Let's roam around Rome

Thursday- March 15

This past week I haven't blogged because I've been studying for my two midterms and applying for internships. I kept wanting to blog, but I knew I had more important things to do. 

It was a busy and stressful week — one which I'm not used to. Monday I made a list of things I had to do in the next week and it took up more than half a sheet of notebook paper. I had two midterms this week: Italian and Italian Art. I had a review for my Italian Art class Monday night and it made me want to poop my pants. The test was going to consist of 12 slides that would be shown and we would have to know the artist or architect of the painting or structure, the patron, the year it was made and random facts. Then we would have multiple choice questions on material and then we would have five definitions. He would give us the words and we would have to write out the definition. 

The review Rocky held on Monday had 43 slides of paintings and churches we've seen and learned about this past semester. He said he didn't include everything in this review that would be on the test, so we must go through our notes and review everything. As for the definitions, he wasn't giving us any words. We had to go through out notes and the words he used a lot would be the words we should know. 

That was the start to my week and I knew I had a lot of studying to do. During the past few days I spent a lot of time at the school studying and doing work for other classes. I knew I had to study for my Italian midterm too because the grammar and conjugations we were learning were starting to get more confusing. 

On top of two midterms I had to pack for spring break and apply for two internships. There were a couple late nights, but after I handed my midterm into Rocky, I was relieved and happy to be done. Now I had to go home, get a few other things in order, and Kate and I were off to Rome for the night. 

At 2:15 Kate and I decided to call a taxi to take us to the train station. We were sharing a check-in bag for our flight to Athens and Santorini, and we didn't want to drag this heavy suitcase through the cobblestone streets of Florence. 

The woman on the other end didn't speak much English, but I was able to communicate in Italian where we were at to be picked up. "Okay, the taxi will be there in two minutes."

Kate had warned me that the taxi may come fast, but I didn't think they would be that fast! I grabbed my book bag for my carry on and Kate grabbed hers. Somehow she and I managed to carry down this heavy suitcase down the 70 or so stairs to the entrance of our apartment building. 

When we stepped outside we saw a taxi a few feet down pulled halfway up on the sidewalk. The taxi driver came up to us and took our check-in bag for us and put it in the car. We told him we needed to go to the train station. 

I realized I must be used to Italian ways because his crazy driving didn't phase me at all. We almost took out another car and I didn't blink. I thought back to my first taxi experience and how I was gripping the handle like it was my job. 

It only cost €10, so it was only €5 each. Since it only took about 10 minutes to get to the train station we were about 20 minutes early. We went to find out which platform our train was at, but the main board said our train hadn't arrived yet. We went into a convenient store and got snacks for the train and then waited. Our platform number finally came up and we went to coach 7. When we walked on there was a woman that offered to put up our suitcase. We thanked her and after she did she handed us a sheet of paper begging for money. Clever, clever woman she was. Since she put our things up I decided to give her money. Had I known that's what she was doing, I would have just put it up myself. 

The train ride flew by and before we knew it we were in Rome. I was paranoid someone was going to steal our luggage so when I got up to where ours was, my heart skipped a beat in relief to see it still sitting there. 

Kate stopped somewhere to get something to eat and then we went to our hostel — the same one we stayed at when we stayed in Rome before Poland. We were hoping the owner wouldn't recognize us because he seemed a bit odd. When we walked in, of course, the first thing he said was, "You two have been here before haven't you?"

He led us to the elevator to take our suitcase up since it was so heavy. It was a tiny elevator so I squished in the back and then Kate stood in the front with the suitcase. I felt like clowns all squished in a tiny car. Kate pushed the button to go up to the first floor and we thought we were moving up, but the doors never opened up. "Kate, are you sure you pushed the button?" "Yeah." I pushed it anyways and then the elevator jerked up. We started belly laughing because Monty, the owner, was waiting at the top for us to get up because he took the stairs. He opened to doors to the elevator and we stepped out.

He led us to his office where we had to fill out some paper work and then he led us to our room. Kate booked a private room so we wouldn't have to deal with other people since we had to leave so early. When we walked into our room we started laughing because there was one bed. We thought there would be two twins, but we were going to have to share one for the night. We at least had our own bathroom and shower, which was a bonus.

After getting everything all figured out, Kate and I went down to the bus station to purchase our ticket for our transportation to the airport tomorrow. The woman working there asked us what time our flight was and then said we could choose between the 5:30 bus or the 6:10 bus because it would take us an hour to get there. Kate and I were both shocked when we heard that because we were under the impression it was a half hour away. We decided on the 6:10 bus because we figured we would still have enough time to catch our 9 a.m. flight.

After we bought the tickets we decided to "roam around Rome." We looked at the map and Kate asked if we could go toward the Trevi Fountain. We started walking in the general direction and along the way Kate found a shop she wanted to go in to. While I was waiting for her to try on a few things, a girl working there kept following me around and watching me like I was going to steal something. It was the strangest thing. I thought to myself, I'm not going to steal anything woman, calm down.

Kate had luck and bought a dress and a necklace. After the store we kept trucking it towards the Trevi Fountain. We stopped in a few more stores, but realized instantly that their prices were way out of our budgets. When we reached the Trevi Fountain it was jam-packed crowded. All I thought about was how crowded it was going to be here during Holy Week when my family and I are here. Boy oh boy will that be an adventure because I'm by far not a crowd person.

We decided not to try to push our way through since we saw it before, so we went on a short hunt to find dinner. We stopped at this vacant restaurant and looked at tis menu. It was in our price range and we went in to ask if we could sit outside. It was a little early for Italians to eat dinner, but I was hungry and didn't feel like waiting another hour or two to eat dinner.

I ordered Formaggio pizza, and Kate had a little of mine as well. After we were sitting outside a few more tables walked in and it started getting a little busier.

On our way back to the hostel, which was about a 20 minute walk, we stopped at a wine store to get a bottle for the night. It was an older place and this cute, old Italian man helped us pick out a red wine. He was so cute, spurting out in Italian about all the different kinds of wines and Kate and I staring at him, like huh? But we kept smiling.

He even opened up the bottle for us since we didn't have a wine opener at the hostel. I could tell it was an older wine store because there were a plethora of wines that were accumulating dust on them. Of course those were the more expensive ones.

When we got back to the hostel, we got all settled in and watched Crazy Stupid Love, which is my all-time favorite movie. Thanks to Kory sending it to me, I was able to watch it! Kate had never seen it before either, so that made it even better.

We ended up going to sleep around 11 or 12 because we had an early rise the next day.