Rome: June 11th-17th

(A view of the colosseum.)
Sadly, we said goodbye to Molly and Mark and left the beautiful Camp Girasole. We had found a campsite outside of Rome to stay at, but we knew nothing could compare to where we had just stayed. We were quite nervous to go to Rome. We had heard horror story after horror story about the Gypsies and all the pickpockets. There are so many professional thieves in Rome, that we were certain we were going to get robbed as soon as we stepped off the train. The train station is a popular place for the Gypsy kids to rob you. So, we arrived in Rome pretty nervous and got off the train clutching our bags to our chest and watching everyone who came near us.

(An obelisk that was donated by Egypt to a ruler of Rome...can't remember which one.)

Mark and Molly had told us about this thing to buy in the station called a Roma Pass. They had found out about it through Rick Steve's guidebook (which for anyone EVER planning to travel to Europe...buy his book!!! He is a genius!) You pay 20 euros and the pass is good for 3 days. It includes all transportation (bus, tram, metro, trains) and the first 3 historical sites we visited would be free. Every additional site after that would be discounted. So, we wandered around the station until we finally found the place to buy the pass.
Then, we jumped on the metro and started following our directions to the campsite. After we arrived at our metro stop, the directions told us to then exit the station and take the aboveground line F. Now, for most of you, that seems pretty straightforward, right? We thought so, until we saw that there were about 4 exits, and the 3 maps we had obtained by this point were all different! Yes, 3 maps of the same city, were all different. We wandered around for almost an hour in the blazing hot sun. By this point, I was hot, sweaty, hungary, tired and really needed a bathroom. I turned to Shane and said, "I just dare someone to try to rob us right now!" I was not happy. We finally asked an attendant in the subway station where this aboveground line F was, and she pointed to an exit and said turn right. We went up the stairs, turned right, and there was an entirely different train station. Of course there were no signs indicating that this was, indeed, line F, but I asked another attendant and she said it was. So, we got on the train. We, of course, chose the one car with a crazy man on it and had to spend the next 25 min. listening to him rant and rave in Italian. It was fun.

("Lacoon and His Sons" in the Vatican Museum. I had to wear the scarf over my shoulders to go in the museum...I wasn't having a fashion crisis.)

When we arrived at Tiber Camping, we were happy to have showers and chill out for awhile. Our dorm room was a bit lacking, but overall, the campsite was pretty good. The dorm was a huge building that had been sectioned off into rooms with 4 beds in each (2 bunkbeds). Most of the rooms were empty, so Shane and I chose an empty room and felt pretty good about the fact that it didn't look like we would have to be sharing with anyone. However, the next morning when we woke up, there was a guy in the bunk across from us. There were still about 5 empty rooms, and it turned out that his friend was in a room across from us. We still haven't really figured out why that guy spent 2 nights in our room with us. You see, most people we have met on this trip, automatically assume that we are a couple until we correct them (very quickly I might add!), so that made it even stranger that he chose our room.

Our first morning in Rome, June 12th, we got up early and caught the shuttle and train into the city. Mark and Molly had given us a "Top 10 in Rome" book to help us find all the important sites. We decided that we should start at the Vatican, because the line was so long. We didn't want to stand in that line at midday when the sun was blaring. So, we took our place in line and although the line was horribly long, it only took us about an hour to get in. The Vatican is really breathtaking. There is so much to see there that I can't even begin to write about it all. The end of the tour is when you go through the Sistine Chapel. We were both a little disappointed because the entire time we were in there, the guards were yelling at people for taking photos and yelling (ironically) at people to be quiet. It really took away from the experience.

(The beginning of the line we waited in to get into the Vatican City.)

(The Vatican gardens and the dome of St. Peter's Basillica.)
(The square in front of St. Peter's.)
(A Vatican guard...nice uniform, eh?)
After leaving the Vatican, we went behind to St. Peter's Basillica. This is the largest Cathedral in the world (we had seen the 2nd largest in St. Petersburg), and it was magnificent. You can't even imagine how big it is, or how gorgeous it is.

(My sneaky shot of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. It's not very good shot cause I was trying to hide from the guards.)

We took a break for lunch and then set off to go see the Colosseum. We were not able to use our Roma Passes at the Vatican, because it is a seperate state. So we chose the most expensive things to do first so we could get in free. The Colosseum is one of the most expensive attractions, so using the Roma Pass made it free, and also meant that we didn't have to stand in line. There isn't much inside the Colosseum to see except ruins, but it was an awesome experience to go inside. You can just feel how old it is and all that happened there. I think it was one of our favorite things that we saw.

Directly across from the Colosseum is the Roman Forum and Palentine Hill. On our way our of the Colosseum, we needed drinks, so I picked up a Gatorade. It was the most expensive sports drink I have ever had. I think it equaled out to be about $8, but it was delicious! We walked up to Palentine Hill and then walked through the Forum. When I post the pictures, they will do way more justice than I could ever do with words.

We decided to call it a day after that and went back to the campgrounds. It was that night when we were sitting around playing cards, that we saw the Canadian couple I had met in Florence again. Kristy and Brandon were staying at the same campsite, so we ended up hanging out with them the next few days. They taught us some new card games, so we were grateful (rummy was getting a bit old.)

On the 13th, we got up early and went into the city to see a few things before we were supposed to meet up with a friend. Shane and I grew up going to church with a couple and their daughter has been living in Italy for about 30 years. So, we had gotten in touch with her and got to spend the day with her. We met her train around 1pm and spent the day with her and 2 other sisters in Rome. One sister made homemade lasagna. We had a great day with them.

On the 14th, we decided it was time for another pool day, and spent the day doing nothing. Well, we did laundry, but that doesn't count. By this point, our tans were looking pretty good:)

On the 15th, we went back in to Rome to see everything we had not seen yet. That day we saw the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (where we threw coins in backwards, so that we can return to Rome one day), and couple other small fountains and sites. It was on this day that a crazy thing happened. Shane and I were on the train heading back to the campsite, when I saw a group of backpackers. Since the only place they could really be going on this train was Tiber, I asked them if they were heading to the campsite. They said that they were and we all started chatting. We got around to the, "where are you from question" and one guys said he was from Juneau, AK. I was excited to meet someone else from AK, and told him I had a really good friend that I had gone to high school with that lived in Juneau. I asked the guy if he knew anyone involved in theatre there, and he said that he was involved in theatre. So, I asked if he knew Ryan Connaro, and he said he did. We started talking about Ryan and his sister, Sarah, who is also living there now. It was so random.

The next day, the 16th, we decided to make it another pool day. We had planned on taking a day trip to Pompeii, but it turned out to be too expensive. So, another day of relaxing for us. We needed it though, because the following morning, the 17th, we had to wake up at 5am to get to the airport. We were flying to Athens, Greece on the 17th.