Venice: I Could Float in a Gondola All Day (Thursday April 29 & Friday April 30)

None of us wanted to repeat the running to the train incident, so we alloted plenty of time to get to the train station, grab breakfast, find our platform, and board/find seats. It may have been a little unnecessary since our platform wasn't announced until about 10 minutes before our scheduled 9:30 departure and our seats were assigned, but nonetheless it limited the stress. The train was really nice, which it should be for the 42 euro we paid for a 2 hour ride. We all slept and listened to our ipods and enjoyed the ride. When we pulled into the Venice station, I loved it already. We had to cross this bridge that reminded me of the Tampa Bay Causeway with water surrounding us everywhere. We exited the train station and found ourselves facing the Grand Canal. Beautiful. Now to find our hostel.

The directions they gave us to go where a little vague... things like "walk straight to you get a square, continue straight and to the left, cross a bridge, turn right" etc. When we arrived at 2205, there were no signs indicating that this was indeed the "Venice Fish" but we rang the bell. No answer. Ah repeat of Paris. Ring again, a scrappy looking italian man popped his head out the window. Deja vu. He opened the door, and we stepped in another cellar looking room. Shady. He lead us upstairs and we exchanged the typical "oh geez, what did we get ourselves into" looks. He said our room wasn't ready yet, so we put our luggage in an open room, and got out of there as soon as possible. We promised to return to check in in a little while. We all looked at each other and laughed as we walked outside. The beady eyed italian man with the rat tail was not quite the host we were excited to have. Whatever, move on, enjoy the Venice day. We got pizza and sandwiches and sat by the canal and ate them. Good pizza... more crust than the other pizza I had had. After we finished our lunch, we wandered down the street, stopping to look at the shops and Venetian glass & Carnivale masks.

We crossed the Grand Canal and sought out how to get to the airport the next day. We had a 10 am flight so we wouldn't have much time for figuring things out in the morning. After 3 different stands and shops, and being scared by this nun talking to me in Italian, we finally found the tourist information office who explained what bus to take to get to Venice Treviso Airport the next morning. With that out of the way, we set out for our only other mission: a gondola ride. We were sure to ask the tourist office the standard rate for a gondola ride so we knew what to expect and not to get ripped off. 80 euro per boat. Worked out to be about 26 euro per person for a 40 minute ride, but as soon as we boarded our gondola, none of us regretted it.

Our gondola ride was 40 minutes of pure bliss. I could have stayed in that boat forever, just gently rowing along the canals peacefully. The gondoliers were really nice and the captain said he is a fifth generation gondolier. I told him that it was an awesome job, and he agreed. Just cruising on the canals in the sunshine everyday. If accounting doesn't work out, I'm moving to Venice, buying some stripes and becoming a gondola driver. It was such a serene ride. They picked us flowers.

I asked him if he could sing to us in Italian, but he said he had a terrible voice and wanted us to sing for him. I nominated Claire to sing for him, and she belted out "On My Own" while we paddled through the Venetian Canals. We weaved under the many bridges. There are no cars in Venice, just boats. Boat buses, boat taxis, boat mailmen, boat ambulances, boat police vehicles. My kind of town. The sun was warm, the wind was blowing enough to keep us comfortable, and I didn't want the ride to end. But like all good things, it came to an end.

We bid them farewell, and paid our money, and headed to find a cool snack. Gelato and slushes, perfect. We sat by the canal enjoying them. Then continued to wander and found another place to sit by the canal. Unfortunately, a garbage barge occupied the same space as us for a bit. Smelled like Berlin.

We wandered some more and then decided we should go back to the Venice Fish and check in so that we could continue to wander, find dinner, and enjoy the Venetian evening without worry. In hindsight, we should've probably just stayed away as long as possible. When we got back, we found the little Italian rat taking a nap on the couch in the common room. He didn't get up when we walked in, so we just stood there awkwardly. He finally arose and rambled on about people leaving our room, etc. We were confused but we followed him, picked up our bags, and followed him to our room. He opened a padlocked door (super super shady) and led us into our dusty closet of a room. He brought us our linens (which we had to pay for) and we looked at each other in digust. Stacy's bed had some kind of stain on the mattress, I was missing a pillow or blanket, but we quickly made our bed and left as soon as possible.

Before we left, Stacy asked the question on all of our minds....are you going to pad lock the door while we are in there? He looked us like we were crazy and accusing him of something, and said no. Relief.

