After a train ride to Patras, Greece, we caught a ferry to Bari, Italy, and let me tell you- this was no ordinary ferry. It was practically a cruise ship! We didn't pay for a cabin, but we had "airline style seats" and an entire room full of those almost to ourselves, so we just slept on the floor. Seriously, this thing had a casino (where our friend won $500, which was lucky since he got robbed the day before he left on the trip), restaurants galore, and it was HUGE. We ended up in Bari at about 10:00 in the morning, caught a bus to the train station, and bought a ticket to Rome at 4:00 that afternoon. We met up with a girl from Canada and a guy from Argentina (we could never understand when he said his name, so we just called him Che. He never knew our names either though, so that's ok). We all chilled in Bari for those 6 hours, got some pizza and gelato. Best pizza I've ever had, ohhh man. Eventually we all get really tired of carrying our huge packs around town, so we hit the docks and all fell asleep next to the ocean. It was most fabulous.
It finally reached 4:00, and we made our way to Rome! We got there about 11:00 pm, and then set off looking for a hostel. The Canadian girl had actually booked one already, so it was Blake, Che and I setting off. Unfortunately, it was May 1st. Did you know that was Labor Day in Italy? We didn't. And did you know that on Labor Day every Italian in Italy goes on vacation and stays in a hostel? Neither did we. Needless to say, we looked long and hard for a place to stay that night. We finally found one that was within our price range, but it was only for one night. So, after we got our packs inside, we went back out to look for a place for the next night- the cheapest we found was for 140 euros, or about 250 bucks. We asked in a tourist office if we could find a place in a different city, and what did they say? They laughed, and said that Italy was full. That means that we were really busy the next day seeing everything we could because we had to leave Italy that night.
DAY IN ROMA
First off, we went to the Vatican. There was a really big line, so we got in it even though we didn't know what it was for. Ended up being to climb to the top of the cupola. We waited for hours to climb over 500 small, stone, circular stairs. Wow, was that view worth it? It wouldn't have been quite as bad had the flatulent old man in front of me...not been in front of me. I mean, c'mon-they didn't build ventilation into those things!
It was a beautiful, beautiful place though. St. Peter's Cathedral was so bright and airy feeling compared to the cathedrals I saw in Spain a few years ago. We bought a rosary for our Catholic grandma and it actually made it all the way home!
After that-the Trevi Fountain. That is some fountain. Huge-mongo, to use the technical definition. The crowd was also huge-mongo.
And Then...the COLOSSEUM. It was closed, sadly, for this unknown holiday, but it's still pretty impressive from the outside. 1600 years old, and still so strong! Truly incredible.
To end our too short stay in Italy, we ate spaghetti and gnocchi. Picturesque, eh? And delicious. I talk about food a lot, I apologize.
We made our way to the train station yet again, and then decided where to go next. Vienna? Zurich? We chose Munich because the train ticket was the cheapest. We caught our ghetto night train with plastic fold down beds and settled in for a surprisingly good night's rest, and in the morning we were in Munich!
Arrivederci!
And on the flight home I watched Jumper. Do you remember the part where the Colosseum is closed? Yeah, that was close to my heart. I wished we would've snuck in ;)
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