Venezia

Venice has turned out to be my most favorite place in Italy, the night life and all around atmosphere of the place is incredible!

Today was a rather boring day, but before I get into that let me tell you about last night.

So me and Andrea go and get pizza (from the same joint, we've eaten there the whole time.. Caffe India) and after that decide to go into San Marco to feed the pigeons. Well no pigeons were there but there were lights everywhere and music playing which was really cool. So we walk around listening to music and watching people dance, just wishing we had the ones we love with us.. yeah.

Anyways, so we walk over by the clock tower because it looked like this beside it.. beautiful.

and as I'm taking pictures I hear some guy talking right beside me about how where there is water on the ground it looks beautiful with the lights and I just simply nodded and said, "I bet." He continued going on about photography and saying he was an artist and "picture taker" also. I didn't really believe that. He introduced himself and Andrea to his friend Pasqualo (his name is the only one I can remember). Clearly he was trying to hit on us. He tells me that around 5 or 6 when the sun is setting the water is beautiful to take pictures of but you need a tripod (he said tre pod). So I'm trying not to be rude and just kinda say yeah and laugh and continue to take pictures. He made me feel awkward. He asks if I've seen the Rialto Bridge (even though I hadn't) I said yes. I knew he'd be like, "Let me take you." with his italian charm (not).  He finally starts talking about a bar and how we should all go get a drink (hoping he would realize I'm young) I say I'm not old enough to drink. He laughs and said WATER, COCA COLA. Then Andrea saves the day with, "Ummm yeah, I'm married" and holds out her rings. I just hold my hand up (hey I have a rock on it, he doesn't have to know my aunt gave it to me). Carlos or whatever walks off embarrassed while Pasqualo laughs and says he's sorry and that it's nice to meet us. Awkward.

We saw him today and he avoided us, haha. Come to find out the sun does not set at 5 or 6, it sets around 830... dummies.

We also ran into some ballroom dancers at a restaurant close to the water, SO MUCH FUN. I'm going to learn how to salsa dance, watch me.

I almost killed myself too by banging my head on the shutters to the window, no really. Andrea thought I had a concussion.

Today we just walked around and I bought a new suitcase and ate canolies (which andrea hated) ate pizza and some pasta with octopus in it (gross).

We took a nice nap and looked for the Bridge of Sighs but it was under renovations. We bought gifts for some people and took pictures of gifts we wish we could get people (check facebook for those). We fed some pigeons, I like the pigeons.

Tonight we got dressed nice (well nicer than we usually do) and went out to hear music and watch people dance and we talked about marriage. Weird.

Tomorrow we leave for Rome and I'm excited, we have a lot on our agenda. But just to make the days go by faster, I'm ready to get back to my family, friends, and of course my boyfriend... and taco bell.

I think that's all for now.

ciao ciao

Gabby

Venice, Peggy Guggenheim, and Pigeons

Venice=possibly the worst memories ever

I'm exaggerating a little, but the trip did not start out good in Venice.

So we wake up and hurry to get downstairs to our american style breakfast, which isn't really all that american at all. Sure they have bacon, eggs, toast, and cereal.

BUT

Americans like sugar already in their cereal and shaped funny too, like colorful circles, letters, and treasure chest. They had corn flake puffs and some wanna be coco pebbles.

And just because bacon comes from the same place ham does, doesn't mean it has to be cooked the same. Yeah, the bacon was soft and soggy.

The toast was just one big crouton. I think me and Andrea should have gotten back there to cook. That would have been an American style breakfast, mmm good crunchy, fatty bacon.

They did however, have orange juice. Nice cold, out of the jug orange juice. None of that fresh squeezed crap. Andrea talked about taking it with her, then I said something like I wish I could just drink the whole jug, then Andrea mentioned how she wished she could just pour it on herself. That was a funny visual.

I was very graceful today. I dropped my spoon like 3 times at breakfast and dropped eggs on me, nice.

So we finish breakfast and go get on the train and go to Venice. Boring ride, I did learn my lines for the play though! yay for that.

When we get Venice, I try to get my suitcase from above me and it almost crumples me beneath it. Cool.

We get off the train and go to get on the Vaporetta (waterbus) and the guy at the ticket boot was a big jerk. The waterbus ride made me sick too, yay sea (more like floating down a river) sickness. 