Once we made it outside, we did the typical look to one another and just laugh. What else could we do. We continued down the street in search of the famous Rialto Bridge. Without a map we had to rely on signs and my sense of direction. But we eventually found it.

We enjoyed the scenery and then found a little cafe to have some water & coffee at. We decided to walk a little more before dinner. We sat along the canal on the docks enjoying the sun for a bit than headed to San Marco Square. Another beautiful square, another beautiful church.

So many canals, so many gondolas. I think the funniest moment was when we were walking behind a group of teenagers who were shouting to the people in the gondolas (who were asian). At first the girl said "bonjourno" then "bonjour" then "Konichiwa".

We found a little restaurant near the Rialto for dinner. I had pizza, and it was just okay. The dinner was not that good, and the breeze from the canal was kind of chilly. We were in no hurry to get back to our hostel. We wandered as slowly as we could, but Venice seems to shut down early, so we headed back to the Venice Fish. At one point, we considered going back to the hostel, getting our stuff and just sleeping in the airport. It would work if the airport was like O'Hare, but we figured there would be like 5 gates so not really conducive to spending the night. After trying to figure out a possible solution, we gave up, gave in, and returned to the Venice Fish.

We were happy to find our room unpadlocked, but not so happy when we got into our room and it was pitch black. We searched for light switch, none, we looked for a lamp, none, we looked for a ceiling light, none. We looked at each other, NO LIGHTS, what is this place, this padlocked cave we are paying 30 euro to sleep in? Claire was doing her nervous laugh, so she sought out the rat tail hostel worker to be like "ummm where is our light". I sat next to Curry, head in my hands, laughing. Just when you think things can't get anymore ridiculous, in comes the hostel worker, I glance up, only to be faced with a Michaelangelo's David apron.

I had always wondered WHO buys these ridiculous aprons, but now I know. I put my head back down in my hands to silence my laughter. He shows us our "lamp" and plugs it in for us. The lamp: a broomstick with two lightbulbs duct taped onto it. I was not at all tired so I went outside to the main common area full of people who seemed much happier to be staying at the Venice Fish. We sat on the balcony which was pretty nice, I mean the scenery was. We made friends with a Canadian named Matt who had been traveling for 7 months. He was pretty nice, but everyone else seemed a little odd. The hostel worker offered us sangria... and I decided to stick with the "never take candy from strangers" mantra on this one. I decided to give in and try to get to sleep. But we had to pay first. We had kind of hoped to sneak out without paying, since this place was just a joke. I literally slept in my jeans and sweater and used my jacket as a pillow. Claire got me a blanket but it was questionable so I just used it to cover my legs. It was not a good nights sleep all around. The bunk bed had no ladder to the top, and it was a little reeky deeky, and everytime I moved it rattled the pane of glass it was next to. Then in the middle of the night, this incredibly annoying dog wouldn't stop barking. Then people were yelling, music was bumping. I woke up at like 5 am, ready to get out. We made plans to leave the hostel at 6 am, even though we didn't have to be to our bus until 7:30.

None of us had slept well. Claire had woken to the annoying dog. Stacy had woken up to one of the girls in our hostel standing above her trying to shut the door. We were glad to get out. We bid a good riddance to the Venice Fish and sought out some breakfast and a little cafe by the Grand Canal. We had plenty of time to get to our bus, so sat at the cafe for a bit and we strolled along the Canal to the bus terminal.

Treviso Airport was about an hour away by bus, and we got there no problem. Claire had to check her bag due to all the things that she had acquired on the trip, and we made it through check in, security, and passport control without issue. Then just the wait for the boarding, which in these tiny little airports is always so crowded. We got on the plane and headed back to Dublin.

A rocky landing, through passport control, and on to the Aircoach. Traffic was worse than normal so it took us a bit to get home. Back to UCD for our last two weeks.

Florence: Under the Tuscan Sun (Wednesday April 28)

Stacy decided to sleep in, so Claire and I headed to the market for round two. We had a few things in mind that we wanted to purchase so after completing all our missions and Claire almost getting sucked into buying an Italian leather jacket, we headed towards San Croce Square, home to a chapel of the same name which is the resting place for legends Michaelangelo & Galileo. Claire decided she wanted to explore the inside of the church and take a closer look at the tombs of these priceless men, but I was feeling more like enjoying the sunshine & the day. So I sat on the steps, and relaxed.

