Roma, Italia!

I'm in Rome! Can you believe it? I definitely can't! I'm sitting on my adorable little couch, watching Sex and the City, and eating cold pizza - hah!

We were late leaving Atlanta due to extra paperwork required for the volcanic ash disturbance - we avoided it by taking a more southerly route to Rome from Atlanta. We were supposed to arrive at 7:54 and didn't make it until 9:45.. what a long time to be on a plane.. For one reason or another, this flight seemed to be much longer than the flight to Honolulu.

Getting off the plane, I was shooed through Customs (a good thing I guess) and made my way toward the connecting train station. I bought the ticket to Termini Station (€14) and sat with friends I made in Atlanta. My train left at 11:06, we arrived at Termini at 11:38, and I only slept a few minutes on the plane - I'm exhausted at this point.

Fiumicino Airport Train Station

From there, I hopped on the Metro (€1) and headed toward the Colosseum. Once finding my apartment and no keyholder, I found another pay phone and called the rental company again. 

I wasn't let into my room until 13:00 (1:00 p.m.). 

living and dining room.

dining room/hallway/kitchen

kitchen.

bedroom.

bathroom.

I was unbelievably tired, but more hungry, so I found a cafe and had pizza and water with gas (sparkling water). After this pick-me-up, I dropped left-overs in the fridge and took a nice Roman stroll.

I metroed to the Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti):

The Scalinata is the largest staircase in Europe. Tourists (and perhaps locals) sit on the steps and enjoy the view. The street directly across from this has shops such as Gucci, Prada, etc., similar to LA's Rodeo Drive. Next was gelato:

From here I meandered around, found the Pantheon, and an interesting church - Sant' Ignazio di Loyola. While under construction, the church lacked funds to build a dome. Therefore, artist Andrea Pozzo created the illusion of an airy dome by painting a skewed one. The first picture is from the back of the church.. Looks like a dome to me! The second photo is shot from directly under the dome.. aaah.

At this point, my body is wanting rest. I finally found a cell phone company and bought a SIM card.. "Hi, MOM!" From there, I went to Fontana di Trevi (the Trevi Fountain) and made a great friend - Cris from Argentina!

We sat, talked and people watched for quite a while. Oops, I just realized we never took pictures of each other throwing our coins for good luck! I was too tired to move. Next we headed toward Capitol Hill - beautiful at night.

Now it's time to hit the sack for the first time in forever... Good night all! Plans for tomorrow: the Vatican.