And so we meet again... here to discuss the happenings of my life in Italia. Boy, do I got a story for you this week. This particular trip is something I will NEVER forget... not in a bazillion catrillion million years.
Let's start this post off with a photograph shall we.
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| Exhibit A |
Now I know your brow must be a furrowing away at this photo. You must be thinking: Why does Amanda look like this? She is in ROME for god's sake--turn that frown upside down! The name Amanda means "lovable" and that is NOT a lovable face.
Me: Well, first of all, thank you for hating my face. I so deeply appreciate that. And secondly *starts talking in a growling voice through bared teeth* Oh you have no idea what HELL I endured that night/morning. This is the face of one exhausted, flustered Amanda to say the least.
I hate to sound pessimistic and put the worst part of my trip first, but I just want to get this reliving-the-whole-ordeal bit over with so I can just be DONE with it. I know that no matter how hard I try, this moment in my life will remain with me forever and *quivers violently* uggggggghhhhhhh!
I feel that what happened on this fateful night is very appropriate to talk about first because whenever I think of this trip that will be the first thing that pops into my mind. Plus it was a trip of many firsts. First time in a hostel. First time traveling w/o a relative. First time in Rome.
I'm not going to say anything more about why I am adding this first. Ok, got it?
Good.
You will get the details of the before and after part of this event, but let me just explain this really horrific event the way I want to. In the midst of it...
So, first of all I want to tell you something I learned about hostels: They do not provide blankets. Only a pillow and a bed sheet covering the mattress. I ended up sleeping with my towel as a blanket. Nothing really to complain about....
yet.
I was sleeping on the bottom bunk. If I raised my head I would hit the top bunk. Friend #1 was sleeping up there. Friend #2 was sleeping to the right of us. (The numbers are not a preference by the way.)
Ok, got it sort of pictured in your mind now?
So I fell asleep, wrapped in my red and orange striped towel. I had set the alarm on my iPhone for 8:30 the following morning. My ringtone is "Young Folks," by the way. Great song.
(Here is the song, if you'd like to listen to it.)
My iPhone started ringing away in the darkness; it was lying on top of my baby blue backpack, which was situated right next to my bed. But here is the thing--it was not 8:30, but rather 1:03. And it was not playing "Young Folks," but rather "Frontier Psychiatrist," meaning someone was calling me.
However, I did not realize this at the time. I just slid the little slider thing on my phone to shut the darn thing off. Then a minute later I realized someone was calling me. I pressed the phone up to my ear said hello and only heard muffled voices. My friend (who has done this TWICE now) pocket dialed me. (Ok buddy, you know exactly who you are, but in all honesty I seriously doubt you even read my blog posts, so this parenthetical side note is rather useless.)
So, woken up by someone who didn't even mean to call me (AND has done this twice now) got me a little irritated, so I just tossed my iPhone back onto my backpack and let out a groan. (That boy needs therapy...)
Then the itching started.
First on my neck.
Then on my knuckles, wrists, and arms.
And I mean this was the kind of burning itchiness that makes you crave for an icy pool to jump in.
So, I scratched at the back of my neck and I felt little things crawling around there. So, I leaped up, snatched my iPhone off my backpack and shone its light onto my mattress.
And oh god... the horror...
There were literally THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of fleas and bed bugs crawling all over the place. My mattress, my pillow, my arms, the back of my neck.... Uggggghhhhhh!!!
(I need a minute to breathe. I need to do my peaceful chant Mike Myers does in "View from the Top": I am a kitten. *Dings the little bell* Ah, much better.)
When the going gets tough, the tough call there mommies... well, I actually texted her. Here is our conversation exactly.
Amanda: Mom there are these horrid bugs crawling over my bed!!!! Fleas??? I don't know. [Took out this part because it is for me and my madre only] I am so itchy!!!!
Mom: I think they might be bed bugs!!!! Tell the front desk. Not good, be careful not to bring them back with you. Bug spray everything. Everything must go straight in to the washing machine, hot, hot, hot water.
Amanda: I can't sleep now. And the front desk is in a different building [on a different street]. We weren't given blankets either so I used my towel. There is no way I can sleep now. They are crawling in my hair!!! I want to cry.
