Day Two in Roma: The Coliseum and the Spanish Steps

We had a lot planned for Rome on Tuesday, our last day there. Since the night before was our last night there, Rachelle and I got another bottle of wine to share like we did on our first night in Italy. We were up late chatting and packing, so the next morning, it was impossible for me to get up. I obviously wasn’t ready in time to go to the bakery with Rachelle and the girls, so she took off with them, and I stayed at the apartment waiting for the owner while finishing my last minute packing. Once we checked out and got our security deposit back, we headed to the Metro station to take us to the train station.

Believe it or not, we made it there without any hiccups or bumps in the road! We dropped our luggage off at the Left Luggage room and headed to the coliseum. One more train ride later we arrived along with ten thousand other people. We found a person selling last minute tour guides, which meant avoiding the ten thousand person line. We paid slightly more than a generally admission ticket, but avoiding the line was far more important to us.

The tour began at the bottom of the coliseum and standing in a couple sections while listening to her stories. Rachelle and I were still trying to get the girls situated, so it was a little difficult for us to pay attention at this time. We dropped of the stroller and walked up a billion steep stairs. Once we were at the top we walked about halfway around the coliseum where the tour guide stood and talked for about 20 minutes. As soon as we got to the top, Haylee suddenly had to potty, so Rachelle had to walk her all the way back around and down to the entrance where the restrooms were. I stayed at the top with Jaydn, distracting her enough to not realize her mom had left. By the time Rachelle returned from the potty with Haylee the tour was over and we were free to roam the coliseum on our own. It was extremely hot that day, but we managed to walk around the entire thing, well, as much as they would let us. There was a pretty big section blocked off where no one could go. It was hard to think that we were standing in a place where men killed other men for entertainment purposes. And it was even harder thinking I was standing in places where people sat cheering it on. We stayed there for a little over an hour and had planned on going to the Mamertine Prison afterward, where St. Peter was a prisoner. However, when we walked out of the coliseum, it was like the entire week hit us all smack dab in the face and we were dead tired. Unfortunately, we decided to skip the Mamertine Prison and make our way to the Spanish Steps where we would find some food for lunch. We told ourselves that us not seeing the prison this time would give us a good excuse to one day go back.

We hopped on the City Bus Tour bus and had some time to relax as we drove to the Spanish Steps. It took about 30 minutes to get there with all the stops we made, so we arrived shortly before 4PM. Our bus tickets would expire at exactly 4PM, so we wouldn’t be able to take it back to the train station where would make our way back to the airport. Instead, we decided to enjoy the steps and the billions of people on them, get some lunch and then pay for a metro ticket back to the station. Now, I can’t tell you I know any background of these steps, but everyone loves to see them, so I took my typical tourist pictures. Even though I’m not sure of their purpose, they were pretty and at least worth a drive by!

We walked down the street a bit and found a restaurant that had misters. Yes! Misters!!! It was a beautiful thing. We knew it was our last meal in Rome, so we decided not to hold back and be total pigs. I have to say, this lunch was by far the most interesting and entertaining meal I think I’ve ever had. We ordered our food and drinks, me getting both a Sprite and a Peroni beer (which I had to try per my dad). Our drinks were brought out and as Rachelle and I decided to do our “first taste” poses with this oh so fancy beer, when the next thing I realize is my glass of Sprite gracefully spilling its way off the table. Jaydn must have been thirsty because she really had to reach and pull herself out of her chair to get my glass. Now mind you, you don’t get free refills in Europe, so the sight of my cold, thirst quenching Sprite all over my legs and Jaydn’s stroller slightly depressed me. But hey, I still had half a glass… whatcha gonna do right? So then a little later, I’m districted with something, whether it’s looking at my camera or my food, I cant remember, but when I eventually come to and look up at Rachelle, she has this look of shock and anger, yet about to bust out laughing on her face. I notice water dripping from her cheeks, nose and chin. There is water all over her shirt. And then I look at Haylee, who also has a look of shock, and fear on her face. I do have to say that Rachelle did an excellent job turning her head while she cracked up laughing, but just sneaky enough that Haylee didn’t notice. I was still confused at this point and also trying not to laugh, because I knew something wrong had happened. Apparently, for no reason what-so-ever, Haylee decided to fill her cheeks up with water, and then slap them with her hands spraying spitty water all, and I mean ALL, over Rachelle. Haylee never realized how funny we thought it was, but rather knew she was in some trouble. Now that’s one impressive mother!! After all this, I ate a fantastic alfredo pasta followed by an even more fantastic ice cream fruit dessert. With our bellies stuffed, we said our final goodbyes to Roma and got on the metro that brought us to the train station.

