2 days in Rome

We got into Rome and went straight to the hotel. We got a great deal on a 4 star hotel called pineta palace. When we got off the subway and started asking directions so we could get to the hotel we went into a little bar and we just had an x on a map in the general location of the hotel and we couldn't remember the name of it, the funny thing is the guy knew exactly what we were looking for and what bus to take so that was pretty cool. We got to the hotel, settled in and got ready to go out on the town in rome!

our first stop was at the spanish steps in downtown rome. We passed a bunch of cool designer shops: dolce and gabana, gucci, armani, salvatore ferragamo, louis vuitton, all of the cool shops that I wanted to browse around in... sadly we didn't have enough time.W e took a bunch of pics on the spanish steps, I have no idea why they are famous (I bet it is something historic...duh). So after that we walked around some more and hit up trevi fountain and got some gelato, trevi fountain was way cool/pretty and reminded both of us of vegas ha! After that we went around some more and took some pictures of the Roman forums and then did a guided tour of the colloseum which was pretty cool since we learned a whole lot more that we would of if we didnt have our guide. He was also funny so it was worth the extra money. Interesting fact: the games at the coloseum were free, you got free food, free wine, free water, and I think free women (not sure on that one, I don't remember). Another funny thing the guy told us was that chicago in latin means to take a deuce... then he said so when people say your new president obama is from chicago..., he is from crap... people got a kick out of that. On a side note a lot of people have asked us if things are better with obama and if things have changed etc, so its funny that everyone is so interested in what is going on in the good old USA. Durning the tour it started to rain big time and we had to cut the tour short and stay under the cover of the coloseum most of the time, so we missed out on some stuff in it.


Next we went on to the Roman forums with the same guided tour, and also went up and got a history lesson on the circus maximus and the forums and Romes fore fathers Romulus and Ramos. I didn't know this but Rome was founded by Romulus and that is where the name came from. Also he killed Ramus so he could rule the land. The tradition of carrying your wife over the threshold when you get married and are going to replenish the earth for the first time comes from the raping of sai (sp). When the Romans didn't have any women they invited a village known for their beautiful women for a big party and got them drunk, scared the men away, scooped up the women in the way you carry one over the threshold and closed the castle doors behind them... I thought that was pretty neat. At this point we were super duper wet and decided to check out the pantheon, that was cool. At that point we were sick of being wet and cold so we decided to get some grub a dub dub. We asked around for a while and a nice lady told us where to get some good food. It was a pretty decent little place and we ended up staying there for a while and drying of/flirting with our cute brazilian waitresses. For some reason the place only had waitresses from brazil. So I showed off all of my portuguese that I learned in one semester of classes and she thought I spoke portuguese at first, then she realized I didn't but said I had a brazilian accent already and that if I went to live in brazil for a month she thought I would be fluent... haha fat chance, but it was a nice compliment (it didn't hurt that she was a looker either Rook and I were kinda fighting over who had a better shot with her like we always do). After that we went and used the internet and went to bed.

The next day we woke up around 8:30 and went to go do our laundry, its nice every once in a while to break up your everyday routine of site seeing and to do a normal task like washing your clothes. ps. it is super expensive to wash your clothes in italy it cost us like 20 bucks the first time and about 15 the second... so it cost us 35 buckaroonies to do 4 loads of laundry? go figure. Luckily there was an internet place close by and we were able to kill some time, it was also cool that the lady there started the wash for you, used the right detergent and dried and folded them for you if you wanted. We just let her dry them for us and we folded them ourselves, it was pretty convieniant. We walked into the internet place and the girl asked me if I knew spanish and if was I colombian, so right then and there I knew she was colombian and we got to talking and we are now facebook friends haha. I know I say this a lot, but its fun to be able to use my spanish and actually talk to someone instead of doing lots of listening, nodding of the head and one word answers. Funny thing is usually when I can get out a sentence or two people think I can speak italian or tell me I have a good accent (I guess I naturally pronounce things correctly, lucky for me).


So we got done with laundry and internet and headed out to the vatican and saint peter's square/basilica. Sorry dad we forgot to ask for carlo fortuno, but when we thought about it (after we left) we didn't really know who to ask, the funny thing is we asked about him in the duomo in milano. As grandpa would say we are a couple of lemon heads! On the way there we stopped and got some kebab's, they were really good. A kebab is supposedly 82% turkey 9% veal and the rest is yogurt and spices, well at least theirs was (it was really good). So we did the museums and the churches again. BTW saint peter's basilica is pretty amazing. Its hard to appreciate some of the churches when you see like 5-10 of them a day, but this one was huuuuuuuge and just had some insane statues in it that were way cool. After walking around the vatican and taking a bunch of pictures we decided to do some shopping. Bad idea. We only got to go to like one shop (dolce and gabana) since all of the freaking stores in Rome closed at 7:30... are you kidding me? I almost bought a sweet necklace with the italian good luck horn, but I know I can get it cheaper online (it was 160 euros but way cool). Then we decided to eat and we wanted to eat somewhere nice. We went to a place that a couple of people recommended and said was good. It was good and it was expensive, but tiny portions and nothing too amazing. We got an appetizer that was about 20 bucks and we thought the guy said it was 5 different kinds of meat... well it wasn't. Then we got a roast suckling pig and a bucatini alla amartriciana to split, long story short we should of just got the pasta. Everything else was just kinda average. After a 60 dollar meal we werent even full... that sucked. We wanted another kebab instead. After that we went home and started planning for Napoli!!!! (we are now in napoli, and have access to a computer with the people we are staying with so I will be able to put up some pictures some time tomorrow!)