La Notte Bianca 8.9.07

We woke up later than we intended - about 10:30. So Rob, JD, Eric and I caught our first meal at the free barbeque on campus at 11:15. After, Rob and I went to see more of Rome, heading north of campus thru the park on top of Monte Gianicolo where we caught this view of Rome:



We headed thru the shaded streets of the park, eventually heading down the north side of the hill to the Vatican. We checked out the Vatican. There's constantly running fountains all over Rome for drinking water. I was constantly filling my water bottle. I bought it from a vending machine on campus for €0.30 ...really makes the $1.00+ bottles in American vending machines look even more like a rip-off.

We waited at the Vatican to meet JD, Gwen, her roommate Lisa, and the rest of our roommates. It was taking forever. Apparently they got lost. The good news is Rob and Eric have cell phones over here, so we knew they weren't coming for a while. We took that time to check out the Castel Sant'Angelo area. The castle itself was €7 to get in. Since it was free later that night, we just walked along the river and back to the Vatican.

Starting at 20:00 was La Notte Bianca, where many museums are free and open all night, concerts go on all around the city, bars and streets are flooded with people. Rob's cousin who lives in Rome said an estimated 2 million people were expected for La Notte Bianca.

"Meet us at the left side of the Vatican"
"Where's that?"
"You know where you're walking towards the Vatican? ...it's on your left."

Finally we met the crew, we went back home to take a nap and gear up for a long night on the town. Public transportation was packed all night. We (everyone who'd met at the Vatican) piled into a bus like sardines and explored Castel Sant'Angelo for our first stop. From there, we worked our way thru overly-crowded streets across the city thru Piazza Navonna to the Trevi fountain, making an occasional pit-stop for beer to-go. After meeting the rest of Gwen's roommates and 2 of our own leaving, it was down Via del Corso to Piazza Venezia where tons of people were watching a live feed on a big screen of a concert that was going on in the forum. Nobody was moving, but eventually we made around the side of the forum. 3 of Gwen's roommates were dead-set on finding a bar (likely because they're 20, and they can finally drink legally here). The rest of us preferred taking in the experience on the streets.

JD made the best point of the night. We can grab a beer and legally walk the streets with it. "There's two million people here. This is the biggest bar we've ever been to." No need to find one to sit in.

We wandered the streets the rest of the night, eventually stuggling to find our way back home.

We finally made it to the 8 tram (which runs right down the street we live on). I thought we were packed like sardines on the way out. The ride back was so crowded, you could barely move your limbs. ...if there were pick-pockets on the tram, they might have gone home empty handed for the simple rest of not being able to move their arm enough to grab anything.

It was 5am when we finally made it back to our place.