My FABULOUS travels to ROME & Pompeii

Fri. April 28 - It started off as a super busy day at work and it only got crazier as the day went on. I was running around the office, cleaning tents and paintball guns, meeting with James about work, and gettin all my final info ready for Rome. I ended up not being able to book train tickets to get up there because for some odd reason, every overnight cabin was sold out. I ended up just booking plane tickets for Joe and I to get to Rome. We didn't get the best deal, but atleast we had a way up there. The tickets were $120 each for the one-way flight, so I wasn't too worried. It only ended up being a little more than $20 and saved us from an 11-hour train ride. Now we had time to get into Rome and party for the first night before his parents were meeting up with us the next afternoon. Work continued to fly by and I needed to leave early to finish up any last minute packing and find a ride to the airport. I came back from picking up my plane tickets and the girls at work threw me a going-away party. When I got back from Rome, I was gonna start working at Take 5 (the recreation building for the single sailors) so they thought I wasn't gonna be working at ITT any more. Oh well, the party was awesome and really sweet. James told me I would be filling in any extra hours that I wasn't at Take 5 back at ITT. We have a lot of outdoor adventure trips coming up that I will be helping with and escorting. Im excited about June and July trips. I left work at 3:30pm to catch our 7pm flight at the Catania airport. Our friends Sara and Travis dropped us off. We waited for about an hour in a half since our flight ended up getting delayed 45 minutes. Its really hard at this airport because they don't translate anything into English, so basically you never really know when to get into line to load the plane. We started communicating with a family and one of their kids and I started to play with the Slinkies Joe bought for the Spanish Steps. It was a lot of fun but then we realized we needed to get in line for the plane. Catania is so funny, you have to get on a shuttle bus to go 200 ft onto the flight line. Everyone always laugh when they see how far you actually ride on it. We got on the plane, Air One, and arrived at Fiomocino in Rome in about an hour and 20 minutes around 9pm. We took the train to Termini Station for 9.50 Euro each to try and find our hotel that we were staying at during the week. We eventually found the Hotel Lirico and dropped our bags off there so we didn't have to drag them around with us all night. The problem was: We weren't staying there tonight, we had nothing planned for a hotel or hostel for tonight since we were originally gonna be sleeping on the train. We quickly began to realize that it was an Italian holiday this weekend (Labour Day) and every room in Rome was sold out for Fri and Sat night. Even the hostels were completely booked. Oh well, we figured we'd be out all night partying and walking around that we could just work it out until noon the next day when we could check in. We started off by walking towards the Trevi Fountain cuz that is Joe's favorite thing in Rome. We first grabbed some beers and gelato right outside of the hotel and began our journey for the night. We finally found it after walking through the Piazza del Quiracle and took some cool pics at the fountain when it was all lit up. We knew two friends of ours that were up here this weekend too, so we called them and decided to meet up with them at the Hard Rock Cafe. After asking a million people where the Hard Rock was, we finally found it and ate some dinner. It was really good, but we were ready to keep exploring. Right outside of the Hard Rock Cafe, I found the Lamborghini dealer on Via Veneto. It was awesome. I took a few pics for the boys and Dad and Bill. We continued on our way towards the center of town. We eventually ended up at the Colosseum which was absolutely gorgeous all lit up and quiet. There was no one around and I was beginning to realize that this city is a lot smaller than I ever would have imagined. I got some cool pics of us with the lit up Colosseum in the background. Our friends left to go back to their hotel and Joe and I continued to explore the city. The Roman Forum was right next to it so we chilled out there for awhile and then walked around the Vittorio Emanuale Monument which we originally thought was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It started getting really late and we were sick of walking so we started off to try and find a place to stay the night. We looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find a single room. By that time of the night, we had probably already walked over 7 miles and this was only dragging it on. I could barely walk anymore so we decided to walk to the famous Spanish Steps and try and sleep there for a little bit. They were watering the plants when we got there so it was kinda hard to sit on wet steps. Oh well, then we started walking back towards the hotel to see if we could sit in the lobby but we ended up just sittin on the ground floor and fell asleep for a little bit. Overall, I could not sleep so I just made sure no one messed with us. The morning came quickly and we headed back to the Roman Forum. We walked around and found a perfect spot to sit and get some more shut eye before his parents were going to arrive around 11pm or noon. No one was really out and about yet so I didn't feel bad for falling asleep. This wasn't a good way to start our trip, but we knew this wasn't going to happen ever again. Oh well, we both got a few hours in and I was surprisingly not tired for the day to begin.

