Rome



Well... I got up at 4 so I could finish my last minute packing, eat and be ready to catch our taxi by 5 (cause the busses to the airport don't run that early. We took our taxi to the airport and when we went to the counter to check in, they said we weren't in the system... we were not happy, so we found a computer and double checked our email then started calling around (I called mom) to figure out what the problem was. After like half an hour, we decided that we were going to leave the airport and keep trying to call to see if we could get on a different flight. As we were leaving though, the ticket guys stopped us and told us that the tickets were under our first names instead of our last... dumb. But they were helpful and got us on the next flight out (1150). So we went back to our rooms and took maps until it was time to head back to the airport.





Rome, you can see St Peter's the dome on the right

The rest of the plane stuff went smooth, we had to sit in the Vienna airport for 5 hours which we weren't happy about but we got to Rome at 8 pm (if we had gotten on our original flight we would have been there by 11 - half a day of exploring Rome lost :( ). Well we got to the Rome airport, waited half an hour, got our backpacks (had to check them cause they were too big) and caught a train to the main train station (the Rome airport is way out of the way of everything). Our next adventure was finding our hostel... Well, it was dark out, and the place where the train station was was very scetchy, especially in the dark. We walked to where we thought our hostel was, and rang the bell and the guy told us that that wasn't the place and he drew us a map and we had to walk another couple of blocks to  where our hostel really was. We dropped our stuff off and set off in search of food (by then it was like 10pm and we were STARVING). We settled for Kabap (a familiar food), got felafal with it, and called it good.



Trevi Fountain

The next day, we kept pushing the snooze button on our alarms, but finally got up at 8. We ate breakfast and then were off. First we stopped at a church that was on the side of the road on our way to the train station. It was quite cute. Then we wandered around the train station trying to figure out how to by metro passes for a while, but eventually found the ticket machine, I had to go get smaller bills, and we took the metro to where we thought the Trevi fountain would be. Well, that was the wrong stop, but we did find this really cool basilica. From the top of the stairs of that church we could see alot of the city (Rome looks much cooler in the daylight :) ). We wandered in and looked around for a while then were off again to find the fountain... a much harder fate than it ought to have been. But, we eventually made it, after another stop in another basilica.





Pantheon aka the Basilica of Siant Mary and Martyrs



Our next destination was the Pantheon. I wasn't quite sure what that was before we got there, so I was suprised to discover that it was yet another basilica (later in the day, we learned that it used to be part of ancient rome - a pagen temple of some sorts - and some pope back in the day turned all the pegan temples into Catholic churches [fun fact: some of the Catholic churches, the buildings that is, are Christ, the Pantheon being one of these churches]).



Lightning McQueen in the disney store



From the Pantheon we were off to see this building with some statue on it that we had seen from afar at the basilica from earlier. But first, lunch. We found this cute little restraunt along the road that we decided to stop and eat at. We both had Pizza. It was delicious, now I can say I've had true Italian pizza. Anyways, we made it to the building we were looking for, after a few more stops including a disney store (since Chris pointed it out, we just had to go in and look around). The building we were headed towards turned out to be the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuela II - otherwise known as the scar on the face of Rome - the Romans hate it. From there we could see alot of what is left of ancient Rome.



Our next stop, the Coluseum. We took a guided tour of the Colusium and the Roman Forum, and learned lots. Like the church fact, and how people used to take the iron and marble that was in the Coluseum and use it for their own good - especially that church. This weekend the structure of the Coluseum, and therefore it was not able to withstand the earthquake so part of it collapsed and that is why some of it is missing. Also that they did not charge admission to the Coluseum prior to 1996 or 1997. Even when the games we going on way back in the day, there was no charge - the emporer wanted is so all could enjoy the games, it was a form of entertainment equivalent to todays TV. It was truely a family affair.



Roman Forum



After the Coluseum, we were off to the Roman Forum. We learned here that at some palace that used to be there, now all that remains is partial ruins, the Catholic church took the marble that was used to decorate the palace and used it to renovate St Peter's Basilica back in the 15-1600s. By the end of that tour it was dark so we headed back to get a snack, we were still full from lunch and chill for the rest of the evening.



At our hostel we met these 2 brothers from Iran, Ali and Amin. They were really cool. They cooked us dinner, which we were not expecting at all. It was really good. We had this steak-like meat and a chicken. I guess in Iran they love meet. There was quite a language barrier when talking with them though, because one of the bother's english was not good at all and the others was ok - they spoke Farcy. But we had an enjoyable meal and talked alot. That night we learned that they only have like 1 type of meat in Iran.

OH and this is my rant.. ok, so the Brazilians at the hostel next door had locked themselves out of their room so they asked to borrow my phone, which was fine. I went out in the hall to talk to them, and discovered that the lady next door had left her like 4 or 5 year old kid home by himself. So what we had thought was a cat earlier (we were reading and it sounded like there was a cat outside) was actually a little boy crying for his mom! What the heck?!! That little boy had to have been left home alone for atleast 2 hours. The Brazilians brought him out into the hall, cause they were concerned and let him sit with them. And we, or I should say I (Chris doesnt like kids) comforted him as well when we discovered he was out there. His mother turned out to be the owner of the hostel next door, and when she came with the keys the boy went running crying to her. I felt soo bad for the little boy, and enraged at his mother. I dont know if that is a cultural difference or what, but that is not cool, to leave your 4-5 year old child at home alone for several hours.