Bonjour de la Suisse: Buon giorno Italia!

We landed in Rome and it was HOT! G was also flying in to spend the weekend with us and landed about 30 minutes later. We decided to start our Italian tour with a day trip to Pompeii. I had been there with my mom, but I was excited to see it again, since this time we weren't on a bus trip and had more time to see the city. We arrived and quickly realized that J & I needed hats!

I bought a 5 Euro hat from a vendor outside the gates of the city and he tried to steal 10 Euro from me by giving me change for a 10 instead of a 20!! I knew he was wrong and I'm glad to say I won the battle with the shady vendor! (No pun intended) ;) Once we had our proper sun protection we hooked up with a tour (thanks to a very nice English gal) and set out to explore this once great city.

On the train back to Rome we sat in a small, 6-seat compartment, which was no problem since the train was practically empty. J & I headed out to find the dining car (no luck) and when we returned, there was G sitting with two nuns! When the food cart finally came around and we had our dinner of Cokes & Pringles, G offered the nuns some of his chips. What a good soul he is. :)

The next day was our tour of ancient Rome... The Coliseum, The Forum, & Palintine Hill. This was also the day the taxis were on strike and that made it tough for G to get back to the airport! Once G was safely off, we walked across town to have dinner at the young, hip Spanish Steps.

The next morning we got up early (or so we though) until we arrived at the Vatican and realized we were at the back of a 2 ½ hour line! What time did all these people get up?!? I walked the line in search of the “unofficial” tour (they are very discrete since they are non-ligit, but still the best tour!) I found them, but we actually had to go back about 100 people to meet up with our guide. The tour was great (of course) and we even braved the 300 steps to the cupola of St Peter's Basilica. The views were amazing.

That night was J’s birthday night and we were off to celebrate. “Where should we eat?” We were told (by live people and by our guide book) that we couldn’t get a bad meal in Piazza Navona, so we went there. We were so deep in conversation that we didn’t exactly read the menu and it wasn’t until after we ordered the wine that we realized we had found the Italian Applebee’s! We could have ordered a hamburger or chicken nuggets or a myriad of other unsavory delights. We did manage to order some “Italian” food, but by far the best part of the meal was the wine and the two shots (each) of limoncello that our all-too-friendly-waiter brought for us.

Our waiter caught wind that it was J’s B-day and arranged for the guitar wheedling street performer to serenade her. It was quite enchanting until the awkward pause:
“Happy Birthday dear…., uh, dear…. Uh, what is your name?”
He continued enthusiastically, “Oh, okay… Happy Birthday dear Johnny! Happy Birthday to you!” Who’s Johnny?!? Considering the language barrier, he almost got it right...

We were eager to get out of there! We were in search of some dancing, but since the taxi strike was still going on, we were limited to the surrounding neighborhoods. We avoided the recommendation of our waiter ("I can meet you guys there when I get off work" Ummm... no thanks.) and found there wasn't much going on. We stopped in a bar that at first glance seemed pretty mellow, but the cast of characters there turned out to be something else! There was the bar waiter, who was quite chatty, the waiter from the restaurant (who just happened to run into us despite our best efforts to ditch him), two really nice Russian girls who I exchanged numbers with, and a fellow named "Jonathan" who had two adorable white poodles named "lulu' and "papa".

Now Jonathan (who claimed to own the bar down the block), was about 70, had long hair and a scraggily white beard, and looked a little like Moses. He even had a walking stick and flowing clothes that looked like a robe. We were all into a great conversation (and thankfully the restaurant waiter had to get home to his wife and kids), when Jonathan suddenly stood up and announced that we were all leaving. Like pilgrims we followed, all walking down the street after him & his dogs, not questioning a thing. Either fortunately or unfortunately, we lost sight of them after I ditched into a bar to use their toilette. We found our way back to the hotel, and J's only B-day wish was that there be no alarms for the morning and we sleep in.

The phone startled us both awake and it was the guy at the front desk. "Mi scusi. What time are you getting up? The maid is leaving and would like to clean your room." WHAT?!? We had overslept by a few hours and it was now lunchtime! We hustled out of there and decided that since the day was shot, we would spend the rest of the afternoon shopping. The next morning we were up early (we set the alarm this time) and were off to Florence!