E.T.

Tuesday, April 26th

...I was at a complete loss for words and couldn't gather my thoughts at all so I said, "He's awesome. I believe in Him." Ugh… what?? I have no idea if that made any sense of if that even answered the question but what I do know is that I had the perfect chance to say something profound about God that could really get someone interested in learning more about faith and Christianity and I blew it. Sorry about that, JC.

After stopping to grab a few night pics at the Colosseum, we jumped on the metro to get to get to the bus to walk to the hotel. The only problem with this plan was that we had absolutely no idea the name of the stop closest to our hotel. So we found the bus we had taken to get to Anagnina that morning and we asked the driver what stop we needed. He listed a few routes that would stop near our hotel but we had a difficult time finding a bus listed on the screen that went to those stops. This whole process is taking about 40 minutes and Jared is frantically searching his phone to find the number of the hotel to get a definitive route all the while we're trying to make it back by 10:30pm so that we can eat at the hotel restaurant - of course Jared was hungry - and I was finding the whole fiasco thoroughly entertaining while trying to contain my laughter as to not aggravate him more. Hysterical. Needless to say we eventually found the right bus and made it to our stop and even made it to the hotel restaurant as Jared witnessed my potty dance/wrist grabbing for the first time. [Side Note: Any girl who has known me for a significant amount of time has seen this dance. In high school it was actually a full on workout regimen as I would do lunges in the hallway on the way to the restroom. Comical for most I'm sure. I blame my mother for my peanut bladder.] 

Dinner was sufficient and filling and it was a pleasant way to end the night. [Side Note: This is around the time that Jared concluded that Italian water tastes funny. I didn't see anything wrong with it but he commented on its bizarre flavor for the rest of our time in Italy.]

Wednesday, April 27th

We actually got up the next morning just in the nick of time to make it to breakfast and after enjoying a few pieces of honey toast, showering/getting ready, and recording Rachel's SCend-off speech, we headed for the bus. This particular day required us to wait about 45 minutes for the bus but the sun was shining and Jared wasn't complaining so I was a happy camper. Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain where we each made a wish (can't tell you mine but it's real good) and attempted to have a mini photo shoot. This poor woman had to wait like 3 minutes for all of these rude people to stop walking in front of us so she could take our picture - thanks lady. I really love all of the photos we took but the one I loved most had this random girl in the background because for some reason she thought it was be a good idea to plop down on the fountain just as we were taking the picture. Boo. But my expert photo editing skills eliminated her with ease. Go me!

We were attempting to make the 11am Colosseum tour but after we had waited an extra 15 minutes for this woman and her son to grab some McDonalds, I had to go to the bathroom. Literally in the 2 minutes that I was gone, the tour left! Rude. We waited for those other people for so long but they couldn't wait for me?  Über rude. We attempted to find them for a few minutes but were unsuccessful. Whatevs. We just decided to go on our own. On the way we walked through Piazza del Quirinale, where there happened to be a ton of police blocking off the square, but before actually making it to the Colosseum, can you guess what happened? That's right. We needed to stop to eat. This was actually the best call we made for any meal in Rome. I have no idea the name of this place but it was right near the Colosseum (and Jared's favorite gelato place) and it was awesome! I had a ham and cheese calzone and Jared had lasagna. I'm pretty sure we had one meal there every day for the rest of the trip.

After lunch we walked over to the Colosseum and contemplated paying to go inside but just then it started to rain so that made the choice easier and we postponed the Colosseum. Due to the rain we immediately made the mecca back to the hotel room and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. This night I tried the Italian steak which was so dry and bland that it was a serious struggle to finish it. [Side Note: I have not had good experiences with most steaks in Europe. Medium well doesn't seem to exist so it's either bleeding or so dried out that I'm gnawing on a rubber tire. Terrible. Mom, fried steaks when I get home?]

That night we listened to a lot of bad Italian rap, discovered Katy Perry's E.T., watched Lady Gaga's Born This Way video about 700 times on MTV, and started Gladiator. Could there be a more fitting movie to watch in Rome. 

