra" attitude and it suits her well. She always looks on point because she loves getting her pictures taken, and is damn good at it. We support her growing Instagram game, in the hope it will make her rich and famous, so she can pay for our future trips with her sponsorship deals (Help our humanitarian cause by following her @darilbroskvar).

As soon as we arrived at Colosseum a horde of "salesmen" on the streets appeared around us offering selfie sticks, taking our pictures, souvenirs for 1 euro and whatever else they could. It was crazy. I saw it in other cities, but here they showed up every 30 seconds. ROME TIP: The trick is to avoid eye contact, otherwise they will get really close in your personal space and insist on you buying something from them.

We walked 15 minutes to our apartment, although it seemed like an hour because it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 33 degrees sunny out, so we pretty much melted. Our apartment was cute, but not like it's pictures promised us. ROME TIP: Get an apartment as close as possible to Piazza di Spagna. There are many bus connections there, all the tours start there and the main attractions are close to it. The owner showed up 20 minutes late and told us all the important info. Except where the extra toilet paper was and what's the situation with our promised breakfast. So now it was 3 of us with one toilet paper for 4 days, which ended up in us having to steal paper towels from the kitchen. We took a shower and changed clothes and decided to go look around. The Colosseum didn't really impress us since we have one in Croatia so our spoiled asses were like: "Meh". Then we went to find some food. ROME TIP: If you are close to the Colosseum go eat some real Italian pizza at a restaurant called Forum. Any other place where the crust is super thin will suck.

Sorry, where are we?

@valentina.wendy

Finally we decided to take a bus to Piazza Navona. Big mistake. The bus transportation in Rome is terrible. Google and the timetable tell you the bus is going every 15 minutes, while in reality we waited 45 minutes for one bus to arrive, in which a bunch of us ran into and squeezed like sardines. There were too many people there, wayyy to close to our personal space. It was sweaty and gross and I was just hoping no one would grope us. 

We had no idea where we were because we couldn't even see from all the people in the bus. Debbie being Debbie just turned around to some dude next to her and said: "Sarry, ver are we?" In the weirdest accent because I guess she suddenly forgot how to speak English. The dude said: "I don't know I mean I go out in a few stations." Since he was clearly also a tourist. But good effort Deborah.

Piazza Navona was gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. Created in baroque style with amazing fountains. I though of a meme for every statue on every fountain and made myself giggle. We asked some couple to take our pictures, because we saw he was taking pics of his wife in every angle, so we knew he would deliver. And deliver he did. He squatted and took our picture, turned the phone vertically and horizontally, took our close up, pictures our outfits - everything. We appreciate when someone really puts effort into it.

We then decided to find some souvenirs. ROME TIP: The prices vary. If you buy them right next to a tourist attraction the price might be triple than what it is in a small alley next to it. The souvenirs are mostly all the same everywhere, so we looked for some we thought were unique. Anyway we went to a piazza near by for some cocktails. So many people, so many languages. There were mostly Americans there, and some Brazilians because the football game was showing on TV. It was nice because we finally sat down and just talked about everything. Or I did because I like to talk a lot. Debbie needs some time to start really talking about herself, but when she does, we really go into everything. Wendy couldn't talk because her voice was pretty much gone and she kept poppin' throat medicine, so she would whisper stuff and I would repeat it out loud because my voice is very "powerful". Sometimes too much.

We were super tired so we decided to take the bus home. Of course we waited for it for about 45 minutes. Again. But on the way we saw a condom vending machine. It's a pretty cool idea. You have everything you might need in a hurry there. Tampons and pads, foot cream, band-aids, condoms, lube and even a vibrator. I wonder who is like: "Yeah, I need a vibrator IMMEDIATELY, let me just run to the vending machine and get it. Imma get some lube also while I'm here, treat myself." But I guess someone is buying it since the vending machine is there.

So we arrived to the apartment, talked more, moisturized (which is  my favorite activity lately) and went to sleep, exhausted.

DAY TWO

I wanted to kill Debbie. She has the most annoying habits in the morning. She puts a million alarms on so they ring every few minutes, but the best part is they don't even wake her up, they wake us up, while she is happily asleep. Meanwhile, Wendy wakes up earlier than roosters, puts on music and turns on the lights because she is the happiest, most positive person in the morning, while I hate everything in the morning. I sleep with an eye mask and earplugs and these two still manage to wake me up. Incredible. 

Anyways, we planned to have our breakfast on our terrace, but it was locked. We searched for the key everywhere for some time, and then gave up and started eating in the kitchen. At that moment Debbie saw the key hanging right in front of her and we finally got to the damn terrace. It was like a fucking escape room to get to it. So we had some breakfast with the worst, WORST coffee I have ever tasted, but it was a pretty nice terrace. ROME TIP: Get you an apartment with breakfast included. It saves you money and makes your mornings much better.

We then decided to get ready for our day. I love this part with my girls. We decide on outfits, share them, review new and old makeup we have, and it's a wonderful process of getting to become beautiful after 1 hour of preparations. We love putting on makeup for a long time. The foundation when it sets, the different eye shadows and colors, finishing with a highlight so you can glow all day - I mean it's just the best. And you end up feeling perfect. Until you go out and look at yourself in daylight and realize you might have put on more of a night time makeup look, but better to be overdressed than under-dressed, right?

Heaven

Pantheon

We started by going to Pantheon. I was dying to see it because I saw it on pictures before. ROME TIP: the entrance is free and if you arrive around noon, you can enter immidiately. It was glorious. Someone was singing Hallelujah in front, the light from the dome inside was falling on the ground, all the decor inside looked absolutely incredible. I am amazed by all the history in Rome. The fact that there are these epic buildings which have been standing there even B.C. is just overwhelming for me. 