We FINALLY get to San Marco and as we are making our way to our hotel (we were already in a bad mood) we run into some steps that are actually a bridge (just make the bridge flat, come on) and try to lug our luggage up it. In the process, I run into people (europeans are RUDE) that make me even madder. What makes me the maddest is that no nice italian gentlemen try to HELP ME up the stairs. So here I am trying to carry a 40 pound bag up the stairs as I pass many strong men. Very cool guys.

I finally give up and just pull it up the stairs and stupid 12 euro suitcase I bought off the street broke. Great.

Even after people clearly saw that my bag was broken and I was literally dragging it through the streets of Venice they still just stared at me and stood in my way. One lady even yelled at me in italian because I was in her way. I simply yelled, "I'm freaking sorry!" I'm done with Europeans, get me some nice country southern hospitality.

One thing for sure though, everyone kept talking about falling in love with a beautiful italian guy. Yeah they're beautiful, tan, and dress better than I do; they're jerks.

Country boys may be pervs and drink alcohol like a fish, but at least they're gentlemen who help little women carry their bags.

I'm very happy with my skinny, v-neck tan line, blue eyed, gentleman of a boyfriend.

We had good American style tasting pizza and there is a Mickey D's down the road.  

We continued exploring the streets of Venice and wanted to go on a gondola ride but it was 50 euro a person (yeah right). Instead we went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum which was cool. Picasso, Braque, Ernst, Miro, Tanguey, Calder, Pollock, Dali, and many others. It was a cool house too.

So then we went to find pigeons because I was still in a bad mood. They scared me half to death, check the facebook for those pictures. Finally I got courageous and held one. Then we went to get gelato so we could feed them ice cream cones. The pigeons made me feel better.

On the way to supper tonight, I held a stranger's hand for like 2 seconds. You know when you're walking and swinging your arms and you get a little too close to someone and your hands kinda fall into each other's? that definitely happened to me.

We have to go to an internet cafe to get internet, and our little venetian hotel is a hole in the wall and hot but it will do. I'm ready to get back to Rome, just because it means that I'm that much closer to getting home.

12 days in Italy knowing no one is a little too much.

I'll try to blog again tomorrow!

ciao ciao

Gabby

Firenze Night Time

So we decided to get all dressed up and go out tonight, after our long perfect naps and a shower. Well I showered.

Today was a gorgeous day! The wind was blowing and it was actually cool, I could have used a light jacket.

ANYWAYS, we got all dressed up with cute clothes, fixed our hair, and our make up and headed out to find some dinner. We found this cute hole in the wall italian restaurant and decided to check it out, it was reasonably priced and no cover charge. Alright!

So I get spaghetti alla carbanara (wonderfful) and Andrea gets grilled chicken with french fries. Don't hate me, I did get a glass of wine which was awesome by the way. So the weather is beautiful, we're very refreshed from our awesome naps, and eating great food (best meal we've had). Life is good.

So after our meal, we get up and walk to get some gelato, yummy tiramisu gelato. Then walk back to our room. Tomorrow we leave for Venezia, I'm very excite. Don't know if we will have internet, so if we don't blog for a while don't freak out.

I have 288 dollars left to spend, plus 20 euro I already have. It's all me money too, food and whatever else I want (like those cute wedge shoes in Rome). I think I'll make it.

Andrea is dancing.

Buona Notte!

Gabby

Florence is a typical college town and kinda boring, good shopping though. 

We woke up and washed clothes. Well Andrea did in the bathtub and we hung them to dry on our terrace. Then we went to breakfast.

This blog is going to be very boring by the way.

So we walk to our bikes (luckily I didn't almost kill myself today) and then head to Uffizi. Let me say it was a waste of time and money. Took about 30 minutes to go through and there was nothing fascinating in there except Battocelli's "Venus" the original one. Which was pretty cool.

So we leave pretty disappointed and decide to go shop or take pictures or something being that our next reservation wasn't for like 3 hours.  So we walk to Piazza della Signoria because they had cool casts of some pretty famous statues and we took pictures. Some shirtless guy started posing in front of them, that was pretty funny. Also me and Andrea took pictures covering up David's bareness, some people got a kick out of that. A cute kid was running around chasing pigeons and the wind was blowing. Good thing I didn't wear a skirt, see what I mean? BORING

We walk to H&M and shop. They were having a HUGE saldi (sale in Italian). Got a cute skirt and shirt for 17 euro, alright. Then we decide to go get gelato, then head to the Accademia.  By the way, girls if you're wearing a slightly see through dress.. please wear a slip. I saw more than one person's undies today and a lot of european mullets.  