Sat. April 29 - This morning we walked around until 11am when we started to head back towards the hotel. We stopped in a few times to see if they had checked in yet, but nope. We decided to go walk around some more and we soon stopped in at an Internet Point to check my email and look for any openings for a hostel for the last night I was going to be here. His parents were insisting that I stay with them during my trip, but I just wanted to check out my options to take the opportunity to see what staying in a hostel was all about. I wrote some quick emails to a few friends and Amy telling them that I got to Rome safe and how beautiful the city was. We left there after about a half hour (the Internet is so cheap at those places) and walked around the Termini Train Station for a little bit before heading back to the Hotel Lirico. When we got there, the front desk clerk told us they made it in safely and that they would be meeting us at a restaurant down the street for lunch at 2pm. We started walking towards the restaurant and soon ran into them as we were about to cross Via Nationale. They were so cute. It was so nice to finally meet them. About 5 minutes after meeting them, they were ready to head to lunch and grab a beer. We walked across the street to a nice little Irish Pub called Flann O'Briens for some Guiness and Kilkenny's. We stayed there for about an hour just talking about everything, the ride up here, my internship and schooling, how Joe likes the Navy, etc. It was really fun, I felt very comfortable from the get go. After trying to help pay for my part of my tab, Joe informed me that I might as well give up trying to pay for anything for the rest of the trip b/c his parents wouldn't allow it. Okay, whatever. It was awkward, but cool at the same time. After having a nice Kilkenny, we walked around to find a place to eat lunch. We stopped into a small pizzeria for lunch. It was really good pizza and local house wine. Joe and I still needed to put our stuff in the room, so we headed back to the hotel for a few minutes (we had to sneak me in since the room was only reserved for 3 people and they were retards about changing the reservation). We got to the room (the joke of sneaking me in past the little Chinese desk clerk was an ongoing joke for the rest of the week) and laid out our things. The room was small, but nice. I had the couch and Joe demanded on taking the floor. Gotta love hard Italian beds though... After cleaning up and taking showers, we decided to head towards the Colusseum. It was only about a 15 minute walk to get there and once we got there, we decided to take a guided tour through it to get through the lines quickly and learn the history. I had my little guide book with me the entire weekend, but this would make it a little easier. The tour paid the admission into the Colusseum, a tour guide, and audio equipment to be able to hear better for only 19 Euro. It was a really good tour. The Colusseum is still in great shape and is just breathtaking when you walk into the ring. Most of the original structure is still intact and only the outer ring is really missing. The hallways were amazing. The ceiling was so high and the arches were captivating as you walked around the stadium. Once we got into the center of the Colusseum, the stories and history all of a sudden came alive. Hearing the tour guide talk about the battles, the animals, the 50,000 people in the stands, Ceasar, etc you just kinda looked up and spun around slowly. If you thought about it hard enough and closed your eyes, you could feel the intensity of the gladiators. It was so fun. We walked up to the top of the stadium too where we got a 360 degree profile of the gigantic structure. I got some amazing pics of the pit (which is now exposed due to the original floor being wood) and the entire Colusseum. We left the Colusseum and headed across the way to the entrance of the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum is huge and includes a ton of structures, churches, parks, columns, and temples. Its like a giant historical playground with great photo opps. We spent well over an hour walking through it. We made it through the main walkway of the Forum, Palantine Hill, and to the Vittorio Emanuale Memorial when it started to rain pretty hard. It was a long walk back to the hotel since it was down pouring and out "waterproof" Columbia jackets just weren't cutting it. We eventually got back and decided to go take a nap back at the hotel since Joe and I were starting to slack from the night before and his parents were starting to feel the effects of their jet lag. Let me tell you, that was one of the best naps of my life. I felt so refreshed after I woke up from that. It was dinner time so we all decided to go back to Flann O'Briens to try out their food this time. It was by far a great choice, we had a great waitress and the food was wonderful. It felt so nice to sit and talk that we ended up stayed there for quite awhile. When we left the restaurant, it was still raining. Joe and I had planned to go on the Spanish Steps Pub Crawl (Bar Hopping tour) tonight, but since we got outta dinner kinda late and