Claire had a reservation to go into the Uffizi Gallery to look at art all afternoon, and I once again opted for the sunshine. I walked along the river and found a beach. Sounded like a good way to spend my afternoon. I walked down the banks and laid in the grass surrounded by daisies and little yellow flowers but the ants started crawling on me. Then I moved to the sand. Aborting any hopes of staying sandless, I flopped down and naturally got sand everywhere. I didn't care though, and I laid in the sand while the hot sun beamed down on me. I fell asleep for a bit until Claire texted me to come meet me. Join me at the beach was my reply.

We sat together on the beach for a bit, until I needed water. We found a fountain (all the water in Italy is drinkable out of the fountains) and continued walking around. We weaved through the backstreets to find the Galleria de Academia, stopping to get a pesto & mozzarella panini. Claire had another stop on her art day, to see Michaelangelo's David. I chose gelato & sunshine. Stacy was spending the day with her roommate so we met up with her to get the hostel key and we headed back so I could change out of my sandy clothes. My skin had the beachy feeling to it, and I laid in my towel on my bed and fell asleep. It was such a great nap, so good that Claire said she had to shake me a few times before I woke up.

We wanted to see the sunset from Piazza Michaelangelo so we headed that way. We made it to the top, out of breathe, and just in time to see the sun turn the sky into a rainbow of colors. Absolutely beautiful.

We watched the sun go down and then watched this man paint using only spray cans while blasting the PussyCat Dolls and All-Star by Smash Mouth.

Ofcourse the Piazza was also filled with the creeper Italian men.... typical. We got some pizza from a cafe and enjoyed it while we walked home. Claire had to use the computer to claim some ICS shifts for next semester so the nice hostel woman let us the computer. It was all good until this creeper came to the door and wanted us to let him in. No thank you. I did what most mature adults would do in the situation, I ducked under the desk, until he couldn't see us and just left.

We went to the train station to get our tickets for our train the next morning to Venice. Which turned out to be our saving grace, since according to the ticket machine we got the last 3 tickets. We headed home for a shower, to wash off the sand and beach feeling.

Felt like a day at the beach. Relaxing. Sunny. Wonderful.

Florence: Just Don't Happen Twice (Tuesday April 27)

We all slept really good. For me, it was a luxurious night of sleep because I had stolen the extra pillow off of extra bed. 2 pillows. Seriously luxury. I ditched the jeans and a tee for a cotton skirt and a tank top and flip flops. Change from traveler clothes to vacation clothes. We headed towards the San Lorenzo Market.

The San Lorenzo Market was huge, full of vendors selling leather, leather bags, leather wallets, leather belts, ties, scarfs, etc. etc. The vendors loved us for our American looks and Stacy's ging hair. We spent about an hour or more wandering the market, looking for the perfect gifts for those at home, and trying out our bartering skills. We wandering through the fish and meat market, which actually made me nauseous so I escaped outside as soon as I could. We found a cute cafe for lunch and enjoyed some bruschetta and ravioli.

We walked towards the river, crossed the Ponte Vecchio which was alive with jewelry stores, and headed up the hill to the Boboli Gardens. It was 10 euro to get into the gardens, but with our Irish Garda card proving we were EU citizens (temporarily at least) we only had to pay 5. We headed in and wandered with no ambitions, just taking it all in. We found a bench near a fountain surrounded by lemon trees and sat down enjoying the scenery and making jokes about which little kids that were touring the gardens best represented us.

It began to rain and we sought shelter in a little garden room until the rain subsided and we headed up the hill and more through the gardens. The hill was steep and a good work out, life's a climb, but the view is great. We could see the whole city and the mountains surrounding it. Perfect.

We sat on a bench for a bit and enjoyed the view. Then we continued to wander and found a cute little nook to enjoy.

It began to rain again so we found a stone gazebo carved in the hill and we sat inside listening to the rain. Written on the wall was a simple message "Happiness Only Real When Shared". Ironically after we returned from our Italian adventure, we watched the movie "Into the Wild" and the ending of the movie ends with that exact phrase.

We walked down the hill and out of the gardens, in search of our true Italian love: gelato. Flavor of the day: dark chocolate and mint. We walked along the river and sat by the bridge while Claire checked on the hours of this art museum that she wanted to go to. People were scattered along the river, sketching and painting with watercolors.

It began to sprinkle again so we sought shelter in a chocolate cafe. Claire and Stacy got the world's richest hot chocolate and we enjoyed the quaint cafe with views of the square.