Mom: Hot shower. Go with your room mates to the front desk.
Amanda: Can u help research a room for us please? We are near the train station in Rome.
Mom: Ok.
I want to make a shout out to my mommy: Mommy, you are the best mommy ever and I really, truly, deeply, from the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul appreciate what you did for us. Expect a bazillion (or close to that number) yellow tulips on Mother's Day. I love you so much!
Hopefully the rest of you tilted your head and awed at that moment. If you didn't... well, you cold hearted beast that deserves fleas and bed bugs in your bed... JK (Rowling).
So here is what happened next in bulleted format:
- About 2:30--Woke up both girls. Told them the horror. They saw the horror. We were all horrified.
- About 3:00--Quickly packed all our stuff up and got the hell out of there.
- About 3:30--Mom found a place for us to stay so we walked out into the chilly night, looking for this place. (I seriously felt like an orphan kicked out into the streets of Rome.)
- About 3:45--Got to this place. Lady there was super nice, but as it turns out it was not the kind of place we were looking for. But lady let us sit in the lobby until a reasonable hour to go back to the streets.
- About 4:00--Amanda has a meltdown of tears as she talks to her mommy on the phone. Friends calm her down. Mom found us a hotel. Have to wait until 6:00 to leave.
- At 6:00--EXHAUSTED! We left for the hotel. Back to the chilly, chilly streets.
- About 6:30--Get to hotel. Check in time we discovered was going to be at noon. *Groan*
- About 7:00--Went to train station and got a biscuit and cappuccino. Oh yeah... and some french fries from the Golden Arches, which I regret saying were AMAZING!!!
- About 8:00--Even though we had been up for a little under 48 hours we decided not to waste our time and went out and did stuff.
- About 9:00--Got our money back from the hostel we stayed at. All of it too.
- About Noon: Came back to hotel. Got into our room my momma paid for. Took a hot shower. And then soaked all our clothes in hot, hot, hot, HOT water. Took a nap too. Oh yes, and there were delicious chocolates!!! (Thanks mommy!)
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| The Dork displaying the chocolates. |
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| The chocolates. BTW there were A LOT more on the left, but we basically inhaled them. |
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| The exhausted dork enjoying her chocolate. |
Here is a tip for you, my lovely blog readers: When traveling through Europe and booking a hostel... READ THE FREAKING REVIEWS!!! Do not automatically go for the cheapest one. If you are going to Rome DO NOT go to Two Ducks Hostel. They are completely aware of their bed bug/flea problem and yet, they aren't doing anything about it, which is ridiculous. I am definitely writing a BAD review warning those NOT to stay there.
Other than this horrible, horrible, horrible event ROME was amazing and I absolutely loved this trip I took with my two awesome, beautiful friends.
Now... let's get to the good stuff shall we. (I can already tell this is going to be an absurdly long blog post.)
Reverse time!
Our trip started off with getting up at 4:00 in Florence, walking across town to the train station and then getting on a treno at 6:20. It was sort of fun walking the streets of Florence at that time. It was nice to see what the city looked like without people flooding the streets.
The train ride was three hours long. I tried to sleep. I think I did sort of. You know when you are kind of in that half asleep/ half awake mode? Yeah, that is what happened to me.
Ok, but the thing about the train ride that I want to talk about it the bathroom. No worries I won't go into full detail about my code yellow trip, but I just want to tell you what I thought about the train's bathroom. So, I got up from my seat and walked down to the second car. Walking down the isle, while a train is moving and trying to remain upright by the way is incredibly difficult. I almost fell into a couple people's laps. Not anyone's laps I really want to fall into at least.
So, when you enter a different car you have to push this green button to enter the little intermediate area and of course I got stuck in this intermediate area, which really freaked me out because between its cracks I could see the ground whizzing below me. The bathroom contains this toilet that is basically just this hole in the train. I did my business as we were going through a tunnel and for some reason thought that the hole was blocked up, but it wasn't... it was just dark. So, I accidentally let my toilet paper go down the hole. Now my DNA infested scrap of toilet paper is lying on an Italian railroad track somewhere b/w Florence and Rome.
