Rome. (Part 2)

Saturday May 5th

Before I continue on with the day I wanted to write down a few details about the food.

For breakfast each morning we had a combination of the following:  bowl of cereal, fruit, yogurt, juice or bread with nutella. 

I thought the yogurt was kind of gross, the cereal was normal just in itty bitty boxes, the juice was amazing, and the milk was very creamy and slightly warm.

But it was still pretty good.

For lunch we had sandwiches, (Just cheese and meat), chips, fruit, and cookies.

Throughout the day we would stop for treats, mostly Gelato.

 (I talk more about the dinners each day.)

Oh and every night we would come home and take some biscuits and spread them with a lot of nutella and enjoy that and a warm glass of milk!

All in all the food was pretty good.

Mostly just the Gelato!

And one other thing, we walked EVERYWHERE.

Taking occasional buses and taxis.

 You wouldn't believe how sore our feet got, oh my gosh.

But it was good exercise and we definitely got a feel for the city.

Today, we planned on spending most of the day at the Colosseum.

(Keep in mind we were here to tour like crazy but mostly to get footage of the most famous things as well as the coolest looking shots. So some days my dad and Chris spent the entire day at one place just moving around to different angles and waiting for the sunset and stuff.)

Like many other major cities in the world Rome has tons and tons of street sellers.
They are everywhere.
 You would not believe how many times we were approached by these sellers.

It was crazy.

One thing they sold that we liked is this laser that can shoot like 5 kilometers. 

It is crazy how bright it is and how far it can go.

Oh and it is so strong if you even shine it on a bird it will go tumbling down.

I'm not even kidding.

(Thank you Chris for the demonstration!)

Anyway, the sellers absolutely love to bargain, and so do we so we made a contest out of it to see who could get it for the cheapest.

The sellers were mostly trying to sell them for 15-25 euros.

Keep in mind that our exchange rate is like 30% more than the euro.

So Chris was proud when he got one for $20.

Emerson got one for 15 euros.

And the winners are....

Sophia and I who each got one for 10 euros.

Yep the girls won!

We are pro bargainers I'm telling you.

You should see us in action.

 Chilling outside.

The weather was perfect today.

Here is a cool shot Emerson shot with his Iphone of the inside of the Colosseum.

(You can see Sophia and I in the front corner.)

 Here is the "stage" where they had the gladiatorial contests and public events.

(Mostly where they killed slaves.)

The stage itself is no longer there so what you see behind me is what it looked like under the stage, with all the tunnels where they kept all the wild animals and such.

Pretty crazy and kind of sad.

Apparently it is capable of seating over 50,000 spectators.

Hanging out inside while they film like crazy.

(Don't worry, we helped a ton too.)

We then ate lunch on a little hill right outside the Colosseum.

It was amazing to think about where we were sitting and that right in front of us was this incredible piece of Roman history.

I think I'll always remember lunch that day.

After lunch we decide to venture off again and find that super fun shopping street again.
(Via del Corso.)

As we were heading down, my dad gave us some money and said, "Okay please try not to buy anything stupid."

I'm not kidding when I say that 10 seconds later a seller approached him with this cheap plastic statue thing of a few famous things in Italy.

My dad immediately called out to Emerson saying, "Hey do you want this?"

Haha oh my gosh dad and you tell us not to buy anything stupid.

Very funny, mostly if you were there though.

As we were walking we saw this little line-up of mimes.

These ones were dumb because they didn't even do anything funny.

We even put 1 euro in their little cup and they didn't even move.

Secretly I was glad about this because if one of them would have stood up and come up to me I think I would have peed my pants.

They are kind of freaky looking.

 Aunti Hilary will greatly appreciate this picture.

But we found the famous Accessorize and completely flipped out.

(We love this store and first discovered it in London.)

Another gelato stop.

Hands down this place had the best Gelato.

 Here's another dumb moment.

So we were standing out looking at all the flavors when Sophia pointed to one and asked me how to pronounce it.

I told her, "it is Tiramasu" pretty much how it sounds.

Well, Emerson and I went on to order and as it came to her turn she pointed to it and said, "I will have a scoop of "Tiramusa."

Oh my gosh, that Italian worker got this little smile but was very polite.

Although, I'm sure he was thinking, "stupid Americans."

Haha.

Oh she also called the Colosseum,  "the colossum or colestrum."

Haha when she said that Chris was like "I'm pretty sure that is moms milk or something."

Okay I love you Sophie and your inability to pronounce words.

We were so smart and caught ourselves a bus right back to Colosseum to pick up dad, Chris, and Steve.

(It's harder than you think especially since there are like a million bus stops and buses and everything is in Italian.)
So cheers to us!

 We then ate dinner on this street.

I had spaghetti which was pretty good.

As we were eating here we noticed that the street and people on it were a little different.

I'll just say that as we were leaving we looked up and saw this huge rainbow sign.

Yep.

After we enjoyed more Gelato and some nutella crepes.

What a day!

Sunday May 6th

(A very rainy day)

 Goofing off together in the morning.

