I heart Roma

We've been having a great time here in Rome. I'm so glad we planned so many days here. We can go see what we want to see in the morning, come back to our rooms to escape the heat, then head out again for dinner and walking. I'll try and get my update in chronological order since my last post.

For our first night here, we wandered around and ended up at Piazza Navona. This is a great place with tons of restaurants around the square and lots of art dealers and musicians set up in the square. It's here that Joe was able to laugh at me because I too was scammed. Out of no where this man came up with some white, red and green thread and looped it around my pinkie and proceeded to make me a bracelet. I was supposed to make three wishes while he made it. Silently I wished that I wasn't such a sucker. I still think I have the one up on Joe since I only paid one euro for my scam and I will get to keep it a lot longer. I hope to dry the rose and keep it for my scrap book however, so that will last a while.

After enjoying a bottle of wine on the piazza we headed to where we though our hotel was. Boy were we confused when we ended up at the river. This city is crazy. If you started walking at the corner of two streets and took the first four left turns you came to, you would not end up where you started. After several consultations of the map we found our way home and happily hit the pillow.

Tuesday morning we headed out to Ancient Rome to tour the Colosseum, The Forum and Palentine Hill. Do to all my planning ahead (insert shout out to Rick Steves) we had purchased the Roma pass at the train station which allowed us to skip the one hour line and walk right in. We were on the lookout for pick pockets since we hear this is where they tend to earn their living, but sadly saw none. We did see a bunch of guys dressed up as "gladiators" although one was wearing a backwards baseball cap. I'm not sure that is traditional gladiator gear. It was so amazing to see all the ruins and to think that all those buildings, columns and monuments were so old. We saw the spot where Julius Ceaser was burned after his stabbing, and it's so weird that it is still as it was long ago.

At the Colosseum was also the first place we saw another person in an Ohio State shirt. Of course we gave him the obligatory O-H to which, after being surprised by what we said he quietly responded I-O.

After spending 5 hours in the sun Joe was able to eat the famous last words he uttered that morning when we headed out. We were about a block from the hotel when I realized I had forgotten to pack sunscreen. I asked if we should go back for it, and he said "No, I'll be fine" Well lets just say his pink tomato face matches some of the sauce on the pasta we ate for dinner. Speaking of dinner, we tried something new to the both of us, clams. At the restaurant Tuesday night, we ordered spaghetti with clams. It was delicioso. I also ordered the sea bass, which they cook and then de-bone table side. What I didn't know was they charge you €8 per 100 grams, so we ended up paying €64 for some really bland fish. We ended up telling ourselves the money was worth it because we also had ice cold water with dinner. Apparently Italians don't like their beverages cold. And they charge you for water with dinner, which is weird since you can fill up your water bottle for free at any of the fountains. Oh well, when in Rome...

Yesterday for our anniversary (thanks to those of you who posted your congrats) we went to the Borghese gallery and saw some neat art and some amazingly painted ceilings. Then we did laundry(romantic right) and headed out to a wonderful dinner. Again the shout out has to go to Rick Steves. Every thing he suggests in his guide book has lived up to his recommendation.

Today we went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's church. There are not words to describe the beauty within the walls of these two places. The Sistine Chapel really does blow you away and St. Peter's is simply amazing. Tonight we plan to souvenir shop and enjoy our last night before heading to Venice in the morning.

Now a couple of extras:
Joe has decided to incorporate our bowling celebration into every moment of this trip. To fill you in, when any one of us gets a strike in bowling, we get to do the explosion fist bump. Well Joe has decided that everything we do on vacation warrants this celebration. He is always asking me "Should we blow up..." and then saying anything about the trip he decides worthy. He is so lucky to be married to me, let alone for three years.
On Tuesday we got the experience of riding around in a Roman mini bus, basically a minivan. It was....well let's just say you are very thankful for your lives when the ride is over. We travelled about 5 miles and the driver only stopped twice, to pick us up and drop us off. Anything else that might normally warrant a stop, she just drove around, including other cars, scooters, people on bikes and buses. Quite an experience...
Ans lastly...it seems that no one in Europe wants you to know what time it is. None of our hotel rooms have clocks, they don't have them at the train stations where you would think it would be important for you to know what time it is, and it is very infrequent that you see a clock around the city. No wonder they take such long siestas, they don't really know what time it is.

That is all for now ( I know, it was a lot). I will visit again from Venice!