There's this fun market by our hotel so we go to it and look around, we got harassed.

Me, looking at some Louis purses not really interested in buying anything

Guy: "Good louis purse, 99 euro"

Me: "Eh that's too much, sorry."

Guy: "How much you give me?"

Me: "How much will you take?"

Guy: "Come with me"

He leads me into a small alley way

Guy: "75 euro"

Me: "Okay well you see, I only have 50 euro to last the next two days and I really can't buy anything."

Guy: "It's a good purse!" (shows me the inside)

Me: "I see that but I have to eat."

Guy: "50 euro? okay." (as he starts packing the purse)

Me: "Wait wait wait, I can't give you 50 euro. I HAVE to eat."

Guy: "How much you give me?"

Me: "I can give you 20."

Guy: shakes his head and walks away

It was a little more detailed in that, I think I offended him.

Another guy tries to sell us a crappy purse for "2 euro" we shake our heads and walk away, he yells "Vait vait vait" We had a good laugh about this.

We head to the Accademia and finally get there. It was small, but a FANTASTIC museum. We saw the original of "Rape of the Sabine Woman" and "David" both incredible, we studied it from every angle and just wished we could take pictures. 

 

They had a musical instrument museum which was incredible, I actually knew something about it. Yay for music appreciation.

All over the museum there were Robert Mapplethorpe photographs which were incredible! We went into his room and there was even some sketches from Michealangelo's sketch book AND an original Andy Warhol screen print of the Electric Chair. I was in awh, and very excited. Apparently Mapplethorpe and Warhol were friends, one of Mapplethorpe's photos was a portrait of Andy. It was awesome.

After the Accademia, we went to get some food. Crazy. I'm bored and tired and can't wait to come home. I only have 287 dollars left on my card, money goes quick here. But everything is paid for, so that's me money.

I've gotten a tan while I've been here and we've been mistaken for italian a few times haha

I miss everyone

Gabby

Firenze

Day 5 of the Italian Adventure has been crazy, both good and bad.

Let me start by saying we are so sick and tired of pizza, and since it's relatively cheap, that's all we've been eating.  So last night in Monte, we ate ice cream, some not quite ripe yet bananas, and ritz crackers. So healthy, it actually made us both feel a little sickly. Better than pizza though.

So we wake up get our clothes off the terrace (we washed clothes in the sink and hung them to dry, needless to say, they still stink) and get ready for breakfast. Yay hot orange juice. 

So we go down, get our breakfast, and sit down to eat. Laura then walks out and asks in her funny little italian accent if we want "Caffe, cappuccino, orange juice?" Andrea tells her she wants nothing, but I go for the orange juice. Who cares if it is ten degrees hotter than the room, it's fresh squeezed orange juice.

By the way, it's so hot here and we do so much walking that no matter how much we drink we are still very thirsty. So we pretty much basically have a dry throat all the time. Not fun.

So she brings me out the oj, and Andrea opted for milk this time since it was the coldest drink there. I drink all the orange juice and eat my yummy breakfast. Corn flakes and  a nutella and banana sandwich and a fresh slice of cheese (I really like cheese). I'm EXTREMELY thirsty after this.

So since the milk I had recently poured was kind of lukewarm (who likes lukewarm milk) we decide to ask for ice.  The old italian lady knew what it was the night before, so we go for it. Andrea asks this new lady for some ice. She looks at us with this very confused look so we start rubbing our arms and saying cold and pointing to our cups as we make little cubes with our fingers. She smiles and says "si." We get excited FINALLY a coooooollddd drink.

She comes back with some drinks but no ice. So we wait paitiently, then we ask another lady for ice after a few minutes.  We say "freddo" which means cold in italian and point to our glasses of milk, she smiles politely and says "si freddo latte."  We quickly look up latte in our word roll dictionary... it means milk. Laura says "si freddo latte," and points to the milk she had just brought out. Epic fail.

Needless to say, we had to chug our lukewarm milk.

