Love Rome, Hate the Romans!

So... it´s been a few weeks since I was in Rome... but trust me... it´s still on my mind. I´m officially convinced that everyone needs to go to Rome once in their life. Especially if they are studying abroad and are this close to where some of the most important and influential times and events took place in history. Amazing...

So to start things off, we had to sleep on the cold, hard floor in the Madrid airport for about 4 hours before our flight left early Friday morning. We had to take the 8:00 bus from Sevilla to Madrid because the midnight bus was cutting it WAY too closely. Needless to say... I didn´t get much sleep before I went to Rome. On Friday we checked into our hostel and left to venture the city. After lunch of course. On Friday we saw the collesseum. Oh... my... goodness! The architectre, the history, the massiveness... we ended up paying for a tour... the tour of the collesseum was pretty crappy but it paid off. We got a free tour of the Palantine Hill after the Collesseum with an amazing girl from Austrailia. Like she said, she loves Rome, but HATES Romans... we all felt the same after our time there. She was amazing. Funny, nice, and very informative. She really knew her stuff. At the Palantine hill we saw the Roman Forum, the remains of where every Roman emperor lived, walked down the street that all Roman soldiers walk down before battle, saw where they left Cesar to burn on a rock for a week, and so much more. I have pictures... but flickr is dumm.

Friday evening we went back to our room and took showers and dressed for dinner. We went to this cute little place aroudn the corner from our Hostel where we proceeded to stuff ourselves silly. I had the most amazing pesto pasta I have ever had. And some authentic Bruschetta (sp?). Later we went to see the Trevi fountain at night. Qué bonita! It was so pretty. We took the traditional throwing coins over your shoulder pictures and lots more. Then we went to the little place across the street for some gelato. Here is where my night got hilarious! So the gelato man was hitting on all three of us as we entered. Well he ended up helping me with my Maxi! cone of Gelato which was delicious! I wanted Banana ice cream because it is my favorite. Gelato man proceeded to ask me if I wanted big banana or little banana. At first I just looked at him and didn´t respond... then I started laughing histerically at which point he realized what he said and laughed too. And then he asked me again if I prefered big banana or little banana. Of course I said big banana because it is my favorite and of course he had a huge smile on his face and gave me a high five. It was probably the funniest thing that had happend that day. Didn´t help that I was real tired by this point. Friday was good, long, but good.

Saturday morning, after falling asleep and waking up in the EXACT same position (sweatshirt over me head and all which NEVER happens), we got up to meet our favorite tour guide for a tour of the Vatican City. Holy crap... it was gorgeous! They said that if you were to look at all the art in the public collecion for one minute each piece, you´d be in the Vatican for over 8 weeks. If you were to do the same for the private and public collections together, you´d be there for over 12 years! How sweet is that! I got to see the Sistine Chapel and all of Michaelangelo´s work. There just aren´t words to describe some of the things that I saw there. And St. Peter´s Basilica... seriously... I´ve never seen anything that big and magnificent in my life! The lifesize statue of Mary holding a dying Jesus almost brought me to tears it was so beautiful. The marble in the place, the entire Vatican really, was just incredible. I saw the largest bathtub I´ve ever seen in my life! It was so cool! And made out of really expensive marble... it belonged to a king... go figure! I guess I gotta become royalty to have a bathtub that big! The Vatican was sweet and everything we did on Saturday was well worth it. After the Vatican we had lunch and went back to see the Trevi during the day. Definitely way cooler at night but it was well worth it to see it during the day too. Highly reccommended. So of course... since we were back by the trevi, we went back to the gelato place where gelato man was oh so excited to see me! Again, I got Banana gelato and I got lots of strange questions from him and the other guy. Then... gelato man kissed me! Kissed me! It was so funny. Him and the other gelato man were in a competition to give Amy and I more ice cream and decorations for our cones. Finally I won when gelato man put two heart shaped cookies in my cone and said, "one heart is mine, and one is yours... we will be together forever." Yeah... then gelato man asked me out for a drink in which I replied I had to stay with my friends. I was wearing my rings and he said oh... you have boyfriend... which is what I normally say to avoid europeans, but he said he didn´t care, he had a girlfriend too and we would just have a drink and talk. Yeah... I don´t think so! But it was hilarious none the less. Amazing!

That´s pretty much all of Rome... it was so cool. I can´t believe I got to see it. Really.... London and Rome go up there on my list of favorite places. I could´ve spent weeks in both places. Seriously... if you ever get the chance... go to Rome... go to London! It´s well worth the trip. More when I can... Hope all is well...

Te amo,
Grande