When in Rome...

Today we did a trip called Rome on your Own.. basically they bus us to Rome, give us a guide to talk on the hour ride there.. then drop us off and tell us when to meet back up.  Our guide today was SO much better than yesterday.. I actually could understand her and she wasn’t jumping from place to place.  So I officially learned that St. Peters Basilica is not painted at all every picture inside it is a mosaic. Also the pantheon was a temple dedicated to the gods but later turned into a chapel.. the top of its dome is completely empty no glass no nothing even to this day.. so when it rains the water goes inside of it.. there are little holes on the ground that drain out the water.. pretty cool. In the pantheon is the tomb of the first king of Italy and of margarita who had a pizza created for her.. she was visiting naples and they wanted to create a special pizza just for her so they made one that symbolized the Italian flag by using its colors.. red, white and green.  Red for the tomato sauce, white for the mozzarella cheese and green for the basil. Pretty fun facts. 

So our day started off with being dropped off at st peters square.. so we walked down a few streets to go to the metro station.  On the way we stopped for some pizza because it was already 11 at this point. We got this really good stuff.. it was like a flatbread pizza.. mine was no sauce just cheese onion and tomato. I vote this as my best pizza in Italy so far! I got a huge square piece of it that they folded over and warmed up and a coke for only 5 Euro.. not too bad.. at least compared to all the other food.. ha

So we ate then went to the metro.. we are good at the metro we understand how this works.. unlike the train system which both Kristi and I are now terrified of after yesterday… so we took the metro to the Spanish steps.. the map seemed to tell us it would drop us off right at them but we didn’t really see them so we started walking a little ways and boom there they are.. we just stumbled upon them.. we seem to be really good at stumbling across everything we did that a number of times in spain and now here. So we are at the bottom of the steps.. now we both had apparently been thinking the same thing.. do we really have to climb these?? Would it be okay to just see them and continue on? Or is it unacceptable to go to the Spanish steps and not climb up?  We decided to just deal with the pain and climb them.. there were a lot but oh well.. we took pictures while climbing and that distracted us pretty well.. at the top of the steps is a church.. if I remember correctly, which like many times before I could get some of this a little bit wrong.. the church I believe was built by the French.. and so the Spanish built the stairs to connect the French church to the rest of Rome.. or something like that haha… there were a bunch of artists at the  top of the steps and I was able to get some good deals on some art so that was really exciting.. then we climbed the few more stairs to go into the church.  Neither of us had dressed that day for conservative purposes but I was wearing my new pink dress from mindy with leggings and kristis blue dress happened to somehow pace on the length they just gave us each a scarf to wear inside… it was pretty like all the others we have seen pictures and side chapels but this church came complete with monks or nuns praying and singing in the front.. it was cool. We couldn’t tell what they were because they were kneeling on the ground facing the alter not because we are stupid.. there might have even been both not totally sure, is that even allowed? Anyways we checked out the church then headed back down the Spanish steps..

Next on our agenda for the day was to see the Trevi Fountain!!!! It was soo cool!! I still cant believe I actually saw it with my own two eyes today and not just in a movie! So the legend goes you throw one coin in to return to rome again someday 2 coins in to find your one true love (Italian of course) and 3 coins in to get a divorce!!! You also have to throw it a special way you have to hold it in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder.  So Kristi and I took turns throwing in our coins, we are officially coming back to Rome someday now!!! =)

Now we made our way to the Pantheon.. we really stumble across everything.. we’ve had insane luck with this.. we attempted to follow the map but at some point you always seem to get lost because the distinction between different roads is not clear at all.  So there we were in front of the Pantheon.  We went inside looked around enjoyed the paintings on the walls checked out the tombs saw it all then headed to Piazza Niavonna (spelling?) our guide told us lots of art is sold here so we really wanted to check it out! Boy she wasn’t kidding either there was a bunch! All very pretty but also pretty expensive the one artists paintings that we really liked were huge so we knew we wouldn’t be able to afford them but they were 90 euros!! Craziness. Some day when I have money (ha) ill come back to rome and buy lots of the paintings! =)

After this we had to attempt to make our way back to the meeting point to head back to the ship which meant back tracking to the Spanish steps to catch the metro.. we really didn’t back track exactly the same way we came in but again we somehow stumbled upon the main street we were looking for.. headed back to the metro went ALL around the surrounding streets trying to find somewhere to eat finally ended up right next the Vatican wall so we settled on a place and just ate there but it wasn’t very good… =/ then went around the corner to Old Bridge Gelato place again and then headed to the bus stop. 

Points from the day I didn’t include above.

-fountain water: every fountain in rome is clean water that we can drink from!!! So when there are little fountains along the streets you can go right up to them take a drink or fill up a bottle.. so Kristi and I did this at one point!

-disney store: on one of the main streets between the Spanish steps and the trevi fountain we came upon a Disney store!!!!! If you know me you know I was excited! What was even funnier was that Kristi and I were just talking about finding gifts for everyone and who was going to be the hardest to buy for and I had just finished saying how I thought Mykaela was going to be the hardest one to find something for because she is 5 and what is she really going to appreciate  right now that isn’t something I could get her back home.. and boom Disney store.. so I of course had to go in and see if there was anything I could find for Mykaela after all!! I did find a cup that had a mickey mouse that was raised off the side and on the other side of the cup it said special edition Disney Roma on the back of it but nothing that said Roma was pink and had princesses on it.. and if it’s not pink or involves princesses I might not win on kaela liking it lol so then I got a little bummed.. then contemplated getting the cup for mom.. and I really thought about it for a long time even after leaving the store.. I know it is something you would like mom.. but then I got to thinking of it and really something that is more special and unique to the countries seemed like a better option so I passed on the cup.  I am happy and content with my decision. Haha. But another side note in the store they had all the Disney characters like big statues of them dressed in roman outfits and togas it was really cute I have pictures no worries =)

Another great detail to my day that I am really trying to forget and this is why I only just remember it… I lost my SAS ID… Kristi left like 5 minutes before me because she still didn’t have a ticket for the trip and had to show up at the bus and see if there were openings in the trip or not.. well I go to leave and I cant find my ID!!! I need it to get on and off the ship so basically im panicking and I don’t have Kristi to help me figure out where it could be.. so im tearing apart the room looking for it and cant find it.. now I only have 10 minutes until the bus is supposed to leave and we are told to be there 15 minutes early so im flipping out.. I run up to the Pursers desk to see if maybe someone found it and turned it in and no luck.. so my only option is to get a new one made.. 25 dollars later and 5 minutes until the bus leaves im running out the gangway… its upsetting I cant find my card and had to buy another one.. but I guess its alright.. it was only 25 dollars.. and had to be done… good news is I still cant find the first one.. I was worried I was going to come back and find it right away but it really is lost.

Once we got back on the ship we went and had dinner.. which wasn’t too impressive so we both ended up with toasted peanut butter sandwiches which oddly hit the spot for me. Then we had a muster station drill again.. errrr…. So tonight we are sailing from Civitavecchia to Naples our other port in Italy just a bit further south.. we had the option to either sail with the ship or meet it in Naples, we had to have this turned in before Barcelona.. well basically only like half the ship is onboard right now.. really if that… and we had to have a muster station and everyone else that is meeting the boat didn’t have to bother … what the heck.. to make it worse it lasted 45 minutes… with a real code blue emergency on the starboard side… which is the opposite one im on and code blue I learned means medical emergency.. I wonder what happened!

So that was my day. I got to see Rome! And I really do feel like I am in another country now! It’s so exciting =) im really loving this trip and getting to see so much of the world!