I apologize for my butt taking up half the picture haha. 

Most awkward angle.

 Being cute in the rain.

It was seriously pouring.

K this is clever huh?!

 And I apologize but this is hilarious!

Sorry to anyone this might offend.

 Shooting some more in the rain.

Sophia, Emerson, and me were in charge of holding umbrellas over the cameras and gear.

Definitely strengthened my arm muscles this trip.

(Right in front of me is Steve).

The beautiful view.

 Just another beautiful view.

Pictures don't do it justice I promise.

So we are all pretty much drenched, our shoes soaking wet, and we were starving because even though we had packed our lunch we couldn't find anywhere dry to eat it.

So as we were walking around we came to this little cafe.

We decided to go in and try some hot chocolate.

BEST hot chocolate ever.

The guy took scoops of dark chocolate Gelato and melted it completely while mixing it with cream.

Okay there just aren't words.

Anyway we never ended up finding a place to eat our lunch so we ate it standing up underground waiting for the train.

So fun!

 Walking down the Spanish steps.

An in action photo.

Notice me holding the umbrella.

Yep I am really good at it!

They call it Gelati I guess.

 Look how beautiful and yummy.

(This was a smaller place, most places had like 25 different flavors to choose from.)

 Back to the Trevi Fountain to get a few more evening shots.

While were taking this picture a guy next to us had this interesting contraption that had a magnet on the end.

He would just plop it in the water and collect all the coins.

Haha poor guy.

 Pinocchio!

I don't have a picture but we ate dinner in a part of the city that was well known for its food.

We started off with some harder bread topped with pears, cheese, and honey.

It sounds gross, but it was actually really good.

And then I of course had to have the Margherita pizza again.

And it was incredible.

I'm seriously in love with the pizza there.

 The Pantheon.

It is the most preserved of all Roman buildings.

It was first built in 80 AD as a temple to all the ancient Gods of Rome, but after being destroyed by a fire it was rebuilt in 126 AD.

It was then converted to a Christian church and is also a tomb for some well known people.

It was a gorgeous view because of all the lights and the rain just made the ground sparkle like crazy.

That night I called Michael while sitting right under it.

Pretty cool!

While walking back we came across this teeny tiny cutie.

Yep it is real.

I'm curious as to who actually drives it around.

We made it back to the apartment after an entire day in the pouring day.

But the rain didn't stop us.

Even though at times we kind of wanted to go back to the apartment and just play cards, (By we I mean Sophia, Emerson and me haha)

I'm really glad we didn't because the rain that day just made our 3rd day in Rome all the more memorable.

Monday May 6th

(Our last day.)

 The Swiss guards guarding the streets around St. Peter's Basilica.

The Pope lives somewhere right around here.

 Hanging out at St. Peter's square.

We went shopping for a bit and I found Olivia some stunning tights and a cute little bikini.

It's actually too big for her this year sadly.

 After hiking uphill for like an hour we came to this wonderful view.

A lookout to all of Rome.

Chris was planning on spending the rest of the day shooting here.

So the rest of us headed off to climb to the top of St. Peters.

 We of course had to try a cannoli.

The cherry was an interesting twist but it was still very good!

 After what seemed like a million stairs straight up, we made it to the top of St. Peters.

I will admit that I complained a bit during the climb threatening to turn around but I made it, we all did. 

And I'm glad because the view was incredible.

Not our best picture but here we are!

 Inside St. Peters.

My dad touching St. Peter's feet.

The Swiss guards again!

They told us that there were 110 guards guarding the grounds 24/7.

Well, we ended up making our way back up to Chris who was still shooting at the lookout.

Sophia, Emerson, Steve, and me decided to venture off to find a grocery store.

Because all the grocery stores close at 8:00 pm we had no luck.

So after picking up dad and Chris we took a bus back near our apartment and found a cute little restaurant to eat at.

It was actually really good. 

I had bruschetta, cheese stuffed balls, and margherita pizza.

A perfect dinner to finish the trip off.

We went back to the apartment and got all packed up since we would be leaving at 7:00 am that next morning.
The flight to Atlanta was so much fun.
My dad, Sophia, Emerson, and I all sat right in a row.
It was business class so we had a lot of leg room.
We had our own tvs with tons of different movies, tv shows, games, and music.
Of course the food was airplane food and the bathrooms were still freaky.
But we had about as much fun as you can when you fly for 10 straight hours.

After 17 hours of flying I finally made it back to Olivia.

We were so excited to see each other and held hands the entire way home.

I spent the night at my parents and then jumped on another plane that next morning to go back home.

I was so unbelievably excited to see Michael and so was Olivia.

It was one of those things were I was so excited to be home but at the same time was really missing Rome.

I'm grateful to my dad for taking me on this unforgettable trip, and I'm thankful for Sophia, Emerson, Steve, and Chris for making it unbelievably hilarious and fun.

It's one of those things that I look back on and can hardly believe I did all those things, saw all those places.

So just when I start to cry as I remember all the fun unforgettable times and start missing it, I think of this quote, 

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

And that's what I do.