Monday, June 8, 2009

roman holiday

I can't believe how fast my time in Florence is flying by! I'm really bad at updating this...one because our internet connection is less than ideal and, two because i'm so busy during that day all i want to do in my free time is sleep! But this past weekend, Samantha and I went to Rome! We decided to stay just one night and had everything planned out perfectly: leave on the 6:40 train on Friday morning, arrive in Rome at 8:30, head to our prepaid tour of Vatican City at 9:30 and see some random things around the city then the next day go to the Coliseum and see whatever else we wanted to. Funny how plans just don't work out sometime....



Well we got to the train station bright and early Friday morning about 6:20 so we figured we had time to get a bite to eat. After grabbing some breakfast, we checked the display for the status on our train and were confused to find a train leaving for Rome at 6:30 and 6:45, not our 6:40. We thought surely there must be a mistake, thinking there was no way they would move the train up 10 minutes but we went ahead and went over to the 6:30 train just to make sure. As we walked up, it started puling away. Cue panic.

We ran to the other train and boarded it only to find that it wouldn't arrive in Rome until 11:30...way past the start of our tour of the Vatican. So we ran around trying to find someone to help us, my muffin smashing under the tension of my nervously clenched fists, and finally found a man who said that we actually hadn't missed our train, but it was just labeled as heading to Naples since that was its final destination. And how were we supposed to know that??? So we ran over to the Naples train... just as it was pulling away....Cue intense panic.

Our hopes were raised and crushed multiple times within a matter of minutes. So we decided to go ahead and board the train that wouldn't arrive until 11:30, hoping that our more expensive ticket that we had bought for our 6:40 train would work for this train and that we could somehow rebook our nonrefundable Vatican tour. The four and half hour train ride seemed like 10 hours. Finally we arrived in Rome and called the Vatican tour place and they said our ticket was good for 24 hours and we could just go the next day at the same time! What a relief!

So the first day we went to the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Tomb of an Unknown Soldier. We were on our feet all day long and were so tired. We stopped in a Piazza that had a bunch of fountains in it and stuck our feet in the fountain...and it was SO refreshing. As we were leaving that piazza, we heard a woman scream and looked over just in time to see one of those 4 passenger bicycle carts things come flying down a hill into 2 parked cars!! The women inside flew out and after seeing that everyone was ok, Samantha and i burst out laughing because it was probably one of the most hilarious things i've ever witnessed! One of those, you had to be there things. :)

Anyways, Even though our day started out incredible stressful, it ended well in my hostel experience at the cheesily named Hostel Beautiful. We got upgraded for free to private room, which was very nice! It wasn't anything amazing but it was a comfy bed and a good nights sleep. The next morning we were up bright and early to go on our 4 hour Vatican Tour. We were guided through the Museum, which had hundreds of paintings and sculptures, such as the School of Athens, and ended with the Sistine Chapel.

SO incredible! I was expecting there to be guards everywhere telling you not to take pictures but when we entered, everyone was taking pictures! I didn't see a single guard! There were so many people there and it was really crowded but it was still so amazing to see the room and paintings that I've heard about my entire life! After that, we toured St. Peter's Basilica, which is massive, and then headed across the river to the Pantheon and then walked around for awhile. We saw everything we wanted to see and were home by 10 that night! It was an exhausting trip but very exciting and full of beauty. I'll post the pics sometime soon!

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