Sissy Trip!

Keenan's friend Stefano was with us last night for Bryan's birthday. His family has a house just outside of Rome, so he spent the night at our apartment. We planned to go to the Porta Portese market this morning since it's only open on Sundays. My alarm went off at 9, but since we were all up so late the night before and still hadn't really adjusted to Italy time, we totally didn't get up. But we decided not to completely waste the day, so by 12:30, all of us were out of bed, and by 1 we left the apartment. We ate some kebabs and jumped on the metro toward the Trevi Fountain. We had to walk a little ways, but once we got there, it was beautiful. I think Beth and Kayla were both surprised by how big it was. We all threw a coin and refilled out water bottles (so far the water near the Trevi fountain is the most delicious) and then we headed toward the Pantheon.

I have a really awesome picture of the girls' faces when we rounded the corner and they saw how massive the building is. We took some pictures and then headed inside. It was really beautiful, as always. Beth and I got a little teary in front of Raphael's tomb. It's amazing that one of the most influential artists of all time is buried in the Pantheon. Crazy! After we collected everyone, we walked down a few small streets toward Piazza Navona. Kayla really wanted gelato, and I knew I had to take her to Frigidarium, which is near the piazza where I went to school here. Once we got to the piazza, we looked at the fountain (Beth and I discussed the varying theories about the correlation between the Fountain of the Four Rivers and the church in front of it: Saint Agnes) and then we headed up the street toward the gelateria.

It was just as delicious as I remember! I got banana, which is what I always get, and stracciatella (chocolate chip, kinda) and Kayla got mint chocolate chip. Beth got the flavor that I told her tastes like Waffle Crisp cereal. They dip it in chocolate that hardens, like at Dairy Queen but so much better. Ahh! It was sooooooo good! I want to wrap the whole place up and take it home.

They boys didn't want gelato, so they went up the street a ways to sit in a restaurant where it was cool. So we continued about 100 yards to my school. There wasn't anyone there and the building was closed. I was hoping Bruno, the building's owner, would be outside so I could talk to him, but he wasn't. We were just sitting near the doors when Bruno stuck his head out of a window on the second floor and started talking to me. He said I looked familiar, and I explained that I had studied there in 2009. We had a very nice conversation for like 10 minutes. I remember way more Italian than I thought I did, for sure enough to carry on a legit conversation. I'm so glad I saw him! Now if I could only find Mario...

Once we found the boys, we waked toward Piazza di Spagna where the Spanish Steps are so we could meet up with Stefano's parents. His dad is hilarious! He and I had a really great conversation in a mix of English and Italian, both of us trying to practice each other's languages as much as possible. We were invited to their house in Catania, which supposedly is huge, to hear him play the piano and just to hang out. They were really nice. It was cool to have a family sort of feel, even while traveling. I think it'll be nice to have a mix of vacation and home once we go to Catania.

The Spanish Steps was really the last major thing we did. Keenan went back to Candia with Stefano's family in their car so they could get Stefano's stuff out of our room, so the rest of us tried to take the metro, but the stop we needed to hop on at was under renovation and we couldn't take it there. We ended up walking quite a ways down the road and through Villa Borghese, a giant park, to get to the next stop. But it was beautiful. We ended up at the top of the park, just above Piazza del Popolo and could see the entire city from a little look-out point. We got some really great pictures and then jumped on the metro to our stop.

Kayla is all about learning Italian right now. She spent the entire day counting to 10, saying the alphabet, the days of the week, the months, left and right, and learning to say things like "no one cares" and "rude!" We realized that it's probably really funny for the Italians to hear us walking around, because she will literally just start counting to 10 over and over.

We didn't do anything at night because all of us came home and passed out. We decided to do the Vatican on Monday, so we needed sleep, but Kayla, Bryan and Beth decided to screw around until 2 am, which eventually woke me up. I had already slept a few hours, so I was pretty much up. Then Beth fell asleep and Kayla, Bryan and I screwed around until around 3:30 when we finally decided that waking up in 3 hours was going to be tough.

