Rome

Today, we finally got to Rome! We had planned on renting Vespas while we were there, but when we got to the rental place, and the proprietor asked if I had ever driven one, and I (honestly) said yes, they said they wouldn’t rent to us! Rude! But understandable, European drivers are legit nuts. So instead, he rented us bikes instead. Yes, bikes.

Yes, most of the time, we had to walk the bikes, because there were too many tourists to navigate. And it was a million degrees outside, and we had to wear pants to get into the Vatican. Basically, we spent the day just sweating. But! Let’s focus on the fun. We got to the Trevi Fountain.

As it turns out, the Trevi fountain is closed right now, for repairs. So…this is all we got to see. Sad, but that’s all right. Next on the list: the Pantheon.

We unfortunately didn’t have the time budgeted to go inside, but that’s ok. The outside was pretty cool. And our adventures continued on to the Vatican, and St Peter’s Basilica.

We got to go inside, and boy, is that an extravagant and very beautiful. And the cool thing is we got to see the Swiss Guard! They are SUPER serious, despite their ridiculous outfits.

Next, we went to the Bocca della Verita, something I’ve been wanting to see for years! The line was huge, but totally worth it.

And lastly on our Rome list, the Coliseum. My pictures of it weren’t very impressive, so I won’t bother posting it here, but it was huge and pretty. We didn’t have time to go in, because at this point, we had to bust it on back to the ship, it was going to leave the dock at 6:30, and it was 4:30. By the time we got to the train station, it was 5:00, and the next train was leaving at 5:05. It was a 40 minute ride, so we knew we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, the train left like, 15 minutes late. And then, for some reason, (and by the way, if there’s any advice I can give you, it’s DO NOT trust the Italian train system. They are the worst) our train arrived super late. So we arrive at the train station at 6:25, and we still have to get a taxi to the ship. The shuttle we had taken was no longer running, it stopped running at 6:00.

The train stops, and we SRINT off the ship. I grabbed the first taxi driver I see, telling him we need to hustle. He then waits for another couple to come. DUDE, WE HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE LET’S GO. Finally, everyone is in, and he leaves. At this point, my anxiety had been at like, level 1000065465453640 for the last hour, thinking we’re going to miss the boat. We arrived at our ship at 6:35, and to our great luck…blessing…anything, there was one last group that was on an excursion that ended late, so the ship was still there! We got on! As we were on the elevator going up to our rooms, we all had a big group hug that we made it. We had so many freaking close calls and bad things happen this trip, we were just grateful to have made it.