When in Rome...

Ciao...

We did decide to stay the extra night in Florence to rest up and get better. It was a terrible rainy day so we just got take away pizza and called it a night after watching some one tree hill (one three hill to the old wolfpack haha) on melanies itouch. We went to bed around 9pm so even with needing a lot of rest, we were up around 830am. We thought we would go down to the train station early so that we could use the internet we had been deprived of during our florence stay. We left Stefano his statue of liberty of bourbon and also bought him a gelato cake since he so generously let us use his villa for free for 5 days. what a good start to couchsurfing haha. when we got down to the train station in signa the internet place was closed...maybe things arent open in florence on fridays? idk...it was 10am so not like it was too early. oh well. we hopped on our train crazy person free this time and rode into firenze station to get on our train to rome. we arrived with about 30mins before the next train left so we got some orange juice for our vitamin c treatment to get better and hung out trying to ignore the obnoxious umbrella weilding solicitors bothering everyone. those people were one of my least favorite things about florence. it didnt help that it rained half of the time we were there so they seemed to always be out. once our train track was posted we headed over to the train to board and hang out. We saw that the first car wasnt too full so decided ust to get on that one. as we lugged our bags in the area we realized our friend Tony from our cinque terre just so happened to be in that car too! and just happened to be heading to rome as well. such a small world when you start running into people you know in europe. the train ride was good despite me drinking too much orange juice and having to pee in the nasty train bathroom which i typically try to avoid...ive decided the trains in europe are great. despite the stops that they make, the gentle rocking and the italian countryside flying by just puts you right to sleep. ive had some great naps on the train. once we arrived in rome we said goodbye to tony who was staying at a hostel a bit down from ours. we checked in and then headed over to the spanish steps which were about a 25min walk from our hostel. the steps were beautiful and also surrounded by fabulous expensive stores we wished we could shop in. Mel got some awesome lemon shrimp alfredo like pizza which was really amazing. we headed back to our hostel for the free pasta dinner that they provide. We ate with our roommates, michelle (an asian kenyan who spoke english) and jonathan? i think his name is... a gay guy who is super fun. we watched 40 year old virgin with a bunch of others in the common room followed by pretty woman- one of the best movies ever. we had been craving vegetables so we went to the market and had sliced tomatoes along with our pasta which was really good. i ran upstairs to grab something and what did i find when walking into our 4 bd room? michelle, the 4'8 asian kenyan, prob age 40, was standing on top of the desk holding one of jonathans flipflops. feeling awkward, i tried to close the door but she told me she was trying to kill misquitos because in kenya they carry malaria. even though we were in rome currently...idk. it was an interesting little experience. after our movies we went to bed. michelle was already sleeping having gone to bed at 9pm. we came in at about 1030 and jonathan was home by 11. as we all tried to sleep i realized i had the ghetto bed. despite the springs stabbing into my back the mattress wouldnt have been that uncomfortable if it werent for the extreme tilt to it- as though a 500lb man had been laying on the one edge for about a week. this made my sleeping a bit of a challenge along with the concrete pillow. i think melanie fared slightly better but this was no ritz carlton. at least its clean. when we got up in the morning we had breakfast and lattes since we didnt know how to read any of the other options. our italian has not improved yet haha. we walked down to the colleseum (sp? i know that looks wrong) and decided to do a guided tour of both it and palatino hill. the colleseum was exactly how you have heard it to be. Truly breath taking. it is so huge and intriquite...plus to know what went on inside it is really incredible. there were about 6-8 gladiator shows a year where at least 35-40ppl died each time. overall they predicted that about a quarter million people died inside the arena. we both loved it. next we headed over to the palatino hill where we had a british tour guide who reminded me of my mom. idk why but mel agreed. this tour ended up being both of our favorite things we have gone to see during the whole trip. the ruins and the stories behind them were so interesting as well as receiving a spark notes edition of ancient roman history. we got to see the rarest marble in the world, purple marble from egypt, as well as bright yellow marble from northern africa. the leftovers from the palace in which 9 roman emperors ruled from and added to was amazing. this place was so huge it was almost unfathomable. pretty sure i took about 300 pictures so it is well documented haha. After this tour we headed down to the roman forum and walked along the main street. a lot was being excavated and it was said that the real rome is about 9 meters above everything that was build back in ancient times. mel and i agreed that this was our favorite touring day all together in combination of everything we got to see. we walked back to our hostel and stopped for lunch at a little trattoria where we got smoked ham pizza and prawns with arugala on it which was called something funny but i cant think of it in the moment. ill have to ask mel to remind me. we met a sister and brother from la at the next table over and are planning to go out for dinner and drink at 7ish tonight with them. they are just here for 10days and its nice to hang out with some yanks for a change. siesta time now, hi to all and we will post again soon!

prego,

<3 Karin