We decided to head back to the hostel to change into jeans and grab jackets, then headed out for dinner. We wandered through the streets of Firenze and found a cute restaurant to have dinner at. We ordered a bottle of wine and some calzones for dinner. We sat there for a while, talking, laughing, drinking wine. Stacy and I had cheesecake, and when our waiter suggested Chello, we said why not. When in Italy, do as the Italians do.

We had planned on making it up to the Piazza Michaelangelo for sunset, but the sun had gone down somewhere in the middle of our dinner. Still we headed towards the hill to see Firenze by night.

We sat on the railing and looked out on the city of Florence sparkling like fireflies in the night. Stacy wandered away and returned with a bottle of wine and two dixie cups. Cue Kenny Chesney...these are the moments that don't happen twice. We enjoyed the view, laughed, talked, and headed back down the hill. Happy. Or as the Italians say: La Dolce Vita. The Sweet Life.

And to Bebop's...a bar Lydia had recommended for their Tuesday Night Beatles Cover Band. When we found it, we headed to the bathroom, where we literally ran into Stacy's roommate Maria from U of I. Small world. Maria is studying in Versailles and we just happened to be in the same place at the same time. Stacy decided to stay and hang out with Maria and her friends, but the bar was really hot so Claire and I decided to head home to our hostel. Stacy said she was going to stay with Maria at her hostel, so we were a little surprised when she knocked on our door at 3 am, didn't say a word and went to bed. But nothing was as great as when she locked herself out when she went to the bathroom, knocked, gave up, and decided to sleep on the ottoman outside our room until I opened the door and let her back in. Another great day and great night in Florence.

Rome to Florence: Train Ride Through Tuscany (Monday April 26)

After a late night, we slept in a little bit until 9 am. Well me and Claire did. Stacy was awoken by Nick packing his suitcase. She really loved him by the end of the trip. We dropped off our bags in the luggage room, checked out and headed out on the town, in search of coffee and something to eat that wasn't straight carbs. We found a Mickey D's which sufficed our desires for a coffee and a chocolate muffin. We walked back towards the Trevi fountain and stopped to get the necessary postcards and to stop in a few cute shops. We wanted lunch before getting on our train, so we found a cute little cafe in this little alley. After some delish four cheese pasta, we headed back to our hostel taking a random route through the alleys. I am a big fan of taking new ways home, and exploring the different parts of the city. Luckily my sense of direction usually gets us from Point A to Point B with little problem. We got our luggage, checked our email quick, and headed to the train station.

Murphy's law of traveling. No matter how much time you allote, you are always running for a plane, train, etc. We had like 30 minutes to get our tickets and get on our train, but after we got our tickets and searched for our track (ofcourse it was like some random one) we literally had 5 minutes to get to our train. Make that 3. Skip to us running down the platform, dragging our suitcases, to finally make it on our train with approximately 42 seconds to spare. Search for seats, sweating, hot, carrying our luggage. Full train. Dumb Asian girls who wouldn't move their luggage so we could sit down. Finally found a seat, sat down, turned on my Ipod and relaxed and cooled down. Eventually we were able to move all together so we could nap and enjoy our 4 hour train ride to Florence.

The train ride was absolutely beautiful. The hills were so green and leafy and I just wanted to wander through the fields, find some grapes, drink some wine, soak up the sun. We got to Florence on time, followed the directions to our hostel and found the Ciao Hostel with no problem..convienently located on Guido Street. Kid you not. Our room was super nice, 4 beds to ourselves, even clean free towels. Ah the luxurious life.

We headed out for some dinner and after a failed attempt at the place the hostel recommended (it was closed) we found a cute little place full of grandparents. For dinner: probably the best tuscan ravoli I've ever had. We headed towards the Arno River to enjoy the lovely Firenze evening and to meet up with a friend from high school. The funny thing about being abroad is that you rekindle old relationships or making new relationships solely based on the fact that you are both abroad and thousands of miles from home. Lydia, who went to Mundelein with me and haven't seen since, is studying in Florence and when she saw I was coming, she offered to show us around. We wandered through the streets and we loved Florence already. Live music, cute little streets, it reminded us of Prague, with lots of gelato. We met Lydia at the Ponte Vecchio Bridge which is what I picture the London Bridge to be like (prior to it falling down and all). It had enclosed shops on the bridge and little shutters on the outside. So cute.