Some americans were at breakfast today, a lot of old couples.  One lady apparently thought italians were stupid because she talked to Laura really slow and loud "AMERICANO COFFEE." Then asks for a spoon (like laura understood that) so I just pointed to the table beside her and politely said, "They're right there." Dummy.

We finally get out of the hotel and make our way down hell hill to the bus station, the bus left at 8:15 am a 45 minute ride to Chiusi and our train didn't leave until 10:30. We had a lot of time on our hands.

On the way to Chiusi, we stopped at a bus stop and this Irish couple gets on without tickets. They cause a scene and the Italians laugh very hard at them. "It's closed! The office is closed I'll give you money." The bus driver simply shakes his head and says, "the bar." So little miss irish woman gets an attitude, "well you shoulda told us that before." (it's a lot funnier when me and andrea reenact it.) They even caused a scene in the train station, crazy irish people.

We finally get to our train and the wheels to my suitcase start breaking off causing it hard to pull, great. We get on the train and sleep, a lot and take pictures of sunflowers. Then for some reason the train breaks down like 3 stops away from Firenze. Great. Me and Andrea wrote a musical, I'm glad the people on the train couldn't understand us.

When we finally get to Firenze (an hour late) I spot a McDonalds and FLIP OUT. We run to our hotel and put our things away and leave straight for Mickey D's. Double bacon cheeseburger, large fry, and a large diet coke with ice. There was definitely a party going on in my mouth.

After a delicious lunch, we go out in search for our bikes my dad left for us.  We run into a guy selling suitcases (I desperately needed one) and he had a cute big suitcase for only 18 euro so we tell him we definitely be back.  We go in search for the bikes.. again. After going the long way around Firenze, we spot them... with flat tires. So we ask around for somewhere to fix that, a lady across the street (a lot more people speak english here) tells us where a bike shop is. We take them to the bike shop and the cutest tiny old men whose glasses were too big for his face took the bikes and told us to come back at 5.

We walk around a little, take some pictures, and head back to the bike shop.

We hand him 5 euro and he starts talking to us in Italian, good thing a co-worker translated. We told him we were from Mississippi and then he starts on about something else, pointing at the baby seat on my bike "masculine e femina" I tell him a girl and then he shows me pictures of his grandkids and talks about them for a while even though I had no idea what he was saying. Cute sweet old man, he was excited when we wanted to take a picture of him.

So we head out on the bikes and ride around Firenze, we had nothing better to do. My life almost ended 3 times. I was trying to take a turn and not get run over and almost smacked my face on a sign, no really I pretty much had to duck. Then we were riding down the street and Andrea shouts, "Here comes a bus, go faster." So I decide to be cool and ride up on the sidewalk because the streets are small and that was a big bus. I definitely hit the curb and almost went flying over the handle bars as I pressed the front brake. Everyone definitely knows I'm American now. One time we were sitting on the sidewalk trying to figure out something on the map and some lady yells at me in Italian something about blocking the sidewalk, as I try to move I almost run into a chain. I'm so graceful.

We then decide to give the bikes a rest for a little while and go shop in the market by our hotel. We get after it and some guy tries to sell me a big fake burberry purse and louis wallet for only 20 euro. A great deal. I simply say no, but I'll come back tomorrow. He shakes my hand, "promise?" Yeah, he was definitely giving me a good deal because he thought I was cute. I did however, buy some fake chanel earrings for 6 euro and a cute peacock bracelet for 4 euro. Then head back to the suitcase man, when we walk up he makes this funny little face and says "YOU COME BACK." He was a cute little asian man.  He said "since you come back, I give you great deal." A very cute, large rolling suitcase for 12 euro. Alright.

Now me and Andrea are sitting in the hotel writing blogs and I'm listening to mixtapes from Patrick. The internet costs 10 euro for 24 hours here. We just activated it so we can get on for another 24 hours. After that we might not have internet until Tuesday. So be patient. We will continue to blog!

I like Florence, a lot of people speak English.

Gabby

Crazy Twilight Fans

Oh wow, where to begin.

Today I woke up to Andrea unpacking her bag as I lay there in silence, I get up look out the terrace and the sun is shining in on me. Man it was hot, so I laid down in bed and tried to wake up. I then ask Andrea what she is doing, but she was simply trying to get her clean clothes together. Btw, it's hot and we get sweaty and some of our clothes stink. Good thing we can wash them today.

