I am finally able to write now that we are on a train to Florence,although I should be napping due to only 4 hours of drunken sleep we got last night.
We arrived in ....Rome.... around 1 p.m. on Sunday and checked into Starhotels Michelangelo . We were all so tired from the plane ride, we could have all took a nap at the hotel, but we made ourselves stay awake so we could sleep that night. We grabbed some lunch at this local place by the hotel. The food wasn’t very good. I basically had a mayonnaise sandwich. Yuck. After lunch we walked through St. Peters Cathedral courtyard to the subway to see the Colosseum. It was hands down amazing. Right when you walk out of the train station, its right there in front of you, and your like, WOW! (At least that’s what I thought!) So we walked around a little bit, only to get sucked in by vultures standing outside the Colosseum selling tours. After spending 40 Euros, which is equivalent to about $50 per person, we had ourselves a tour. Now, I’m sure the tour would have been educational if our tour guide didn’t SUCK! The tour was supposed to be about 45 minutes long, and after about 30 minutes of standing outside the Colosseum with Mr. Broken Record, we got to go in. Seriously, our tour guide kept saying the same thing over and over. Not to mention after being up a straight 24 hours, at that point our attention spans were slim to none.
(I’m looking out the window right now and it’s 9 a.m. and the moon is still out....Cool.)
After the Colosseum we walked around a bit and after the crappy lunch we had we decided we wanted some good food for dinner. We decided to look in our Italy book to look for a recommend restaurant around the Colosseum area. So we ended up walking a ways, maybe 6 or 7 blocks to the restaurant just to find out that it wasn’t there anymore. It had been shut down. We ended up eating at a nearby place, which ended up having even worse food than the food we ate for lunch. Grrrrr. I had the Cannoli which tasted like it came straight out of a Chef Boyardee can. Yuck, again. I was starting to miss American food and I had only been here a day.
On the bright side, we had about 6 liters of wine and food for 6 people for under $100! After being up for a pretty solid 32 hours, give our take my hour of sleep on the plane, I slept like a rock!
Day 2 we went to see St. Peters Cathedral and the Vatican, not much to say there, just a lot of walking and sight seeing. We did however go to the very top of the Cathedral where you can see all of Rome.We had to walk some 320 steps to get to the top, and at the very top the walls get so narrow and close it can make someone not claustrophobic want to pass out!
After the Cathedral we were hungry, again. I’m sure I will be telling you about every eating experience on this trip... I never knew I was such a critic. Sebastian had a great idea of how we shouldn’t eat anything on a main street, we should go off on a random street and maybe the food will be better. So we did and we found this amazing pizzeria! It was a very small place, no where to sit down except outside on the ground, which is where everyone was sitting...the place was packed! I have never seen anything like it. People sitting on the streets in Rome, eating pizza. The pizza was amazing by the way, and cheap as hell! Six slices was 6 Euros or $8. Think about getting six slices of pizza in the mall, it would be over $20! Oh, and by the way, we have had gelato after every single meal. I’m gonna have a lot of running to do when I get home!
Speaking of running, I’m kicking myself for not bringing my tennis shoes. The mornings here are about 60 degrees and beautiful. I saw some lady running through the Cathedral courtyard this morning.. I have never wanted to go for a run so bad in my life...
After the Vatican we wanted to go to Trevi Fountain. They say to see it in the daytime and at night time. It was still daytime when we got there so we ended up buying 6 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of champagne, salami, cheese, bread, nuts and crackers and we camped out! We probably stayed there a good 3 to 4 hours. It was a really nice dinner. Oh, and Tamina bought a bottle of chilled Limoncello and we did shots from the bottle the whole way home. None of us feel very good this morning, and Tamina just threw up. lol.
We just arrived in Florence...... To be continued.
Florence was my favorite, although I heard several times that it was small and there was nothing to really do there. On arrival, we set out to find our hotel.. by foot. Even though Florence was small, we probably walked an hour and a half to find our hotel, asking everyone we saw on the way if they knew where our hotel was. See, here in Houston, if someone were to ask me directions, I could at least tell them what area of town to go to. In Florence it seemed that no one knew where our hotel was, much less the area of town it was in. So we walked, and walked, and walked some more with our entire luggage in tow. I felt like a mouse in a maze looking for the cheese. We finally found our hotel and needless to say we were spoiled from the previous hotel. This hotel was more of a bed and breakfast and the guy at the front desk (if you can even call it that) reeked of body odor.
Florence had some of the best shopping at the market. You can do lots of haggling. I got some of my favorite souvenirs there. They also had some of the best food and coffee. I had one of the best lattes ever and we ordered the biggest steak I have ever seen in my life! Oh.. and you can drink on the streets!
Venice oh Venice.Venice nearly put holes in our pockets. I thought Venice would be my favorite of all to visit, but it wasn’t. Venice was very pretty, don’t get me wrong, but it was the most difficult to get around because everything is by water. The water taxis and water buses were so expensive it kind of made me mad. Our water taxi from the hotel to the airport was $200.00! Outrageous if you ask me! I understand it’s Venice and all.. but still $200.00 come on! Not to mention we stayed at the beautiful, beautiful, Molino Stucky Hilton which raped our asses on food and drinks. Hamburger + Room Service = $50.00. Seriously a hamburger for $50.00?? Needless to say, after spending God knows what at the bar, Sebastian and I split a granola bar that I brought from Houston and called it a night.
