Oh The Places We’ll Go

Ahhh…

We finally made it to Italy.  All 14 hours later on a plane, from San Francisco to Rome, we’re finally here.  We left Rocklin at about 3 in the morning and drove to San Francisco International Airport to leave on our Delta flight to JFK airport in New York.  Turns out the confirmation code we needed to get our passes to get through security didn’t work so luckily we were able to find a lady who could help us and printed them out for us.  Then the fun began.  I had forgotten, but I guess when you use the passes my mom had given us for the discounted flights, your ticket is ‘flagged’ and you have to go through the all-on wave down by the security officers at the airport.  Thomas and I were both flagged, had to be wanded and our ENTIRE backpacks had to be wiped with these special cloths so that they could make sure we weren’t terrorists and were bringing bombs to the airport.  Unfortunately for the TSA guy, my bag has a LOTTT of pockets, so he had to go through every single one and wipe it down.  It didn’t take too long but it was still funny.

After we checked in at the desk and were given our seats, imagine our surprise when we were both given ‘zone 1′ tickets.  Huh? Zone 1?  Is that… first class??  Why yes, yes it is first class.  Cushy seats, our own butler, complimentary drinks.  Let me just say, first class is the way to go.  And… we didn’t have to pay for it.  As my Uncle Scott likes to say, it was all my favorite ‘f’ word’- ‘free’.  We got into JFK around 3:30 east coast time, which is 12:30 California time, and waited around until 5:30 when we boarded our flight to Rome.  At first, our seat assignments were in zone 9, which we were both fine with since hey, we are going to Rome… why complain?  Then, just as we were boarding, our nice desk attendant check in lady told us to sit in seats 4 a and b.  We got onto the plane and realized both seats were in International First Class.  Comforters on the seats, pillows fluffed, champagne at the ready.  Thomas and I looked at each other and laughed because it felt so bizarre, sitting in first class with all of these old italian people.  The flight went by really quickly.  I wasn’t able to fall asleep until the last 2 hours or so of the flight, so I spent my time watching episodes of Sex and the City and Entourage on the seatback TV’s and watching the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. 

After we landed, we tried calling home to give the heads up that we made it, but turns out… the phones in Italy are WEIRD and we couldn’t figure out for the life of us how to use them.  I lost my sunglasses on the way to the train station across the street from the airport, which sucked, but I’m going to get some cheap new ones soon.  We got to the train station and found out where to go pretty easily.  There are a lot of signs that are written in 2 languages in Italy: Italian and English.  That helps out a lot.  We took a train from the airport to the Roma Termini, which is like Grand Central Station, and took a Metro one stop up to the station that our hostel was at.  Found the hostel really easily, but our beds weren’t ready yet so we went off to explore the city. 

First impressions of Rome: It’s hot.  Very very very hot here, with a lot of humidity, so Thomas and I are both sweating like dogs out here.  We decided since we needed to kill a couple hours before our room would be ready we should go see the Colusseum, which is only 1 stop up from our hostel.  We got to the Colusseum, waited in line for an hour and a half or so and made our way inside the Colusseum.  The location itself is a little crazy- there’s this massive, historical ruin you see in all of these pictures in the middle of an urban area with restaurants and apartments and everything.  It has definitely become very touristy.  We walked around the Colusseum SWEATING and made our way to a little cafe to have some lunch.  Pizza, of course.  Oh, and beer.  Which I bought.  Myself.  Thought that was funny. 

We were both exhausted so we made our way back to our hostel and waited a couple minutes before going into our rooms and PASSING OUT.  We slept from around 4 in the afternoon here to about 7 this morning.  It has definitely helped with the jetlag, and Thomas and I were both ready and rested to tackle Vatican City today.

So today was our Vatican City day, and after waking up and showering (as well as locking myself in the bathroom… woops) we made our way to the holiest place on earth for Catholics, Vatican City.  Let me just say the entire place is awe inspiring, even moreso than the Colusseum.  It is breathtakingly beautiful; the courtyard, the statues, the buildings.  It is all absolutely incredible.  We waited in line to go and see the basilica, which has the canopy inside of it and a lot of famous statues.  We also saw the papal tombs inside of the basilica, where a lot of people were, rosaries in hand, paying their respects to John Paul II.  Afterwards we made our way to the Vatican Museums, which is around the corner, and saw a lot more statues, paintings, and tapestries before walking into the Sistine Chapel.  Now, let me just say, I have seen many many famous and beautiful things in my life, but never before have I been AWE STRUCK by something.  I can’t even describe how beautiful the Sistine Chapel is, it was that amazing.  First off, the ceilings are huge.  You can’t take pictures inside or talk loudly, but why would you want to? All you can do inside is look up and stare.  Thomas and I both look at each other are were like, I’m set.  If this whole trip ends right now, I’m absolutely set.