were now soaking wet, we decided to wait until tomorrow night. There are 2 pub crawls in Rome (Colusseum and Spanish Steps) and they go on everynight of the year, rain or shine, at 9pm. Since it was already kinda late to run over there, we just decided to go have some drinks with his dad at a nearby bar. We walked down the street and had a seat at the bar. Tom (his dad) and I were drinkin really good wines. I was drinking an Italian Cabernet that I unfortunately never got the name of and he was enjoying a Chardonnay. Joe was testing their selection of whiskies. We ended up hanging out there for quite a while and racking up a hefty bill, but it was a lot of fun to talk to Joe and his Dad about life back in Arizona. We needed to head back to the hotel because Joe and I decided that we were going to wake up early to go into Vatican City. His parents wanted to sleep in so they told us to go ahead without them. I slept so good and we had the alarms set for 7:30am.

Sun. April 30 - Joe and I woke up at 7:30am and headed down the street to Termini Station to catch the Metro Red Line to Vatican City. The train was only 1 Euro, but it was a nasty train/subway station. There had to have been a million people on that train and of course, we're in Italy, so they just keep on pushing in eventhough no one else can possibly get on. The ride took about 20 minutes, but brought us right into Vatican City. It was only about a 5 minute walk to get to the Vatican. The city was quite trashy, but with millions of visitors a week, what can you really expect. We got to the entrance of the Vatican and saw a giant line of people about 10 deep. It was insane. We wanted to wait in the line to see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican until just a few moments later when...... we kept walking along the Vaticans 30 ft walls and just kept seeing the line go on and on and on. There must have seriously been hundreds of thousands of people in that line and it was NOT moving. We thought about it for a minute and agreed not to wait in the line. It would have taken over 10 hours of standing to get into the museum. Not worth it. I can always come back another time or just look at some picture books to get the sense of its beauty and majesty. At the end of the line was the entrance into Piazza San Pietro. The line to get into St. Peter's Basillica wasn't too long so we went ahead and got in line for it. The Piazza was absolutely breathtaking. The size of it alone was unbelievable. There was of course St. Peters and then inside on both sides of the giant plaza were two gorgeous waterfountains, all surrounded by giant arches and columns. I felt like an ant in this grand piazza. St. Peters was beautiful, the sun was shining on its huge dome and there surprisingly weren't too many people around yet. I got a bunch of pictures with it in the background. The line only took about 45 minutes to get through and neither of us couldn't wait to get inside. Joe has been to Rome a few times before this, but since they always came to party, this was actually his first time to get into St. Peters. We had to go through metal detectors before we could get into the basillica, but as soon as we walked through the giant gold doors, all we could see was beauty. Everything was perfect and peaceful. I was in awe of the massive size of this entire building and each corner you looked into was another huge addition to its structure. The ceiling was by far my favorite. The ceiling and walls were covered in gold, detailed with angels and birds, paintings, and mosaics. Directly to the right side of the entrance was Michaelangelo's Pieta. It was really cool to see his work since I knew we probably weren't going to be seeing the Sistine Chapel. We kept wandering through the giant church and made it up to the center of the church where tomb was. We were a few minutes into our visit when we started to be directed by security guards to stand still and move away from the center. Music began to play and a procession was soon to follow. It included about 40 people and they walked in line all the way up to the alter. A mass started and we stayed for a few minutes, but we really couldn't see since we were kinda far away and everyone in front of me was tall. After we watched the ceremony, we started to walk around the rest of St. Peters and headed out. I wanted to mail a postcard from the Vatican City Post Office, but since it was Labor Day weekend, the post office was closed. Oh well. We started to walk back into the Piazza when I saw a bunch of red shiny things glarin in the distance. What was it? Oh, what else but almost 40 Ferraris. I honestly thought it was a sign there for a second. How crazy was this. I started running over into the Piazza cuz this was like a dream come true for the sake of Dad, Bill, Gene, and Eric and I got to witness it (Na-NaNa-NaNa-Na). A Ferrari show in Piazza San Pietro. What could have been better? There were old ones, brand new ones, red ones, black ones, yellow ones, etc. It was a gorgeous site! I was in awe for like a half hour. Joe thought I was crazy, but I also took almost 30 pics of just the cars. It was so cool. The