Rome

Waking up in interlaken was kind of disappointing. We didn't get to go zorbing because not enough people signed up to go... They apparently needed the full amount of slots filled?? I'm so bummed though: I was waiting 2 years to do this!!! :-(

It was raining there so we didn't get to do anything that morning. We decided to skip out on Zurich altogether. It just made the most sense with heading to Rome later that day.

So, we started heading the Rome. We got there after another 6ish hour train ride. We took the metro to our hostel and walked there. Oh, boy. The area was so sketchy. The hostel was in an apartment building. We had to buzz in there, but that was the ONLY security. The office and the hostel room were on different floors of the building. They didn't even give us a room key! No security lockers.. Nothing. They made us pay for that night in advance and they told us they'd bring the change up to us when they got it. They never brought it. Pat had to fight with the guy at the desk to get it (and he either didn't speak english or pretended not to so he could keep the money... Either way he did NOT know math or how to make change).

Anyway, this place was SO sketchy. We didn't feel the least bit safe. It was so bad that we sent an SOS out to the parents. My phone wasn't working at that time and my parents were woooonderful and booked us into the sheraton in town (yay for email).

We got outta that dirty grimy un-safe hostel ASAP. The sheraton was a Godsend. Especially after the hostels we've been staying in, I felt like royalty! It was sooo clean and sparkly and we had a private room... Awesome! Best part was that ot was for THREE nights!!! Yes more expensive then a hostel, but safety is more important than that.

So that night, after everything that went down, we only had time to sleep lol. The next day Pat, Dave, and I went out to Vatican City. We waited on line for an hour and a half to get into the vatican museum, which isn't so bad. The only tough part was the heat, but the gelato really helped with that!

There, we saw lots of cool things, including the sistine chapel! We went to St. Peter's Basillica as well! It was soooo gorgeous!!! I'm fairly certain that no church will ever impress me ever again. It was really cool because I got to go into adoration there for a bit! Pat and I climbed to the top of the basillica: wayyy up the dome! We paid a few euro to take an elevator half way up..the view of the basillica from this point was breathtaking. Then we just had to climb the 320 remaining steps (eek). It was cool though: my knee was feeling good and towards the top you actually had to slant your body to the curve of the dome in order to fit up the stairway!! The view from up there was AMAZING! Looking down into the gardens of the vatican, I just kept thinking of the youth group hibachi joke. Gotta love it!

We went back to the hotel room and picked up Jen then went out to this little place to eat that she knew of. There was this cute sqare near there that was pretty busy. I had really yummy pasta and pizza (pat and I each ordered one and split them). We then had some (more) gelati. Pat confessed to me that he's having an affair... With strawberry gelato. And I am quite okay with that :-P we walked around a bit along the water. It was like a boardwalk: lots of little shops and games!

Needless to say, my knee was not doing so well at this point: 320 steps up, 320 down, and lots of standing/walking. Even with napping the next morning due to the rain, it wasn't so great. I didn't rest it much on Tuesday: but that's ok because we saw the Colesseum, the Pantheon, spanish steps, the roman forum, and the trevi fountain! My favorite were the Colesseum and the fountain. We each threw coins into the fountain over our shoulders to ensure a quick return to rome! (According to legend, 1 coin means a quick return, 2 coins means a new love and 3 means a marriage or divorce)

We went to dinner at this delicious place and I had spaghetti. It wasn't campbles, but it was Mmm mmm good!

After dinner we had more gelati (we're addicted). Then it was back to the hotel!

Monday night pat and I washed a buncha clothes in the tub to hold us over til we found a laundramat. They were hanging up overnight, pat took the hairdryer to them in the morning to help the drying process along and I finished the job last night! Yay clean clothes! I'm officially out of those nifty little laundry sheets though, so I'm glad that both jen and pat have them too.

The hotel was wonderful not only for space, privacy, and cleanliness: we got free water (complimentary, not just to compliment the room), we had fluffy towels, and we stuffed our faces so much at the buffet breakfasts that we never had to eat/pay for lunch! The ONLY bad side was that it was far away from the heart of the city and we had much longer travel times (even the metro was a 10 minute walk). We wound up taking a few cabs, which is pretty expensive. The hotel offered a shuttle, but you had to pay 3 euro per person to take it. The public busses took a very long time as well.

Today we checked out and took a cab to the train station. I think he took us on a scenic route (ugh. More money). It took sooo long, too. We were afraid we wouldn't make the train. When we finally got there, there was a HUGE line for tickets. The 3 of them waited on line as I checked out the ticket machines. This was the very first time that machines offered an option for eurail pass holders!!! We quickly got our reservation and hopped on the train.

The seats are harry potter-esque: they're little cabins with sliding doors. There's 6 seats per room. I have a VERY large italian man next to me who has begun to snore. I think it might be time to dig out the ipod lol.

One more note: my sneakers are amazing. I know one of my earlier posts before I left recommended the Princeton Running Store to everyone, but I HIGHLY suggest that place now! Buy shoes there. They're foot/knee/leg/life savers ;-)

Pictures to come when we have free wifi again and I'm not typing on my phone!