Once we arrived at the train station we scrambled around trying to find the bus that was supposed to take us to the airport. Since we didn’t have a computer nor a printer, our tickets were on my iPhone… which they did not accept. Rachelle had to run across the street to a place that would print it, but no wait, that still wasn’t good enough. When she showed the driver THAT ticket he said she needed to go back into the station to get it validated, which the station was not all that close anymore. I stood with our luggage and Jaydn as Rachelle booked it with Haylee, with only minutes before the bus was to leave. Luckily, she made it back in time and we got on the bus and it was onward to the airport.

At the airport, we found the line we needed to get in for our visa checks and to check my bag, and realized it was about 500 people long. Waiting and waiting and waiting, we finally got to the front, had everything verified and thought we were good to go. But then the woman said that because I didn’t check my bag online the night before, I needed to go stand in ANOTHER line to pay for my bag. This line only had about 5 people in front of me. One of which was a young girl trying to consolidate her 4 bags into one. She had about 10 shirts on, all her jewelry, even used a shirt as a belt, but still had no luck fitting all her remaining junk in this one tiny bag. There was one guy working this counter. I stood in line for almost another hour before I finally was able to pay for my stupid bag. Oh yeah, but this was after the girl who couldn’t get her bags into one, ran off screaming and crying (similar to my experience in Philly a couple years ago) and then came back with a security guard or someone, who demanded something, of which I do not know because it was all in emotional Italian. But on the bright side, she paid for whatever she needed to pay for and took her bags and layers of clothing to her gate where she luckily did not miss her flight.

After that entertaining fiasco we boarded our plane and looked forward to getting home. Finally, some time to be lazy and relax.

Day One in Roma: Vatican City and the Trevi Fountain

We woke up early Monday morning and prepared to visit Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain and take the city bus tour. We bought tickets for the Vatican the night before for 12:30, so we had a pretty strict schedule to stick to. The owner of our apartment gave us a map that indicated where good restaurants, bus stops and metro stations are. We walked to the bus stop to jump on bus 46 that he said would take us to Vatican City. Once the bus arrived it was jammed packed but we forced our way on with our stroller pushing people out of the way. We made a couple stops when Rachelle looked at me and said, "I feel like were going the wrong way" I ignorantly replied with, "Really? I don't really know, but I don't feel that". After a few more minutes Rachelle asked a guy standing next to us if this bus went to Vatican City. He said that the buses in Rome don't make a lot of sense but he thought it was in the opposite direction. So we quickly decided to get off at the next stop to find a different bus. We walked across the street to a different stop that would take us in the opposite direction and figured we would at least ask the driver if he was stopping at Vatican City. There was no wind, no shade and nowhere to sit. It was a thousand degrees hot and the bus was not coming soon enough. Rachelle then asked if I had internet connection on my phone to check GPS. It's very rare when I do have connection, so I didn't have high hopes that I would this time. However, surprisingly, I DID! So I did a walking direction search to Vatican City and it said it would take about 12 minutes. We figured it was better than waiting for something that probably wouldn't help us anyways. We began the walk as a different bus passed us and we decided we would get on. As I watched the GPS and our location compared to where we wanted to be, we were somewhat heading in the right direction. Then we went through a tunnel and crossed a bridge and quickly got off track. I pushed the button requesting a stop and soon after we got off.

We only had a few blocks to walk and we were there! It was a relief to finally be somewhere known, and oddly enough we felt a lot better to be in a touristy area. We made it with 15 minutes to spare so we took a few pictures and then made our way to the Vatican Museum which was about at 15-20 min walk. The museum was a little confusing but had A LOT of statues and other interesting artifacts. We walked the the whole museum and realized we somehow missed the Sistine Chapel. We then realized about midway through the museum we avoided some pretty tall stairs, and those were the ones leading to the chapel, figures. So we then had to go all the way back through the crowed museum and go up the stairs, with the girls and the lovely stroller.

After almost another whole museum to walk through, we finally made it into the chapel. It was so much more than I ever expected! I walked in and took the LONGEST video and snapped a billion pictures. I then heard guards yelling at other people to not take pictures. So I snuck away laughing because I was so obvious with my filmings of the chapel. The guards also make you be quiet in there. If the hum of chatter gets too loud they yell "SHH!!! NO TALKING!!" And their "shh's" are as loud as car horns! You can tell they've had practice. It's probably apart of the interview process. When we were getting ready to leave I wanted one more picture and as soon as I took it I got told to put it away. At least he was nice about it, because Rachelle said she saw someone get kicked out for taking pictures. Yikes!

After Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel, we bought tickets for a 24 hour city bus tour so that it would be good for the next day as well. Once we got on the bus, it felt so good to finally sit! We got off at the Trevi Fountain and again I was in total shock at what it really was. It was beautiful and felt good to stand next to because mist would hit us and slightly cool us down. Because did I mention, it was deadly hot? We got video and pictures of us throwing our coins over our shoulder to give us good luck to return to Rome and the fountain. We should be guaranteed because between the 2 of us we have 4 lucky coins in there. I'm impressed with the pictures we took, becasue you can see the coins in mid flight. I know, I'm just awesome like that.




We got back on the city bus tour and took it to the end which was back at Vatican City. We found the bus stop that appeared would take us to our area by our apartment. Luckily, my GPS was still working correctly and showed where we were. I examined the map for a VERY long time to find where our apartment was, because the map from the owner is zoomed in to only a couple blocks. I was surprised I was actually able to find it! We got on and could actually sit down. I watched the GPS and we went in the direction I had hoped and we would and were brought right to the end of our street! It was very exciting for us to finally have a successful transportation experience.

We went to dinner, sweaty, sticky and smelly (at least I was, I will admit that). Once finished and walking back to our apartment I said to Rachelle we needed to find a store to by a bottle of wine since it was our last night. I kind of freaked out because we weren't finding one. But alas, we did and ended up spending 10 Euro on this bottle. The first one we bought in La Spezia was a little over 2.

After the girls were in bed, we had our wine on the balcony and stayed up far too late. I think Rachelle went to bed at 3am, and then that was when I decided to write my Florence post staying up until about 4:30am. I think you all can tell how that decision worked out.

Our first day in Rome was busy, hot and go go go. We only had one more left!

Video of our coin toss
Password: Trevi

Trevi Fountain Coin Toss from Megan on Vimeo.

The Disaster of Pompeii: Our Trip There, not the History

Okay, okay, the trip there wasn't quite a "disaster", but it was stressful and hectic. Late Saturday night Rachelle and I decided to plan our trip to Pompeii for the next day. We haven't really done any planning or scheduling this whole trip and everything always managed to work out, but we have since discovered that when we do plan, it never works as we intended.

Pompeii is about 2.5 hours from Rome so we needed to book a train ride to Naples and then another one from Naples to Pompeii, which is only about 30 minutes away. We then needed to book our return train home from Naples to Rome. These tickets were slightly more expensive, especially since we were used to paying only a few Euro per ticket. We had it planned that we would take the metro (which is equivalent to the subway) from our apartment to the train station. There was a metro station fairly close to our apartment so we headed over there with high hopes as we had gotten an early start to the day. We walked down a bunch of stairs and continued on to take the escalators down very far and realized no one else was down there. And I mean not ONE person. So Rachelle went down the rest of the way by herself to see what the deal was, and apparently the Metro was not running that day from where we were. We tried to get some bus information so we could hop on one that could take us to the train station, but the signs made no sense, and as we waited and waited for one to pull up we got impatient and decided we would just take a taxi. Rachelle was going to use her phone to try and call a taxi place to have them pick us up, but her phone was back at the apartment. We turned around and went back to where we thought our apartment was and realized NOTHING looked familiar and we had no idea where we were. After going in multiple circles we finally realized we came up from the Metro on the opposite side of the street. We then found the apartment, where I did an internet search for nearby taxi places and their phone numbers. We called a couple with no success. Our hearts started to beat slightly faster out of panic since we were running out of time to catch our scheduled train, but Rachelle turned her brain on and called the owner of the apartment to see if he had taxi information. He told us there was a taxi stop close by where several taxis sat and waited. We attempted to follow his directions to this stop when we noticed there were multiple taxis right across the street and down not even a full block from our apartment that we didn't see before. Regardless, we were happy once we sat in one and was on our way to the station.

On the train, Haylee started to get hungry and since we had no snacks and it was a 2 hour ride, Rachelle decided to buy a couple sandwiches from a guy who walks by selling stuff. He came to our seats and she asked for her food and drinks and the guy continued to hand her more and more sandwiches and more and more drinks. We were all a little confused, but didn't speak up. She then hands him a 50, because that was all we had, he looks at it, then pulls out 2 more sandwiches and hands her 2 more bottles of water and gives her a 10 back. Then he quickly walks off. She looks at me with about 7 sandwiches and 5 drinks all around her and says, "I just paid 40 Euro for lunch". We were both in shock, and pretty dang confused. But it was already done, so we couldn't change anything and just decided to eat up.