Thursday, April 28th

The next day the sun was shining again and there was little threat of rain which made it the perfect day to visit the Colosseum. We passed the "Fall of Rome" wall which is a depiction of the massive decrease (or increase) in Roman territory throughout history. Rome most definitely was not built in a day. [Side Note: SPQR is the initial for a Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus meaning "The Senate and People of Rome" and refers to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and is used as an official emblem of the modern day commune of Rome. Yeah, Ken Jennings don't want none of me.]

The Colosseum was incredible and it was surreal to be standing there looking out onto the grounds where so much blood was shed oh so many years ago. Crazy. We took a lot of great pictures, met some nice people (i.e. the woman that called me beautiful and the cute couple for whom I offered to take a picture), and spent a good amount of time just admiring the history of the structure. I will admit I'm still partial to my own Coliseum but this one is an extremely remarkable.

We made it an early night after that and retreated to more Gladiator, Sporcle, and yummy restaurant potatoes. Mm mm good.

Friday, April 29th

Very surprisingly, we got up quite early (like 8am) and had enough time to have breakfast at the hotel and make it to the Spanish Steps for the start of the Vatican tour. It was the same free tour company that we experienced on Tuesday and missed on Wednesday so we knew the drill. On the tour we saw the Mausoleo Augusto, Ara Pacis museum, and walked down this street full of expensive designers - it was B-E-A-utiful. Unfortunately the actual information given wasn't particularly interesting and the best part of the tour didn't even have to do with the tour. 

Near the end of the tour, we started to doubt whether it was worth paying for so when Jared and I tried to ditch the group. But when we finally emerged at the crosswalk, the tour guide had held up the group on the other side of the street to wait for us. Why are people so considerate? 

We waited in line to go inside the church which wasn't very long and totally free (works for me) but there were a lot of people there due to the Beautification of John Paul II (still don't really understand this). [Side Note: I hate large throngs of people. It gives me anxiety.] When we got inside, shockingly I wasn't very moved by this cathedral. It's the largest church interior in the world and I just wasn't super impressed. It was definitely grand but other than that, it was just another place of worship to me. Anywho...

When we got outside, though the sun was out it was sprinkling just enough to need my umbrella. Boo. When we left the Vatican we wanted a quick lunch before heading to this large park near Vatican City and Jared made the executive decision to eat at this little outdoor shop we passed along the way. Terrible call on his part! We both ordered the ravioli and it was awful! It was literally served in a plastic bowl and most of mine was cold and hard. I'm pretty sure it came right out of the freezer and was put in the microwave. I'm not even positive that the meat inside the ravioli was beef. Even Chef Boyardee would have turned his nose up at that sorry excuse for Italian cuisine. I won’t soon let Jared forget that this disgraceful meal was his idea. 

After "lunch," we got lost in search of the park. Don't ask me how you miss a large grassy area but we did it. We eventually found an entrance to the park and several cool statues, monuments, and views. Specifically the Fonte Acqua Paola, a really pretty fountain, and the view overlooking the entire city right across from it deserves honorable mention. Next we made our way to the Piazza del Popolo but only after Jared led us back to the Ara Pacis museum and Mausoleo Augusto, claiming we hadn't seen them yet. I took over as tour guide from there. The Piazza was open and spacious and very pretty. Though nothing to be in awe of, I'm glad we went. 

We were pretty tired by then and again retreated back to our hotel (via the metro, bus, and our feet) to have dinner there for the last time.

Saturday, April 30th

Saturday was our last day in the city and also the only day of the week that the metro stayed open until 1am. We had made a plan the night before to see a few minor things on the map because we had time and then just walk around the city until nightfall. We stopped to have lunch at a little pizza place pretty early and while walking to our next sight we started discussing the Sistine Chapel. We realized that neither of us knew where it was nor had we checked on its location. After some searching on Jared's phone we were baffled to find out that it is in Vatican City – aka where we just were the previous day. We quickly scrapped the day’s plan as we knew we could not spend an entire week in Rome and not have gone to see the Sistine Chapel.

