Notes from Abroad

Trip Stats:
Cities visited: 8
Broken Sunglasses: same one
Major injuries: 2 bruises, almost healed
Lost clothing: 1 pair of undies
Blisters: 1 all healed, 1 still ouch
Flights taken: 4
Trains taken: 2
Bus rides: 2
Gelatos consumed: 4
Train strikes survived: 1

Alllllllllllllrighty. So now we’re on our 3rd full day in Rome. Laura’s last day before her flight to London and then back to Canada. Three things on our to-do list. Well, 3 sights at least. I also wanted a granite (a slushie) and Laura needed to get her Rome shot glass.

We got a late start to the day (thank god) and went straight to the Colosseum. We decided to do a tour because, to be honest, we didn’t have the brain power to do much of the thinking for ourselves. The tour covered the Colluseum itself and Palantine Hill. It would take an hour and 45 minutes, which was good because I think that’s about all of the attention span I could muster.

The Colosseum was amazing. I’d never really seen photos of the inside, but it’s really complex! Palantine Hill was equally impressive, and the view of the Forum from the top was spectacular (and saved us from having to walk around down there).

One down, two to go. It’s kind of unfortunate that this was our mentality for the day, but I’m still beat from these last 3 days. Rome is definitely not the type of place you rush through. I would have liked a few weeks – a day in the city, then 2-3 days at Capri, another day in the city and then 2-3 days in the country, etc. It’s just so hot and overwhelming!

Post-Colosseum I think we headed straight for Trevi. I hadn’t seen a picture of it in yearrrss and didn’t expect it to be nearly as large. It’s massive and really impressive! It’s a shame that it was so crowded, but I’m glad we went to see it. I threw my coin in to return to Rome. I thought about throwing in for “falling in love” or “getting married”, etc. but considering the events of the previous day I really didn’t want the fates to misinterpret. I stayed safe with just one coin.

After that was the Spanish Steps which I was pretty disappointed by. I was totally imagining it like Roman Holiday but instead it was more like the steps of the Met at lunchtime a la Gossip Girl. Ah well.

Back on the Metro to the bus and back to the campsite. We went straight to the restaurant for a giant plate of pasta each. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Just give me my pasta. It was just what I needed. I hadn’t really eaten anything besides the fries, McFlurry, a yogurt and the granite (which was perfect) in the last two days so I devoured the entire plate like it was nobody’s business.

It was nice to be back to the campsite before it was dark out. It gave us time to go online, just have downtime, recharge and finally get the Bacardi Breezers that we’d been craving. Thank god for happy hour.

But not before Laura ran into Lulu (I really can’t remember the dude’s name, but it’s something like Lulu so that’s what he’s going to be from now on) at the registration desk. Thankfully she had no way of communicating with him because his English is about 10 words and her Italian stops at grazie. And even more thankfully I was safe in the Internet point. phew.

The evening was a lot of fun. There were lots of BusAbouters around because the Italian Adventure bus had come back earlier in the day.

I passed Lulu on my way to the bar but made a quick reroute toward the exit when I realized he was there. I went to the bathroom hoping he would be gone when I got back. I passed the BusAbouters that we’d run into the night before when we got home from Pompeii and they knew the story. There were 2 big guys there and I told them that if I came running back they were to pretend to be mine and Laura’s boyfriends. Luckily Lulu was gone.

Laura left for London on Thursday morning and I spent my day recharging, blogging (obviously) and getting some laundry done. It’s good to just hang out every once in a while.

I’m off to Florence in the morning – my last stop in Italy, but one I’m really looking forward to!

Tags: Adventures, City, Italy, Journal, Rome