We spent a few hours in Dublin's airport waiting for our plane to arrive, which gave us a chance to take a breath and review the events of the past week. Before we knew it we were on the plane heading to Italy! The flight took us over the alps, which were extremely impressive, and landed in Rome around 9:00. The airport and parking lot was pretty busy with arriving passengers, cars, buses, and taxis. We both noticed the language difference right away. Neither of us spoke Italian, so we were equally confused. After wandering about the parking lot trying to find a way to the city, we asked a bus driver if he spoke English. He replied, "Yes," so we asked him if his bus went to the train station. He responded with a blank stare. I guess his English wasn't so great :P Eventually we found out
that his bus went where we wanted, so we hopped on for the short ride into the heart of Rome. The city was absolutely massive. Its suburbs extended for what seemed like forever, and the inner city is a jumbled maze of cramped streets that always seem to be full of people and parked cars. My directions told us that our hostel was located right across the street from the train station, but all we saw were huge, neon signs with Chinese symbols.
The block was full of family-run shops and Chinese restaurants, but we eventually learned that this was Rome's Chinatown. Eventually we found our hostel - it was above a family-run Chinese place and run by a Chinese family. They were super friendly and we were pleasantly surprised when they asked us what time we wanted breakfast! After dropping off our things we met up with Anna and relaxed in our room for the night. We walked Anna back to her hostel (where a bunch of people from Cassandra's program were also staying) and then wandered the streets looking for food. I was starting to sway while walking and stopped talking, which I'm told are the telltale signs that Pat is hungry. We found a little pizza takeout place, and I got to enjoy my first piece of real Italian pizza. It was the best pizza I've ever eaten. Period.
We didn't know what to expect for breakfast, and it arrived at 8 a.m. It wasn't much, and most of the stuff was strange. It consisted of a funky orange-ish juice, some awful cappuccino/milk-like substance, a lemon pudding filled croissant, and a coffee cake kind of thing. We found this all oddly hilarious, so we attempted to eat what we could. We planned a huge walking tour of most of Rome the night before, so we met up with Anna and Elizabeth (a girl from Cassandra's program) and got to walking. Our first stop was the Colosseum, where we got in line for tickets and then found out that
Anna and Elizabeth's tickets from the day before didn't let them back in, so we decided to come back to go inside later. After walking through Constantine's arch and around the ruins, we stumbled onto the Mouth of Truth. It's a giant stone slab with a face carved into it.
People go to the Mouth of Truth and put a hand into its mouth. The story is that if you're a liar, the mouth will bite you, but if you're a truthful person it won't. Fortunately our group was bite-free.
We walked through more confusing streets, found a few back alleys, and made our way to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. The way Rome works is that you use your map as a general reference to your location since there are millions of streets all over the place. You wander along a makeshift path through the maze of streets and enjoy the monuments and enormous buildings that seem to be on every street corner. It's an amazing city, but it would take a ton of time to fully explore it. After making our way along a few more streets we found the Pantheon and then traveled along to Trevi Fountain. After tossing our coins behind our backs (to find true love) into the fountain, we walked to the Spanish steps. It seemed appropriate since the girls were spending half a year in Spain, and the steps didn't disappoint.
There were tons of people just chilling at the steps and at the fountain. We went to a sandwich shop to buy some things for lunch, and we made our way up the steps and a hill to a huge park, Villa Borghese, where we had a picnic in the Italian sunshine. After lunch, Elizabeth and Anna went to explore more of the city, and Cassandra and I headed back to go inside the Colosseum and the ancient ruins. Both were amazing to explore, but our cameras had died and our legs were killing us, so we walked back to our hostel to nap for a few hours before finding food for supper. After relaxing and watching half of a movie, we decided to find an Irish pub to watch some football while we ate. We got pizza from a takeout place, watched Barcelona play Real Madrid (two of the best clubs in Spain), and chatted with the Irish bartender for a few hours. The pizza was, once again, the best thing either of us had ever eaten. After the game finished we called it a night and made our way back to the hostel to crash into our beds. We decided to evaluate how we felt in the morning to determine whether or not we would venture over to the Vatican City or sleep in and take an afternoon train to Sorrento.
Sleep won. The day had taken all of our energy, so we attempted to enjoy our breakfast a second time, took showers, packed up our things, and ventured out to find a market to buy supplies for lunch on the train. After a little walk around Chinatown we found a local Italian supermarket. We stocked up on drinks, snacks, and sandwich material so we could have lunch on the train. After grabbing our bags and checking out of the hostel, we got our train tickets and navigated the tunnels underneath Termini station to find our train's platform. Rome had taken tons of our energy, so
we were happy to sit through a train ride down Italy's coast to Naples, where we hopped on a local train down the Amalfi coast toward Sorrento. Little did we know that we were in for four of the most relaxing days ever!
