Rain in Rome

Happy 55th Mark Henry!

A late Thursday night transitioned into a rough Friday morning, but we made it to Brussels airport safe and sound and ready to go to Rome! Once we landed we tried finding our hostel, Pink Floyd Hostel, which we walked by two times before we actually noticed it. It was pretty funny. Didn't waste much time after we got in. We walked around town, got our bearings and all that jazz. Grabbed a quick bite to eat, which was actually disappointing by all means. Pizza tasted cheap and my pasta wasn't...good? for the lack of a better term. Based on our first meal we were all a little skeptic about what Rome was really like.

Even though we were down about the food, we decided we would give Rome another shot, since it has a couple other things to offer besides the pizza & pasta. First we went to the Coliseum and Roman Ruins. We took a lengthy and detailed tour inside both areas. It was simply amazing actually setting foot inside that place. There were about ten or fifteen men dressed up in Gladiator attire and had characters they played. Summer had to stand up in front of everyone and play along with our tour guide. The ruins were pretty insane. It took about 10 minutes to walk across what used to be the royal rooms. There were trees in the middle of the house too. Saw old royal thrones, places where Mussolini & Hitler met, and streets that Napoleon Bonaparte destroyed/replaced! One of the more fascinating things was just how damn big all of their buildings were as well as how much detail they put into every little piece of work. It all made for a very full and lengthy day.

Friday night we went out for drinks and pizza and just enjoyed some night life of Rome. It was a little different with all four of us being the tourist and no one really speaking the language at all. But, we survived.

Saturday we made our way through the down pouring rain over to the Sistine Chapel and Roman History Museum. It was ridiculous how many Indian people there were trying to sell us umbrellas along the way. They were quite annoying and at first I resisted but by about 3 p.m. I gave in and finally bought one for a couple Euro...then I lost it about 10 hours later...

Well, after another fun night in Rome where we had amazing pizza in a little alley, we found a little place that sold Duff beer!(from The Simpsons) Naturally, we American's had to have it and Ruben being Ruben had no problem stopping for a few more drinks! It was a nice night, actually met some people from California & Georgia who both lived in Rome. One of them decided she needed to "reset" so she picked up and moved to Rome a few months back, thought that was pretty bold and cool on her part.

Then came Sunday morning. Our flight was at 8:55 and we needed to be there about 7:15 or so with a 30-45 minute trip to make it. Our intentions were to get up and checked out of Pink Floyd by about 6:30 or so...but being the young crazies we are, we didn't wake up until 7 am! Made it to the bus a.s.a.p. and found out that we couldn't take that bus because it was a different company?!? WHAT...quickly we unloaded our bags and flagged down a Taxi who took us all the way to the Airport. Strangely, the cab ended up costing less then it would have for us all four to get tickets for the bus. "Fate".

SO! Those are the cliff notes of my trip to Rome! It was quite the experience. Didn't get to do everything I wanted to do in Italy, but, I don't think I really have any complaints! I'm sure there are some things I wanted to say but I forgot...oh well!

Ciao,
P.J.