By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
“This is just like home”. My first impression of Rome. I chose Rome for nothing more than the fact that the Gilmore Girls was my current obsession and the family took a vacation to Rome and so I said, “hey, I could do that too!”. So here I was, on the bus that would take me into the city and already regretting my decision. I should have picked Spain, or France or any of those other exotic places you read about, but then again, Rome is one of such places. I was quite disappointed because what I was looking at was just like home, the weather, the infrastructure, the streets. But I soldiered on, determined to make the most of this trip, mostly by staying indoors and working on my school project. This decision was solely based on the fact that I was travelling alone. Also, I make a poor tourist when travelling solo, which is at odds with my thirst for adventure and my love for travelling. The most important thing was that I could say now that I have been to Rome. I found my hostel, checked in and then things changed. My carefully laid plans to stay indoors all through my holiday went up in smoke when I met the girls I will be sharing a space with. How strangers of immense diversity and culture could meet and make like they have known each other forever is something that still intrigues me. The night I met these girls, we went shopping together, had dinner together and we wound up talking late into the night. My introduction to the city of Rome began that night. Before it was over, they had mapped out my plans for the next day, the places I should go and the things I should see. When I let them know what my actual plans were, they would have none of it. So I found myself waking up earlier than usual so we could beat the unrelenting sun that was promised that day. There’s probably a golden rule for tourists in Europe, “don’t take the bus, or train, or any form of transport that can make a trip easier. You have to walk”. And that’s what we did. We set out and my initial disappointment turned to awe. From the steps to the fountains, the chapels to the parks and the art, everything was an experience I wanted to capture and keep forever. I discovered the beauty of fine dining in a rustic shack off the water’s edge that served the best pasta I ever tasted. I sampled countless amounts of pizza slices from pizzerias that lined the cobbled streets and I was introduced to the decadent flavours of gelato. I got back to my accommodations positively drained and tired. Turns out I wasn’t done. Someone else wanted to do more tourism at night and invited me on this expedition. I figured I probably wasn’t going to do this anytime in the future by myself so I said sure. And there we went again, traipsing through the streets of Rome, heading to the Trevi fountain. The city seemed to take on a different life at night and had me wishing it was always night. Two things fuelled our desire for tourism at the Trevi at night, one is the theory that the crowd would be less and the second was that it was beautiful at night. Our first theory was shot down as we approached the fountain. There was quite literally no leg room, the night had simply not made a difference or it probably made it worse (people with the same theory as ours I guess). One thing is for sure, exploring the city with my companions opened my eyes to the charm of the city and by myself, it gave me motivation to go solo and further explore. And I had made friends for life.