Part Seven- Rome

We were super excited for our train ride from Venice to Rome because it was a high speed train that went up to 150 miles an hour! We got there just after dark but were not worried because our AirBnb place was supposed to be really close to the train station.
Rome didn't make a great first impression. Even though our apartment was only a few blocks away from the station we were walking through a pretty crappy part of town. On the website it was described as "culturally vibrant." What he meant was Indian ghetto, and I'm not trying to be offensive, that is actually what it is called.
There was a layer of trash over everything. There were super drunk people stumbling around and we could see people climbing in and out of the dumpsters and there was fecal matter all over the sidewalk. We quickly made our way to the apartment and were welcomed by Shapan. He was very friendly but had us immediately start filling out this form asking all sorts of personal information like mother's maiden name, passport number, passport issue date... etc. Lewis put down false information on it to avoid an argument. Shapan also claimed we owed him a fee for something or other.. that continued to be a trend for the rest of our stay. That night we ate at a little Italian restaurant around the corner and had some amazing pizza.
The next morning we headed out to see all of the sights. We were lucky enough to be walking distance to pretty much everything!

We found this cat hanging out on one of the statues in a small park near our apartment

Trevi Fountain

Around midday we found this awesome park to hang out for a while. After a while Lewis pointed out that there was a flock of parrots flying around in the trees!

Staring contest

Definitely not expecting to see this in Rome! 

We caught the subway back to the apartment and took a siesta. We got all cleaned up again and went out to eat at this buffet with a lot of interesting food... We made friends with a couple of German girls who were Not very impressed with the food. We then took the subway to the Colosseum and walked around the ruins there. The Colosseum was easily one of the most impressive things I've seen, it almost takes your breath away just to look at it.

We met a cute couple from Sicily that were so excited and gave us tips on stuff to do there. It was getting chilly so we got a cup of hot chocolate on our way back to Trevi Fountain. Apparently in Italy hot chocolate and hot cocoa are two very different things. Hot chocolate is quite literally, hot chocolate. It was about the consistency of molasses. We had decided to go back to Trevi Fountain at night because when we went during the day is was ridiculously crowded and we figured that at night some of the crowds would have dispersed. In reality they had probably gotten worse! 

We had a good time people watching and then headed back to the apartment. As we were going down to the subway Lewis offered to help someone carry their stroller down the stairs. As we talked with this family we realized they were LDS members from Utah! We had a great time chatting with them and even made some plans to hang out the next day, but they fell through. 

The next day had some bitter and some sweet. Shapan wanted us to pay him a "city tax." Lewis talked to him about how the AirBnb policy says clearly that when we pay on the website we are paid in full, and that we are not obligated to pay anything else upon arrival. He offed him a deal to pay the tax and a little more if we could keep our bags there for a few extra hours while we went to the Vatican. Shapan got very upset and told us to take our bags and leave. We took our bags to the train station and paid for a locker that cost even less that what Shapan wanted to keep our bags there. I was a little upset by this exchange but I think it is just part of the culture there to try to milk everything for all it's worth. We took our laundry to a place that someone recommended to us because we could get our clothes cleaned for 5 euros. When we got there the guy said he would take really good care of our clothes for 10 euros. Lewis talked to him and he finally agreed to do it for 5. Then when we went to pick up our clothes Lewis talked to kind of an older gentleman coming out of there who told him "This place is great! I come here all the time and get my clothes cleaned for 15 euros a load!" We realized the laundromat guy just charges whatever he thinks his customers can afford! 

We went back to the Colosseum and stopped at this amazing church. I stopped outside and sat in a corner writing in my journal for a little while and realized that when the tourists were shuffling past,  three people stopped to take pictures of me. Random.

Kind of creepy for a church...

We walked to the Parthenon, and then over to the Vatican. The lines were ridiculous so we just hung out in the courtyard for a while and then hiked to this park with a great view of Rome. 

The fountain Bella ran through so that she could dramatically throw herself into Edward's arms... I looked in all of the shadowy corners and did not see one vampire

The "sidewalk" up to the park. I thought we were going to get run over!

When we got back to the train station we watched the new episode of Psych on our phone :) And then got on our overnight train to Sicily!