This past week I decided to travel to Rome, Italy with my close friend from my study abroad program. I have gotten used to travelling alone, but I knew it would be fun to travel with another person. I normally get into sticky situations when I’m alone, so I thought that bringing a friend would be safer for us. We had a basic plan on what to see in Rome, and we took note that it was going to be raining the entire weekend. Travelling to Italy has always been a dream of ours, and we were determined to have a great time.
My friend is from a small town in Indiana, so she’s not used to travelling to large cities. This is a contrast to me, since I live by New York City and I would consider myself “street smart”. We arrived in Rome at midnight, and we decided to go out for a slice of pizza. As we went searching for a pizzeria, we stumbled across a man in front of a restaurant. We asked him if it was open and he shrugged. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed so we decided to walk back to our Airbnb. The man was watching us like a hawk from the distance. We decided to change our route and go to a more lit area. We thought he finally lost him, so we continued our walk to our place. We saw him approaching our area, searching for someone; that someone was us. We hid behind a car and made sure he passed us, because he was in the same street where we lived. As soon as he left, we quietly made our way back to our Airbnb.
We were completely terrified. It was 2:00 in the morning, and we were in a place where we didn’t even know the language. When she went to open the door, the key broke inside the lock. Of course, that would happen to us! We spent the next 40 minutes trying to call our host and trying to find a way inside our apartment. She decided to lean on the door, and to our surprise, it opened! We rushed inside and laughed the whole situation off.
Besides this bump on the road, our visit to Rome ad the Vatican went smoothly. I was amazed by the ruins that are preserved right at the heart of the city. We were able to see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Vatican. It rained most of the time, which was fine by us. But when the sun came out, you could really see how bright and lively the Eternal City was. I would love to come back to Italy and take my time seeing different cities and learning more about their vast history. I also am excited to travel with my friends to Morocco and Paris soon. Solo travelling is my favorite thing to do now, but it’s sometimes nice to go with a friend or two and experience a new culture together.
Ali's Adventures Abroad 