On March 14, I brought my boyfriend to the airport so he could catch his flight back to the US, and then promptly got on a plane myself to officially start my spring break.
I was extremely excited for my trip I had planned with my friend Chaya, as we were visiting two cities that have been on my bucket list forever: Athens and Rome.
I flew to Athens and met up with Chaya, who was flying in from Venice. We landed in the evening, so we didn’t start sightseeing until the following morning. We paid 30 Euros for a ticket that included entry into seven different ruins sites around Athens, and our first stop was the Acropolis.
As someone who has wanted to go to Athens for as long as I can remember, walking up the Acropolis and seeing so many ruins was surreal. It was just as beautiful and incredible as I imagined. We spent hours at the Acropolis, taking in every detail. The visit exceeded my expectations and even after visiting the other six sites included on our ticket, the Acropolis was still my favorite by far.
In the two days we were in Athens, we managed to visit every site on our tickets. Some were more impressive than others, but overall I’m so happy that we were able to see all of them. Some of the ruins were just that: ruins. Like, literally just piles of rocks or the foundation of a building, and one had to be very imaginative to envision what it looked like in the past.
The Roman Agora was my second favorite site to see. It was huge, and up on a hill where the Temple of Hephaestus was, there was an incredible view of the Acropolis in the distance, which I loved. One of my favorite things about Athens was the fact that the Acropolis is visible from just about anywhere, and it always looks stunning.
That Wednesday night we flew from Athens to Rome. Our flight was a whopping 15 Euros (shoutout RyanAir). We got in very late and took the train from the airport into the city, and then walked to our hotel.
The next morning we took the Metro to the Colosseum. The public transit in Rome was the worst I’ve experienced in Europe so far. It was super outdated, very dirty and just overall kind of sketchy. The ticket machine didn’t accept credit cards, the subway stations were very dark and the Metro cars themselves were covered in dust and graffiti.
After arriving at the Colosseum and bypassing all of the scammers trying to sell tickets, we spent a bit trying to figure out how to purchase a ticket — because for some odd reason, you could only buy them online, not at the ticket office, even though the ticket office was open Finally, we made our way inside.
The Colosseum was really cool and I loved that there was a museum of sorts at the beginning, so you could learn more about the history behind the structure. After walking around the Colosseum, we headed to the Roman Forum, which was absolutely stunning. It was huge, and had a ton of different ruins of all kinds inside of it. It was truly beautiful.
Doing both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in the same day, however, was a mistake, because it was just so much walking and it took us hours to get through both of them. We were exhausted by the end.
The food in Rome was, of course, delicious. I ate all of the pizza and pasta you could imagine. My favorite, however, had to be the dessert: every single one I tried was amazing. I had gelato numerous times, some tiramisu (which is my favorite dessert) and I tried panna cotta, a traditional Italian dessert, which I loved.
Getting to check off two places that have always been on my bucket list was amazing. Throughout my spring break I could hardly believe that I was actually in these cities! I love touring ruins and learning about the rich history behind everything, so it truly was an amazing week.
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