So we finally get up and go downstairs to get breakfast. Cereal, milk, water, breads, croissants, cheese, pizza, nutella, and other goodies are all set out neatly in the dining area as we get our plates together.  This little italian woman walks out and tells us buon giorno (good morning) and asks if we want orange juice, caffe, or cappuccino. Orange juice and coffee is what it is. Then she asked us something else in english but her funny little accent got in the way of us hearing it correctly, we simply just shook our heads no.

We go and make our way to a little table and sit down to start our meal.  The lady brings out our orange juice (which is definitely bright orange almost reddish) and our little cups of espresso. Little, yes, like a little cup and saucer that small children would play with. It was more of a shot glass if nothing else.

The espresso was stout and the oj was hot (and apparently freshly squeezed). Italians don't like their drinks cold, everything is room temperature. So we fix our espresso and did a very american thing and put milk in it. Much better.

As we try to choke down our coffee, Andrea mentions how nice it would be to have a cold cold drink..with ice. "I wonder if they would understand what ice means," she asked, "We could use hand motions." So we sit there for the next few minutes acting out what we would do "bbrrr" rub our arms and make little ice cubes with our fingers. They'd probably think we were on drugs.

So then I tell Andrea that I know enough spanish and italian is kind of like spanish that maybe we could try and communicate. Too bad I don't know the word for ice in spanish. So I say "fria en mi bebita." Cold in my drink, surely that could help. The lady never comes back so we just get up and go get ready for the day.

So we finally hit the streets... everything, EVERYTHING is uphill. We should have killer legs by the end of this trip.

We take fun pictures, the city is beautiful and look for Piazza Grande. We finally find it and freak out because the italy part of New Moon was filmed here. We take pictures in front of the door (hello bella and edward kissing scene) and on the alley that bella is supposed to come out of or something.

We looked for forever walking around this tiny uphill town looking for the place that Alice pulls the porche up to but never could find it. Finally when we get back to the room, we look at a picture and come to find out we had passed it a million times. Nice.

Almost every restaurant has a New Moon meal. They're proud of that.

We found some cool shops with awesome scarves, leather purses, jewelry, and shoes. By the way, everything is handmade here. I might cave in a by a purse at "T-Nobile" though. A lot of stores have cheap little knick knacks so I might buy some gifts here. Don't get your hopes up though.

Not much to say about today, just go look at the pictures on facebook. PIctures are worth a thousand words.

Buon Giorno everyone,

Gabby

Go check out Andrea's blog

alifeaboutme.blogspot.com

Rough Day

Dear sweet mother of God...

We finally made it to Montepulciano.  After a crazy train ride with a beautiful view of black walls aka tunnels, a bus ride where the bus driver was way to confident in his driving up the mountain skills, and a hike with 50 pound bags up a gigantic mountain lost as a goose. It was so much fun, not.. it made me want to punch someone in the face, right in the jaw.

We woke up at Ape Latina (recommend this hostel if you're going to Rome, very nice and cheap, CLEAN) got ready and said goodbye to our London friends. We raced to the metro after grabbing a quick breakfast. When we get there, line A is going under technical difficulties. That's wonderful, I'd love to be stuck in a tunnel under Rome. But after about twenty minutes it finally starts working and gets going to Termini Station. We wanted to send out postcards today, but things just were not working the way we planned them to.

So we get to Termini and we had to go up like 4 flights of stairs with backpacks AND suitcases. I got stuck in the gateway thing to get out of the subway. My suitcase would not cooperate. Andrea laughed pretty hard.

Then we get on our train to Chiusi. Didn't enjoy it so much. We finally get to Chiusi after about 2 hours and I couldn't figure out how to get off the train. Apparently you have to press the buttons, I can't read italian.. sorry. So we get off then go down and up 2 flights of stairs, fun. Then head to get a bus ticket. 

The lady spoke no english, good thing I know enough italian/spanish that I kinda figured it out.  We get our tickets so next we needed to figure out what bus to get on. Took some work, without Andrea's word roll translator on her phone.. we wouldn't have known what to do. We finally find our bus! It makes us sick.. About an hour or so of driving up a mountain and around curves way too fast. We both got sick.

Andrea: "I would be able to enjoy the view if I wasn't trying hold back vomit."

