So, as all roads eventually do, mine has lead me to Rome. While I spent a few minutes on the subway yesterday, I don't count that at all. Getting there was slightly more difficult than usual today as a consequence of that train strike - there were trains sporadically throughout the day, but none around when I wanted to go in that morning. As such, Google Maps found me a route on a weird regional bus that got somewhat close to the subway system. It stopped just across the street from the hostel, so I hopped on. I'm not sure how much it cost since I couldn't figure out how to pay, but nobody seemed to mind so I didn't press the issue. The bus route seemed to differ slightly from the one Google Maps had, so I ended up somewhere fairly far removed from where I really wanted to be. I got off once I realized this to avoid getting even further off course, but this probably wasn't a good move since there was very little other transit infrastructure in the region I then found myself in. After running through a bunch of fields and sprinting across a few highways, I found myself at the green line. It was fully automatic and looked very much like the Copenhagen metro. It also doesn't really go into the city, but rather stops near the edge of the main metro line and expects you to take other transit to get around from there. I get why they have so few subway stops; digging in Rome sounds like a total nightmare because of all the artifacts you'll inevitably uncover.

Instead of taking another train further downtown, I started walking toward a few big landmarks. One of the first things I saw was this ancient Egyptian obelisk that some Roman emperor had pulled from their Egyptian territory and then erected in the middle of Rome. This is the sort of thing I was looking for in Rome - little constant reminders of the incredible history that make the city Eternal. As I kept walking, I couldn't help but notice the incredible number of walking tour groups. They were really annoying to move around, honestly, and completely clogged up the sidewalks. I think there were probably more tourists here than anywhere I've been thus far, though Rome is certainly a little better equipped to handle them than somewhere like Florence or Amsterdam.

After a bit of walking, I hit the Colosseum. It's very impressive, but all the same I wish it weren't quite so ruined. I walked around it, but didn't want to pay to go in just yet. Today was supposed to be a survey day and tomorrow would be the real activity day once I've decided where my priorities lie. While walking the Colosseum, I noticed a ton of really obnoxious hawkers. They seemed to come in two main varieties - Indian and African. I'm not sure how it came to be that they were so cleanly divided on ethnic lines, but it was always true. I suspect it might some sort of MLM lead by a different kingpin in both communities, but that's just speculation. The Indian guys would try to sell you portable chargers or water, and the African guys would try to sell you either little "tribal" looking knickknacks (no idea why someone would want something like that in Rome) or would start complimenting and fistbumping you. According to one of the Swedish girls back at the hostel, if you engage with them at all (I always ignored them) they'll give you a "friendship bracelet" and then get mad if you don't pay them for it. Either way, they were annoying, though at least the Indian ones were providing a real service that could potentially be valuable if you were desperate enough to pay whatever ridiculous prices they wanted.

Right next to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum, the ruins of the old heart of government in the Roman state. It's almost totally destroyed, but the ruins aren't completely without identifiable structures based on what I could see from the outside. I think this holds the most interest for me and is what I'd like to spend money on. After walking around the Palatine to try finding anything that didn't require waiting forever in line, I gave up and walked further into town. From here I noticed a distinct lack of "Roman" things in Rome. The only other major ancient structure that I found was the Pantheon, so I threw them a 5 euros to go see it. It was completely mobbed with people, but the building itself is pretty amazing. Built under Hadrian, the roof is the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever created despite being almost 2000 years old. The problem, aside from the crowds, is that it was converted to church at some point in the middle ages. This had the positive effect of meaning that it's the only Roman building in the whole city that isn't ruined, but it also has essentially no Roman identity left either. It just looks like any other church on the inside, and all that history seems to have been totally left by the wayside. I only know this stuff because I read the Wikipedia page for it - they had essentially no info about the building's Roman history in lieu of having plaques explaining all the little statues of Christian saints. It was only 5 euro, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't disappointing.

I poked around for a while longer - I stopped by this huge building that I think was some sort of national museum, but I just wanted to walk around its huge patios with panoramic views of the city. It was a really beautiful building, too. After that I wandered aimlessly for a bit more, hoping to find other small reminders of the fact that I'm in one of the most historic cities to ever exist as with that obelisk from earlier. I didn't. I got yelled at by some guard for sitting on the sidewalk behind the Italian parliament and eventually found my way across the Tiber towards the Vatican. I poked my head around and, liking what I saw, figured it would be another cool thing to see tomorrow.

Just navigating the streets here is completely insane. The drivers are totally unhinged, honking constantly, and there's zero rhyme or reason to the layout of the streets. It's a miracle I didn't witness any accidents given how many close calls I saw. Rome is a disorganized mess in a similar way to London, though of course they're not really much alike beyond that. Here, though, they haven't done much to accommodate for the fact that it's a mess, unlike London.

Somewhat confused about how I felt about Rome, I ended up heading back to the hostel for a wine tasting event. Apparently the husband of the couple who owns it is a professional wine taster, and lead us in a wine tasting of a few of their wines. They brought us down into this crazy wine cellar they had right on the property - it was hewn by hand into the rock. Pretty cool. I've never liked wine that much, but I definitely appreciated it much more than I usually would have this time around, and since it was all no additional cost I can't complain too much. They also served all manner of interesting local foods, from buffalo ricotta to these prosciutto-wrapped horse meatballs. I really liked this since it was very local and authentic in a way that's been really hard for me to find in the huge, touristy cities I've spent most of this trip in.

After, British guy asked for some additional chess lessons. I was happy to oblige, but he ended up asking for my advice on every single move - I was basically just playing both sides of the game, which doesn't make for very interesting play. The Swedish girls came over and begged us to stop playing chess, so we played this really stupid game of theirs called "bubbles". You'd pass cards around in a circle, swapping out your hand of 4 in an effort to have four of a kind. Whenever someone succeeded in this, they'd puff their cheeks out, and at this point everyone else had to puff out their cheeks too. If you were the last one to notice, you'd lose. Riveting.

British guy played guitar (quite well) for a few more hours and we'd sing a variety of songs that he'd play the backing chords to. The swedes were very good singers, so I often felt like I was just polluting the performance especially since I often wasn't very familiar with the songs in question. Still it was nice, and not an experience I have often in hostels. It was really late by the time we finally went to bed, after the girls had finished saying a million goodbyes and promising to visit British guy in England.