And now we’re here, sitting in a little internet cafe around the corner from Vatican City getting ready to go and see the Trevi Fountain and hit up a little Scottish pub that should be around the corner here somewhere.  We have to make it back over to the Colusseum tonight to take pictures since, woops, we forgot our cameras before so we have to make it up by seeing it at night.  As far as tomorrow is concerned, it is most likely a museum-filled day, to the Borghese Gallery and a couple others before resting and heading to Pisa and ending in Florence on Saturday.

The language barrier hasnt been a huge problem so far, and everyone for the most part is really helpful.  There is a LOT of graffiti here, and a lot of football merchandise, espeically for the Italian national team.  People here really love their football.  We both got a little homesick last night, and a little into the ‘what have we gotten ourselves into’ mindset in the middle of the night last night, but I think with Vatican City, we are both sure of why we are here.  As much as we miss Rocklin and California (not to mention non-sweaty weather) we know that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we should savor things like seeing the Sistine Chapel while we still can.

I’ll be sure to post more once we make it to another internet cafe, most likely tomorrow afternoon to kill some time, and try to call home once we figure out how to use the phones! 

-catherine

It’s finally here.

It’s funny, you’d think that after months upon months of planning and speculating about where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do, we’d be prepared. But even now, mere hours away from when we’re driving to San Francisco and flying to New York before we go to Rome, I don’t think either of us feel 100% ready. It’s all such a foreign feeling: the backpack, the cubes, the new shoes, clothes. Brand new and untouched. Not for long, I guess. By the time we get going, maybe it won’t all feel so weird. Until then, I feel like I’m playing dress-up for Halloween.

Our first week plans take us on a flight from San Francisco to JFK in New York City, and from JFK to Rome, where we’ll be arriving on Wednesday morning. We’ll be in Rome until Saturday and from there we’re going to Pisa and Florence. We reserved our hostel in Rome not even an hour ago, so I doubt we’ll know the specifics of the plans for Pisa and Florence until our last days in Rome. We’re ready and armed with 300 Euros, which converts roughly into $525 US Dollars (what a great conversion rate, eh? Haha.), which if no one reading this has ever seen a Euro before it almost looks like Monopoly money. Pink 10’s, purple 20’s and blue 5’s, which are smaller than the other bills. Oh, and no dead people on European money. They stay classy- landmarks on their money.

So what am I going to miss? I guess for Thomas the obvious answer is his friends and the girlfriend, but I don’t really feel bad for him- he’s going to be back here in a month or so. For me? I’ve got almost a year until I get to come back in the house, hang out with the dogs and suffer in the sweltering Rocklin sun. The biggest thing I will miss (and the most obvious) is the family. The ‘rents (parents), Thomas and Alicia, the dogs, Uncle Scott, Grandpa, and everyone else around here. Not to mention school friends, random friends from random places. It’s not like I get to text any of them while I’m bored in class anymore. What am I going to do with myself? Pay attention? … I don’t think so.

Aside from the obvious, I’m most DEFINITELY going to miss Mexican food. I know that probably sounds really stupid, but I absolutely love Mexican food. Scottish people? Doubt they eat many tacos, enchiladas, nachos, or burritos. What is Scottish food anyway? Haggis? I’m afraid. The other BIG thing I’m going to miss is my sports. Baseball most definitely. I won’t be missing much of this season, since the Giants are obviously not going to be playing past September in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss Kruk and Kuiper, Jon Miller, Dave Flemming. Maybe if I’m up really late I can listen to The Razor and Mr. T on the internet. Maybe. I’m going to be missing the ENTIRE Warriors season and 49ers season. That sucks. I’m not expecting that I’ll be missing much, but at least the Brits get the Superbowl broadcast live as of this last year. Score. I’m holding onto a hope that they watch American hockey in the UK since there’s so many Europeans that play hockey. Cross your fingers.

There’s one guaranteed sport that I won’t be missing, though, which makes me happy: football. European football (otherwise known as REAL football, the kind you play with your foot). I’m looking forward to Sundays watching Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, and following the trials and tribulations of Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I’ll actually start understanding all the rules instead of just erratically screaming at the TV for the things that I do understand: block, goal, red card, yellow card, etc.

For now that’s all I’ve got. I’ll post more when Thomas and I get into Rome and have a look around.

-catherine