Moving on.
My friends and I watched the sunset. It was spectacular. Reds, pinks, and oranges lighting the sky. The Tuscan hills are one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Such a pretty trip.
Ok. We made it to Rome. Super excited. Grabbed a map. Looked at the map. Eyebrows furrowed away at the map. Walked down the streets with the map. Got lost with the map. Finally found our hostel with the map.
Oh yeah! And as we were walking around, trying to find this dang hostel we saw this couple and.... geez Louise. The guy had his arm wrapped around his girlfriend and was squeezing her boob like some clown viscously honking the horn on his bicycle. The three of us were cracking up like crazy.
Well, we went to the Colosseum. Oh! But before we went there we went to this pastry shop and I got this amazingly delicious treat. It was basically this scone-like treat with chocolate pudding inside. It was amazing. And we were walking a ton, so it was quite satisfying.
Then we went to the Colosseum, which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. We got a great deal across the street. We only had to go in for 12 euros, while everyone else paid 20 at the actual place. The only knowledge I had on the Colosseum came from the Lizze McGuire movie. Ok, I have something to tell you, you know when she does a concert at the Colosseum??? Yeah, there is no way that was possible. There isn't anywhere to sit! Plus the stadium is way to small than what they showed in the movie, but silly me for thinking the Lizzie McGuire movie would be true like that. 
Other than this horrible, horrible, horrible event ROME was amazing and I absolutely loved this trip I took with my two awesome, beautiful friends.
Now... let's get to the good stuff shall we. (I can already tell this is going to be an absurdly long blog post.)
Reverse time!
Our trip started off with getting up at 4:00 in Florence, walking across town to the train station and then getting on a treno at 6:20. It was sort of fun walking the streets of Florence at that time. It was nice to see what the city looked like without people flooding the streets.
The train ride was three hours long. I tried to sleep. I think I did sort of. You know when you are kind of in that half asleep/ half awake mode? Yeah, that is what happened to me.
Ok, but the thing about the train ride that I want to talk about it the bathroom. No worries I won't go into full detail about my code yellow trip, but I just want to tell you what I thought about the train's bathroom. So, I got up from my seat and walked down to the second car. Walking down the isle, while a train is moving and trying to remain upright by the way is incredibly difficult. I almost fell into a couple people's laps. Not anyone's laps I really want to fall into at least.
So, when you enter a different car you have to push this green button to enter the little intermediate area and of course I got stuck in this intermediate area, which really freaked me out because between its cracks I could see the ground whizzing below me. The bathroom contains this toilet that is basically just this hole in the train. I did my business as we were going through a tunnel and for some reason thought that the hole was blocked up, but it wasn't... it was just dark. So, I accidentally let my toilet paper go down the hole. Now my DNA infested scrap of toilet paper is lying on an Italian railroad track somewhere b/w Florence and Rome.
Moving on.
My friends and I watched the sunset. It was spectacular. Reds, pinks, and oranges lighting the sky. The Tuscan hills are one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Such a pretty trip.
Ok. We made it to Rome. Super excited. Grabbed a map. Looked at the map. Eyebrows furrowed away at the map. Walked down the streets with the map. Got lost with the map. Finally found our hostel with the map.
Oh yeah! And as we were walking around, trying to find this dang hostel we saw this couple and.... geez Louise. The guy had his arm wrapped around his girlfriend and was squeezing her boob like some clown viscously honking the horn on his bicycle. The three of us were cracking up like crazy.
So then we got to our hostel. Talked to this very good looking Italian guy about our age. Heard that our check in time was at noon, so we left and went exploring.
Where did we go exploring?
Well, we went to the Colosseum. Oh! But before we went there we went to this pastry shop and I got this amazingly delicious treat. It was basically this scone-like treat with chocolate pudding inside. It was amazing. And we were walking a ton, so it was quite satisfying. On our way to the Colosseum we ran into this monument, a grand, grand building, called the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II. One of the coolest buildings I have ever seen in my entire life. It amazes me how we human beings can build such structures like this one.