It is quite a hike to get to the museum containing the chapel in the first place and then once inside the museum, you have got to pass a lot of art before you get to the chapel. We finally made it there only to find that it's very dark inside the chapel and the ceiling is really high - props to you Michelangelo. I am proud to say that I have indeed seen the Creation of Man. I was able to snap a few pictures before overhearing a security guard tell someone that photographs are not allowed. My bad. 

Once outside we faced the dreaded rain but I had the little pink umbrella we bought the first day in the city to shield me. [Side Note: On our first visit to the Spanish Steps it had seemed like it was going to rain and it was such a pain for us to both cram under my little pink umbrella. I wanted a big umbrella but I already had 2 large ones in Lisbon and didn't want to pay a ton for a 3^rd. On Tuesday, when exiting the metro, I finagled a man down from 12€ to 5€. Then on Saturday I accidentally left the big umbrella on the bus. Major boo.] I did a little shopping near the Vatican but literally couldn't find anything worth my money. The best part was that we discovered a store with Jared's last name, Edy's Fashion, right next to a store named Missy. Is that you, God? Are you trying to tell me something?

We walked aimlessly around the city for a while stopping at some building that was unimpressive to say the least and getting lost in route for another monument before stumbling upon "our place" for dinner. After a last order of lasagna we waited for it to get dark because it was our first and only chance to be in the city at night. [Side Note: It doesn't get dark in Europe until very late. The sky is still light enough to see without street lamps until around 9:30pm.] We took a few pictures of the Colosseum and then took the metro to the Trevi Fountain where took a few more pictures before calling it a night. I am glad that the last place we visited in the city was my favorite and the Trevi is absolutely regal at night.

We engaged in a pretty deep conversation on the couch that night in the suite which I really appreciated and then we finished Gladiator in an attempt to stay up all night. My flight was at 9am at FCO (a train ride away) and Jared's flight was at CIA (a cab ride away). We had to get up around 5am to get ready so I could cab to the train station and catch a train at 7am to make it to the airport by 8ish. It was an ambitious plan but we had no choice but to execute it. Ready? Break!

Sunday, May 1st

4:30am rolls around pretty slowly when you're waiting for it. We showered and got ready and made it to the concierge to check out a little later than planned but we didn't expect the cab to take so long to get there. It took so long that we went to wait out front for it and good thing we did because two buses were actually blocking the entrance so when it did get there, it wouldn't have been able to drive around to the lobby where we were sitting. 25€ later (last encounter with those ridiculous cab rates) and we made it to the train station. At this point I was scrambling to get to the platform on time but the ticket machine was broken so I just ran by it and found the correct platform. We made it with a few minutes to spare so Jared stayed until the train arrived and then we said goodbye after a whirlwind 17 days together. 

The trains were both smooth rides and I made it to the airport with about an hour until take off. Little did I know everyone and their aunt's cousin's second child's godfather's brother-in-law was flying out of Rome on EasyJet at 9am. The line was ridiculously long and it didn't help that I was literally falling asleep in line. I would lean on my suitcase for support and I could feel my eye lids get so heavy and the next second I was stumbling awake because I almost fell over asleep. Terrible. After about 30 minutes of that, they finally called for Lisbon travelers because the flight was soon to leave so I got to skip the rest of the line, quickly check-in my bag, and run to the gate. I don't remember a single thing about that flight because I passed out the second I buckled that seat belt. Next thing I remember is waking up on the tarmac in Lisbon. 

It was an amazing adventure and the girl only fell more in love with the boy throughout the week. They loved Italy so much that they can't wait for their next chance to explore it together. They had a remarkable time in Rome and they lived happily... you know the rest.

"Boy you're an alien, your touch so foreign,
It's supernatural, extraterrestrial." -Katy Perry