Day 39 - August 6th
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2008
1
39
42
Trip End
Aug 08, 2008
Rome,
Lazio,
Italy
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Staying with Aunty Nicks was wonderful - I got the chance to see a beautiful city (or cities) with my own personal tour guide. In addition, I had help when I had no luggage and some assistance with French since I certainly would have died without her assistance. I will never forget my favorite spot in the city, it was horizontal on a couch in front of the window in her little house in the mountains. It felt so good to lay there in my little sun dress - it certainly was the life!
So once I got off my plane in Rome, I thought I would give Alitalia another chance - by searching in their lost luggage rooms and tagless bag rooms, just to make sure my bag didn't end up there. Nope, didn't happen. But I gave it another shot.
After I found no bags, I got on the train to Termini train station. I was a pro this time, I knew exactly what to do! I went to Termini, in the day this time, and took a walk around to find my hotel. After I couldn't find it, this lady (who appeared to be on the way to work) saw that I looked confused and she offered her assistance to me. She was nice enough to walk around and around with me until I found my hotel and she made sure to tell me to watch my bags and keep it close while wandering in the city. I seemed to get that advice a lot - luckily I took it.
Once I checked into Hotel Pavia, I bought a ticket on the GLT hop on/hop off tour so that I could tour the city. This was the smartest thing I ever did. It's a narrated tour on a tour bus that stops at the various places throughout the city. Rome is absolutely beautiful - probably the prettiest I've seen. I got to see everything from the outside, the only place I had time to go into was the Coliseum - I spent too much time waiting to go inside. Once inside, I finally got to touch and see what I had learned about in my history classes so many years earlier - there I was, in Rome, in the heart of it all.
The only place I wish I could have gone inside was Vatican City - but it was closed at the time I was trying to go in. So, I had to learn about it from my tour. I did get a chance to go to Saint Peter's Basilica, however, the place where the Pope delivers special blessings to over 200,000 spectators...and I did get to see the Sistine Chapel, where the special meetings of the Cardinals are held. This is the location that the election of the new pope took place, signified by the release of white smoke through the chimney.
As I was on the bus on the final trip to Termini, Shajine called me! So we decided on a meeting spot, McDonalds -- as typical Americans would! Who could miss it? So, I sat around and waited for her to arrive - and there she was - Fatima!! We were reunited...in another city, in a whole other country...and it wasn't the US!
We walked around a little bit, caught up on our experiences while travelling and then headed back to her room to get her Mom. Then along with her Mom we headed to do some shopping in and around Termini before getting a bite to eat at the restaurant that they ate at and loved the night before. It really was good.
Then we headed back to their room for a little bit, did a little bit more chit chatting and then decided that it was time for us to say our goodbyes so that I could make it back to my hotel in one piece. She and her bro walked me home and we said our goodbyes for one final time before we would meet again in the states...