Then we went to the Colosseum, which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. We got a great deal across the street. We only had to go in for 12 euros, while everyone else paid 20 at the actual place. The only knowledge I had on the Colosseum came from the Lizze McGuire movie. Ok, I have something to tell you, you know when she does a concert at the Colosseum??? Yeah, there is no way that was possible. There isn't anywhere to sit! Plus the stadium is way to small than what they showed in the movie, but silly me for thinking the Lizzie McGuire movie would be true like that. It poured on us at the Colosseum and people just freaked out. It was as though acid was falling from the sky. It was rather funny. I loved that it rained on us. It was kind of fun.
Various things I learned about the Colosseum.
- Woman fought.
- They used all sorts of animals in the games: tigers, elephants, etc.
- The games were sort of a victory celebration after wars.
- The Colosseum is SUPER old. (Knew this though.)
By the way... we walked A TON in Rome. Just thought I should add this. It is amazing because never in my life have I inhaled so much gelato and carbolicious food and yet I am actually losing weight. I know what you may be thinking, but DON'T! My calves are super duper muscular now, so that is not the case.
Ok, moving on.
We went out to lunch. And man on man did our waiter flirt with us like crazy. He was a good looking Italian, but I was slightly confused.... I wasn't sure if he was flirting with me or just making fun of me because I'm not so good at speaking Italian. I am pretty sure it was the latter. Well, anyhow, we ate some delicious bread with olive oil and vinegar. Then I got a salami pizza. The waiter flirted so much with me that I ended up with a free cappuccino when I really should have been paying 3 euros for it. I do love my cappuccinos. And this one was both delicious and free! Oh yes and the man pinched me. A guy has never pinched me before. No worries it was on my shoulder, but it was weird, weird, weird. He also liked that my name was Amanda for some reason.
After lunch we got situated in our hostel. (Demonic foreshadowing music playing in the background now.)
Ugh. I hated, hated, hated, HATED that hostel.
Ok, so after we dropped our stuff off at this horrible hellish bug infested place we went out to check out Rome's night life. My friend, Megan Heil, told me to see the Trevi Fountain at night and man on man was that a fantastic tip! The Trevi Fountain was by far my favorite part of Rome. When you go up the fountain and see the art and listen to the water rushing over the structure something just calms your soul and you feel so at peace, even though the city is noisy and there is this huge crowd around you.
Now I got to warn you about something when you go visit the Trevi Fountain. There are these strange guys lingering all over the place, desperately wanting to take your picture. It's weird. Here is how my encounter went with one of them. I grabbed my iPhone and was trying to take a picture of friend #2 and myself. This guy comes up to us, with one of those instant photo camera things slugged across his neck, and asks: Would you like me to take your picture.
Me: Yes, please. Grazie.
[Guy takes picture.]
[Something occurs in my head: What if he runs off with my iPhone? That would be the stupidest thing I've ever done... well, almost. But he didn't do that. He handed it back to me.]
Photo Guy: [Holds up his camera] Let me take your picture.
Me: Do I have to pay for it?
Photo Guy: [Gives me this look like I'm joking] Yes.
Me: Well, no then, but thank you.
Then this guy just keeps insisting, keeps pressuring us to get a photo. He kept grabbing my friend and I and pushing us together to take our photo. It was uncomfortable. The man would not give up. I had to tell him NO in a firm voice.
After the Trevi Fountain we went off in search of the Pantheon. Now, remember how I told you that the maps of Rome suck? Well, yeah, so do the street signs. They had a bunch of signs pointing out the direction of the Pantheon that totally LiED to us. That map made us walk A LOT because it kept getting us lost, but we eventually found the Pantheon, which was such an awesome sight.
I have to say something here. The night life of Rome was amazing. It's sort of hard to put into words, but I just like going out at night way better than I do during the day. There is a different type of energy at nighttime that I prefer. I love smelling the wondrous smells wafting from the restaurants into the chilly midnight air. I love smelling freshly made waffle cones and chestnuts roasting over an open fire (You thought I was going to break into song didn't you? Nope. They really did have chestnuts roasting over an open fire and man did they smell great!) I love walking through the nifty little shops at night time. And man oh man do they have an even bigger phallic fascination than they do anywhere else I've been in Italy. Not only do they have David's rocky mountain oyster's on boxer's and postcards and handbags (this one especially makes me laugh), but they also have pasta in the shape of penises! Can you believe this? This is how my thought process went when I saw this.
