Roma - Giorno 3 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui (Finalmente)

Day three finally arrived and that meant we were finally going back to Florence. We woke up at 7:30am (once again, 3.5 hours of sleep). Ate breakfast and set off to see the capital city again.

This time we started out at the Spanish steps. Once again, I was underwhelmed as I expected more with it being so famous. Afterwards we set out to see a few more monuments including the Trevi fountain where some girl from our group slipped in and got yelled at by the cops and also a few piazze. The biggest thing we saw the Pantheon. This was actually really cool minus the scaffolding on half of the building. The Pantheon is still used today as a church but there is also a massive dome on top. The dome has a big hole in the middle symbolizing god always watching over his followers. This hole is actually open thus exposing the inside to some elements. Our tour guide said one of the coolest things he has seen is the Pantheon being exposed to snow and some of the snow coming inside. While here, I also snapped a ton of pictures of people looking up at the hole but no one took any for me (one offered at the beginning though, thanks Clint). After the tour ended, a few of us got lunch together and I broke a glass (not my fault that the weak glass couldn't survive a fall from 2 inches). 

After a nice lunch, we were walking around and eventually made it back to the hotel after 4 hours. We then just hung around the hotel until everyone had to go to the train station to head back. I was extremely warm on the train as I had the sun beating down on me and Jake was sitting next to me. We finally made it back to Florence and Jake just wanted to stay at home for dinner and ate cereal while I went out to get some food and also enjoyed a half liter of wine. I was quite high to say the least. I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night too thanks to that wine (12:30am!!)

Roma - Giorno 2 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui

I woke up at 6:45am on Saturday morning with just one alarm going off. For me, this is a miracle. I guess it makes sense since we were going to the Vatican that day. Every morning, like most people, when I wake up, I go to the bathroom right away. In Europe, especially in Italy, almost every bathroom has a bidet (an ass cleaner). Well, being right next to the toilet, I was bound to look at it. My wonderful(ly drunk as hell) roommate Jake decided to leave a gift for the maids in the bidet - let's just say when you consume that much alcohol and the same night you have pastas, hams, tomatoes and other stuff, it's going to end up looking like an omelet. It was quite nasty but thankfully did not smell as I would have punched that kid in the nuts. I went down to eat breakfast for 7:15am. I saw a few other students down there and we ate together. Rob and I went back to our rooms after breakfast to wake up our roommates (Rob actually ended up waking both Mark and Jake up, both were still drunk, not even hung over). In the end, only Jake made it down in time to walk with the group to the metro to the Vatican. Mark and Matias had to catch up later on (right before we entered the city actually, lucky for them cause they would have had to pay their own way in).

We eventually made it into the city and, of course being the awesome Catholic that I am, the first word I said was 'fuck' just because I could. We took a guided tour through out the City. We saw many painting and statues. Nothing extremely famous, but still some amazing stuff. I took many pictures of them and will post them on my flickr eventually. We started off seeing the painting and then the statues. Before the statues though, we were in this field with a giant globe in the center. Now the Italians are very lax when it comes to keeping people out of places they don't want you to go (now if they really don't want you there, that's different). There was only a chain in the way of the people from touching and spinning the globe. Some people (with the bad influence of the tour guide, haha) decided to go and spin the stunning spherical statue. Then after some statues, we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel. Personally, I was underwhelmed by the entire thing as there were too many tourists and I thought that it was going to be much bigger. Plus I hated the fact that we could not take pictures (legally).  Not even two minutes into the viewing, I was yelled at by a guard for taking pictures. This did not stop me of course. Many people were also asking me to snap pictures of them looking at the ceiling and of course I did cause I am a nice guy. After the Chapel, we set out to view St. Peter's Basilica. Personally, I thought it was a selfish and too arrogant of the Catholics on what they did to this beautiful building. Not only did they make it a tourist trap, but it didn't even feel like a place of worship. This is another reason why I sometimes hate being a Christian, let alone a Catholic.

After seeing everything the Vatican had to offer, a group of us set out to eat some lunch. We made it to this one little place near the Vatican. It was honestly the single worst Italian meal I have ever had. The waiters were rude and sneaky, the food was worse than Chef Boyardee canned food, and the prices were just too high. After eating that shit, we set out to walk toward the hotel cause some people wanted to nap. We saw a few sites on the way, but nothing all that spectacular. A castle that we didn't go in because people didn't want to pay and a square (Piazza del Popolo) that was underwhelming. After the Piazza, the rest of the group wanted to head back while I wanted to go up on the hill to see what was up there. You would think that a few people would want to have a view of the city from up there, but no, everyone wanted to head back. Once again, I was alone in Rome. At the top, there was a great view of the city and a very beautiful park. After spending about 30 mins up there relaxing, I decided to head back to the hotel and nap as well.

