When in Roma, try not to get wet!

Well, I've finally made it to the last leg of my journey through Italy! It was a long trip, but SO much fun! I enjoyed every second, which is amazing to say considering I'm about to tell you about the worst part! But first there's a picture of me being bored on the four hour train ride to Rome, or "Roma" as the Italians call it!

Laura and I took the train to Rome and arrived later at night than we wished, but we had already booked a hostel and had directions. Well, the first Roman hostel we booked had no all-girl rooms, so we changed our reservation to their sister hostel, the Mona Lisa. (Funny name considering the Mona Lisa is in Paris!) We pulled out the directions and started walking down the streets of Roma at 9:30 at night. It took longer to walk there, lugging our already too-heavy suitcase and our backpacks. We got to the street the hostel was supposed to be on and found a huge double-wide wooden door with buzzers on the outside, and only one small sign saying "Mona Lisa Hostel." We buzzed and were let in, only to find a huge dark room leading to some spiral stairs with a tiny rickety-looking elevator in the middle. After hiking up the three flights of stairs to the Mona Lisa, we were informed that our room had a "security issue" and that we would be taken to another hostel, the Ivanhoe. Carl, the person who was supposed to take us there, had never been to it before either! We walked into the Ivanhoe to discover a small hallway with doors to rooms on either side. The hallway was full of Hispanic-looking teenagers and young adults who were all drinking something from a rather suspicious punch bowl and talking loudly. They offered me a drink which I QUICKLY refused, not knowing what could be found in such a concoction. The manager of the hostel couldn't even speak English when we tried to ask him questions, which wouldn't be strange considering we were in Italy, but he couldn't speak Italian either! He was speaking Spanish and led us to an 8-person room which had no bathroom. We were to share two bathrooms with everyone else in the whole hostel, the beds only had one sheet, and the whole place just looked dingy and unsafe. We discussed our options and decided to leave and take our chances finding somewhere else that late. So Carl helped us with our suitcase and gave us a map, and there we were, alone on the streets of Roma at 10:30 or 11 o'clock at night, with no idea what to do! Thankfully, we started walking and came across a hotel and stayed there that night. It was considerably, and I mean considerably more expensive, but we stayed there anyway for the feeling of cleanliness and safety. I hate that I had to spend the extra money, but it was well worth being safe. I know that God protected us that night.

We spent a comfortable night in the hotel and enjoyed a delicious breakfast there the next morning, then started off to find another hostel. Laura has a book called "Top 10 Rome" which lists off all the top ten things in Roma, like hotels, hostels, restaurants, tourist spots, and many other things. This wonderful book gave us a list of hostels to check - there were three possibilities near the train station, so we took off and picked the best one - it was called "Fawlty Towers!" I don't know if any of you have seen the British comedy "Fawlty Towers" but I've seen it on PBS and on video at home and loved it, so it was neat. We left our stuff and took off to begin exploring Roma....in the rain. We wandered into an old church which turned out to be built in the 5th century! It had this huge pipe organ inside and I would have given anything to be able to play it. We went to a museum and saw some amazing marble sculptures, including the "Discus Thrower." Now those of you faithful blog readers may remember that I claimed to have seen the Discus Thrower already, but I was mistaken! The real on is in Rome. And it was bigger and looked better than the other one I thought I saw! Also we laughed at the sign that accompanied some of the statues that were in their "natural form" for a polite way of putting it. According to the sign there is a reason for that. What do you think?

The next day, Thursday, we got up relatively early and took off to see the Colosseum, in the midst of rain and more rain! It was cold, but we faithful tourists went anyway. We joined an English-speaking tour of the Colosseum and got to skip the queue and hear lots of information about what went on in the Colosseum. Then the sun came out for a brief few moments and we were elated! I got a couple good pictures during that reprieve.

After that tour was over, we went to another tour of the "Palantine" which means "palace" in Italian. It was a HUGE palace built for some king and was basically in ruins, so we walked around and saw what the tour guide told us was the "performing" room, the dining room, the indoor pools, and other random rooms. After that we were left to "aimlessly wander ancient Roman ruins" on our own and it was fabulous! It was so crazy that there used to be buildings there, and magnificent buildings at that. When I left the Palantine, I noticed there was a sign for the "Mamertime Prison!" I didn't know what it was before Kaleb told me about it. This is famed for being the place where Peter and Paul were both imprisoned! I went inside and took some pictures and sent Kaleb a text saying where I was! I don't know if he was happy I'd found the place, or jealous that I was there! He had asked me to find it so I'm glad it was so close and easy to find!