When we arrived in Naples station, we went up to the electronic ticket booth to find our next train and buy the ticket. We checked the schedule the night before and knew one would be leaving fairly soon, but we had zero success finding it. Again confused, we turned around and slowly walked away not knowing what to do. Seconds later, a random guy comes up to us saying something like "you going to Pompeii? You take subway. Come, come, I show you!" So he walks us through the station down to where the Metro was while waving and saying 'hi' to random people working at various stores. We looked at each other and said "well, it seems like he knows everyone, so he must be okay". He takes us to the ticket counter and tells the guy what we need. I'm pulling out my cash, which was also a 50, when Rachelle says, "is this a 2-way or just one?" The guy says one, and the ticket counter guys asks for them back so he could change them. As he does this, I slide my 50 under the window to pay for them, when the guy "helping" us takes it instead. Yes, the whole time I felt very uncomfortable, and this was when I really started to worry. We get our 2-way tickets and the man gives me back my change of 2 20's. The "helping" guy slides one of the 20's back under the counter, speaking Italian, and asks for 2 10's instead. When he is given the change, he hands me my 30, and keeps one of the 10's for himself. I asked him what he was doing and to give it back. He says "no, no, because I help you and show you. No problem, I take." The ticket counter guys are raising their voices still speaking Italian and the other man is slightly arguing back. I reflected back to Rachelle's ripoff lunch moment no less than an hour earlier, and refused to be scamed twice in the same day. So, very unlike me, I grab the 10 out of his hands and say, "NO! We appreciate your help, but you cant have this." He gets very angry at me and the ticket counter guys and then storms off. I couldn't believe I had just stood up to another scam artist trying to steal from 2 woman tourists. How exciting!

The rest of the way to Pompeii was a cakewalk. We bought a travel guide from a booth outside the exhibit for 6 Euro... which was originally 15 Euro, but Rachelle talked the price down. Go Rachelle!!! Once we finally got into the city we realized how huge it actually was. The streets were made or very large rocks making it impossible to push the stroller on. This caused much frustration throughout the day, but then decided to leave it behind and just let the girls walk.

It was unbelievable to me how much of the city was left, and how much was actually still intact. When we got to an area where multiple body casts were it affected me pretty heavily. There was one of a dog upside down and scrunched up in a ball. It all became so real and was incredibly clear how intense the volcano eruption really was, it almost brought tears to my eyes. The roads even had indents in them from where the wheels on their carts wore into them. It was so evident that people lived there over 2 thousand of years ago and that their civilization just ended in an instant.








After a way too expensive lunch at their cafeteria, we wanted to make our way to the oldest amphitheater in the world. Since Rachelle had declared me as the navitron woman, she had high hopes that I would do the same for this city as well. Unfortunately the maps all had street names, yet the city had no street signs, which made it darn near impossible to navigate through. We walked down a super long road that lead to the outskirts of the city. I noticed a sign with a map at the top of the hill and was certain after examining it that we needed to go left to make it to the amphitheater. And I mean absolutely certain. It was a long walk before we would actually find another entrance to the city, and I was so excited to turn the corner and see this huge amphitheater. Well, there was no amphitheater, but a new road back into the city. We walked on down, realizing we were out of time and just needed to get back to the entrance of the city so we could leave for the Metro station. I accepted the fact I wasnt going to see it, along with another main room I wanted to visit. We then realized we somehow made it back on the same long road we originally took and had just taken and 40 minute, pointless circle around the city. How awesome is that!

We got back to the Metro, took it to the train station and were excited we actually arrived early, so perhaps we could get some food. We checked the screens to find our platform where it says that our train was delayed 10 minutes. Okay, that's cool, just a bit more time to eat. Well, it then went to 20 minutes delayed, then 40 min, then 85 min, then 100! We were in total shock and just wanted to get home to get some good sleep! No trains we coming in, and none were going out. The stations was jamed packed with people, 80% of which were smoking, some even directly under a No Smoking sign! No one working at the station could tells us why everything was delayed, mostly because they couldn't speak English. It seemed like our train delay was stuck at 100 min for about 20 more min when it finally showed "Platform: 4PG". We didn't know what the "PG" was for but decided to walk to the normal platform 4. There were no trains over there, and really no people either. We found a guy who worked there and asked where to go and he told us to go back down to the subway. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? We ran across the station, down to the subway, found the train to Rome and jumped on without checking which car we were on to find our seats... we didn't want to risk it leaving as we stood right next to it. Turns out, this train was not really our train and our seats were already taken, but this train was indeed going to Rome, so we didn't care and decided to sit in the 5x5 foot hallway that had no AC, in between the cars for the 2.5 hour ride back. Turns out, the whole reason for our trains all being delayed was because the workers were all on strike. Oh the timing. How perfect.

