Firstly, the trip was, I think, everything we hoped for and more. It. was. Awesome. And amazing. And wonderful. And we can't wait to go back. :) My MIL is worldy and has traveled to some 80 countries and has been less than enthralled with my raptures of Rome. She kind of shrugs and is like, sure, but there are SO many better places. That may be. But Rome was our first taste of Europe and will probably therefore always hold a special place in our hearts. And I don't care how worldly you are, Rome is cool!
Mostly, I felt like I needed more eyes. There was art, EVERYWHERE. Especially in the Vatican. It's on the floor, the walls, the ceilings - EVERYTHING is covered with art or embellishment. I loved the cobblestone streets. I dearly wanted a cobblestone for a souvenir but did not take one (integrity or fear of airport security or something stayed my hand).
We got lost our first day, which was fine. We took off from the hotel with a map in hand and a "route" planned. We thought we were following this route, but quickly realized we had no idea where we were. Eventually we found our way to the Coliseum. How about that?
We learned some Italian. Bonjourno for good morning, hello, we learned before. But you say Buena Sera for Good Evening. I thought it was Buena Notte (thanks a lot Italian Podcast! leading me astray...) And Grazie for thank you, and Prego means, no problem. Anana is pineapple and arancia is orange. And Farmacia is the pharmacy. Which we visited. Twice.
I got sick the first full day we were there! Sniffles at first, and then a sore throat (first trip - found the arancia flavored with vitamin C cough drops all by myself, thanks!), and then just miserable sinus congestion and general sickie (second trip, had to mime nasal congestion and drainage to get the right stuff, fun though).
But we didn't let a little thing like a cold slow us down. We walked EVERYWHERE. And still didn't see all we wanted to see. We covered at least 8 miles a day ( we Google Mapped it to measure our routes later (we started recording our routes on the maps provided by the hotel to document them). We saw the Pope - which was cool, even if I'm no longer a practicing Catholic. *gasp! I know...sorry Grammy!*
It was just wonderful. Despite getting sick I have no complaints. I'd go back in a heartbeat. We both feel sad that we can't just jaunt out and down to the Spanish Steps. And the pizza. How I miss the pizza! And seeing Sbarro in the airport on our way back made me laugh...and then sob a little. "Italian" pizza you say? No...I know better. You are nothing like the real thing. Because, first of all, they don't serve it in rounds cut into slices. So...you're missing the point there.
Anyway, I took 1462 pictures. I ate pizza for lunch, ever. single. day. Yes, it was wonderful. I had spaghetti twice (b/c the first time tasted like American spaghetti WE make and I was CONVINCED there had to be something better - there was). And we threw a coin into the Trevi fountain, backwards over the opposite shoulder like you're supposed to...so hopefully we'll be going back sometime.
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