After the Pantheon we trekked back to our hostel. It was a LONG walk back and my feet were absolutely killing me. Oh yeah... we got lost again. It took us forever to find our hostel. Kind of funny now, but at the time it wasn't at all. I was dying to get into a bed... (Scary ironic foreshadowing music playing now).
Well, you know exactly what happened that night. Strange because as I went to bed I was listening to a song from the Book of Mormon Musical and there is this great (and super random) part in this one song that basically sums up what happened that night.
Ok, now we will fast forward to when we got back to our HOTEL, not hostel and everything was good again.
The funny thing, well, actually I have no idea why I am saying this, because it was NOT funny--we were all beyond tired. We had been up for a little less than 48 hours. I know some of my friends are zombies and can do this sort of thing, but not us. We need our sleep.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yes!
(Sorry, remember gemini here...)
So, the funny thing about this day was that we kept getting lost, but the great thing about Rome is that no matter where you get lost you are going to end up somewhere cool and photo worthy. Well, this is exactly what happened. We kind of got lost and went trekking up this steep hill and ended up running into the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. (I later found out that this is not the real version of the statue, but actually the copy of it. Oh well... still cool.) What is cool about this statue is that it was almost destroyed by the Christians. The only reason it wasn't destroyed was that they had mistaken Marcus Aurelius for Constantine... you know the Emperor who declared Christianity the religion of Rome? Very cool stuff here. I was beyond stoked, especially since we weren't actually looking for this at the time. I mean, of course, I wanted to see him, but finding him on surprise was the best. Like a surprise Christmas present. It was awesome to say the least.
Later that day we went out to that restaurant again where I got my salami pizza again. There were a ton of flies that day and needless to say we were a little annoyed at insects. We were cursing their very existence.
We finally checked into our hotel and then took hot showers (for some reason I feel as though I have already mentioned this part... oh well) and took a brief nap. Goodness gracious it felt good to take a nap.
That evening we went back to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. This time, instead of walking, we took the Metro, which was an interesting experience. I just hate how everyone coughs like crazy in there without covering their mouth. Grosses me out. It was hard to stand upright on the Metro. I thought I was going to fall over.
Don't get mad at me when I show you in picture format what I had for dinner that night. Oh and by the way, it was flipping delicious...
Ok, so then we went back to the apartment... hold on some part of my brain is telling me that I am forgetting something here. Oh yes! So, as we were going back home (I know a particular someone who was with me is going to laugh at this part) there was this old homeless man sitting against a building, begging for money. I didn't have anything to give him, but I did smile at him. Mostly people just pass right by him, but I smiled and this made him throw kiss at me and call me beautiful. Now, I'm the only one out the trio who hasn't had a man look me up and down and the one time I get attention from a guy... it has to be this old fart.
Ok, then we went back to our hotel. Slept for a good humanly amount of hours and woke up the next morning. (Why I had to include the waking up the next morning not sure?) Part of the deal my mom got us was a meal plan. Boy oh boy was that amazing. We ate a TON for breakfast. I had two bowls of peaches, cereal, a scone, a piece of bred, two cappuccinos, and I forgot what else.
It was weird because at breakfast cartoon network was playing in Italian and Courage the Cowardly Dog was on. Ok, I don't know how many of you have seen this show, but I used to watch it as a little kid and now I understand why I am so deeply disturbed. Ok, so basically the show is about a little dog who lives with these two old people out in the middle of nowhere... and goodness gracious, the weirdest most horrific things ever happen to them. In this episode a headless chicken came down to their plantation with a plunger and was trying to decapitate Courage. It was so disturbing. It was funny in Italian though.
Ok moving on. So, this particular day I am now referring to was Sunday and we went to the Vatican. Didn't really think during this time...
Sunday.
Vatican.