We spent a few hours in Dublin's airport waiting for our plane to arrive, which gave us a chance to take a breath and review the events of the past week. Before we knew it we were on the plane heading to Italy! The flight took us over the alps, which were extremely impressive, and landed in Rome around 9:00. The airport and parking lot was pretty busy with arriving passengers, cars, buses, and taxis. We both noticed the language difference right away. Neither of us spoke Italian, so we were equally confused. After wandering about the parking lot trying to find a way to the city, we asked a bus driver if he spoke English. He replied, "Yes," so we asked him if his bus went to the train station. He responded with a blank stare. I guess his English wasn't so great :P Eventually we found out 
that his bus went where we wanted, so we hopped on for the short ride into the heart of Rome. The city was absolutely massive. Its suburbs extended for what seemed like forever, and the inner city is a jumbled maze of cramped streets that always seem to be full of people and parked cars. My directions told us that our hostel was located right across the street from the train station, but all we saw were huge, neon signs with Chinese symbols.
The block was full of family-run shops and Chinese restaurants, but we eventually learned that this was Rome's Chinatown. Eventually we found our hostel - it was above a family-run Chinese place and run by a Chinese family. They were super friendly and we were pleasantly surprised when they asked us what time we wanted breakfast! After dropping off our things we met up with Anna and relaxed in our room for the night. We walked Anna back to her hostel (where a bunch of people from Cassandra's program were also staying) and then wandered the streets looking for food. I was starting to sway while walking and stopped talking, which I'm told are the telltale signs that Pat is hungry. We found a little pizza takeout place, and I got to enjoy my first piece of real Italian pizza. It was the best pizza I've ever eaten. Period.
We didn't know what to expect for breakfast, and it arrived at 8 a.m. It wasn't much, and most of the stuff was strange. It consisted of a funky orange-ish juice, some awful cappuccino/milk-like substance, a lemon pudding filled croissant, and a coffee cake kind of thing. We found this all oddly hilarious, so we attempted to eat what we could. We planned a huge walking tour of most of Rome the night before, so we met up with Anna and Elizabeth (a girl from Cassandra's program) and got to walking. Our first stop was the Colosseum, where we got in line for tickets and then found out that 
Anna and Elizabeth's tickets from the day before didn't let them back in, so we decided to come back to go inside later. After walking through Constantine's arch and around the ruins, we stumbled onto the Mouth of Truth. It's a giant stone slab with a face carved into it. 
People go to the Mouth of Truth and put a hand into its mouth. The story is that if you're a liar, the mouth will bite you, but if you're a truthful person it won't. Fortunately our group was bite-free. 
We walked through more confusing streets, found a few back alleys, and made our way to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. The way Rome works is that you use your map as a general reference to your location since there are millions of streets all over the place. You wander along a makeshift path through the maze of streets and enjoy the monuments and enormous buildings that seem to be on every street corner. It's an amazing city, but it would take a ton of time to fully explore it. After making our way along a few more streets we found the Pantheon and then traveled along to Trevi Fountain. After tossing our coins behind our backs (to find true love) into the fountain, we walked to the Spanish steps. It seemed appropriate since the girls were spending half a year in Spain, and the steps didn't disappoint. 
There were tons of people just chilling at the steps and at the fountain. We went to a sandwich shop to buy some things for lunch, and we made our way up the steps and a hill to a huge park, Villa Borghese, where we had a picnic in the Italian sunshine. After lunch, Elizabeth and Anna went to explore more of the city, and Cassandra and I headed back to go inside the Colosseum and the ancient ruins. Both were amazing to explore, but our cameras had died and our legs were killing us, so we walked back to our hostel to nap for a few hours before finding food for supper. After relaxing and watching half of a movie, we decided to find an Irish pub to watch some football while we ate. We got pizza from a takeout place, watched Barcelona play Real Madrid (two of the best clubs in Spain), and chatted with the Irish bartender for a few hours. The pizza was, once again, the best thing either of us had ever eaten. After the game finished we called it a night and made our way back to the hostel to crash into our beds. We decided to evaluate how we felt in the morning to determine whether or not we would venture over to the Vatican City or sleep in and take an afternoon train to Sorrento.
Sleep won. The day had taken all of our energy, so we attempted to enjoy our breakfast a second time, took showers, packed up our things, and ventured out to find a market to buy supplies for lunch on the train. After a little walk around Chinatown we found a local Italian supermarket. We stocked up on drinks, snacks, and sandwich material so we could have lunch on the train. After grabbing our bags and checking out of the hostel, we got our train tickets and navigated the tunnels underneath Termini station to find our train's platform. Rome had taken tons of our energy, so 
we were happy to sit through a train ride down Italy's coast to Naples, where we hopped on a local train down the Amalfi coast toward Sorrento. Little did we know that we were in for four of the most relaxing days ever!
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