When I got to Rome I had the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack in my head so just to help you all get in the mood (don't worry it's not Hilary Duff): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4iISqiSeDk&feature=BFa&list=PLE9E8B7B642F856DF&index=11
Anyway, the trip to Rome was rather uneventful as I had already discovered Italians are really loud and scary. But scary does not even begin to describe our first lodging experience in Rome:
I arrive at the address given to me by the B&B owner, Sandra. Sandra is not present so Kathleen, Kaitlin, Micahlyn and I wait…for 40 minutes, in the China town ghetto of Rome—quick question: why does Rome have a China town ghetto? Sandra, a large black Italian woman, finally arrives and sizes us up..literally there was an up and down head motion. “There are a lot of you,” she says. No Sandra, we have a reservation for four, and there are four of us. You are already freaking me out. Before entering, she tries to convince us to move to another building. We ask her why we can’t have the room she had originally designed for us, and she explains “well it will just be easier and you can have free wifi over there…but you won’t have a private bathroom.” We want a private bathroom but she insists we look at both rooms. So she unlocks the door and it was like pandora’s box exploded and doom was all over the place. It was dark, dirty, the closet door was literally falling off, and there was one bed for four of us. Upon seeing this disaster, we decide to check out our other option, though we are skeptical. In an attempt to persuade us, she starts rattling about how if we change, she will take off the city tax so we can save $20. We cross the street and enter building #2, which is, believe it or not, creepier than the first. It is even darker. There are stale pastries in a box which she claims are “fresh” for us to eat every morning. Then she opens the door and I’m pretty sure I caught a glimpse of hell. The bed had been slept in the night before and it hadn’t been made. There was trash on the floor. And it smelled. I was already ready to abort mission when she introduced us to the people we would be “sharing a bathroom with”…aka the people who were going to sell us into the slave trade. They were four huge, middle-aged, men who looked like they might pounce on us. Every siren and red flag in my head was going off. The scene was literally out of the movie, Taken.
To avoid being taken, I asked Sandra for a minute for us to discuss. She went into the room with the scary men and started talking quickly in Italian, probably negotiating our prices. Meanwhile, Kaitlin and I went downstairs and called every person we knew in Rome. Unfortunately, ND was hosting an event at this time so they were all busy and could not answer their phones. As a group, we decided we’d rather be homeless than stay in this place, so we told her we wanted to check out. A battle-royale Italian-style ensued and Sandra started yelling and waving her arms at me that we could not do this. We started leaving and she continued to yell, and finally she started summoning her male friends. This is when we knew it was time to book. So we got to a main piazza as quickly as possible and then freaked out because we were homeless on Easter weekend in Rome. Luckily, Jeannie and God came to the rescue and the hostel the Dublin kids were staying at had one room left—a four person private room. I have never been so relieved in my life.
We checked in and almost cried with glee when we saw a clean room with four beds and fresh towels awaiting us. After a few deep breaths, we continued on and got pizza before heading to the Trevi Fountain!
Starting at the Trevi was literally the best way we could have started Rome. It was crowded, but it truly is a stunning fountain and well worth seeing. We then wandered towards the Roman Forum, ruins, and some chapels before making our way towards the Coliseum where we were meeting up with the other ND kids for Good Friday Stations of the Cross.
Saturday, ND organized a tour of the Vatican for us. It was MASSIVE and the tour lasted over three hours, but I did learn a lot about all the art in the Vatican.
After the tour, I went to find Stephanie but on the way my phone ran out of minutes. Luckily, I had bought extra in France. Unluckily, it would not let me call the phone company because I was not in France and did not have minutes to call outside of France. Wah wah. So, stranded in the streets of Rome, I was minorly freaking out. Then I heard a man speaking French to his wife, and hey, I speak French and their phones work in Italy so I politely asked him if I could use his to make a very quick phone call. He was not pleased and said it was his work phone. But then I got teary eyed and he said okay and alas, I called Stephanie and found her. Alleluia that I’m bilingual! Then I was supposed to meet Mason, who I also could not contact. So Stephanie and I made it to the Pantheon and somehow picked him out of the crowd. So so so happy to see him after a year of him being abroad!! He then brought us to the “best gelato in Rome” at Giolitti’s where we did have some ridiculously amazing gelato. We ate the gelato while walking, and Mason showed us his apartment and architecture studio (and all his sketches—they are STUNNING!! He is so talented.) before he gave us a grand/hyper speed tour of Rome.
He then left us to go to mass and Stephanie and I returned to the hostel to grab Micahlyn and head to dinner. There, we had Roman showdown number two with the rudest waiter/manager I have ever met. After we sat down and were looking at the menus, he came over and said we were going to order. We asked him if we could have a minute to which he yelled, “NO! I COOK NOW SO YOU ORDER NOW!” ahhh! Not happy but we somehow managed to spit out an order, though we probably should have left. Then he brought us the bill and there were four different charges on it, plus he overcharged me so we politely asked him if he could explain what the Italian taxes were. Instead, he threw a menu at us and told us “When you eat in my restaurant you read the WHOLE menu.” The menu was still not clear about the charges but I was not in the mood to test my luck in Rome any further. On our way home, we got summoned into an Italian bakery where Stephanie met the love of her life, a 5’5” man with a wig named Leo who is a singer. There was a rather large language barrier but we all got discounted pastries so all was well with the world.
Sunday was Easter! Alleluia Chris is risen! What better way to celebrate Easter than with the Pope in the Vatican? I really don’t think I can describe what a beautiful scene it was. Yes, most of the mass was in Italian and Latin (except the second reading…that was in English for some reason), and yes we got there super early (but we got really good seats—the fact we got seats at all was rather ridiculous), but hearing the Pope speak and gathering with thousands of Catholics to celebrate the crux of our faith was truly the experience of a lifetime. I am so unbelievably blessed and cannot believe how wonderful Easter was surrounded by people I love, all sharing the gift of life and redemption.
After mass, several of the girls gathered for Easter brunch and Easter gelato (to answer the obvious question, yes, all we did in Italy was eat). The gelato place was back by the Vatican so we saw it one last time before leaving for the day. After a few more sights--the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain again, the inside of the Pantheon—it was time to conclude our Roman excursion and prepare for Malta. I said goodbye to everyone, including Jeannie who I will miss in Chicago this summer L, but was so grateful I had had time to see them all. And thus I concluded the Italian portion of my journey, much larger than I had started, but much more cultured and happy I had experienced it all.
that is quite the adventure taykay.
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