Welcome back! Sorry this blog post is a up a little later today, we were busy all day today and I chose only now to start and finish this post. Yesterday was our last full day in Rome before we moved to our current destination, Positano! Keep reading below to hear about what we did!
Thursday, July 25th, 2019
Today, we woke up early so we could go to the train station and board a train to Tivoli. Our scheduled activity for today was not until 4:30 pm so my parents decided to go to Tivoli and check out a famous villa, which was once owned by Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este, Villa d’Este. Villa d’Este is one of three villas in the city. We chose this one because it has a beautiful garden with a bunch of water fountains and great views of the Italian country side.
We only spent about an hour and a half in Tivoli because of our reserved activity so we headed back to the train station and rode the train back to Rome. It was already around 2 pm when we arrived so we had decided to eat at the station’s McDonald’s. We ordered the “Tasty Basket” which consists of nuggets, wings, and fried cheese balls with bacon bits, and is only found throughout Italy! The McDonald’s back in the states though is definitely a lot more tasty but that is probably because ours is covered in grease and Italy’s is not. After lunch we made our way back to the hotel and rested for about 30-40 minutes before we made our way back to the train station and took the metro to the Colosseum.
We had tickets to explore the Roman Forum, which is something we did not last time, and it included the Colosseum. Since we had already seen the Colosseum the last time we came, we eventually decided to find a spot in the shade to sit and rest for a while before we headed out in the heat to the Roman Forum. Italy, but Rome especially, is really hot and humid this time of year (98 degrees!) so it can be a bit unbearable to walk around in the sun for a while. We then walked through the Roman Forum and got to get a sense of how the government operated during ancient times. Most of the forum has been destroyed with the ages, but some buildings still remain.
After the Roman Forum, we headed back to the metro station, got a granita (lemon flavored) while we waited for the crowd to dissipate and took a metro back to our hotel to rest before we went to dinner. Since all of us were worn out from the walking, we decided upon a restaurant close by our hotel called Nerone. I decided to stretch outside of my comfortable bolognese comfort zone and get a Carbonara instead, which i have tried many times before at my university’s pasta bar in my residence hall. I found the carbonara to be a bit bland and lacking in the sauce and ended up wishing I had just gotten the bolognese as always. For dessert, we all enjoyed a tiramisu, an Italian classic! That was DELICIOUS! I love having a major sweet tooth, lol.
Then from dinner we walked back to our hotel and packed up our suitcases as we were leaving early the next day and all went about our nights as normal. Good night everyone!
Thanks, once again, for reading! It was our first day in beautiful Positano today and we all had fun getting to relax as we rode in car and toured the Amalfi Coast. I’ll tell you more tomorrow but that is all you are getting for now ;).
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