Hmm, might be busy.
Well, we got on the Metro and went down to the Vatican. At first we tried to go into the Sistine Chapel (the one place I have been DYING to go for the longest time) and.... it was closed. I was soooooooo bummed out. I can't even adequately express in words how bummed out I was, but I decided I would take a day trip to the Sistine Chapel on a day it is OPEN! So then we walked to St. Peter's Basilica and were pretty much astounded by what we saw. Oh, let me tell you something I learned today. It is called St. Peter's Basilica because St. Peter was the one who lead the Christians after Christ was resurrected. It was actually built over his grave. Interesting right?
So, then my friends and I decided to follow this incredibly large group of people into the vatican. The line went on and on, but eventually we got to this spot where I had to pay this guy to get in. It was 5 euro to get into the Vatican. My friends and I thought it was so funny that people would actually pay 2 euros extra to use the elevator. We were thinking: What? An elevator pass? Why would you need that? We're just going to be walking around right? Only on the first floor?
Ha. Ha. Ha. (That's me laughing sarcastically at my past self and her silly, foolish thoughts.)
So, we got our tickets and started climbing these stairs until we reached this roof. A beautiful roof that overlooked the city. Ah, maybe that's why there was an elevator pass. Stairs, but not that many. Again this is what we thought: Oh those wimps who use elevators... (apart from those who are old and handicap) there weren't even that many stairs.
Ha. Ha. Ha. (That's me laughing sarcastically at my past self and her silly, foolish thoughts.)
As we were standing on this rooftop we were admiring the Vatican's Dome. It was massively tall and gorgeous against the bright blue cloudy sky.
So, then we followed the group people back inside and started climbing more stairs...
...and more stairs...
...even more stairs...
...the stairs just kept on going...
...now I know the Church doesn't believe in birth control, but this amount of stairs was just getting ridiculous...
then we reached something... A DOOR!
We walked through this door and were standing in the dome. It was the coolest thing ever. We were up SO high overlooking the innards of the Vatican. The walls were covered in mosaics. I saw the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke. It was SO cool! We just stared and stared for the longest time.
Then we followed the group of people once again, thinking this was the last of our stairs, but... nope... not even close.
It's kind of hard to tell, but these are the stairs we were climbing. It was really starting to creep me out because the walls started curving and we had to lean over. Know why? Because we were actually climbing to the very tippy top of the Vatican. The stairs got so steep that I was constantly hitting my foot against the next step because of how close together they were. Then finally we made it... to the top of the Vatican and what a sight! It was chilly and slightly windy, but it felt great. We could see the entire city of Rome from there. All that climbing and hard work to get up there was soooo worth it. It was incredible.
After we climbed to the top, we went back down and in all honesty I thought that was harder. It was harder on my joints definitely. I literally wanted to RUN down the stairs due to the gravitational pull.
Afterwards we went inside and looked around the Vatican on the first floor like we originally thought. It was incredible! Definitely one of the coolest structures I have ever seen. I even saw Michealangelo's La Pieta. It was crazy!
After the Vatican we went home. Long train ride back home. Three hours. I was exhausted.
Now I am exhausted from writing this blog. This thing was LONG!
Conclusion: Apart from the bedbugs and flea episode I had a MARVELOUS time in Rome. My favorite parts were climbing to the tippy top of the Vatican and seeing the Trevi Fountain at night. Rome was AMAZING and you should definitely go out and visit it!
Alright that is all I have to say for the night. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me on this trip.
Arrivederci!
~Amanda
Ok, so after we dropped our stuff off at this horrible hellish bug infested place we went out to check out Rome's night life. My friend, Megan Heil, told me to see the Trevi Fountain at night and man on man was that a fantastic tip! The Trevi Fountain was by far my favorite part of Rome. When you go up the fountain and see the art and listen to the water rushing over the structure something just calms your soul and you feel so at peace, even though the city is noisy and there is this huge crowd around you. 
Me: Yes, please. Grazie.
[Guy takes picture.]
[Something occurs in my head: What if he runs off with my iPhone? That would be the stupidest thing I've ever done... well, almost. But he didn't do that. He handed it back to me.]