owners of the vehicles were walking around in their Ferrari gear and revving their engines. It was so cool. Joe had to practically slap some reality into me to leave, and then we headed over to a nearby store to buy some goodies. I bought some presents for the Grandmas and got some postcards of Rome and Vatican City. After we finally left St. Peters, we headed towards St. Angelo Castle to take some pics and walk back towards the city of Rome. We had to walk over a bridge over the Tiber River and stopped to eat some gelato on our way back. It was by far the best gelato shop I've ever been to. I had half mango, half mixed berry and Joe had Baileys. It was Fabulicious! We had planned to meet his parents at the Trevi Fountain at 1pm so we headed in that direction from the Vatican. On the way there, we finally found the Pantheon. It was gigantic, but not what I imagined it would look like. The dome on the Pantheon is only 4meters in diameter smaller than the dome in St. Peters Basillica. We headed down Via Corso and found them waiting for us at the fountain. The Trevi Fountain is so freakin cool. Its so popular in that town and theres hundreds of people in this tiny little square in the middle of a street intersection. After we met there we headed to a small trattoria for lunch. The little restaurant was so cute and they just had a few things on their menu so we each had a glass of their house white wine and some really good baked lasagna-ish noodles. After lunch we walked to the Piazza di Spagna and took pics at the Spanish Steps. There must have been a few thousand people on and around the steps. The street that is right in front of the Spanish Steps is Via Condetti. Via Condetti is the street with all the fancy couture shops and big brand names that you would associate Italian fashion with. We walked down the famous street after walking into some normal shops that his mom was looking at. We walked into the Burberry Store to look around, but I felt so awkward in there. On the street was Yves Saint Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani, etc. It was pretty cool, I felt like I was in a magazine and could not stop thinking of how much my friend Bronson would be having at this moment. We got to the end of the street and I FINALLY found a sign for the Ferrari Store, which I had been looking for my entire time here. We got there and it was soo cool. The inside was all painted red and covered in Ferrari symbols and decorations. There was a full-size race car in there too. It was 2 levels of Ferrari heaven. I bought a bunch of souvenirs for everyone from there since I knew I wouldn't be making it up to the factory in Bologna during the rest of my internship. Sorry Bill. It was cool, eventhough my credit card got denied. I fized it quickly but the bank had just caught on that I was in Italy. DUH! Ive been buying things on my credit card in Italy for the past 4 months now. Oh well, inconvenient but comforting that they were actually watching it. I had just paid for 2 airline tickets, my overnight train ticket, and my $320 SCUBA class all on Friday. I'm sure that put up a red flag. We finished walking the streets, ate some more gelato (Pineapple this time) and started to head back to the hotel. We tried to ride the Metro from the Spanish Steps trainstop, but the train wasn't working at that time. We went ahead and walked the long way back to the room and took a nap before Joe and I were going to our Pub Crawl for the night. We woke up at like 8:30 and had to catch a taxi to the Spanish Steps since there was no way we'd make it in time. We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we grabbed some pizzas from a kiosk at the top of the Steps where the pub crawl started from. We soon joined the fellow team and paid our dues. There were 24 people in our group, we got our infamous Pub Crawl T-Shirt, and started to drink the nasty free beer they provide for the first hour. It was only 15 Euro and we were going to be going to 3 bars/discos and have little games at each one. We headed to the first bar right at 10pm. There was a beer chugging contest at the first bar and Joe totally won. I didn't think I had any competition among the girls, but wow, was I wrong. This one chick gave me a run for my money and beat me by a millasecond. I was so mad. Oh well, there were more to come. Joe and I won another contest at that bar but then we headed out to the next one. The group was already starting to dwindle down in size by the time we got to the second place. It was a small little underground Irish Pub. I drank some New Castle there, it was the first time I had seen that beer over here. There were body shots and a bunch of drunk people at this bar. It was fun though. This is definitely where I had most of my drinks. We headed toward the last place, which was a disco on a boat on the Tiber River. As soon as we got onto the boat I started to feel sick so we left. I didn't want to get sick and I knew we had a long way to get home. It was cool though. I found the way to Piazza del Poppolo to find us a cab. We got home safe and I immediately fell asleep in the room. We have a long day planned for tomorrow.

