Adventures in ROMA!

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So, this is definitely a back-dated entry, but I say better late than never...right? Right-o. So, here we go...let's just pretend I'm writing this on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006...which would have been impossible because I was exhausted, but that's why we are pretending. :D

This weekend I went to ROMA!!! Omg, it was sooo incredible...you have no idea if you haven't been. But, I have tons of pictures to share and show you how much FUN I had in ROMA!!! Oh, Italy...it was fantastic.

We went from Saturday, October 14th til this morning!! 😊 We had to take the 1:30am bus to Stansted. Oh Lord, it was a 3 hour bus ride...so not comfortable, but we got to the airport in one bus, in one piece, somewhat delirious. Mandy and I were hungry at 5am, so we dragged Jose with us to get food in the airport. Um, chicken curry at 5am is odd, but still delicious. After we ate, we bummed around the airport and people-watched until 6:20am when we were allowed to check in. After check in, which was surprisingly quick...go RyanAir, we went through security. I was grateful to have checked my backpack with all the liquids. It was soooo nice not to have to carry that huge thing through the airport. Once through security, Jose decided he was hungry so we found him food right next to our gate. The flight actually ended up being delayed by an hour because of fog and other weather conditions in London. Boo. Eventually we got off the ground. Okay, so RyanAir isn't the nicest airline, but it's cheap. Mandy was able to sleep but Jose and I were awake for most of it. Sooo annoying. Instead of landing at noon, we got into Ciampino Airport in Rome at 1pm. And that's where our adventure begins...

We got through customs, picked up my bag, and found our bus to City Centro. Honestly, we had no idea where City Centro was, but it was a cheap bus...turns out that City Centro means Termini Station. And that means the main Metro station where Linea A and Linea B intersect. We asked around trying to find out where our hotel was exactly and how to go about getting there. Apparently our hotel was NOT "two steps from the Spanish Steps" like the website said...instead it was a couple of Metro stops, a public bus ride, and a walk. Haha. So, here's what we did: we asked a taxi driver how much it would cost and he said it would have been about €50 to take the 3 of us to our hotel. Um, that's not so cool, so we left him. We decided it would be best if we tried to find a different hotel that was closer. Unfortunately, the nice travel agent lady who books hotels had nothing for Saturday night, but she did find us a different hotel for Sunday night that was close to the Colosseum...which was exciting. Anyways, we booked and paid for hotel #2 and the nice Italian woman told us where to go in this Metro station to get a map of Rome to find our original hotel. So, we were on our way to meet another very nice Italian woman. She gave us a map, drew on it, told us which linea to take on the Metro and which stop to get off at and which bus to take to our hotel. The only thing she didn't know was where to stop on the bus, but she said the bus driver could help us with that. So, we were officially on our way to the hotel...

And by 5pm we made it there!!!!! It was more difficult than we thought. Apparently having Jose, who is natively fluent in Spanish, with us meant absolutely nothing in terms of communicating in Italian...go figure. The bus driver didn't know where the hotel was, so he guessed...and guessed wrong. We got off on stop late and wandered around. We were very, very close to asking a hooker on the side of the road if she knew where our hotel was. Um, definitely decided against that one because Jose would have had to ask her and it might be taken in the wrong way...you know, Jose asking a hooker where a hotel is...not a good idea. So, we wandered around asking random Italians, and no one was able to understand us, or we couldn't understand them, or they had no idea. BUT, God smiled down upon us and sent us the nicest Italian man EVER. He told us to get back on the same bus, go one stop down and it'd be on the right. So, he walked us to the bus stop and sent us on our way. We crossed the street and waited for the bus. The three of us were standing there, waiting, when our Italian friend waved us back across the street. Apparently he meant that we needed to go back one stop, not forward. Oh. Good thing he was such a nice guy! He even got on the bus with us and pointed the hotel to us when we got off the bus. Thank you Lord for sending that guy to us!!

So, 4 hours after landing, we made it to our lovely hotel. We checked in and grabbed the last 2 crossiants and a bottle of white wine to celebrate our arrival in Roma. Our room had a Queen or King size bed, 2 twins, a TV (with all Italian channels), and pretty good bathroom. After one small glass of wine, I passed out on the twin bed by the window. Jose and Mandy soon followed my lead. We were supposed to meet up with my friend Stephanie from AHC, but my cell phone wasn't working well enough to connect with her and she never answered when I actually did get through. So, instead of venturing away from our hotel after we woke up from a delightful nap, we just went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant for dinner. I had pasta with a carbonara sauce...it was okay, but not great. The dessert was divine though...Vienetta...do you even remember the last time you had that?! So delicious...except, our waiter poured some alcohol on it which was totally unnecessary and not even tasty, so I ate around it. Oh, and during dinner we watched the movie "101 Dalmations" (with the real people) on TV in Italian. That was weird...haha. Okay, after dinner we went back to the room and watched some TV until we fell asleep. I think I was the first to doze off and it was spectacular...

Alrighty then! Sunday morning came and it was a lovely day in Roma. Mandy showered, then Jose, and then I woke up. 😊 Jose and Mandy went down to breakfast (included in our hotel price) and I showered. They brought back some pastries for me and then we packed up our stuff. We checked out of our hotel and left for the bus at 10:30am. After much trouble with the Metro, buses, and maps we made it to our hotel. It took us a while because we our map didn't have the street we were looking for labeled. Eventually, after much walking, wandering, and asking people where to go, we found Hotel Romulus. Oh goodness, 4 star hotels are fantastic, as are the employees. Our room had a divine shower, huge bed for Mandy and I, twin bed for Jose, and a TV with Italian channels and CNN in English! We freshened up and headed abck downstairs. The guy at the front desk gave us all the info on Rome and transportation that we would need and sent us on our way...