Lydia took us to a little gelato shop in a back alley and we sat on the steps of the Duomo to enjoy it and avoid the creepy Italian men and random vendors selling roses and bracelets, etc. We also made friends with this group of American parents who wanted to talk to us as soon as they heard our American accents and to tell us to have fun and be safe. We also rubbed the Firenze Boar to insure another speedy return to Italy, this time to Florence. Favorite part is that when we took Claire's photo by the boar some random woman called her a "ham". Accurate, yes. Random, yes. Typical, yes. We enjoyed the gelato and caught up on 3 years of life. We ran into a friend of Lydia's...a flamboyant Italian guy who was really nice and humorous. We bid farewell then went home for a shower and bed. Good night.

Rome: An Ancient (and Crowded) City (Sunday April 25)

We had made big plans to get up early to go to the Vatican and beat the undeniable crowds that would be flocking the world's smallest city-state. The Vatican is only open one Sunday of the month and it also happens to be the "free day at the museums". Fortunately or unforunately, it just happened to be the day we planned to go. Our big plans to get up early were foiled by yet another great benefit of hostel staying: inconsiderate roommates. We had made friends with our roommates the night before, so we thought that everyone would quiet when they returned home from their evenings out. Not that case for Sir Nicholas, our volleyball playing roommate from Wheaton. He returned home at about 3 am with a female companion who we accurately named "Hannah the Hostel Whore". I won't go into detail about the experience we had with Nick and Hannah, but I am pretty sure Stacy could give a minute by minute play by play since her bed was literally within arms reach of his (theirs?) and unfortunately did not have the luxury of her IPod to tune out their show. Even with my IPod in drowning out the noise, I was woken up a few times, namely when Hannah seemed to have fallen in the shower, where they had relocated their relationship to. I must have fallen back asleep because I missed their fateful goodbye, but Stacy later gave me a play by play and Nick's suave "Planes come and go" line and Hannah's inspirational "Good luck on all your future endeavors". Needless to say, when I woke up in the morning, I was not in the mood to deal with the awkward situation of our roommates. It only got better when I turned over and looked down from my top bunk to see two heads in the bed next to me. Guess none of our roommates like to sleep alone. I got ready as quick as possible, ready to get out of the love nest. I was unsure if I was the only one who had been woken up, but Stacy gave me this look of "OMG" and I just nodded and shook my head.

We grabbed rolls and headed out of the Alessandro Palace Hostel as quickly as possible, ready to debrief and share our painful stories. We found the metro, and got on a crowded train towards the Vatican. We followed the mob of people to the outskirts of the Vatican City, only to see lines of people waiting to go into the musuems. We continued walking into St. Peter's Square and found the line for St. Peter's Basilica.

After going through security and baking in the sun for a bit in line, we made it inside the Basilica. I have seen my share of the inside of European churches, so I was not blown away by St. Peter's. It was massive and beautiful undoubtably. After walking around for a bit and listening to some of the hymnal going on, we headed out back in the sun and to get in line to go in the Sistine Chapel. The museums closed at 12:30 so we wanted to make sure we got in in time.

The wait was about 30 minutes but we were entertained by line drama. Basically this group of women tried to cut in the line and the other people in line were NOT having that. They threatened these women but they didn't move, even after threatening to get the police. What a nice Christian place the Vatican is.

Now I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Sistine Chapel. We'll actually I know. One single chapel with this beautiful ceiling. That was not the case. Instead, it was an endless maze of rooms and art and what I like to call the Vaticans way of saying "Look at how much stuff and priceless art we have". We were literally herded like cattle from room to room, up stairs, down stairs, with endless room after endless room full of so much art clutter than it was impossible to even enjoy any of the works. It was literally like a statue graveyard, more statues than I have ever seen in my life combined. My favorite part was that the Vatican had placed fig leaves over the man parts. Classy. Every room was elaboratedly painted, and the ceilings were all amazing. I honestly just wanted to find the Sistine Chapel and get out of the big herd of people that were crowding me. We FINALLY got the Sistine Chapel, but it was so crowded and loud I think the whole essence of the beauty and the magic were lost. The large crowd had completely disregard the "no photos, silence please" signs, so I was able to take some photos. Maybe I can just appreciate the art now in the silence of my own room without 10383 people surrounding me. We headed for the exit, and after 2048 signs saying exit was near and 95 gift shops, we finally made it outside into the sunshine. Deep breath.

It probably didn't help that we were all hungry, so we headed to find a cafe. We found a cute little streetside cafe (with checkered table clothes-score) and sat down. We all felt immediately better and we cheers'ed to "wide open spaces". I enjoyed some lasagna and we all split some tiramsu. Feeling much better, we headed towards the river, taking a little side detour, but finally finding it. We walked along the River Tiber, enjoying the sunshine, and looking at all the river boats. Very Tom Sawyer.