For dinner, the primo piatto was a pasta dish with a white sauce and sausage. For the secondo piatto, a bit of chicken with potatos. Our dolce was an ice cream dish with mints. Over all, the dinner was the best part so far. Also, for dinner, I initially sat with Evy (don't know how to spell her name) as she was sitting alone. Later on, Stella and Zim sat with us and we had a great dinner conversation.

Later that night, Jake and I met up with some of his friends who were back packing. We saw the trevi fountain at night which was amazing and also went to see the Colosseum at night too. While at the Colosseum, we took some photos of us jumping. There was one photo that I was actually so high that I was halfway out of frame, haha. I guess this white boy still got ups. This was probably one of the best nights on the entire trip and it was so simple yet fun. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 2:30 and went to bed at 4am.

Roma - Giorno 1 - Destinazione - Ovunque ma non qui

Woke up in the morning @ 6:30am after going to bed @ 3am.. F. M. L.

It actually wasn't all that bad. Jake and I had to leave the apartment @ 7am in order to make it to the train station for 7:30. They said that we had to be on time and we were... Too bad we had to wait around for 40 minutes to board the train. When we finally got on the train, there were essentially 9 of us that wanted to sit next together - 6 guys, 3 chicks.  Jake was the first one to go up ahead and he saved a seat for the three chicks. Matias and Mark were next and they jumped into the aisle seats next to them. That left two window seats for three guys. There was no way I was going to sit next to Mark cause hes a big guy and I really didn't want to sit next to Matias, so that left me all alone somewhere else in the train. Not only did someone not sit next to me, but no one even noticed. Pretty fucking lame shit. The 8 of them played cards while I sat alone. Now I am not trying to wallow in my sorrows, but this was a bitch move by everyone. I know that I would have gotten up and sat with someone else if they were alone, but that's me. I guess I have grasped the concept of caring.

Now that I got that off my chest, I can finally move on to Rome. When first got to the Hotel around 10, we couldn't go to our rooms for almost 40 minutes, so we had to wait around the entire time. Once again, I was kinda off on my own. Some people did come chat for a few, but they would only have a short conversation. Jake and I finally got to our room and dropped our stuff off to meet back in the lobby for 11am like we were told. The group didn't end up leaving till 11:30. We walked all the way down to the Colosseum area, about a Km or two away. I found this to be annoying as there was a train that could have taken us down there in about 10 mins instead of walking for 30 mins. We then just looked at some of the ruins in the area while snapping photos. Our 'tour guide' didn't tell us anything which pissed me off. We ended at some building where the other groups 'guide' told us about it. The only problem is that he is very soft spoken and isn't great for leading big groups. We grabbed a quick 30 minute lunch in order to meet back at this building (which I later found out was the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.) We were supposed to leave @ 1pm but that didn't happen, again. This time we left at 1:20. We set off for the Colosseum to take a tour there. While waiting for a real guide, everyone snapped a few photos. We finally got to go into the Colosseum. Once again, I was in the wrong group. This time I was with a group of people that I didn't know, a group that doesn't talk to anyone but themselves (Bugger off UF). The tour was kinda neat, I guess. We did a quick tour of the ancient building, too quick I think. We spent about 30 mins there and left. I easily could have spent 2 more hours there. We then set out to see some more ancient ruins which was cool. I took a few photos here and there.

After the tour ended, many of the students wanted to go back and nap while I just want to explore. Thankfully someone came with me this time (Rob). We found a neat little island in the middle of the river. After checking this out, I got a wicked good fruit milk shake at one of the best gelato shops in town. We then found this square with some more ruins but hundreds of cats. Ever where you looked, stray cats. It was cool at first then I got grossed out. We eventually made it back to the hotel after an exhausting hike to the hotel.

Later that night, we had a nice dinner with bow-tie pasta and some hams. After dinner, everyone wanted to get drunk and party while I just wanted to go take night photos, and I did just that, alone again. After seeing the Colosseum and Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at night, I decided to head back and goto sleep. At 2:30am, I got a call from drunk Jake saying he didn't know where he was. I didn't know either so there was nothing I could do, lolol. I went back to sleep listening to Against Me, again.