Back to Rome

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The drive from Venice to Rome wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. We arrived early afternoon and immediately started a walking tour of some of the main sites (Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, etc…). After a few hours, we headed back to the hotel for some dinner and wine. We all had an early night as the next day was going to be a long one!

We started our morning at the Colosseum. WOW! It was sorta what I imagined. A lot of it has been refurbished over the years. Our local tour guide put me asleep standing up as she was super boring. But, we took some fun pictures and acted silly, so of course it was fun! Following the Colosseum, we went to the Roman Forum. There were workers everywhere restoring things. Overall, it was pretty neat - as this wasn’t even excavated. It has always been there since 700 something BC…

It was lunch time. We stopped quickly to get some pizza before heading to Vatican City. So what I never knew is that Vatican City is technically its own country with its own laws. It is the smallest country in the world. So, I was excited to see all of this. Again, we had the same local tour guide as the morning so it became really boring and uninteresting listening to her. Once we got inside, we were surrounded by 1,000’s of people. Apparently there were 15 cruise ships that stopped at the same time we went in. What a pain! I kinda wondered around the museum and took my ear piece out as I was in awe of so much and the boring ass lady was killing me. I don’t know what I saw exactly, but I definitely took pictures of the things I did enjoy. It was rushed, way rushed. I will definitely need to come back one day and take my sweet old time! Once we made it to the Sistine Chapel, no pictures were allowed. Complete silence was requested; however it didn’t stop 1,000’s of people of taking pictures and talk among themselves. It was a sweat box, but quite breathtaking. The younger Canadian sister in my tour group scolded a woman for taking a picture. I grabbed her hand and told her that it wasn’t her place to tell someone what they can or can’t do. She seemed so aggravated that people don’t have any respect. I told her not to let it get to her as most people around the world will not respect local culture and laws unless they are forced to by an official guard or police officer. She said she wanted to be president of the world so she can enforce world respect. I bit my tongue as I thought a verbal obliteration may be in order, but I just smiled and kept walking. OYE. This is the same girl who though an American stole the laptop, the same girl who bad mouthed her older sister publically. OUCH.

Last stop in the Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica - the largest church in the world. I LOVED this! It was beautiful. Again, super crowded and our tour guide was having hot flashes by this point so we were rushed through a bit. It was a very long day. We made it back to the hotel with a little time for a quick shower before our farewell dinner.

Our dinner was about a 20 minute ride from our hotel. I think the group started getting nostalgic, as we realized our little journey is coming to an end. I would say everyone drank their own bottle of wine! We dined on grilled vegetables, different pastas and veal. Many pictures were taken and toasts were made. Most of us decided to head back to the bar near the hotel so we didn’t have to spend a fortune on taxis to get back to our hotel late night. I finally drank some of my much missed Oban.

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