Well arriving in Rome at 9 am after a transit stop in Zurich was a bit disorienting - naturally I got no sleep on the plane thanks to no seating preferences from the good people in Star Alliance (oh, Qantas, how I miss your knowledge and accommodation of my likes & dislikes). But the good thing is that Italy and South Africa are in the same time zone so, I can say farewell to jet lag for a while at least. The first time I put my backpack on - besides for novelty factor in South Africa - was in the Rome airport at baggage collection. I quickly realised that I'd need to work on my technique when a nice British man came over and helped me put it on. NOT the look of an experienced traveller, I can assure you, but a welcome gesture nonetheless.

Getting to Rome Termini station from the airport is a piece of cake, if an 11 euro one, and in no time I was crammed in with 1400 other tourists as we sped into the city centre. Across from me was a young American guy and his Ukrainian girlfriend, here for a week, and he was showing off to her about how he'd read on the 'top wines for less than 50 euros' that he wanted to try and that you have to watch out for pickpockets, I've heard it's even worse than Kiev. ...raise eyebrow...place headphones on...

Italian navigation observation #1 - The Romans would do well to invest in a cartography consultant

...to PUT A MAP AT TERMINI OF WHERE THE HECK YOU ARE WHEN YOU EXIT THE TRAIN STATION. Now that actually reflects more frustration and anger than I felt at the time, but, seriously people, you have a train full of tourists exiting a train at a different place than where all the other trains exit, surely it's not hard to put a 'tue a qui/you are here' sign somewhere. I knew my directions to the hostel and I knew what I was looking for - I even knew I was in the wrong place but do you think I could work out how to get to the right place?? So I took the long route to the hostel but made it eventually.

The hostel was about 5 blocks from Termini (main train station) and had a cafe/bar down below. Of course check in (and hence shower) wasn't available till 3pm so I could only drop my luggage off and wander for 4 hours before having access to my bed. Not really up for doing much until I could freshen up, I went for a short walk and just ended up at the cafe waiting for my room. A Texan with a guitar (yes, you know how to pronounce the word 'guitar' in this instance) was there generally showing fellow travellers how it was that the US could have voted for George Bush twice and irritating the Bulgarian barmaid who was taking the piss out of him (but he didn't really know it). Thankfully however he was checking out that day. And I learned that when ordering coffee in Italy, you must preface the word 'latte' with 'caffe' or you could just get steamed milk (which I didn't end up with thanks to the instruction of the bartender).

Getting to my dorm, I chose the top bunk and a locker underneath and tried to take a nap. That night's dormmates came in and out and I gradually introduced myself to Caroline, 20, Brittney, 20, Kyle, 20, Tyler, 24, and Shannon, 24. All are American, all say 'like' a lot, and all except the 24 yo's are studying abroad and on their 20 day / 12 major-european-capital spring break whirlwind tour. (I was prepared to be 4-6 years older than everyone else but...12 years?! Where are all those 28 year old gen Y's that lost their job in the GFC? And the free spirit 'Yeah, man...I've been travelling since 2004...' types*?)

*I think I find them in Thailand, or South America.

As it turns out, though, Tyler and Shannon are both from - not kidding - Iowa. Shannon even works with my cousin in Des Moines. So, at least something to talk about besides 'what's your major'.

On check in they told me that there was a pub crawl on that night - for 20 euro (which is, like, 4 million Australian dollars) you got a tour of the city, an hour of 'free' drinks, and a shot at each pub thereafter. I was unsure about it - and tried to convince myself I was neither 1) too tired nor 2) too old to participate. Down at the hostel bar, having a beer and watching the action unfold, feeling incredibly self-conscious about my age, I sat down next to Tyler who was in an Iowa Hawkeye jacket.

Turns out this wasn't Tyler, but Chris from Decorah, Iowa, who runs the pub crawl. Clearly, if you're missing an Iowan, first place to look is Rome, as this makes 4 of us in a one-block radius.

So my fellow Iowans convince me to front the 20 euros for the privilege to drink 'free' beer for an hour and I take a deep breath - c'mon Sarah, you asked for this. Off we go, but not without a parting shot of something that tastes like vodka-laced cough syrup. Visions of Boone's Farm and Peach Schnapps from uni days come flooding back (it was about here that I realised finding someone to split a bottle of chianti classico reserva may be a challenge).

I didn't read the pub crawl brochure correctly because before our hour of 'free' drinks we actually went on a 1 hour walking tour of the Piazza Barberini, Piazza d'Spagna and Fontana di Trevi, and I didn't have a camera! But it's on this walking tour that I start to get what Rome is all about. To this point I had really only seen the bits around Termini station and, whilst I knew there was more to it than that, my quick look around left me a bit skeptical. The three areas, lit up at night and absolutely magical, combined with an actually pretty humourous tour guide (I'm not sure if his story about what the bee fountain in Piazza Barberini is about is true or not, but it was funny at the time) made for a great start to the evening and the trip in general.

Along the way, every corner we turned there was another old and fabulous building/piazza/statue. To see it all for the first time was so exciting.

That, and I met a couple from, you guessed it, Iowa, in the group (Burlington and Pella, this time) and had a nice chat along the way. (Take a guess about their age and what they're doing in Europe this time of year!)

Now the rest of the night went like this - we had our hour of free drinks, in which I had 2 or 3 beers and the others were skulling them as quickly as possible to get the next one down. After this point we went to a few other bars and ended up finishing in the wee hours of the morning. I met a lot of people whose names I couldn't quite remember the next day, but by the end of the night I had a lot more confidence about my age and what I was doing for the next year...despite a few choice conversations with some of the less mature of the spring break crowd:

Profanity warning - this is verbatum

19 yo easy american girl dressed like a skank: So, like, I graduated from high school last year and I'm, like, on my gap year studying in England. It's, like, basically, like, senior year again.

Sarah: Oh, really. I'm kind of on my gap year too, ha ha

19 yo easy american girl dressed like a skank: Like, that's ok. My high school english teacher didn't go to college, either, till she was, like, 35!

Sarah: Errrrrr...I have 2 degrees and 8 years of work experience.

19 yo easy american girl dressed like a skank: [crickets chirping, vague & confused look]

[pause]

19 yo easy american girl dressed like a skank: [turns to friend] So, I can't believe, like, I've ONLY f***ed, like, ONE Italian guy in the last, like, 10 days.*

* Apologies for the profanity but I thought it was necessary to quote her precisely. No joke, that's what she said.

Part of me wanted to take her under my wing and say "sweetie, it's not necessary to give it away so easily, yes?" but then the other part of me wanted to give her a smack and say "QUIT reinforcing the reputation of my fellow countrywomen!"

But all in all it was a fun night and a surreal look at what my life will be like (in parts) over the next year. And, at the end of the night when the kids were all seeking to get back to the hostel via walking or public transport, I could spring for the 10 euro cab. Age does have its privileges sometimes!