Along the way to Rome we made our usual morning comfort stop and a lunch stop. They both had free bathrooms, and for the second time in Italy, the toilet didn't have a seat. This must be decently common here but I just can't get on board with it. Its too low, and call me crazy, but I like the extra layer of seat between me and the bowl. At the second stop, we most def we were in Italy because of the ridic amount of Ferraris in the parking lot. Hot damn those cars are sexy. I want one. Or a Range Rover. Or both. K? Thanks!
We arrived in Rome around 3:30 and had a little less than an hour to get settled before heading out on a little walking tour. I got organized in my room and got together my bag of dirty laundry to be sent out. I was beyond excited to do that. I even took all the clothes I had previously hand washed and threw them in the bag too. I never really felt I got them clean enough so as long as I had the chance to get them cleaned for 20 euro, I was jumping on that chance. After all that was done, we headed out on our tour. The first stop was the famed Trevi Fountain. There I threw in my three coins (with my right hand over the left shoulder) and made my three wishes. I am obvi not going to tell you them as I want them to come true. From there, we got some gelato (half tiramisu, half stracciatello for me) and headed around town a bit and got to the Pantheon. It was incredible to see a ridiculously old building like that in the middle of a city. It's kind of surreal. It didn't really hit me until a bit later though. After that, we walked around a bit and ended at the Piazza Navona which was gorge and only got prettier as the night went on.
I did dinner tonight on my own. Most people in the group did an additional dinner excursion and had a meal in the piazza at a restaurant with a set menu again. I decided to fly solo tonight because of 1) I wanted to select my own meal tonight. I am Italy and want to choose a few things on my own. 2) I didn't want to sit for yet another two hour meal when we spent most of the day sitting on the bus. 3) I needed some "me" time. As the rest of the group stayed, I went off on my own. My leader told me a different area I might want to go to, Campo di Fiori, so I took her advice and headed there. I found a restaurant, got my table for one facing the square and had a delicious meal and people watched. I started with a caprese salad and had rigatoni carbonara for my meal. The mozzarella in the salad was the best I have ever had and the pasta was fabulous. How are people not obese here? My meal was 45 minutes max and I had an hour a half to wander and explore on my own. Perfecto!! It's exactly what I wanted. I stayed relatively close to the area as to not get lost. I stumbled upon the old Torre Argentinian Ruins which were these cool looking ancient ruins in the middle of the city with tons, and I mean tons, of cats. Ick. It was bizarre. I kept walking some more and came across this very, very old building which happened to be the back of the Pantheon. That's when it hit me how cool it was that I was walking parallel with such an amazing, historic structure. Pretty awesome feeling. After that, I wandered a bit more and hit Rome's supreme court building and also got an amazing view of St. Peter's Basilica as the sun was setting over Tiber River. Then I had to meet the group again to head back to the hotel.
During my free time I came across three things that literally made me laugh out loud. They all had me cracking up while walking down the street by myself. Crazy American me. The first was a sign of a store called Costanza. Of course I immediately thought of George Costanza, especially the Seinfeld episode when there is a flash back to him in high school and the kids saying "Can't stand ya. Can't stand ya," making fun of his last name. I was literally chuckling a full two blocks. Then I passed a lovely shoe store front with like eight pairs of mandals in the window. Those of you that know me and have read this blog before know I hate mandals. They are disgusting and should be banned. But in Europe they are commonplace. But still ugly. I once again laughed and laughed. To myself. I have so much fun alone! Haha. Finally, I passed a market, and in the entrance was the biggest salami I have ever seen. No, that's not a euphemism for anything. It was an enormous Italian salami. And once again, giggle central. I can just constantly entertain myself. It's a gift really.
I met up with the group as the sun was almost completely set in the Piazza Navona and the setting was picturesque. We got on the bus and on the way to the hotel, stopped outside St. Peter's Basilica to see it lit up at night. Beautiful. Also we got to straddle the line of Italy and Vatican City. Fun Fact: Vatican City is its own country. I never knew that before. We will be heading back there tomorrow but it was cool to see it all lit up tonight. Finally it was back to the hotel.
Before getting ready for bed I had to have one of the women in my group, Allison, come up to my room. My belly button ring has been infected this whole trip and I don't know why. I have had it for many years without any issues and was so annoyed/upset to have an infection while on vacation and overseas. I have tried a few things to help it, but to no avail. She came up to take a look and I am sad to say I had to finally remove it. I know I'm 31 and at this point in my life shouldn't even have it anymore but I liked it still. She helped me clean it and supervised me as I took it out for good. (Sad Face.) I now have a disgusting infected/keloidy ring hole. So gross. It better go away. Ugh. Allison, who just happens to be a gastro nurse (lucky for me) was so nice and helpful and I really appreciated her assistance. The ring had been sore, tender, and swollen all trip so hopefully this will ease some of my discomfort as of late. I am sad to see the ring go, but perhaps it's just another sign of me growing up I guess. Already this trip had made me grow so much with knowledge and experience, so this may just be one more little thing. I'll accept that and just keep moving forward with this awesome experience.
going to Italy next month!
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