We're in Roma...

Well I would have posted something last night, but the computers were packed... and since the internet access at this hostel is free, it's in very high demand. Tiber Hostel and Camping (where we're staying until tomorrow) is awesome. They have a pool and last night had live music in the ristorante. The live music was still a really great concept even though I was trying to sleep. Mom: ear plugs and eye cover were a brilliant idea.

We spent some of the afternoon in Zurich sleeping in a park by the lake... huge gusts of wind cooled us down quite a bit, but the jet lag was killing me so I dealt with it. We ended up having to grab some food at starbucks cause it was actually the cheapest thing we could find that we could understand what we were ordering. The train ride from Zurich was the best night's sleep that I've had in a while. We share a 6-bed car with 2 other Italian girls our age. They did not speak English. Another score for the earplugs on that night trip.

We spent a good hour in Roma Termini (train station) trying to figure out how to get euros and buy a rail pass/figure out where we were going. The metro system here is actually perfect for us. We got out of it at the Colosseo stop... and the Colosseum was RIGHT THERE. So weird... just plopped down in the middle of civilization... the line was long, but not too bad since we were in the shade. The only downside was that we had our backpacks with us. Jenna and I got plenty of pictures...

Next stop was trying to figure out how to get to our hostel since it was like 20 minutes from the city. It would have been really easy if the sign from the underground metro to the above ground metro was a little more specific... but we made it! Ha. One metro line, a streetcar, and a bus later. Thank God the metro pass worked for all of those transportation methods. At the hostel we sat by the pool and I took the first shower I'd had in 3 days. IT WAS HEAVEN.

We then went back to the city and got off the metro at the Fontana de Trevi stop... only to find that it wasn't that easy. We were a little overconfident in our ability to navigate the city, because we forgot our map. Oops. So at this point we hadn't eaten all day, so we stopped at a Pizza place and ordered our first meal in Rome. A eggplant, zucchini, tomato and roasted peppers pizza with mineral water. 11 euros and very filling. They have all seats near the open window facing the street, so we just people watched. After asking the lady at the pizza place how to get to Trevi fountain, she had no idea what I was talking about. SO I said fontana de trevi and she immediately understood. Then in English told me to go down the street and turn left at the light - it worked! And there were signs too. But that was my favorite place yet, by far. It's gorgeous, and PACKED. You turn a corner and all the sudden it's there in the middle of all these buildings.

After taking several pictures of ourselves, we then ventured off to find the Spanish steps... unfortunately they were doing restoration work on the obelisk, because it seriously marred the whole scene. Oh well. We walked up and down the steps, obviously took some more pictures, and went off in search of gelato. YUM! At this point we were exhausted and hot, and made it back to the hostel for bed. Only downside of this hostel so far is the number of bugs that come in the dorm at night. Fortunately, my sleeping bag liner cinches up and we got up at 650 this morning, took a shower, and are about to head off to the Vatican. I forgot to bring in my camera cord, but I'll get pictures up eventually.

Ciao! Angela