What a life. It was incredibly peaceful, we seemed to have escaped the noise of the city and the only other people we saw were an occasional kayaker or runner. We emerged on the streets only to find a side street market and a bunch of little stands. And ofcourse the typical fake purse dealer. We browsed a bit and continued walking. We found this cute authentic alley and got gelato and sat on the steps facing the river enjoying it.

We forged ahead towards the Colesso and through the Circus Maximus to near the entrance of the Palatino. Becuase we had done the tour of the Colosseum yesterday, we got a free tour of Palatino Hill and all the old palace ruins. Me and Stacy were debating whether or not we wanted to go on the tour or lay in the grass and enjoy the sunshine but we decided to try to go on the tour and peace out early if we wanted. Our tour guide ended up being somewhat interesting so we stuck in out and learned a little more about Roman history.

The city was founded by Romas (who had a brother Rimus). So much of history is defined by the Romans and thus this hill. In fact, this is where the tradition of carrying your bride into your house came from. Unfortunately, it originated from the Romans somewhat kidnapping the Sabine woman to repopulate their society. We learned a lot about the palaces and who used to occupy them. People like Julius Caesar, Augusto, etc. And the origins of all the Vaticans "stuff". Supposedly the Vatican owns about 92% of this rare type of marble. The value of it. 1 kilo= 80,000 Euro. My question is why the Vatican doesn't sell some of this marble and feed the hungry? We ended the tour with a good view of the city and all the ruins from the ancient empire.

We headed back to the hostel on the world's most crowded subway and everyone was silently crabby. We headed back to our room, thankful it was empty and took a little nap. Then we got up and headed down stairs for a little appetizer of free hostel pizza. Stacy got a bottle of wine and we drank that and headed to get ready. Our moods had significantly improved and we were jamming out to a little Nickelback- Stacy's favorite. We were joined by new roommates and one of the roommates from last night, Will from Australia, who we discussed the previous nights occurences with after he asked us if we had been woken up the night before.

We left the hostel in search of a real meal and surprisingly had a hard time finding a place that was open. We found a cute little restaurant, ordered food (a Hawaiian pizza for me) and Stacy and I had some more wine. I found it interesting that our waiter told us there aren't many opportunities in Italy (or Rome) and that even though he has a college degree he is a waiter. After dinner, we headed to Scholar's Irish Pub to meet up with Stacy's friend Dennis who is studying in Rome and his friends Therese and Ali. How typical that we find an Irish pub to hang out with at. Even better, Karaoke. Now we have high expectations of Karaoke thanks to Brock Jones so Enrico was no subsitute. The music selection was pretty good though.... some of our favorites were played "Friends in Low Places", "Bad Romance" etc. We choose to sing "Galway Girl" in honor of our Irish roots. A hit. About 3 am, we headed home. The moon was bright and we may have broke into song a few times "When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie...".

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, But It Was Walked In A Day (Saturday April 24)

The rain we had gone to bed to was still there when we woke up. Despite being in a new and exciting city, the desire to get out of bed and out into the rain was limited. Instead, we slept in a little bit. We got up and went downstairs to check out so that we could check back in to our original room. The mystery of the non-existent reservation was solved. Our bad. We were supposed to go to the hostel's other location: the Alessandro Palace Downtown, not the Alessandro Palace. Oops. After a little confusion and assuring the man behind the counter that we were not going to pay for the difference since the woman the night before had looked at the confirmation email we had given her and not noticed the mistake then. The man's co-worker, a lovely italian woman spoke to him in Italian and I'm pretty sure told him to just let us be. We had some breakfast, basically a roll & orange juice and headed out in the rain. The rain jacket helped but I was mad I had not brought my umbrella. Not that my umbrella was in much condition after the beating it suffered in the Parisian winds. But just as I spoke my desire for an umbrella, a man literally popped up out of nowhere selling them. Ask and you shall receive. I was a little cautious to buy an umbrella from this random man so we kept walking. More umbrella dealers. We finally stopped at a stand (looked more legit) and I got a new umbrella. I of course was willing to pay how much he asked for it, but Claire gave me the look of death and proceeded to barter for it. Right on.