Photo Guy: [Holds up his camera] Let me take your picture.
Me: Do I have to pay for it?
Photo Guy: [Gives me this look like I'm joking] Yes.
Me: Well, no then, but thank you.
Then this guy just keeps insisting, keeps pressuring us to get a photo. He kept grabbing my friend and I and pushing us together to take our photo. It was uncomfortable. The man would not give up. I had to tell him NO in a firm voice.
After the Trevi Fountain we went off in search of the Pantheon. Now, remember how I told you that the maps of Rome suck? Well, yeah, so do the street signs. They had a bunch of signs pointing out the direction of the Pantheon that totally LiED to us. That map made us walk A LOT because it kept getting us lost, but we eventually found the Pantheon, which was such an awesome sight. I have to say something here. The night life of Rome was amazing. It's sort of hard to put into words, but I just like going out at night way better than I do during the day. There is a different type of energy at nighttime that I prefer. I love smelling the wondrous smells wafting from the restaurants into the chilly midnight air. I love smelling freshly made waffle cones and chestnuts roasting over an open fire (You thought I was going to break into song didn't you? Nope. They really did have chestnuts roasting over an open fire and man did they smell great!) I love walking through the nifty little shops at night time. And man oh man do they have an even bigger phallic fascination than they do anywhere else I've been in Italy. Not only do they have David's rocky mountain oyster's on boxer's and postcards and handbags (this one especially makes me laugh), but they also have pasta in the shape of penises! Can you believe this? This is how my thought process went when I saw this.
- Those look like...
- Haha, no, you sicko.
- Hold on (make sure no one is looking), now lets see. Two round circles and a long oval-like thing attached.
- Hmm...
- Yeah, I think that's what you think it is.
- Gross.
After the Pantheon we trekked back to our hostel. It was a LONG walk back and my feet were absolutely killing me. Oh yeah... we got lost again. It took us forever to find our hostel. Kind of funny now, but at the time it wasn't at all. I was dying to get into a bed... (Scary ironic foreshadowing music playing now).
Ok, now we will fast forward to when we got back to our HOTEL, not hostel and everything was good again.
The funny thing, well, actually I have no idea why I am saying this, because it was NOT funny--we were all beyond tired. We had been up for a little less than 48 hours. I know some of my friends are zombies and can do this sort of thing, but not us. We need our sleep. Where was I going with this?
Oh yes!
(Sorry, remember gemini here...)
So, the funny thing about this day was that we kept getting lost, but the great thing about Rome is that no matter where you get lost you are going to end up somewhere cool and photo worthy. Well, this is exactly what happened. We kind of got lost and went trekking up this steep hill and ended up running into the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. (I later found out that this is not the real version of the statue, but actually the copy of it. Oh well... still cool.) What is cool about this statue is that it was almost destroyed by the Christians. The only reason it wasn't destroyed was that they had mistaken Marcus Aurelius for Constantine... you know the Emperor who declared Christianity the religion of Rome? Very cool stuff here. I was beyond stoked, especially since we weren't actually looking for this at the time. I mean, of course, I wanted to see him, but finding him on surprise was the best. Like a surprise Christmas present. It was awesome to say the least. Later that day we went out to that restaurant again where I got my salami pizza again. There were a ton of flies that day and needless to say we were a little annoyed at insects. We were cursing their very existence.
We finally checked into our hotel and then took hot showers (for some reason I feel as though I have already mentioned this part... oh well) and took a brief nap. Goodness gracious it felt good to take a nap.
That evening we went back to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon. This time, instead of walking, we took the Metro, which was an interesting experience. I just hate how everyone coughs like crazy in there without covering their mouth. Grosses me out. It was hard to stand upright on the Metro. I thought I was going to fall over. 
Ok, so then we went back to the apartment... hold on some part of my brain is telling me that I am forgetting something here. Oh yes! So, as we were going back home (I know a particular someone who was with me is going to laugh at this part) there was this old homeless man sitting against a building, begging for money. I didn't have anything to give him, but I did smile at him. Mostly people just pass right by him, but I smiled and this made him throw kiss at me and call me beautiful. Now, I'm the only one out the trio who hasn't had a man look me up and down and the one time I get attention from a guy... it has to be this old fart.
