When in Rome

July 4, 2013

It sure was one heck of an adventure getting to Rome from Norway. It started off at 3:30 in the morning leaving Ida and Karoline's house (they even woke up to wish me farwell). It was pouring rain and I found the bus station :) I met a nice German guy who told me the hotspots to go to in Germany and he helped me get my bus ticket. The airport was small and easy to get around in. I printed off the boarding ticket on my own and went to check my bag on my own. I was feeling so proud of my independence! I weighed my bag and scanned my ticket and suddenly my bag took off on the conveyer belt. But I hadn't put my Baggage tag on it yet. Oh my gosh!!  I ran down the counter asking them to stop it for me before i lost it and they said they weren't allowed to. So off my bag goes. I was frantic. This really sweet lady went to get help for me and they said I was lucky that it was a small airport. 10 minutes later the man walked up with my backpack thank goodness. So that was how I started off my trip to Rome at 5 am. I bought Norwegian chocolate in the duty free store for breakfast. I deserved it!

I made it to Rome!

I arrived in Rome at the train station at 11:15. I told Tom and Tsulls that I would be in around noon so I waited for about 45 minutes. At noon I suddenly got nervous. The place was huge with people hustling and bustling everywhere and I was so worried about how I was going to find them. I was asking random people who couldnt understand me where i could find wi-fi. At 12:30, I decided to just go walk around outside of the station because I had nothing to lose at that point. I found them at the opposite end of the train station, which I didn't even know existed.  It was the most amazing feeling to see familiar faces!

Headed to the hotel and regrouped. The hotel was pretty bomb. We had three keys to unlock three different doors and it over looked this square in the city.  I even arrived to a bottle of wine they had bought the night before. A great start to our trip (2 days) in Italy. 

We Started to just walk towards the colloseum and stopped at this fancy place that over looked the ancient ruins. I had my first Italian pasta dish and hands down, mine was the best of the group! Penne with tomato sauce and peppers. We were a little salty for being charged 9 euros for a liter of water and 5 euros for bread we didn't want (you live and you learn is our motto) 

We walked around Ancient Rome (roman forum, circus Maximus and the colloseum)

It is an unbelievably gorgeous city. Thank goodness for tour guide Tim for directing us and reading about the different monuments from his Rome guide book. Tommy (oops, TOM) and I would have never made it around without him!

The colloseum was incredible! We walked in and thought it was smaller than we expected it to be but we went up to the second level and realized we were wrong. 

Here we are (not being tourists or anything)

We wAlked down a side road and stopped at this quant little restaurant for a bottle of wine and some apps. We split a pizza and a bottle of red wine. More wine! I love Italy!

I told the boys it was supposed to rain in Rome today and they both just laughed and made fun of me. But to their surprise it started down pouring on our walk to the Trevi fountain.

 It was too funny... one minute all the street vendors were selling sunglasses and water and within seconds they are walking around selling umbrellas when the rain starts. All the steeets were clear of tourists who were under all of the awnings. We just went for it and ran in the rain. I suppose we were feeling pretty adventurous after that bottle of wine. The rain drops were humongous and were so cold but it was very refreshing. The rain actually worked out great because right away everyone booked to shelter so no one was by the fountain. 

I threw in a coin which assures that I will be back in Rome again someday. We decided we will have a 10 year reunion back to Rome. 

It felt great to get back to the hotel after just being completely soaked from the rain. Cracked open a beer and I tried to snooze on the bed but was forced up soon there after.

I am reading Eat. Pray. Love. and I am reading the part of when she is trAvels through Rome, ironically. She just walks around and looks for locals to ask where the best place for local food is and it has never gone wrong. I was determined to do the same. I guess the third time is a charm. I asked a guy who was sitting on his stoop eating a Popsicle. He said "go straight, turn right up ahead and turn left". I was persistent that we went and tried it out.  It ended up just being right outside of our hotel which was nice. The menus were all slightly different and had German, Korean, and Italian food. Turned out to be the best night. We sat for 4 hours (until we got kicked out) drinking 2 liters of wine and having the greatest conversations. I have not laughed that hard in a really long time (mostly at the men strolling by our table trying to sell us dancing stuffed animals). Our food was actually really good too, for being kind of a sketchy place. I got ravioli with a truffle sauce! 

Went back to the hotel and had even better conversations as we drank another bottle of wine. 

A very successful day. This last minute trip to Rome was a very good decision. Thank you Tom for persuading me. 

Entrance to our hotel ^