When we get to Montepulciano, we cannot find a street name. So we just start walking up and up and up this mountain. Hell. We FINALLY find a "You are here" map and since I'm the one with a sense of direction I figure out where to go. Eventually! we do get there, hallelujah.

On the bright side, Montepulciano is absolutely GORGEOUS. The view is incredible and pictures will never do it justice. They make their on wine here too, claims to be some of the best in Italia and on the way to the hotel we passed a place that was having a free wine tasting. How cool.

It looks so old and rustic, how you would actually picture Italy to be if you've  never been.  This is where Under the Tuscan Sun AND New Moon were filmed. So awesome.

Our hotel  room has a huge terrace! and an air conditioner. love it already. I think we will enjoy it once we bathe and rest a little. We had little to no sleep last night, our bodies are still running in Mississippi time apparently. 

Monte is awesome! Very very few tourists and everything looks like a fairy tale almost. When we go to the hotel we freshened up and then went out. Got some yummy pizza (only 2 euro) and walked around taking pictures.

Monepulciano makes their own wine and almost every wine store has a free wine tasting. You know we did it, so good. We got plastered, not.  We were soo sleepy and when we walked back down the big mountain into town, I almost didn't think we could make it back up. Once we got back to the room, we took a 5 hour nap. I could go back to sleep though.

We woke up and went and got more pizza at an authentic italian restaurant, not the touristy italian restaurants. We ate with the italians!! Very good. Then got hit on by some teenagers and now we're chatting with some friends and family in the hotel lobby. I miss everyone. Can't wait to come back and pray I don't run out of money! More expensive than I thoght

Buon Notte Mississippi!

Gabby

Day 2

Ciao Ciao!

Today was an awesome day. I woke up around 7:30 am to Andrea poking me in the side to wake me up. Nice wake up call.  We got ready and dressed in our appropriate attire, covered shoulders and covered knees, then headed out onto the streets ofa Roma. We walked to Termini Station to get a taxi to take us to the Vatican City! The cab ride was crazy, I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times and business men on Vespas in their full business attire. Pretty funny. Cab ride was only 10,90 euro! I tipped him too, but turns out I shouldn't tip anymore. I'm on a real tight budget. So he drops us off at the door and we walk right in along with the families with matching backpacks and the tour guides with gawdy "hey look at me I'm a freaking tourist" decorated sticks to keep the group together. We're really kinda trying to fit in.

Luckily, we reserved our Vatican tickets like two months ago so we just walked right in and their was NO LINE either. There were not a lot of people there at all. The first sign we see is <=== (that's supposed to be an arrow) Cappella Sistina, so of course we take off in that direction. We skipped ALL the museums and rushed to see the Sistine Chapel. What's funny is you have to go through all these art galleries to get to it so everytime we would turn a corner we would get excited and then it would just be another gallery "And this is the gallery of maps," a tour guide would say.

FINALLY, after a few crazy minutes of running through some galleries (good art though) we made it to the Cappella Sistina! Words nor pictures can explain how beautiful it was. The colors just popped off the walls and ceiling and the detail was incredible! It was really hard to soak it in. Andrea and I tried to sneak pictures but then realized the guards didn't really care as long as the flash was off.  The most amazing part though is that there was close to NO ONE in there. We were happy.

After the Cappella Sistina, we tried to make our way to some museums but realized that we started the whole thing backwards. Some guards got onto us, we would go through it backwards. We saw some other cool art, bought post cards, journals, and I bought a real rosary. I was so excited. Andrea saw a Caravaggio painting and cried, she's such a crazy art kid.  I saw a lot of naked statues.  Finally, we finished the museums (kinda). We mainly just got tired of the crazy touristy crowd.  So we decide to head to St. Peter's Basilica!

On our way, I see a cute little kiosk with awesome leather (or so I thought) purses. So we decide to take a gander (there's that southerness coming out). Turns out the men are total pervs and three italian men surround us and try to sell us purses and try to look down our shirts, now we see why they want to sell purses. We just walked out disgusted. 

When we made it to St. Peter's, there were TONS of people there. Well over 1,000, I'm not kidding. So we do our tourist thing and take pictures of it and in front of it and then go get gelato. Yummy.

Andrea almost got hit by a car three times today, JUST SAYING.

After St. Peter's, we were tired, hot, and irritated; so we took a cab back to the room.  

