Rome- Day 3

Who’s been watching Looney Tunes in Italian?....we have! Every morning as a matter of fact. This morning the cartoons were especially funny, so I just felt like sharing about our 7 year old habits. Everyone loves a good Tom & Jerry cartoon though. Admit it…you do. After a lazy early morning we went over to the train station and booked our train tomorrow morning to the airport. Got that business done, got lost trying to buy a metro ticket, figured it out, and got on the metro that would take us towards the Vatican. This metro trumps all the others we have been in. It was air-conditioned and glorious. After arriving at our stop we made it to the street and joined a tour group that would give us a guided tour of the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s church. The lady that guided us on this journey was Patricia. Now Patty (lets just call her Patty for fun) was a special guide. A one of a kind if you will. In other words, she was loooopy and absolutely in her own world. She talked too close to the microphone and her accent made it so I really couldn’t understand a thing, but oh well. She was nice and I appreciated her services still. However, not everyone else did. There was some miscommunication with people in our group I guess and they though we wouldn’t have to wait in any lines. False. Everyone has to wait in a security line no matter what. So people weren’t really happy about the 2 hour line we stayed in before entering the museums. I felt bad for Patty…people were reaming her. Poor Patty. Lo and I got a kick out of people watching in line though. We may have had one extremely awkward girl with an overbearing and bitchy (pardon my French….ugh, its always the french) mother and then we had another very large girl (probly 6’ and weighed 230) that was wearing an awkward lengthed white floral dress and she was pasty, pasty white. Not that we were judging or anything….(oops). But I think Lo and I died inside when the two of them became friends and just started chit-chattin away. I just envisioned them skipping off together holding hands and playing jump rope in the middle of a garden. Ok, I’m done now…I just wanted you to get an idea of how my mind works when I see strange things. Haha.

The museums were cool, however it was INSANELY packed inside. The crowds were enormous. Turns out that Vatican City was closed all day yesterday due to a holiday. So as a result, today was crazy. But we followed Patty like diligent children and I kept imagining Patty as Ms. Frizzle and hoping we would get on the magic school bus soon. (Again…my head…I don’t know.). Anyways, the artwork was very impressive, but the Sistine Chapel was phenomenal. I have learned about the artwork in art history before, but seeing it in person is truly overwhelming. I can’t imagine painting all that! After the Sistine we went to St. Peters church and it is HUGE. Very impressive yet again. Overall, we were both very glad that we waited forever to get in, but it was worth it….I mean, I wasn’t extremely excited about it or anything, but it was still good to see. By the end I was so done with crowds and just wanted to get out though. So out we went, found our way to the metro and went to Hard Rock Café to spend a few hours dining joyously. Hard Rock was wonderful yet again and we got a few delicious drinks. Our bartender also gave us a free shot! Ooh ooh! Num Num. After dinner we went back to our hostel, showered, packed, and we have been chillin like a villain. We watched Sunny in Philadelphia, listened to music, told stories, told more stories, played patty cake, played concentration, etc etc. It was basically our own 6^th slumber party. And now I am typing this while Lo is reading. Successful last day in Rome.

So…this was really our last day in Europe. Crazy! When I was in Paris I thought this day would never come and now that it’s here it feels like it flew by, but at the same time I feel like I was in London months ago. It’s crazy how time works. As for rating the cities in comparison to one another….from best to worst city – Lindsey: Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, Venice, London, Paris. And for me: Cinque Terre, Venice, London, Rome, Florence, Paris. It’s funny how ours ended up pretty different! This trip has truly been amazing. It has had it’s really fun times, really stupid times, really memorable times, and it’s frustrating times. Lo and I have learned so many things about each other that we didn’t know but we have grown so much closer because of it. So legit. Even though we learned a ton about history in each of these places and random facts that neither of us knew, even though we figured out and learned how to travel by ourselves successfully, and even though we dealt with language barriers….none of that is what I am going to take away. I think the biggest thing I have figured out is to have a love and appreciation for my own country. USA has absolutely no pride compared to Italy. It’s really quite sad. When do you ever see people selling USA shirts in the USA? Never. At least I’ve never seen them. I am so incredibly thankful that I live in our amazing country and I think that this trip made me see that. I now want a USA shirt (may have to find one at Walmart) and I want some jean overalls really badly (also may be at Walmart). Haha. Here’s what else I discovered…there is one universal thing (as cheeseball as this may be)….laughter. Everyone laughs. (except maybe people in Paris…I don’t think anyone ever laughed there) I can think of oodles of moments when we were all laughing no matter what language we speak. Which is awesome. If we can keep that up, I think we’re all gonna be alright.

Off to the airport tomorrow for a fun day of 18 hours of travel. Blah. We’re headin home! USA or bust!