Mon. May 1 (Italian Holiday - Labour Day) - I slept in this morning and once we all woke up we headed down Via Corso to eat lunch at a really cute little ristorante with his parents. I had some pesto pasta and oil and balsamic bread. Lunch was really pleasant and did some fun people watching. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so before we headed out around town, we went back to the rooms to return our jackets. We decided to take the "City Siteseeking" tour around Rome and Vatican City. It's a big red double decker bus that is pretty common for sightseeing throughout the big cities in Italy and stops at the major destinations. You can get off at any spot and just jump on another bus every hour to keep going on the tour. We caught the tour from the Maria Maggiore Basilica that was near our hotel. Before loading the bus, we went into the Basilica to take some pics and admire its beauty. It's the second largest one to St. Peter's. It was gorgeous and very similar to it. We rode the bus through the first major stops and got off at the one in Vatican City. We walked the streets and I did some final shopping. The Vatican was closed due to the National holiday and the streets were filled with people. We met up with his parents a little later in the Piazza San Pietro because they wanted to visit the inside so we just walked around Vatican City before meeting up with them. We got back onto the bus and finished at the starting point. We got to drive by the garden Villa Borghese and through the Piazza del Popolo. It was beautiful and sure helped our feet relax. ** Here are some fun facts I learned on the bus ride: 1) Vittorio Emanuele Monument - 20 columns on the top represent Italy's 20 regions; Fountains on the right and left represent the Adriatic Sea and the Tyrhennian Sea. 2) Via Nazionale - 1st major rode built in Rome. 3) River Tiber - 3rd longest river in Italy; Runs through Rome for 55km; Tiberina Island is the only island on the river. 4) Largo Argentina- Julius Ceaser died here on March 15, 54BC; Largest Roman archaeological area. 5) Pantheon - translation into "Dedicated to the Gods"; Has the tombs of Italy's greatest historical figures. 6) Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II - Connects Rome and Vatican City. ** His parents got off at Maria Maggiore and we stayed on the bus to head over to Campo di Fiori. We ended up staying on until the Vatican again so we could go to this Chinese restaurant that Joe visited during one of his past visits to Rome. We ate Chinese, drank some sake, and then started walking towards the center of town. We walked all along the Tiber River so I could see the only island on it and go through the Jewish Ghetto. We also saw the Mancello Theater and some other things around the Via Emmuale Monument. It was a long day so we caught a cab to catch his parents before they left the hotel at 8:30pm. We convinced them to come with us to Campo di Fiori for some last night relaxing before I left in the morning. We jumped in a cab to save time and our feet. We ate some really good gelato and went to I Giganti bar for a beer. While we were there, we watched this crazy Indian magician guy. It was hilarious! He was doing the oldest tricks in the book, but he was definitely the entertainment for the center for about 10 minutes. We left there and went to Sloppy Sams for a last beer and glass of wine. None of us were impressed with Campo di Fiori cuz it was dirty and kinda slummy. This place is really popular so maybe it just wasn't cleaned up yet for the high season. We caught another cab back to the hotel and Joe and I headed back to that Internet place to find a train schedule for my trip to Naples in the morning. We checked our MySpaces and were headed back home. I packed up my bags and we hung out in the room with his parents before all heading to bed. My train left at 6:15 in the morning so we went to bed kinda early.

