Day 1 Rome-ing Around (Rome, Italy)

Meg:

So, we slept in a little and woke up excited to walk into Rome. We were staying on the outskirts of the city so we had to walk about 45 minutes before we were to hit the Colosseum.  This meant halfway through our walk we needed to stop for breakfast...

GE-LA-TOOOOOOOOOOO...."When in Rome" am I right!?!?! We could eat it for every meal and we fully intended to! Unfortunately, we didn't find another well-priced shop in the city (tourists mess up everything), so we had to eat pizza again...bummer (pictured later). So we walked the rest of the way, stopping in this park in the middle of no-where to sit down and people-watch (mainly because our legs were tired from Greece). This sculpture was in the middle, but this is like a squirrel in Michigan. Sculptures and detail and ruins are just EVERYWHERE like it's NORMAL or something. 

So while in this park, we discovered the open-cup policy that we found was so common in our future (Budapest and then Prague). People everywhere at 11 in the morning sharing vodka and beer and wine. Hilarious! Also, comforting in some ways, hehe. :) 

So we walked and walked, past pizzerias and ristorantes and gelaterias, saying, "Scuzi" as much as possible cuz it's so gosh darn fun to say (sometimes we bumped into people on purpose I think just so we could say it some more). Then one moment we were in the middle of some other park with sculptures and the next we were shot back in time and could hear Maximus Decimus Meridius shouting his name. The Colosseum. 

HOLY CRAPPUCCINO!!!!!!!! This is the kinda building that makes you wanna pee in your pants just so you know you're not dreaming or in a movie. SHEESH it's huge...and amazing...and intriguing...and surrounded by other incredible things. The most interesting was the scaffolding right down the middle...hehe. We realized after seeing more than a few items under construction (i.e. the Trevi Fountain had no water and was covered in construction blankets) that we are travelers in the off season (not so bad because it IS a lot less busy). We got used to not being disappointed when seeing something covered in scaffolding or ladders or material that was painted like what was supposed to be underneath. We tried to take pictures as best we could to crop out the construction, so we had to get a little creative. Here is where I tell you to not be bummed about the lack of photos from Rome, because Tom has all the good ones...

He will be posting up his own pictures later. I just wanted to catch us up a little bit before you forgot we even had a blog! I know we'll talk about this later, but we are just so darn overwhelmed in the beginnings of our program!! Currently we're spending our time looking for jobs, an apartment,  planning our lessons for the week of teacher-training, getting paperwork started for our visa, AND trying to socialize with our new friends (best part)!! The blog has taken a back seat for now, but don't fret! We're gonna keep it coming as best we can! So here are a few more stops on our Rome-ing Around tour...

So let me tell ya something about Vatican City that you may or may not already know...there are big lines, and everyone tells you you shouldn't wait in them. So we bought a reservation and an entrance ticket for the next day. However, we couldn't wait until then to stop by. We wanted to see where we'd be waiting and we heard there were a few things you could do without a ticket, so we tried those. 

St. Peter's Square is like the front door to the city....a million pictures couldn't do this justice, but we felt a panoramic would do it best...

Once you've had your fill, which is basically never, you can hop in line for the free view of St. Peter's Basilica. Once again, my iPhone isn't going to be able to show you what this place is like, so you should go there. Remember Tom has the good pictures, but here are a few of the inside.

So after walking around with our mouths agape for hours, we wanted to find some dinner. We popped through a bunch of places. Our favorite area of Rome was called the Trastevere. If you move to Rome, which I know most of you are planning to do some day, move here. It's the "little Italy" that most cities try to mock. Tiny alley ways with music playing and vines growing on balconies. It's super-romantic and made us want to find a spaghetti-place to Lady-and-the-Tramp-it. We saved that for night two because we wanted to see more.

We stumbled back upon a few places we had seen in the daylight that seemed even more mythical or magical at night. We couldn't help imagining what it was like to live in the time where these were new buildings. We truly felt like we were in some time machine that had really good food.

Day 1 of Rome-ing became very tiring as we tried to avoid the touristy deals, but we finally stumbled across a 2 pizza with a bottle of wine special that we couldn't pass up. We dined outside, listening to the sounds of Rome and stuffed ourselves with delicious Margheritas. 

So I know we're not in Prague yet in blog-life, but we are now in real-life. We just wanted to thank all those sending thoughts and prayers our way. We are definitely stressing a bit as we prepare for living abroad, "We're not on our honeymoon anymore To(m)-to(m)". Real life is hitting us in the face right now, but we are meeting GREAT new friends that are either in the same boat or have recently gotten out of said-boat and have fantastic advice and connections. Prague is a beautiful city to live in and sometimes we don't believe we are this lucky and we cannot wait to share pictures and stories with you about this crazy city that stares at you on the bus and tempts you with the best beer you'll ever drink or punches you in the face with its incredible views and tumultuous history. Until next time! 

Italian goodbye: Chau!

Czech goodbye: Na shledanou!!