When we arrived back at our train station in Rome we had to wait about 15 more min to get on a taxi because it was so late that was all we could really take to get home. We finally arrived back at our apartment after 1:30am, but we were home!

All in all, it was an entertaining adventure and it taught us a lot about the transportation systems in Rome, which came in handy in the coming days. I loved Pompeii but definitely need to return to see the whole other half of the city we didn't get the chance to explore... yes, because of my pointless circle I was certain would lead us to the amphitheater.

DISCLAIMER to my Florence Post

Before you all start to think 'Megan doesn't know proper English or how to even make sense in here posts' I have to admit to you, I don't remember writing 90% of that post.

Rachelle and I had our final bottle of wine since it was our last night in Italy, so first off, I had some strong Italian wine affecting my thought processes. Second, it was 4:00am and I do remember actually falling asleep multiple times while typing... in the middle of sentences.

As I just went back and finally reread what I wrote, I was cracking up, because I literally don't remember typing most of those things. I attempted to make a few corrections, the main one being calling Haylee "Hayden" -- which is a mix of Jaydn and Haylee's names (and I actually did that multiple times while talking to them), but I realized that there was just too much that needed to be fixed...like the entire post. So rather than trying to rewrite the whole thing, I found it more appropriate to just give you a disclaimer.

I'm really not that retarded, I promise you! -- maybe

Illegal Pictures and the Thousand Stairs of Florence

Friday afternoon we left our lovely apartment in La Spezia and headed over to Florence. Once we arrived there we pulled out our map of where our hotel was and pretended to know where we were going. We walked down the street and over a couple blocks dragging our luggage across the old, uneven brick street. The side walk was no wider than me and my bag, and while pulling 2 bags and people walking in the opposite direction made it near impossible for me to make my way successfully down the street. I pulled one bag on the sidewalk and the other on the street and almost had it run over by multiple cars. All I cared about was making it to our hotel, in one piece or not.

Not far down the street was our hotel which was in tight space and had an old, Italian style. After we were settled in we went for a walk out on the town without looking at the map and managed to slightly lose our way. But not to worry, our navitron woman (me) found where we were and brought us to a lovely cafe for some sandwiches and coffee. A ridiculous 40 euro later, we paid, left and then explored the town.

Navitron brought us down "rich alley" as we passes stores like Dolce and Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and a Ferrari store. It was a beautiful walk and each store was in such a uniquely styled building. We continued down this rich street and ended up at The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore Cathederial (which is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers). Once we turned the corner, I was in complete shock at the massiveness of this building. It took almost a whole day just to walk around this thing! We got there too late in the day to take any tour, but the outside alone was enough to satisfy our needs.

Our first days ended very peacefully with dinner and a couple glasses of wine at a recommended nearby restaurant called La Gratella. The people working there were very nice and the food was delicious. We even splurged and got dessert to. Lets just say, it was gone in about 20 seconds, and mostly on Haylee's face.

The next day we needed to check out at 11:00am, but still wanted to see much of the city. The hotel was nice enough to let us keep our luggage there while we did more traveling during the day. We finally found where the accademia where Michelangelo's David is. We explored many different sculptures before we finally game into the huge room where David stood. I did not realize that we could not take pictures but I was determined to prove that I had been there and seen it with my own eyes. there were signs saying it was "prohibited to take any pictures inside". But it was a success. In fact, I became so courageous after this that I continued to take many more pictures of the entire museum. It was thrilling and frightening all at the same time.

After stealing pictures of David we walked to an opposite end of the city and wanted to climb to the top of hundreds of stairs. And it literally was that, but it was far too hot to slow down or even thinking about sitting down, I just wanted to be at the top and be finished! Luckily there was a gellato shop at the top so we all rewarded ourselves from surviving the stairs of death by trying a new kind of gellato and enjoyed it at the top of the stairs. We walked over to the look out sections and could see the entire city from above. It really portrayed how vast and beautiful everything was. Once we finished taking pictures and exploring the top of the city, we began the huge hike back to the bottom so we could get back to our hotel to pick up our bags and go back to the train station to go to Rome.

We all wanted to cry of exhaustion and were all dripping discussing sweat when we returned, but managed to get our bags and go just 2 more blocks to the station. We got on our nice and big train only to find out that something had happened with Rachelle's ticket because she lost her seat. So she stood for quite come time before some poked moved around and gave her a chair to sit in. It was like a puzzle! We were on our way to tourist central...bring it on Roma!!