So I arrived in Rome about noon on the 19th and started looking for this hostel that a guy I met in Athens recommended to me. I basically had a street, a patchwork map and a name. So, I ended up turning the wrong way out of the train station and wandered a while without seeing it. I then decided to ask a guy at a grocery store where Via Rattazzi was. He said he didn't know, so I looked for a little while longer. I then walk in the other direction, about 50 meters from the store and see the street plain and simple...wasn't too pleased with that guy, apparently they don't seem to like travelers too much...

Anyway, the place I was looking for was called Guy's Paridise (with guy being the name of the owner I think), it was a little out of way and I had to hunt a fair bit for it. This guy approached me and asked me if I was looking for a place to stay. I asked him that I was looking Guy's Paridise and he said he didn't know of it and that it probably didn't exist, and that there was only one hostel in this area his. After traveling through SE Asia, I know not to trust someone who is trying to sell their own hostel, so then I went into a hotel that was way out of my price range, they asked me my price range and when I said 16 Euros, they proceeded to give me directions...

Yeah, this place is really sweet...the guy who runs it Lorenzo, not Guy, is super friendly and as soon as I enter asks me if I want tea, and if I hadn't had breakfast there are some croissants that are left from breakfast. The place is pretty "cozy, the reception/dining room/internet room is really small, but the real draw is the fact that the people who run it and the people who come here are really friendly and they give you free dinner (2 pasta dishes with at least one being vegetarian) and all the beer/wine you want to drink with dinner. Yeah, you heard me right, all the beer (within reason, as he buys two flats and several bottles of wine) you want to drink. Yes, I did have my fair share to drink the first night and am starting tonight.

So, I get in there and am having a cup of tea when a guy who is in the reception asks me if I want to go to a soccer match - Roma vs. Parma (Italian Div 1). I was pretty tired as I got about 3 hours of sleep but I'm not gonna say no to this.

So nine of us head out to the stadium. We end up getting there about 15 minutes into the game cause the train took a little longer than expected and we were a little slow getting mobile. There were a bunch of scalpers trying to sell us a ticket for about 5 Euro, but there are these big signs right under the ticket window that advertise seat for 14 Euro each, and since we are there for the atmosphere, we get the cheap ticket. This apparently annoyed the scalper and he ripped down all the signs...

The atmosphere was amazing. It was almost all Roma fans and there was this small section with about 100 Parma fans with tall plastic seperating that section (like the glass in a hockey rink). The other 50,000 people were all Roma supporters. The place was electric, it was already 1-0 for Roma when we arrive and when Roma scored their second goal the fans went nuts. There were guys hugging each other, random people lighting flares and fireworks and songs and chants erupting all over the place.

Anyway, the game ended up being a romp, 5-1 for Roma, and everyone went home happy. The soccer was really good to, it was a lot of one touch and fast break stuff, so it was really fun to watch. Quite the way to be welcomed to Rome...