I went to the Pantheon after this, which was also amazing! I was hungry by this point so we just found a restaurant that looked good and went inside. We both got traditional Italian dishes of pasta - I got something called gnocchi that Kaleb's Italian friend suggested - it was delicious! Laura and I split a plate of veal with bacon which was also delicious! They also had the dessert that our tour guide in Florence had suggested we try - cheese with honey. It turned out to be a deep-fried pastry drenched in honey that was SO good! We were halfway through the dessert when the waiter came back with two flute glasses of some yellow liquid stuff. I said "Thank you!" and he left, and that's when the fun started. I picked it up and sniffed it, only to discover a STRONG smell of alcohol. I immediately refused to drink it, and Laura tasted hers only to have it "burn all the way down" as she said. Then we started fighting about who would ask the waiter what it was and where it came from. We didn't think we'd ordered it, but who knows with the language differences! So he came back and I said, "What is this?" hoping it would lead to further conversation about where it came from. But no dice, he simply said, "It's lemon liquor" and smiled and left. When he came back, Laura just blurted out, "Where did this come from?" He smiled a big smile and started explaining to us the origin of the drink, how it was created in Sardinia and made its way to Rome! We laughed and she asked instead, more directly, if it was on our bill, to which he said excitedly, "No, no! It's for you from me! It's a gift, I give you!" We said thank you and he left again, and we just looked at each other wondering what in the world we were going to do with it! I certainly wasn't going to drink it and Laura didn't like it, so she said, "Well, there is a plant right there...." Yes, I know what you're thinking, "no, you didn't!" But yes I did! Laura chickened out so she watched to make sure the waiter wasn't coming and I poured all of mine into the flower! Then Laura poured half of hers into my glass so it at least looked like we'd both enjoyed our treat. We paid the bill and left quickly! Post a comment about what YOU think the flower would say happened to him!? What would you have done in the same situation?

The next day, Friday, we went to Vatican City!!! We got in the queue at 8:30am and were inside the Vatican before 9. It was rainy outside still, so it was a great museum day! They didn't make us show our passports, for as we found out later, they really only let you see the Vatican museum and nothing else. I was hoping I'd be able to just wander around the smallest country in the world, but apparently they don't let you do that! We were there for about three or four hours and got to see THE SISTENE CHAPEL!!!!!!! It was so amazing to be standing in there, actually looking up at the famous picture of Adam reaching out to touch God, painted on the ceiling by Michaelangelo. I couldn't take any pictures, but the experience was great. We afterwards found St. Peter's Basilica (after getting lost) and got to see the best and greatest cathedral in the world! The reason I say this is that we have now seen the top three cathedrals in the world and St. Peter's the top one. The second is St. Paul's here in London, and the third is the Duomo in Florence. It's so amazing to be able to say that! God's blessed me so much! Here's a picture of "La Pieta" by Michaelangelo - found in St. Peter's!

After that we trekked around in the rain to see the Trevi Fountian where I threw in a coin (which supposedly assures my return to Rome some day), and then to the Spanish Steps. It was all so great to see so many things I've only heard about in history books and seen in pictures! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to try to meet up with Cam, our Australian friend, for dinner but he didn't get the email in time. We shopped in the little store while we waited and were surrounded by all the other Americans that were visiting Rome right then. I was strangely VERY uncomfortable being around so many Americans and asked Laura if she'd be upset if we didn't eat there. We left and went back to a place near our hostel for dinner - Pizzario, Pastarito! We went to bed not long after that, exhausted!

The next morning was our trip back to London, so we boarded a bus early in the morning for the airport and got there in plenty of time to check in and get on the plane. It was a fairly uneventful ride home, except for a rough landing! Never did I want to kiss the ground of England so much! We had to get a coach ride back to London too, so we finally arrived back to our flat in the afternoon and collapsed with exhaustion! It was a memorable, SIMPLY AMAZING trip! Thank you God! Leave some comments and let me know what you think!