Andrea: "We need to get to 130 Emmanuel Filiberto."

Cab Driver: "oh-a Emmanuella Filiberto" (emphasis on the bert)

Me: "I think he said it better than you."

Cab Driver: (looking back in the rear view mirror) "Yes yes."

it was pretty funny.

So we get to the hostel (I love our hostel) and rest, do our internet thing, and rest some more. Then Andrea, the owner comes in, (he's a very attractive italian man) and says "I'm so sorry I woke you last night." Yes, I woke up to a loud noise and it was Andrea.. No worries though, a group came in late and they had to get a bed out of our room for their's. It was still funny though, another story for our italian adventure.

Once we get rested and dressed, we decide to head out to the Spanish Steps and to get food. We decide to take the Metro this time, which I advise anyone to take. It's fast and way cheaper than a taxi. We end up at the Spanish Steps and it is PACKED. Do our tourist thing and take pictures and meet some girls from Australia, it was nice to hear someone speak English. Then for some reason my camera lense completely locked up and wouldn't work, I was sad. But after I gave her a break she started working again.

We then decide to go down Condotti, which is apparently the most expensive street to shop on in Europe. I kinda believe that, Hermes, D&G, Dior, Chanel, Tiffany's, Bvlgaria, Guess, Cartier, JIMMY CHOO(love), Burberry, you name it.. it was there. After some window shopping, we decide to get some food.

Everything was freaking expensive, then we find this cute little pizza place and the cute old italian waiter swore that they had the best pizza in all of Europe.. He talked us into it, surprisingly.. we got spaghetti and a glass of coke that cost 4,00 euro. You better believe I enjoyed every last sip of that coke. After some eating and talking, I get out my large plasticized Roma map and Daytrips in Italy book and decide what to do. Some little Cafe catches my eye and turns out it is the cafe that Wagner, Liszt, Byron, Berlioz, and Goethe hung out in the 1760s! Which was awesome, I remember that from Music App class. So we decide to find it (turns out it was right down the street from us) but we go all the way back to Trevi Fountain for some reason. Which was a fabulous idea. We've loved this little book (kudos Aunt Jena) and our plasticized map (thanks dad). We definitely didn't look like tourist with our huge cameras and plasticized maps. Mission failed.  

Anyways, the book took us on this awesome tour through some of the old city and even listed places that tourist wouldn't know about, like Caffe Greco. We saw Piazza Colonna, which was dominated by the 2nd-century Column of Marcus Aurelius. Which was later replaced by one of Saint Paul. the Palazzo Chigi was right next to it which is the residence of Italy's prime minister. Cool.

So we continue our tour down Via del Corso and as we continue some italian girl all prideful with her gustyness decides to cross the street in the middle of traffic without looking. I mean it would have been one thing if she was American, but this is her city. A mini van honked at her and she looked around confused, she almost got plastered into the cement. Good thing you know the meaning of a red light italian girl.

Anyways, as we kept traveling down Corso, we ended up back on Condotti and find the smallest nation! It's behind two big wooden doors and it's called Soverign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.) It has been accorded extraterritorial rights by the Italian government and issues its own passports, license plates, stamps, and even money! It has a population of about 80 and carries on humanitarian work around the world. So neat.

Next we find Caffe Greco which is closed :(  but we take pictures anyways. Funny thing is, some tourists saw us taking pictures of this little caffe and they start taking pictures. I mean really? They're probably clueless to what it is.

Next we see a John Keats museum (he's a poet). Cooooool. As we walk down to Piazza del Popolo, we see this huge event happening. It was a red carpet event for the opening of a new high end designer store, I saw a lot of recognizable fashion designers and ladies in fancy dresses. Next we head to the piazza, which was once the northern entrance to Roma. It was beautiful! There was this saxophone player and guys selling roses and barely anyone there.  We give the saxophone player money and take fun pictures of him.

Then some guys comes up and hands me three roses, I tell him I don't want them BUT HE INSISTS! So I take them. Next thing I know, he comes up asking for money "Just a leeetle bit," he would say. I tell him I don't have anything, which is true. So I give him the roses back and he shoves them back in my hand. I finally dig out ,20 euro cents but it's not enough for him. We bicker back and forth for a little while then he finally gives up. It was quite an experience.

