A direct train took us from the edge of Switzerland to the middle of Italy. The moment we stepped off of the train in Rome, an instant haze set over us, everything had a murky orange glow. We had to settle for the Alessandro Palace, which sounds fancy, but our 16 bed room and single bathroom said otherwise.

We had pizza for dinner, obviously.

We met some of the loveliest people in our hostel, and I think my friends and I regret not following them around the world. We did however, follow them around the Roman clubs. We started at an English bar where they unceremoniously watered down our drinks.

The next club we went to was fancy. Marble floors and counters. We felt out of place with our dirty trainers. It’s strange how Rome could suck you in and make you feel out of place at the same time. We stayed at that club until the faint glow of the sun was outside, we had to run home because it was too dangerous for girls to walk.

Italy is yet another country where there are disgusting displays of sexism, so much so that they are commonplace. When our new friends told us we had to run back to our hostel, they didn’t sound upset - it was just how things were done. 3.5 million women in Italy have been victims of stalking, and in 2017 121 women were murdered. Our run to the hostel made it all too apparent that we were in constant danger.

We spent a couple hours cleaning ourselves up before we set off to explore what Rome had to offer us. We went to what we thought were the Spanish Steps, but looking back I think they were just stairs. It took us over an hour to find the Colosseum, turned out we were walking past it several times. It was as beautiful as people say it is.

We found a small restaurant located in a semi-basement, they had the best mozzarella I had ever tasted, and the cheesecake was divine. At this point we were all running on fumes and decided to make our way back to the hostel, we had been up for 20 hours.

We didn’t realise how far away from the hostel we were until we collapsed onto a small grassy patch outside of the not-spanish-steps. I can’t remember if we slept there or not, but the next thing I remember we were stumbling into our bunkbeds to try and grab a few measly hours of sleep before our next journey.

Rome really did look like something out of a movie. The dirtiness added a layer of reality to our experience. And if you stay awake in Rome for a full 24 hours, even the grime and muck of it all feels homey.