Rome in a Day

This morning started slightly more early than expected at 5 am when my roommates Callie, Ellie, Ariel and I woke up to join the remainder of the group at the bus stop. From there, we rode to the station, got a “good morning” cappuccino, and hopped on the next train to Rome. On the train, I sat with Miss Cannon, Hart and Rachel. It was a pleasant ride, considering we all forced each other into sleep-depravation so that we would not be all groggy once we arrived. After all, we were only doing Rome in a day. The first thing we searched for as we stepped onto the busy streets was a place to eat breakfast. We stumbled upon this cute, little café where we ordered pastries, more cappuccinos, and fruit. Yum. Maddie, Steph and I took it upon us to sport the floppy-hat look… mine had a bit more flop in this picture.

With happy stomachs, hearts and hats, we made our way over to the Coliseum, taking longer than necessary, of course, due to our photo op stops every two minutes. Once we made it there, though, I was blown away by how large it was in person. I’m not sure of it’s exact size, but it’s amazing to me that years ago, without today’s technology and resources, something as large (if not larger than) the football stadiums we have today could have been built so beautifully. Wow. And then there were those creepy Romans just outside of it:

Strangely enough, as I was walking around, marveling at this architectural piece of art, I ran into my mom, sister Lauren, sister’s friend Kate, and mom’s friend/sister’s friend’s mom Liz. I already knew they were in Italy but what are the chances we’d be at the same historical site at the same time?! Slim to none, so, naturally, I had Maddie snap us a pic.

Once we “scooted” (a word my mom used and Carolyn loved, noting the southern aspect of it) off to the Forum, we began taking pictures of our new assignment, to photograph something in the foreground and play with the f-stops to see the change of the background… my group saw this as an exemplary time as ever to have a photoshoot, Maddie being our model of course, and Steph just having fun.

As we were leaving the Forum, a couple asked Maddie, David, Carolyn and I to take their picture in front of the site. We turned around and Massimo had already trekked off to lunch with the rest of the group. Before we knew it, we were lost. Maddie and I laughed that, of course, the only time we had gotten lost so far was with our group leaders and us three girls sat down on a bench in the shade while David made a call to Massimo. We ended up not too far behind because the remainder of the group had paused to take pictures. We joined in!

We arrived at a buffet-style restaurant, Caffé degli Angeli, straving as usual, and had the entire upstairs to ourselves as we started to chow down. And then we played with our food a bit:

After eating, shopping became our new priority. It took FOREVER for our entire group to go through the ATM one at a time, but eventually, we were ready to go.

So there wasn’t a chance that David, Carolyn, Carly, and Hart were going to allow us to jump on the back of a red vespa with some Italian boy, but we were able to recreate another Lizzie McGuire scene at the Trevi Fountain with our newly acquired euro coins. We got some cute, coins-being-tossed-in-the-air shots and made our wishes. To quote Lizzie, “this is what dreams are made of.”

Next, came shopping. I bought a few souvenirs, but nothing to blog about, really, so we walked on over to the Pantheon, seeing large groups of tourists and various street performers just outside.

Massimo, though, being the gelato connoisseur that he is, “forced” us to leave and get three scoops (my flavors being pistachio, cinnamon, and caramel) at Giolitti. As you can see, Maddie and I are being tortured:

On our way to the Spanish steps, which supplied us with heaps of history and people-watching, a few of us stopped at a small stand where I bargained for [yet another] sunhat and a couple scarves.

Once we reached the steps, we ventured around the area and then met back up at the bottom for a quick circle of highs and lows of the trip in order to kill time before catching the subway. My low was that, even when I’m wearing tennies, my feet still ache at the end of the day from all the walking. My high, however, was a memory Callie, Ellie and I shared last night. Callie was going about her usual before-bed routine, applying a bed bug spray to her sheets very meticulous and closely so that she wouldn’t miss a spot when she offered to do the same for the rest of our room. Ellie and I complied, sat down on our beds shortly after, and then asked a question about its cinnamon scent. Naturally, Callie picked up the bottle to look at the label, which read something like this: Apply from 12 to 18 feet away. (Oops.) No direct contact with skin after applying. (“Get up, Claire!” Callie said. “And Ellie, stop inhaling the sheets!”… I was confused.) Not necessary to apply directly to bed sheets because it may cause discoloring. (Huge oops!) I have not laughed as hard on this entire trip as I did in that moment. Thanks, Callie and Ellie. It was a good time. Haha

After having a second laugh about our little mishap, we jumped on the subway back to the train station. It was Maddie’s first one to ever ride on!

At the train station, we put in a family-style to-go order at a small café, chaotically disregarding any organization while ordering. Next, we jumped on the train, sandwiches in tow, and headed back to Florence. Determined not to sleep, Steph, Maddie and I listened to an assortment of classics (anywhere from Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benetar to Bow Chicka Wow Wow by Nick Posner to Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield) on our iPods, dancing and lip syncing crazily. David, who was sharing the table with us, quickly moved, claiming “it wasn’t us” and “he just wanted some more room.” Haha it’s okay, Davidé; we understand. When we returned to the hotel, we mentally prepared ourselves for the next day at the beach. Book? Check. Sunscreen? Check. Hat? Check. Water? Check. T-shirt and nike shorts? Check and check. Ready for a new day! Ciao for now! (I'll add the rest of the pics later, I promise!)