Finding the right water bus to get on was a whole other story. Usually we were all pretty good about remembering how to get back to the hotel, but in Venice all the docks on the water pretty much looked the same, and after a night of drinking, they really all look the same. Water buses there quit running at a certain time, like at 10 pm. We finished dinner round 9ish and headed back, or tried anyhow. We ended up getting lost several times. The dead ends there are water canals where the gondolas run through. When we finally found our way back to the docks we found ourselves running up and down the pier trying to find the right water taxi to get on before 10 pm hit. I’m sure all the people sitting, having dinner and drinks on the water were like, ‘look at those stupid Americans!’
Arrivederci Venice.. Back to Rome.
We booked a plane back to Rome from Venice for two reasons. One it was cheaper. Two it was faster. Great idea right? Wrong. We booked with some cheap airline. Have you ever heard the saying ‘you get what you pay for?’ …. Exactly. We arrived at the airport 3 to 4 hours ahead of schedule. I don’t really know why we did that, but we did. After that we waited in front of the EasyJet check in for about 45 minutes to an hour with about 300 people waiting for the Venice to Rome ‘Check In’ sign to light up. All 300 of us looked like a heard of cows when the ‘Check In’ sign lit up. Luckily we were quick and got to the front. After we got our boarding passes there was more waiting! Yay! It was about another hour or so. Thank God I brought my laptop! When they announced ‘Now Boarding’ cows, cows and more cows went running to the desk. Geez. At that point EasyJet would never be an option again! If we would have taken the train, we would have already been in Rome by now.
When we finally arrived in Rome at 10:30 pm we ran into a problem. The trains quit running. They quit running at 10 pm. Therefore we had to rent a cab. Two cabs at that because one cab only takes 4 people. One cab cost 80 freakin dollars! $160 in cab fares, I don’t think so. So we walked and walked and Matt came across these two guys that said they would take us at a cheaper rate. Come to find out, as we were getting into their cars, they didn’t have taxi licenses’. So we were basically getting a ride from two Italian men who weren’t registered to taxi people around. When they didn’t know where our hotel was or where they were going, I started freaking out! Not to mention they were talking to each other on cell phones in Italian and looking at different maps at the same time while driving. I remember sitting in the taxi looking over at Sebastian saying ‘I’m scared.’ When we finally arrived at the hotel, I could breathe again. Whew. We made it in one piece. I swear I had visions of these two men taking us to a dark lot somewhere in Rome saying in Italian ‘here are 6 Americans, where’s our money.’
Our hotel in Rome was nice by the way. We stayed at the Villa Glori. We settled in and went to bed. The next morning we woke up to have breakfast with the group only to be joined my Melissa and Oswaldo. Oswaldo was like ‘did you guys hear what happened last night?’ Of course we didn’t. Come to find out when riding with the two non licensed, Italian taxi drivers, Tamina was so scared she was looking for a pen in her purse to use as a weapon just incase something happened. While digging through her purse she left her wallet in the seat of the car. Her wallet contained the following: Hundred dollar bills, credit cards, a diamond ring, drivers license.. just to name a few. The taxi driver, who we doubted the whole time, and dubbed as a possible hit man for Americans, brought her wallet back with everything in it! That’s huge! I mean common, now a days who wouldn’t have taken all the money out of it and ran! Of course he wanted a reward for it, but shit, who wouldn’t. Needless to say we all felt pretty thankful for that man. It would have definitely been a downer if she would have lost it.
The remaining days in Rome were our ‘relaxing days.’ We were going, going, going for the whole trip, trying to catch trains, planes, subways and buses at that point we just wanted to relax. Our last few days all we did was shop, eat and drink. Our very last night we had McDonalds, wine and Pringles for dinner. We were craving American food. We got about 3 hours of sleep then caught our plane home at 3 A.M. in the morn. I was a zombie!
Funny things that happened on our trip:
-Tamina got caught in-between the Subway doors.
-I got yelled at for taking a picture in the Subway and in McDonalds. (Subway in understand, McDonalds, not quite sure) Here is me getting yelled at in Mickie Dees
-We saw a family yelling match in Italian. (We were at a restaurant.)
Things I know now, that I didn’t know then:
-Order your money from you bank before you leave for your trip. Banks charge a 3% fee when you pulse out money or use your bankcard overseas. If you exchange your money at one of those little exchange boutiques in the airport, they charge you a fee on top of exchange rate. I remember for every $100 dollars we got like $60 back. If you order your money from the bank, they charge you the exact exchange rate with no fee or 3% charge.
-Stick with the hole in the wall restaurants and go off the beaten path. They are the best.
-If you plan to go to the museums, go in the afternoon. In the morning the lines are ridiculous! Everyone has the same idea, ‘if I get there early, we can get in early.’ WRONG! If you get there early, there are tons of people that have been awake long before you and have beaten you there.
-Tour are useless. Don’t let them talk you into one. Waste of money.
-Money Belts are a MUST. I know they sound gay but there are so many pick pocketers. Sebastian and I were in the market shopping and he noticed his head phones were hanging out of his pocket. He never kept money in his pocket so he was never reaching in and out for things, so we wondered why they were hanging out. Hmm.
-Drink and Eat all that you can..You still loose weight from all the walking!
Favorite picts.. I have a lot!
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