Tues. May 2 - I woke up at 5:30am, showered, packed some last minute stuff, and left for the train station with Joe and his tamales that his parents brought him since he wouldn't be back to Sigonella for another week and a half. I caught the Diretto train to Naples at 6:49 and arrived at Napoli Centrale at 9:30am. It was only 10 euro and I slept the entire time except upon arrival when I loved loooking at Mount Vesuvius and the awesome coast line. I checked my luggage at the train station so I didnt have to carry it around all day and went to buy my ticket for the Circumvesuviana to get to Pompeii. Round trip for that wasnt even 5 euro so that was cool. I caught the 10:41 train and man was it nasty. The train was pretty ghetto and Naples is so bad that they even have to announce "watch for pickpockets" every 30 seconds at the station. I arrived in Pompeii at 11 and got a panini (sandwich) before heading to the museum grounds. Entrance fees were 10 Euro and I went ahead an got the audioguide and map for another 6.50 euro. I walked the entire site until 3pm. It was nice, but hot and a LOT of walking. The sites were beautiful and had so much mystery and history involved around them, but by the time 4 hours had passed of seeing ruins, temples, rock paths, etc, it got kinda repeatitive. I took tons of pics and really enjoyed it on my own. I started to realize that traveling by yourself gets kinda boring and I really need travel company. I snuck into the top of the ampitheather that is there and took some cool pics. It was a really small version of the Colusseum, but it was nice. The art and grafiti around Pompeii was amazing that it could last through everything and the giant volcano eruption. Mount Vesuvias in the background was breathtaking. I loved it, it reminded me of Mt Etna so much. I finally headed back to the train at 3:30 because there wasn't much else to do in the town of Pompeii. I figured I could spend some time in Naples since I had quite a long time to burn before catching my overnight train at 10:30pm. I got back into Naples, got a map from the tourism office, and started to walk the nasty dirty town. The driving was absolutely NUTS and I almost got ran over like 20 times in less than a mile. I walked forever along the coast to see the port and marina and then finally made it to Castle Nuova. I continued to walk looking for a toilet to go pee and find some food. I tried walking into an Internet place, but it was too busy. It was surprinsingly really hard to find a sit down restaurant but finally found one called Zio Circo Mangianapoli. I had some tasty brushetta, 1/2 litre red wine, traditional Napolian pizza with buffalo mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and tomatoes. It was soooooo good. I loved it and the people in the restaurant really liked trying to talk to me. I was the only one there since it was still kinda early and I was impressed with my Italian speaking skills when I was talking to them. I walked around Naples some more and stopped back into that Internet place and talked to Crystal on MySpace for awhile. I needed to kill as much time as possible. I grabbed some banana gelato that was gross! and headed back to the train station to get my luggage and play the waiting game. The train came at 10:#0 and I loaded into my 4-bed compartment with 2 nuns from Siracusa. Our car wasn't full so it gave us some space to put our luggage. I listened to some music and slept until 6am when the conductor came by telling us we'd be in Catania in 30 minutes. I went and brushed my teeth and packed up. We got to Catania and the train pretty much emptied out since the last stop was Palermo. I had plans for my friend Travis to come pick me up in Catania, but I knew I'd have to wait 2 hours since he had a meeting all morning. I was originally just going to ride the public bus to NAS I but the busses don't start running until 10:30am. I ended up getting picked up by my friend Josh instead and we drove into Catania and I bought him breakfast for coming to pick me up. I finally got home to NAS I, took a shower, did some laundry, went online at the library, and then went to my new job at Take 5.