Roma Italia

(We're a little off on our timeline.  We've been able to type, but unable to transfer what we've written to our blog.)  We'll post that when we figure out the problem!  (By "we," I mean Dan.)

Rome! We love it!
We arrived here on a late flight from Madrid.  However, our very inexpensive tickets got us to the airport late, too late for the bus that we needed to get to our hotel on the outskirts of Rome. In our limited Spanish, we tried to ask some of the Italians when the #33 bus would be coming, and yes, we are aware that they speak Italian and not Spanish, but it's close! Even with a huge language barrier, we understood the message clearly, "There are NO more buses tonight!"  There were four taxi drivers, but they wanted us to pay them the same price we had paid for one of our plane tickets, and we were way too stubborn to give in to that.  We decided we would go sit on the steps, maybe sleep a few hours like some of the other passengers were doing, and wait until the buses started running again in the morning.  A few minutes into our defeat, we saw a woman who cleans the airport take a seat outside. Again, we attempted our Spanish, while she spoke Italian, and somehow she understood that we were stuck and the taxi wasn't an option.  About he same time, a bus pulled up making its final drop off for the night.  The cleaning lady sent a man over to inquire about us getting on, but the driver said it had been his final stop.  We went ahead and walked over anyway, and Dan told me to get on and ask him if he could take us to our stop.  Lucky me! So without having to fake sounding desperate, I asked him if he could help us.  Again, he said he was done for the night. As I was about to step down from the bus, allowing this poor guy to go home, one of the Italian girls who had originally told us we needed to take a taxi came over and said something to the driver.  I assumed she was complaining that she along with a handful of others had already explained that the only way we were going anywhere at that time was a taxi.  I just wanted off the bus, feeling embarrassed to have wasted his time.  Not sure what exactly happened next, but the driver motioned to us to hurry and get on with a big smile across his face.  Oh great, he's going to drop us off where even the taxis won't go!  Instead, he put on the radio, gave us a somewhat narrated tour of Ciampino, and dropped us off at the front door to our hotel.  When Dan tried to give him money, he refused and welcomed us to Italia!

On Thursday we arrived in Rome, a bit hot and tired from the poor directions we had been given, leaving us hauling our things a couple extra miles.   Once we dropped off our things, we needed to eat.  Since pizza is advertised everywhere, we had no problem deciding on where to eat.  Oh my gosh, it may have been the fact that we were starving, but this pizza was out of this world good!  The crust was both salty and buttery.  Needless to say, pizza has been a steady part of our daily routine here!  After our late lunch, we headed to the Colosseo so Dan could pretend he was Maximus Decimus Meridius and shout, "Roma Victa!"

For dinner, we ate right outside the Colosseo, where again our appreciation for food was taken to a whole new level.  Dan ordered spaghetti carbonara which was hands down the best meal yet, and  I had spinach and goat cheese stuffed raviolis in a pink sauce - almost as good as Dan's.  Additionally, the red wine and tiramisu were heavenly!  After talking about how ridiculously good our dinner had been, we decided to go again the next night!

Our first day in Rome was spent in awe at the Vatican.  We first waited in a line that wrapped around the entire square to enter St. Peter's Basilica.  After getting the approval that we were dressed appropriately, covering our knees and shoulders, we entered.

I am going to attach pictures from St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistene Chapel.  Words will not due justice to the magnificence of the Vatican.  I will save that for Dan to attempt.


                                                        Nuns with Ginny -St. Peter's Square

The School of Athens - Sistene Chapel


La Pieta - Michelangelo, St. Peter's