Ok, then we went back to our hotel. Slept for a good humanly amount of hours and woke up the next morning. (Why I had to include the waking up the next morning not sure?) Part of the deal my mom got us was a meal plan. Boy oh boy was that amazing. We ate a TON for breakfast. I had two bowls of peaches, cereal, a scone, a piece of bred, two cappuccinos, and I forgot what else.
It was weird because at breakfast cartoon network was playing in Italian and Courage the Cowardly Dog was on. Ok, I don't know how many of you have seen this show, but I used to watch it as a little kid and now I understand why I am so deeply disturbed. Ok, so basically the show is about a little dog who lives with these two old people out in the middle of nowhere... and goodness gracious, the weirdest most horrific things ever happen to them. In this episode a headless chicken came down to their plantation with a plunger and was trying to decapitate Courage. It was so disturbing. It was funny in Italian though. Ok moving on. So, this particular day I am now referring to was Sunday and we went to the Vatican. Didn't really think during this time...
Sunday.
Vatican.
Hmm, might be busy.
Well, we got on the Metro and went down to the Vatican. At first we tried to go into the Sistine Chapel (the one place I have been DYING to go for the longest time) and.... it was closed. I was soooooooo bummed out. I can't even adequately express in words how bummed out I was, but I decided I would take a day trip to the Sistine Chapel on a day it is OPEN! So then we walked to St. Peter's Basilica and were pretty much astounded by what we saw. Oh, let me tell you something I learned today. It is called St. Peter's Basilica because St. Peter was the one who lead the Christians after Christ was resurrected. It was actually built over his grave. Interesting right?What was cool was that there were these huge TV screens that kind of reminded me of the ones I saw at Obama's inauguration all over the place, showing the Pope do his thing (I know so articulate again because I have no idea what he was saying. He was chanting and people were chanting back to him. It was interesting.)
So, then my friends and I decided to follow this incredibly large group of people into the vatican. The line went on and on, but eventually we got to this spot where I had to pay this guy to get in. It was 5 euro to get into the Vatican. My friends and I thought it was so funny that people would actually pay 2 euros extra to use the elevator. We were thinking: What? An elevator pass? Why would you need that? We're just going to be walking around right? Only on the first floor?
Ha. Ha. Ha. (That's me laughing sarcastically at my past self and her silly, foolish thoughts.)
So, we got our tickets and started climbing these stairs until we reached this roof. A beautiful roof that overlooked the city. Ah, maybe that's why there was an elevator pass. Stairs, but not that many. Again this is what we thought: Oh those wimps who use elevators... (apart from those who are old and handicap) there weren't even that many stairs.
Ha. Ha. Ha. (That's me laughing sarcastically at my past self and her silly, foolish thoughts.)
As we were standing on this rooftop we were admiring the Vatican's Dome. It was massively tall and gorgeous against the bright blue cloudy sky.
So, then we followed the group people back inside and started climbing more stairs...
...and more stairs...
...even more stairs...
...the stairs just kept on going...
...now I know the Church doesn't believe in birth control, but this amount of stairs was just getting ridiculous...
then we reached something... A DOOR!
We walked through this door and were standing in the dome. It was the coolest thing ever. We were up SO high overlooking the innards of the Vatican. The walls were covered in mosaics. I saw the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke. It was SO cool! We just stared and stared for the longest time.
Afterwards we went inside and looked around the Vatican on the first floor like we originally thought. It was incredible! Definitely one of the coolest structures I have ever seen. I even saw Michealangelo's La Pieta. It was crazy!
Now I am exhausted from writing this blog. This thing was LONG!
Conclusion: Apart from the bedbugs and flea episode I had a MARVELOUS time in Rome. My favorite parts were climbing to the tippy top of the Vatican and seeing the Trevi Fountain at night. Rome was AMAZING and you should definitely go out and visit it!
Alright that is all I have to say for the night. I can't wait to see what else is in store for me on this trip.
Arrivederci!
~Amanda
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