First stop: Trevi Fountain. OMG. It was amazing. It was the only place I was truly DYING to see, and so we made it our frist stop. We went into a little cafe and got some pasta for take-away. We ate our lunch on the steps of the Trevi Fountain and it was amazing. I was in HEAVEN. Then we took a lot of pictures...even the typical American tourist picture of Mandy and I tossing coins in over our shoulders. 😊 After the fountain, we went to the Pantheon. That was beautiful as well. And we got to take some super cool pictures with people dressed as Romans! After that we headed over to Piazza Navona. We watched some street performers, looked at some cool paintings of Roman landscaping and ancient buildings, and enjoyed the weather. After that we went to VATICAN CITY!!! We took a ton of pictures in and around St. Peter's Basilica. My camera battery died halfway through St. Peter's, but Jose's was still going strong...so I've stolen his pictures. Funny story: Mandy and I are wandering around together and we notice that there is mass about to start. I mean, hello, it's Sunday in the Vatican. So, we watch everyone process in and Mandy tells me that the audio tour told her only the Pope can do mass at the alter in St. Peter's. Naturally, we FREAK out thinking that the guy with the biggest hat is the Pope. I manage to squeeze in 3 more pictures of the Pope with my camera until it officially gives out. Since we didn't see Jose watching mass, we went to find him so he could be in the presence of the Pope. So, we find Jose and he joins us. He doesn't believe us that it is the Pope, so he asks. And boo on him for ruining our dreams!!! Apparently it was just the Head Cardinal...whatever. So, now I have 3 pictures of the Head Cardinal...or the Fake Pope as we like to call him. I should have known that it wasn't the Pope...he didn't look scary enough. Hehe. After the Fake Pope mistake, the three of us went to the little gift shop. Mandy got hit on, of course, and we all bought some souvenirs. Sadly though, we didn't get to see the Vatican Muesum because it was closed...so no Sistine Chapel for me. 😞 Next time I'm in Rome, I'll go there first!

So, we left Vatican City and headed for the Spanish Steps. We found them and then located a little cafe to eat dinner at near them. We sat outside and enjoyed a nice meal with one drink each. After dinner we hung out on the Spanish Steps. Mandy sat down while Jose and I climbed them. Wow. It was beautiful up there. So pretty...make a point of spending a couple hours at the Spanish Steps...definitely at night. We sat and people watched for a while. Jose and I also got gelato, which was delicious. Around 11pm, we decided to take a taxi back to our hotel. Since we weren't going to any discotecs or anything, we decided to get some wine (only €8 a bottle!) to bring back with us to the hotel. The taxi ride was fun, albeit terrifying at times, and a nice way to see more of the city at night. Once back at our hotel, we popped open the wine and sat around and talked. We stayed up til 2am just talking and having a grand time. Actually, around 1:30am the hotel manager called our room to tell there were complaints of our noise level. Oops. 😊 So, we quieted down and then went to bed.

Monday morning came all too soon. We woke up at 10am, ate breakfast, showered, packed, and checked out just before noon. Sadly, we had to carry our backpacks around all day and it was hot, but it wasn't too terrible. We went straight for the Colosseum and this American guy sold us on a group tour of it. It was about €20 per person. It included entrance in the Colosseum, an audio tour with a live guide, and the advantage of skipping the 1.5-2 hour long line. It also got us entrance into the Palatine, which is one of the hills upon which Roma was built. It was filled with beautiful landscaping and tons of ancient ruins. Amazing. But anyways, the Colosseum was fantastic...I still can't believe I was there. I mean, it's so old, so famous, so impressive...and I was there. It's completely unbelievable.

So, Monday was great. We rounded out our time in Roma by sitting at a cafe outside of the Metro station, across the street from the Colosseum, having a drink. I had a delicious iced coffee...mmm. Then we made our way back to the lovely City Centro and caught the bus to Ciampino Airport once again. We ate dinner, checked in, wandered around the duty-free shop, and waited for our plane. This time, we were only delayed by about 20-30 minutes, which was good. Once on the plane and on our way, I felt totally sick. Sadly, I had no water and I was not about to pay any money for a tiny glass of warm water. Stupid cheap airlines...didn't even have complimentary drink service!!! Anyways, we were supposed to land around midnight, but for some reason, the Stansted Airport was closed for 15 minutes and we had to circle. That was annoying...like, really annoying. Mandy, Jose, and I made it fun though...we quoted Dane Cook for a good 25-30 minutes and probably annoyed everyone around us. It was delightful. Once we landed, we booked it out of the airport. We missed the direct bus to Oxford, so we had to take one into Central London (Victoria Station) and catch the Oxford Tube from there. Our adventure ended as I walked into my room at 4:20am this morning, because it is, afterall, Tuesday, October 17th...lol.

Anyways, that was my trip to Roma. I'm still attempting to put up my pictures online. My computer likes to freeze on me though...so it is a slow process.

So, thank you for reading and be on the look out for my next entry as I travel to PARIS in 2 weeks!

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