Rome - Day 2

“Blondie! Touch my body. Yes, I love my job”. Yep, that’s what a Roman soldier told me today! This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and went on a bus tour of Rome that we could hop on and off of. We boarded the bus around 9:45am and got off first at the Coliseum. We found a guide outside of the Coliseum that gave a guided tour in English and made it so we wouldn’t have to wait in line at all. So we jumped on that opportunity and part of the fun was getting to take a picture for free with one of the fake Roman guards. Obviously Lo and I were incredibly excited about this and jumped on the opportunity. I went over to take a picture with him and he called me blondie, told me to touch his body (aka- my hand on his chest), and said that he loved his job. Haha. It was hilarious and we were instantly put in a fabulous mood. The coliseum was nuts. It’s pretty mind-boggling to think that it used to be real, in use, and not so broken down like it is now. But what they have saved is still incredible. I was amazed by how huge it is and I still can’t wrap my mind around how they built something that large back then. Not to mention how many people and animals were killed in that arena! It’s insane! I’m glad I didn’t live then. I can’t even imagine if we still had fierce competitions like that now a days and I went to watch people die…I mean, that’s just not okay. So weird to think that it was the norm.

We went on after our tour of the coliseum and walked around the rest of the ruins, which were also very cool to look at. We frolicked in pretty flowers and took plenty of pictures too. Always fun. And it was ROASTING hot. Seriously, we were sweatin bullets walking around and had to keep filling up our water bottles. We got some lunch, then jumped back on the tour bus and continued on our way. We got off again at the Trevi fountain and did the traditional wish with a coin into the fountain. I know that it’s fairy tale, but I would really like my wish to come true…and I know Lo would too. Haha. We also were recommended to get Gelato right by Trevi and it changed our lives forever. I don’t know what it was, but they put something in this gelato that made it exquisite. Mmm….goodness, I can’t even explain. You’ll have to go yourself and try it. The Trevi fountain was actually really cool. I loved it. It reminded me of all the movies I have seen with it in them and I think that it somehow brings hope. I don’t even know what that means, but it makes sense in my head. I guess there is something about so many people making wishes into one fountain that brings everyone, no matter where you come from, what nationality you are, or what language you speak, back to one equal level. Everyone is hoping and wishing for something. And that is just really cool.

We eventually got back on the bus and made our way around the entire city for another 2 roasting and toasting hours. It was totally worth it though. The bus tours are the best! Later on after a quick rest period at our hostel, we walked to the Hard Rock Café and had some delicious fajitas that we had been craving! A little taste of home I guess. And we also had a couple drinks at the bar that were sooo num num good. The bartenders were legit. We had a fun walk back to our hostel, stopped at a bookstore, stopped at the pharmacy cause I still have a stupid cold, and then got back and showered and we are now watching futbol.

It’s been a really successful day and tomorrow is our last full day in Rome and on this trip! We plan on doing the whole Vatican scene and Sistine Chapel tomorrow, which we think will take quite a few hours. We also miiiight end up at Hard Rock again for dinner…haha. I’m so stinkin tired of pasta and pizza. Ugh. Anyways….last day! Time to live it up! Viva la Roma!!

Rome - Day 1

Roma! We made it to our final destination and I haven’t been able to stop singing Dean Martin songs since we got off the train (sorry to everyone around me). This morning we ate breakfast, used the internet, and went down to the train station early. Of course our train got delayed 20 minutes (typical for us), but we made our connection in La Spazia and got on our train to Rome. The train ride was about 3 and a half hours long and I would like to tell you that something exciting happened, but I slept almost the entire time. This funny little Asian girl sat next to Lo and I was really entertained seeing the girls head abruptly fall down asleep every 6 seconds. Haha. Oh the small moments of joy. Finally arriving at our station we got off our choo choo train, followed the directions to our hostel, and found it no problem. After a short wait, the owner came to let us in the gate and showed us our fantastic room. It is a cute little place. There are only 3 rooms in the hostel and it is very modern looking inside. Everything is spick and span clean and there are fun colored comforters that make me happy. Haha. We settled in, dropped our stuff, and realized that we were starving! We started walking the streets until we found a cute restaurant where we sat and enjoyed our early dinner. Four girls about our age sat by us and started talking to us. Turns out that 2 of them were from Houston and one had actually worked at Camp Ozark one of the same years that I did. Small world! So we had a bunch of mutual friends. It was crazy. We talked to them for a bit, then went back to our hostel and have been watching soccer highlights and relaxing. Tonight we just plan to chill and watch some TV. Our adventure will start tomorrow! We plan on doing a big bus tour around the entire city and then seeing the Vatican and Sistine Chapel as well. Hopefully we will be able to see everything in the next 2 days. Normally that isn’t an issue. We are actually pretty good at seeing everyone in one day. Anyways, there is a ton to see and a lot of history to unveil. Wish us luck in Roma!