And that was the end of day 2!

So we didn't go to bed on Thursday night in an effort to make sure we were tired enough to sleep on the plane. The original plan was to stay up on our 6 hour flight to Philly and the sleep the 8 hours into Rome. It would have put us right on track with Rome's time zone, since we landed at 8:30am.

Yeah, didn't really work out.

We slept on and off in the first flight, a little in the terminal waiting for the connecting flight, and then Beth and I took a Tylenol PM and passed out on the second flight, but not enough to sleep well and for any long period of time.

Needless to say, we were all really exhausted by this point, having been up for pretty much 48 hours with tid bits of sleep in between. But we FINALLY landed in Rome!!

We went to get our luggage, and were afraid that our big carry-on had gotten lost because they made us check it in San Diego when they ran out of room in the overhead compartments and didn't give us a luggage tag. But we found everything and went straight to a bathroom where we spent a good 30 minutes changing, brushing our teeth, and attempting to appear as though we hadn't just spent 17 hours auditioning to be contortionists (NEVER fly US Airways. Worst airline ever).

We then spent 2 hours waiting for the boys, trying to figure out if they were lost, hurt, or just really stupid. I was thinking the third one... Turns out Mt. Etna erupted so their flights from Catania were canceled. After spending tons on a pay phone to call my mommy in the middle of the night in CA, we figured out through her and via Facebook that they were trying to get to Rome, and we should just meet them at the hotel.

We took a shuttle to Residence Candia, the apartments I lived in when I studied here, and checked in. Aldo was at the front desk! I was so excited to see him! We got up to our room, and the three of us unpacked lightly and then went immediately to get some gelato. It was delicious! Kayla asked like 12 more times yesterday to go get more. We went grocery shopping at Tuodi to get bread and brie and some wine and spumante for Bryan's birthday, and then after bringing everything back, decided to go do some sight-seeing while we waited for the boys to get here. So we just walked around the corner to the Vatican. No biggie

I think Beth and Kayla were pretty impressed with San Pietro, which was exciting for me. I've been really afraid that after 2 years of talking this place up, they'd be underwhelmed. We just walked around the piazza in front of it, and then headed back to get the boys.

They were due to arrive on the metro so we headed over to the station and waited. We sat for a good 10 minutes before Kayla declared that she felt like the entire trip so far consisted of waiting for them to arrive. HAHA! At that point, it was kind of true, although it wasn't at all their faults. When we saw them get off the metro, we completely attacked them. It was so good to see them after so long!

Once we were all settled, we ate some pizza and kebabs at Pronto Pizza, and then decided that since it was Bryan's birthday, and all he really wanted to do was see the Colosseum, we'd head there first. So we hopped on the metro and rode to the Colosseum. We decided not to wait in line and go inside since it would have taken forever (and the outside is more impressive anyway) but we walked around the entire thing and took lots of pictures.

Eventually we headed back to Candia for a nap and then got up to get ready for B's big birthday bash. We ate some dinner first and then went to Scholar's, which is COMPLETELY different. They expanded into the space next door, so the entry is the same and they have a make-shift hallway up that leads you right and into the bar. I was actually kind of bummed that it wasn't the same, even though it was essentially the same place. We all lied and said we went to UC Rome so we could get cheaper drinks (American's get discounts if they study in Rome) and stayed there for a few hours before we headed to La Maison, which is also completely different and was super empty.

And then we came home, I made some gnocchi and Bryan skyped with his family while everyone else slowly left the room or climbed into bed to go to sleep. Apparently, he was on the phone for hours after we had all knocked out.

And that was the end of "day one."

Pace!
Erin

Hello there!

We leave for the airport in 2 hours! And sadly, we finished packing about an hour ago. Last minute is just our style We're all excited, but only if we really think about it. It's almost too unreal that we're going, so it still hasn't set in. We'll arrive in Rome at around midnight CA time, but 9am in Italy. It's Bryan's birthday, so we should have a fairly action-packed day, so long as we fight the jet lag.

Next post will be from Residence Candia, Roma!!

Ciao!