Even in the rain, I loved Italy already. Every nook and cranny was adorable. Little alleyways that looked like a movie set. Cafes with checkered table cloths. Gelato stands everywhere. Claire and I headed in the direction of the Colosseum. You got to hit the big things first. We weaved through the streets until we saw it at the end of the road. (Boyz II Men reference for Stacy). We walked around the Colosse, taking in its immensity and antiquity.

We knew it wouldn't be our last time next to the Colosseum so we headed down the Fori Imperial, stopping to take in all the ruins from the Imperial Forum. We walked to the end of the Imperial Road to the Monument to Victor Emanuel, the first king of united Italy. A large and imposing building on the top of a hill. Quite a memorial.

We crossed the road (no crosswalks=dodging the fierce Italian drivers who love to honk at you) and headed in the direction of the Pantheon. On our way, stumbling upon Scholars Irish Pub and deciding that our time in Ireland has allowed us Irish intuition to find pubs wherever we go. We stopped in the Minerva church and found a group of tourists and some kind of ceremony going on. The ceremony: someone's wedding.

Having shared in someone's special day, we continued to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a temple for the ancient gods of Rome that was later used as a place of Christian worship. It also houses the tomb of esteemed artist Rafael. (Italy was pretty much one Ninja Turtle reference after another-- we flew into Leonardo (Da Vinci) Airport, we saw the works of Michaelangelo, and we walked by the former house of Donatello). It was supposed to be a silent place of worship, but the tourists had taken over and it was rather loud. A notable group of tourists had on clear rain ponchos and from their bike helmets were taking Rome by bike.

We toured around the Piazza Navona (the biggest square in Rome) and then made our way back to the hostel to meet up with Stacy who had just flown in.

We passed the Trevi Founation on our way and found Stacy at the train station.

We checked in at the desk and Stacy dropped off her stuff in the luggage room and we headed back out in search of lunch. We found a Pizzeria and sat down. We order pizzas and munched on bread & olive oil from the large jug on our table. The waiter kept telling me I looked sleepy--blame it on the rain. I ordered the four cheese pizza, which was cheesey but lacking crust. Italian pizza is about as thin as you can get.

Loaded with pizza, we headed for the Colosseum to take a tour. I took a little bit of a detour though a park and near an old aqueduct until we found the Colosseum. We decided to have a guided tour because otherwise its just looking at a bunch of old columns and stuff. Plus the girl advertising the tour was super friendly, despite the fact that she was wearing a necklace that said "Naughty". Strange, a little. We got our little gold sticker that denoted the tour group and enjoyed the sun which had finally come out. All the umbrella dealers, which were many, who continued to ask if we wanted umbrellas even though we both had them had been replaced with sunglass dealers. Our tour guide Max was an Italian man rocking a shiny puffy ski coat. Nice choice sir. He described/explained the history of the Colosseum like you would to a group of 4th graders: with a picture book. It was kind of like information overload so here's a brief sampling of the knowledge I acquired about the Colosseum.

1. It was constructed in 80 A.D.

2. While the Colosseum has stood the test of time, the Circus Maximus was the more popular spot in its time and it held a large crowd.

3. The Colosseum was built using a crane (because "the Italians are lazy and don't like to work, and still don't") that lifted the rock/stone on top of one another. The slabs of rock were then secured together using copper rods and liquid lead. The holes in the Colosseum is where people used to cut out the stone so they could cut out the metal, melt it down, and make weapons.

4. Gladiators fought in the Colosseum against other Gladiators and against wild jungle animals who had been caged up in the floors and starved for weeks to make the angry and bloodthirsty.

5. Any rank of people could attend events in the Colosseum but if you sat near the floor you had to wear white, as to not distract the gladiators.

6. Anything you want to learn about Gladiators can be referenced back to the movie Gladiator.

Before we went inside, we got to take a picture with a gladiator. What an occupation. Imagine on parental occupation day at school... what does your dad do? "My dad is a Gladiator at the Colosseum". What only made them better was that one of them hit on Stacy, telling her that he "liked her hair" and "i like you very well" while proceeding to pinch her on her cheek. (Facial, not butt). Max later told us that gladiators (past and present) do not make good boyfriends.

After learning all we could from Max, the group dispersed and we wandered around the Colosseum, soaking it all in. The sun was hot and we decided gelato was in order. We headed back towards the Imperial Forum and found a gelato shop.