We then check out some cool things around the piazza and some guy actually thought we were italian (SCORE).  We end up traveling down this kinda shady looking trail up a hill and end up on top of Pincio hill, I almost cried. It was a view of the WHOLE city at night. Breathtaking. 

We then take some more pictures and head back to the subway (metro). So quick and end up back at our hostel in no time.

We got new hostel roommates today! They're from London, Dominic and Portia. We ended up talking for an hour or so about where we are from. Very cool people and now we're friends on facebook. Alright for meeting new friends.

We've been asked to get "liquored up" twice by Americans, which is weird and shady.  Andrea and I came up that it's a way to get Americans drunk with free liquor and pizza and then they get "Taken." Makes sense, not.

Tomorrow we head for Montepulciano which I'm excited about, it will be a very nice calm town where we can just chill and enjoy italy a little more. I've learned that the time to tour is in the early mornings and evenings, not as many tourists. 

Next trip I want to go to London. I'm enjoying this traveling thing.

It's 2:30 am here and we have to get up in 5 hours. We're definitely still stuck on Mississipp time.

 Buon giorno to you or should I say buon notte,

Gabby

Ciao Italia

Ciao Bella,

We got to Italia today at approximately 8:15 in the am ( 1:15 am for all you Mississippi people). Needless to say, we haven't slept in over 24 hours.  28 hours and 8 minutes to be exact. I never knew I could be so tired.

We arrived in Rome, got my bags and then headed for the train station so we could get into downtown Rome.  I felt so extremely out of place on the train, we stuck out like a sore thumb. But so did someone else.  The mom, youngest son, and the daughter from Little People, Big World were on OUR train.  Kinda cool, they were filming too. Check for us on tv, next step..movie stars.

We get to Termini station in Rome and it takes us forever to find the place to validate our eurail passes at (italians aren't full of southern hospitality and charm like we are in the south).  FINALLY, after searching for about an hour we found it. Then we realized the line was forever long, we left.  Backpacks on our backs and suitcases right behind us, we headed for our hotel(hostel). I bet you can guess that we got lost.  By the time we got there Andrea and I were both drenched with sweat, kinda gross.  The lady at the front desk could not speak English so we were very slow at communicating.  She brought us to our room and as soon as she finally got the door unlocked, 3 men walked out.  There are four bedrooms in our hostel, and we all share 2 bathrooms... with stinky boys. Weird.

Our hostel is nice and kinda homey. Very comfy bed and a cute little red table and chair set.  We have a "family" computer too, alright for internet.  The girls next door are from Denmark, the first thing they said to me was, "Do you have a knife?" 

When we got freshened up and got our things set, we went out to explore Rome.  It was hot and there was lots of traffic.  We went to this cute little store and bought drinks, the old lady was nice. We call her Mamma Mia.

Our first stop along the trip was the something or another, we just kinda ran into it and it was gorgeous. I think it was an old but still running catholic church. Gorgeous. Next, we walked and walked and walked until we finally found the Colosseo. It was INCREDIBLE.  Along with the Colosseo, we saw the Arch di Constantino, and the Foro Romano. The architecture is so incredible here, love it.

We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was probably my favorite.  Along the way to the Pantheon, we stopped for pizza. So good!

The Pantheon was breathtaking, all the little details within it were so amazing.  After the Pantheon, we stopped by Fontana Di Trevi!  I did throw a coin in and the water felt incredible, today was a very hot day.  I never realized how big that thing is.It's unbelievable.

We really wanted to see the Spanish Steps, but apparently italian maps are stupid.  We got gelato instead, mmmmm. When we finished our snack, we caught a taxi and went to the train station to validate our tickets and made reservations for all our traveling.  Some italian guy in front of me kept staring at me at the station.  Kinda creepy.

After that we found the short way back to our hotel! Which didn't seem so short because we were verrry tired.  We finally got back to our hostel, took showers, did the facebook thing, and met the manager of the hostel.  She's an african american italian, which me and Andrea find amusing. Did not know that existed. Her name is Sandra and she's sweet. She's been cleaning our hostel and taking care of us. Rome really hasn't been my favorite, too many people. But I am sso blessed that I am here. It's like a dream, nothing feels real. I don't think it will actually sink in until it's over with. Oh well, I'm enjoying my little Italian vacation.

Arrivederci for now,

Gabby