Pantheon dome

Inside Pantheon there are tombs of former kings of Italy. It was used as a temple for God and it has a large hole in the dome on the roof. When it rains, they don't close it, but it falls into holes in the ground, specially designed to take the rain out.

There are signs everywhere that you must be quiet because it's a sacred place, but that didn't stop them from putting a shopping table with pope pics and souvenirs to buy inside for some ridiculous prices.

We then got some good Italian gelato. There were flavors like Nutella, Kinder, different fruits, cookies, just like that real rich Italian ice cream, heavenly. ROME TIP: Gelateria next to the Pantheon is amazing and 2 flavors cost around 3,50€. Worth it.

How many euros a day??

Continuing on we kinda accidentally ended up at Fontana di Trevi. Based on the pictures I saw of it, I expected it to be on some large spacious piazza. In reality, it is crammed between buildings and there is a thousand people on it and around it taking photos. It was also again, 33 degrees, so it wasn't a good experience. But it is gorgeous. ROME TIP: If you want to take nice photos or see it when it's not crowded, either go very early or very late in the day.

My awesome panorama of Fontana di Trevi

I sat on the fountain and thew my coin in it, as it is tradition. Around 3000 euros are collected from the fountain daily, and every day that money is given to ones in need. One year they collected over 1.4 million euros from the fountain. Of course people tried to steal it, so now there is a bunch of police officers there. While we were there, 2 couples got engaged in 7 minutes. Everyone was clapping, cheering and taking photos there. It was cute, but I personally wouldn't want something so cliche-ish in front of so many strangers. Still, good for them.

The contrast

Harry Winston

We then found ourselves in the most famous shopping street full of famous brands like Gucci, Dior, Cartier etc. We mostly stopped by Harry Winston because the diamonds blinded us. Anything that glows or blings like that is just mesmerizing. 

Even though there are many people there shopping and spending thousands of euros on clothes and accessories, there were also many poor people begging for money in front of the stores, in the heat. Many of them are immigrants who came to find work or a better life, but couldn't. The most disturbing thing we saw at one point in Rome was an older man, sitting on the floor, barefoot, smoking old cigarettes from the trash, one after the other. It was a shocking contrast of what Rome is like. Tourism from rich history and all it's income, versus the real poverty and homelessness.

Alfredo

Piazza di Spagna

Next we visited the famous Piazza di Spagna. We expected it to be full of flowers, as in photos, but nope, there were none. It still looked nice. It was named after Pallazo di Spagna, where the Spanish embassy is, right next to it. You go Spain! Name the most famous place in another country after you, that's a pretty gangsta move. 

We saw some other stuff in Rome from the bus or walking by them, and since it was extremely hot, we needed a break and some lunch. Wendy found us the place where Fettuccine Alfredo originates from, called Alfredo alla Scrofa (ROME TIP!). If you are in Rome I really recommend it. The place is cute, it has nice music in the background, the staff is very helpful and professional and the pasta is all homemade and just heavenly. 

The restaurant also has pictures of all the celebrities that visited it, like Jimi Hendrix when he was touring, Sophia Loren and many others. The house specialty is the Fettuccine Alfredo which is fettuccine with butter and parmesan cheese. I honestly didn't like it since I am not a fan of parmesan, but the girls were adoring it. Then we had some other pasta with vongole, and it was amazing because the sauce was purely made out of the seafood and no cream, which made it the perfect lunch for the heat. 

              

 

We wrapped it up with some tiramisu and coffee. All in all, the waiters were super nice, told us the history of the restaurant, created a special nonalcoholic drink for me and treated us with extreme professional behavior. 10/10! ROME TIP: It might cost you about 40 euros per person, but it's so worth it.

Emotionally destroyed, but winning

After some more sightseeing it was time to find a place to watch the Croatian World cup game. So we found some piazza where all the bars and restaurants were showing the game on TV. This was beautiful. The restaurants have all checkered tablecloths, amazing designs, everyone is drinking Aperol, there were cute fairy lights and small tables. It seemed like in the movies. 

We ordered some pizza, bruschetti and drinks and then it could start. It was the most nerve wrecking thing ever. The game was an emotional roller coaster for us. Debbie and me follow football a bit so we were into it, but I think this was one of the first games for Wendy she watched as a whole, because her comments were hilarious. While me and Debbie were violently cursing, commenting and getting angry and happy at the same time, Wendy had the nicest most positive comments like: "Oh maybe they are tired", "This must have hurt him", "His girlfriend must be so worried right now", "Well running so much is difficult", "It's hard to hit the goal", and similar. Her innocence is lovely, but hilarious.

Talk dirty to me

Later since we won the game, we went for a drink to another place and started getting into deep conversations about our lives and situations, as we do. Debbie started opening up (only 2 days necessary for my girl) and Wendy's voice was back, and so were we. We decided to go home after a few hours because we were super tired from walking all day. As we were approaching our house we heard Frank Sinatra's - The way you look tonight playing somewhere. It was someone singing and we thought it was a karaoke bar so we wanted to hit that. When we approached it we realized it was another proposal. Some guy took a speaker and a microphone in front of his girls house, sang Sinatra to her, proposed and she said yes. It was so cute, but disappointing because we wanted to do karaoke.

Tune in next week for part two: Vatican trip and the Jay and Bey concert madness!

Until next time 😊