Roman Holiday

I can't tell you much about our flight to Rome, since I was completely asleep for it--we took a lot of early morning flights on this trip, and the best thing to do it just sleep from take off to touch down. I do know that when we arrived at the Rome airport and they informed us of the weather, it wasn't much warmer than Prague had been and it was raining--I was pretty upset that I was not going to get a reprieve from the gross weather. Also, Rome doesn't have enough gates, so small planes like ours have you disembark via staircase, get into a bus, and drive you to the terminal. We had to wait a long time for our luggage, which must really have confused since Joseph since I had already failed to give him any details about our flight besides arrival time. But when we emerged from the terminal (after some odd questions from customs which I still don't understand), he was waiting there. A touching Carolan reunion ensued. We boarded a train to his house (and then transferred to another train--I didn't realize that he lives in a village on the sea about 40 minutes outside of Rome), and by the time we arrived, it was absolutely gorgeous out. I mean I was walking around without a jacket, which I haven't done since, oh, September? It was a great start and kind of cancelled out the fact that we hadn't slept.

We got to Joseph's and ate, showered, etc. We also got to meet his girlfriend Alethea who we saw a lot more of during our visit. Maybe an hourish later, Joseph, Alethea, Eric and I got back on to the train (we only bought one ticket, by the way. The entire 4 days, we lived off of one ticket each. It was fabulous) and set off for Rome. We did a lot of the basic tourist things that day--of course stopped by St. Peter's, though we decided to tour it the next day when it might be less crowded; we got gelato from an amaaaaazing gelato place. Maybe because it was our first taste of it, but no other gelato in the city compared to that place. It was Rome heritage week, so a lot of sites were free admission--we went to Castel Sant'Angelo that day, where we had a great view of the city. We also stopped by Joseph's office to use his internet connection--I feel like we got to know the people there pretty well thanks to our stops. I think we mostly just wandered the city that day; I know we definetly went to the Spanish steps and gawked at all the stores lining the way--Gucci, Louis Vitton. I don't know where Europeans get all this disposable income from, but I want in! We went to dinner at this outdoor place where Joseph knew the owner, and he gave us two rounds of free strawberry wine--delicious. He was an old Italian man, and everything that conveys--flirting with us girls, joking with the guys. We called it quits after this, since Eric and I were exhausted.

The next day Joseph took us back in and we did St. Peter's. First we climbed to the top of the cupola, stopping on the way to view the inside of St. Peter's from above, which was incredible enough. From outside the dome, you could literally see the entire city and even mountains in the distance. It was such a long climb, and the stairs are obviously very old--sometimes they're not quite uniform in size, and other times they start tilting so the wall is no longer at a 90 degree angle with the floor. The view and the weather were both amazing, though, so it was worth the walk. We wandered through a few of the bigger plazas, obtaining more gelato and pizza and avoiding the awful street vendors--they're pretty horrible. We also went to the Colosseum; saw a beautiful Italian family taking wedding pictures; visited the forum from above; and saw a number of other ruinous things. This was also our first visit to the Trevi Fountain, with which I am pretty much in love. We went for drinks at this bar owned by Joseph and Alethea's friend, which was a really good time.

Sunday saw me and Eric touring on our own, since Joseph had to study for a test. We did make it to the Pantenon, which was one of the major spots we wanted to hit--it was previously a Roman temple and has since been turned into a really remarkable church. There was a choir singing chamber music, but the church was otherwise hard to enjoy--it was too full of tourists. Now, I mean, I'm a tourist here, but you're in a church--keep your voice down, remove your hat, and turn off your phone. A little respect wouldn't kill anyone. We also found some ruins which they were having a hard time dating, and saw a lot of cats running around there. Oh, right, because in Rome, ruins can be used as a cat sanctuary! Of course! It was a very strange place. We met up with Joseph for mass in English--where he hobnobbed with the American ambassador to Vatican City, who he apparently already knows. Then we went to dinner and got some truly outstanding pasta. Joseph had to take the early train home, so Eric and I went back to the Trevi fountain to enjoy it at night--still very beautiful.

Monday was our final day there, and we had to meet Joseph after he took his test, and bring our luggage to store at his office. Eric and I planned on relaxing, taking our books to this coffeeshop on the beach, and enjoying the morning. It was not to be! Joseph's apartment lost power, so we went searching for the circuit breaker; then Eric got a power converter stuck in an outlet. By the time we were done with all this, we just sat at the cafe for a little while to regain our composure; we saw Alethea who was babysitting this absolutely adorable little girl. When we met up with Joseph and dumped our luggage, we went to the ruins of the forum for most of the day. It was so nice to explore--especially since it was free--and the weather was still beautiful. A lot of people were picnicing there, and I feel like if I ever go back there, I'd like to do that too. It was a great way to spend our last day, and I had the chance to take a ton of pictures. We met Alethea and attempted to find a wine bar, but after traipsing across town, we were running a bit late; we scrapped the wine search and instead went to this awesome Chinese restaurant where they fed us until my seams were about to burst.

After our leisurely dinner, there was the scramble for the train. We had plenty of time to make it--Eric and I were taking an overnight train until Verona, then transferring to a regular train for the rest of the ride to Munich--but only after we picked up the tickets did we learn we were at the wrong station. We had half an hour but no idea how far the station was; Joseph talked to a cab driver, but he tried to rip us off. In the end, we learned the subway went there, so Eric and I said our goodbyes and hauled our stuff there. We had extra time at the station, which was unfortunate since it was pretty much a shithole. A really shady place; I wouldn't even go to the bathroom, because of the characters I had to pass on my way there.

The night train was an experience I don't need to have again soon. We had couchettes, pretty much bunch beds with two others, who were very nice guys who didn't speak english. The room was so hot and didn't ventilate well; the train was also not a smooth ride at all. We had to transfer at 6 am, and we tried to sleep, but thanks to Eric's alarm not being consistent lately, I woke up every hour in a panic. Eventually, the alarm did go off and we waited in the vestibule, only to find out the train was at least 30 minutes late. We only had 50 minutes between trains, so we were pretty much resigned to missing our transfer when we pulled into Verona. On the plus side, the ride to Verona I saw in the sunrise was gorgeous.

We did in fact make our train, and it left right on time. It's a six hour ride to Munich and though I tried to stay awake and enjoy the view, I soon passed out in the seat. It wasn't very comfortable either, but better than my sleep the night before; I got to see some of the alps, but according to Eric, I missed the best stuff. We had our tickets checked three times, and our passports twice--once in Austria, once in Germany. They gave ours right back even though they looked at others more closely, and I felt that odd privilege that being an American sometimes gets you. I'm glad I slept though, because the 6 hours may have been intolerable if I'd been awake the whole time. We arrived in Munich right on time, which will take me to my next post!