Rome, Italy

So.. before my mind loses all of the details.. here is my blog about beautiful Rome, Italy.

We arrived to the train station Monday night around 6 and caught a cab to our hotel only blocks away from the Colosseum. The room was small but quaint. And the views from our balcony and from the hotel's rooftop were absolutely glorious. Too tired to go out, we decided to eat dinner at the hotel. They have round tables (it was Hotel Lancelot) where you sit with other travellers and talk about your trips. So we ended up sitting next to a priest, Father Bryan and Christopher, a theology student thinking about becoming a seminarian. They were from Birmingham, England. That was interesting to say the least. The food was pretty good and I finally found a red wine a like. Its a sparkling wine that the hotel ended up giving us a bottle to take home as a present.

Tuesday was our ancient Rome tour. My grandma had no desire to go so she stayed back at the hotel. Our tour started at the Piazza Navona. It was so cool to see all of the street vendors and people out. We did a little bit of shopping before meeting our tour guide. From there, we walked to the Pantheon. So cool! It was so dark in there we didn't get too many great pics but then we headed to the Trevi Fountain. There were sooooo many people!!!!!!! We made wishes on our coins and continued the tour. We went to the building that no one seems to know the name of but it is nicknamed the wedding cake topper. Kinda cool. We then walked to Capitol Hill where we got some killer pics of the Roman Forum. During this time, the tour guide said she was going to go show some people something at the top of the hill and would be back in 5 min to get the rest of us. Well.. she never freakin did! So we lost our tour guide and ended up missing out on the Roman Forum. We found them again outside the Colosseum so proceeded inside. No words can express how awesome the Colosseum is. Me and Derek both are huge fans of ancient Rome so it was just so surreal to be inside. We took literally over 100 pictures of that place! That concluded that tour so we went back to the hotel, had pizza at a nearby restaurant (which we would return to every night until we left), had some gelatto (which is amazing btw) and went to bed.

Early Wednesday morning, we had to leave to go for our Vatican tour. My grandma was unfortunately sick so she couldn't make it. We toured the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica along with the Sistine Chapel. Absolutely freaking beautiful! All of the artwork was breathtaking and the stories behind them were fascinating. Our tour guide that day was magnificent. After that 3 hour tour we had 3 hours to kill before our Scavi tour. We people watched in St. Peter's Square and decided to get some food at a nearby pizzeria. I finally found American beer there. Needless to say, it was Budweiser so still nasty but I "manned up". We then headed to our Scavi tour which would take us below the basilica to where St. Peter's tomb is. It was soooo creepy down there! It smelled of death, the humidity was awful and if you are anywhere near claustrophobic, you shouldn't go down there. Nonetheless it was still pretty cool although we couldn't take pictures. Derek found a rock right out side of St Peter's tomb! We got a pic of John Paul II's tomb and were finally done for the day. Well, besides the usual pizza and gelatto for dinner ;)

Thursday, my grandma felt much better so we took her to St. Peter's Square so she could at least see the Vatican. I think she was very much appreciative. We then headed to the Piazza de Spagna where the Spanish steps are. Usually there are jam packed with people. But it was 9 in the morning and there were cleaning them, so there was no one in sight! We then entered designer heaven (can't remember the name of the street) where we proceeded to get Charlie (my future MIL) a Prada purse. OMG!!!!!!! It is rediculous how expensive this designer shit is! My grandparents wanted to eat at the Hard Rock so we walked to this church where underneath they had the Cappucin Crypt. It is filled with bones from over 4000 monks! It was eery but really cool. After eating at the Hard Rock, we headed back to the Pantheon bc there had been some street vendors with "Frada" bags along with Louis Vuitton and Gucci. We bought 3 Fradas and a Gucci for 100 euro and also got the rest of the souvenirs and gifts for family and friends. Pooped out from all of the shopping we went back to the hotel to get some rest before our final dinner. My grandparents had been eating at the hotel all week so wanted us to take them to the pizzeria we had been raving about. This would be the 3rd night in a row lol. Our waiter was so fantastic.. Derek's brother from another mother lol. So funny. They gave us all free shots of Lemoncello and we got our last gelatto.

My grandparents flight left early in the morning. Ours didn't leave for Amsterdam until 5:15 in the afternoon. So we just played cards and watched TV in the hotel and then headed to the airport. We had McDonalds there. It was 15.90 euro for 2 chicken nugget meals!!!!!!! The flight was pretty smooth.. We arrived in Amsterdam around 8 pm, which I will talk about next time bc my hands are getting tired!