We continued walking, trying not to get gelato all over us, some succeed, some failed. We passed a bunch of street vendors selling watercolors and one man carving flowers out of vegetables making a large pile of Euros.We made our way towards the Trevi Fountain. Italians seem to be as superstitious as the Irish, and ofcourse it is customary to toss a coin in the fountain backwards and make a wish. The Italians however are a bit more conceded and the wish is standardly "a speedy return to Rome".

Perhaps my favorite part of the Trevi Fountain was the man with a stick with a magnet on it, picking up the coins from the bottom of the Trevi that people had tossed in. Classy classy man. All the other tourists looked at him with the same look of disbelief. And there were plenty of tourists. There were so many people crowded around this fountain it was unbelievable.

We headed to the Spanish Steps, which as the name indicated was a little bit of a climb. The view was beautiful and the whole atmosphere was very romantic. Not surprisingly there were man walking around with roses. One of the men approached us, gave us each a rose because we were "bellas" and we thanked him, and quickly handed the roses back to him in unison when he asked for "a little money". We wanted to enjoy the atmosphere and the view but as soon as we sat down on the steps, some guys wanted us to take a picture with them. Random, weird, whatever. Totally normal in Europe sometimes. All the flowers were blooming and the dusk light was perfect, but it was hard to enjoy the atmosphere with all the creepers.

We walked towards our hostel in the direction of the Palazzo Barbeni so Claire could get yet another picture of a fountain (the new statue). Our only problem encountered was when Stacy dropped her umbrella in the middle of the street and we watched it get run over by an SUV. Classic. We made it back to the hostel and moved into our 8 bed room. We met a fellow roommate Nick who turned out to be from Wheaton and have a distant acquaintance in common with Stacy. He turned out to be playing volleyball in Austria, and invited us to join him on the pub crawl that evening but we were all exhausted from walking the whole city. We enjoyed some of the free pizza from the hostel and then headed to get some real dinner. We found a little local restaurant, of which I'm pretty sure the waitress,host, and cook were all the same woman. But my bruschetta was delish and inexpensive. We headed back to the hostel in hopes for a good nights sleep.

Rome: Traveling Makes Me Hungry For Pasta (Friday April 23)

Friday marked the end of the semester at UCD and therefore the big UCD Ball. The UCD Ball is like a festival put on by the school. They transformed the soccer fields into a festival like atmosphere. Flags waving, port-a-potties lining the streets, and security galore. We needed wristbands to get in and out of Roebuck, and there were men in tuxedos at all the entrances. A lot of hoopla for what we heard turning out to be like 1 live band and a DJ playing the Vengaboys. Random. According to Stacy who remained on campus, it was just a drunken debouchery and tons of ambulances had to come. We left UCD at 1 pm, before any of the festivities began. We caught our Aircoach, which took longer than normal to get to the Dublin Airport.

We were expecting the Dublin Airport to be packed, with air traffic halted for 6 days just a few days prior. But surprisingly the Dublin Airport was pretty quiet. We got through security and then headed to grab some overpriced lunch at the foodhall. A ham & cheese panini and then off to the gate. When we got to the gate, we were not pleased to see a group of Italian pre-teens. None other than the same group of preteens who had been slow dancing awkwardly and taking over our zone at the Wicked Wolf the night before. Small world, yes. Even smaller for Claire, who got the pleasure of sitting near them and their loud selves for the entirety of the plane ride.

To be honest, I was a little more nervous about this flight. All the talk of planes falling out of the sky due to volcanic ash was a little unnerving. Plus when I boarded the plane, the engine was making a sound that I didn't think sounded particularly good. But I got into my window seat, 8A, and fell asleep off and on, while a baby cried for the majority of the flight. The flight was about 2 and a half hours and then we had to catch a train into the city and Roma Termini. The train was pretty full of tourists (all equipped with guidebooks) and we had a spanish couple sit next to us who instantly knew we were Americans. Amazing how quickly they can figure it out.

We got to the station, walked outside to find it pouring rain and me with my umbrella left in Dublin. We found our hostel pretty easy and walked in looking like wet dogs. The lady at the counter said they didn't have our reservation, but Claire pulled out our confirmation email and the lady found us a 4 bedroom dorm instead of the 8 bed we had reserved. We carried our luggage up the 3 floors (pianos in Italian) and then headed to get some dinner. It was already like 9 pm at this point. The hostel reception pointed us in the direction of an Italian restaurant around the corner. We found it no problem and settled in the quaint local place for some real Italian food. Bruschetta and spaghetti. In Italy. It doesn't get much better than that. Full of carbs, we headed back to our hostel and to bed. Big day of sight seeing in the morning.