ROMA - A City That Should Remain Back In History

SO - the reason it's taken so long to update is because the roomiez and I decided to take a little adventure to Rome this past weekend and I forgot to notify all my loyal followers about my impending absence. SORRRRRYYYYYYY I wasn't aware that so many people were so interested in this. Now that I know that I've got groupies I will definitely try and update more.

Upon returning from Chianti we started packing for Roma. Thinking it was stressful to get my family of four ready for trips, it was ten times that trying to get 10 twenty year old girls ready for the train station. It was hectic to say the least. Finally we were off!

.....but halfway out the door we realized we all had to stop at the ATM to get some euros. Turning around in the opposite direction we got to the ATM only to realize it was broken. NOTE: SIGN ONE THAT WE SHOULD HAVE TURNED AROUND AND GONE HOME.

On the way to the train station, our one roommate Kristie, who hadn't been feeling well lately almost fainted and decided to turn back and brave the empty apartment alone for the weekend. SIGN TWO THAT WE SHOULD HAVE GONE HOME AND STAYED WITH HER.

We run to get to the train station and not miss our train --> navigate our way through the crowds to the ticket machines and somehow get 8 tickets. We met up with the two other apartments that we were traveling with and headed to the platform. Italy boasts that their trains are never late and we've been told countless times by teachers at Palazzo Rucellai to arrive at least half an hour early to ensure a seat since they fill up and leave exactly on time. Our train was delayed 45 minutes...along with the 30 extra minutes since we were there early. No benches in the station meant we were standing in the cold for that whole time. SIGN THREE WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME.

finally on the train!

We finally got on the train and after an hour we were in Rome. We headed to our hostel The Yellow and checked in. We had broken us up for 5 in one room and 4 in the other...since the limit was 6 or 8. However, they gave us 2 rooms...one with 5 girls in it and one with 2 girls in it. The two girls were already in a room filled with 6 boys. It was our first hostel experience so this was definitely not O.K. FOURTH SIGN THAT THIS WHOLE TRIP WAS A BAD IDEA. We ended up negotiating with the front desk woman and getting 3 in one room and 4 in the other. We decided, however, that no one was comfortable with sleeping in the boys room so we all just doubled up in beds and slept together!

the YELLOW

On Friday, we arrived, checked in and went to a delicious dinner at the restaurant right next to our hostel. We got free wine and champagne so that was nice! Afterwards we went to a club called Gilda...supposedly the hot place to be. Unfortunately we hadn't been told that Rome is UBER expensive so we found out the hard way that drinks were 10 euros a piece. We left soon after and went back to the hostel to sleep.

DID I MENTION WE HAD AN ARGENTINIAN ROOMMATE NAMED NICOLA THAT STAYED IN THE ROOM ALONE WITH THE EIGHT OF US??? he was fab. I'm still awaiting his friend confirmation on facebook!

roomz with nicolas - our argentinian roommate!

On Saturday we went to the Vatican which was one of the most incredible places I've ever been. Check back later for pictures!

Saturday night there was a lot of roommate drama and I ended up chipping my tooth when someone ran into me at the bar (hence the title of my facebook album) DONT WORRY (if you're family/david) it's not big and you can't see it unless you lean verrrryyyyy close in to my face! Thank goodness it didn't injure my permanent retainer!

WAH!!!

Sunday I led our apartment on a walking tour of the Roman Forum/Colosseum which took 5 hours. It provided great pictures which I will add to this post tomorrow since I'm too tired to do it tonight.

We came home Sunday night after navigating through a train strike and a lot of police officers. I was very happy to be back in Florence seeing as I didn't really like Rome all that much.


CHECK BACK SOON FOR PICTURES AND AN UPDATE ON THIS WEEK THUS FAR!!!