Turns Out I Don't Speak Italian

Let me just start by saying that Italy may be one of the coolest countries I've ever seen (and I've seen almost five total including the U.S. and Canada). Spain definitely has some competition in the favorite country category. The food is better, the heating is better and they actually have grass (which was nowhere to be found in Granada on the poo day). The coolest part is that in the middle of this huge city there are ruins everywhere. Pieces of buildings from the Roman Empire are still scattered throughout the city and its amazing to see. But even with it's grass and heat and edible food, Spain still has a bigger piece of my heart.



We got to Rome at 10 in the morning and checked into our hotel around noon. We visited all of the touristy stuff that we could handle for one day and then we went back to the hotel and passed out. My biggest complaint about Rome is it's transportation (or lack thereof). They have only 2 metro lines and neither of them take you into the middle of the city. I think we walked more that first day than we did the entire week before in Granada. The next day we had a guided tour of the city via bus and we saw the Colosseum and Vatican City. We didn't get a chance to go into anything there but it was still amazing to see. The Pope actually addressed the people on Sunday at 9 in the morning and since I'm neither Catholic or a morning person, I slept right through that.



Saturday Laura and I went to Florence to see the city and a few of her friends. On the train ride over there, we got kicked out of first class and the dining car before we actaally figured out where we were supposed to sit. The city was amazing and we had so much fun with her friends. They took us to a place where you can see the entire city and about 10 people came up and they all brought food and wine and we hung out until sunset. SO awesome. We had to use the bathroom in the middle of the outing and the only one around us was at a little bar down the road from us. We each had to buy a drink before they would let us use the bathroom, creating a viscous circle... we went back there three times throughout the day.



On the train ride back to Rome we encountered the creepiest of all creepers who, as luck would have it, worked on the train and told us where to sit. The entire car he put us on was empty and he came in and sat in the same compartment as us... We created a barrier using the middle seats and we were huddled as close to the wall as possible. When he got up to leave he shook our hands. Two minutes later I was in the bathroom scrubbing like I've never scrubbed before.




And now I have to go scrub my brain.