When in Rome (Roma)

Italy has been a roller coaster of a ride for us...some ups, some downs, and some wine. Lets start with our adventures in Rome, shall we? I think so.

Ah Roma....we flew from Brussels to Rome and when our plane touched down is when the madness began. To start the trip off, Jen locked her carry-on luggage and lost the keys on the plane. So she was locked out of her luggage and while we were walking around the airport looking for someone to help us cut her locks off (her passport and money were in there so she didnt have access to those important things) we were immediately harrassed by taxi drivers and shuttle van drivers to "go with them" because they were the cheapest--it was very overwhelming amidst the other things we were dealing with and having just entered Italy for the first time. We were unable to open Jens bag so we decided to head for the hostel hoping that they would help us. Through this adventure, we met a friend, Courtney, who gave us some advice and direction to our hostel and on Rome in general. We walked Courtney to her hostel (after she walked us to ours to drop off our bags) and exchanged contact info. Yay- our first friend in Italy! We made plans to have dinner with her the next day.

Rome- Day 2: Saw a lot of the popular Rome sights...you know, the Colleseum, The Vatican, lots of Piazzas, Ali Norton, Ron Howard, and Tom Hanks. Did I say Ali Norton, Ron Howard, and Tom Hanks?? Yes I did and now I have your attention, eh? So the craziest thing happened...we had just finished walking through and around the Colleseum and the Forum area and were figuring out our way to the Vatican when low and behold a streak of bleach blonde hair blinds us in the hot sun--that would be our friend Ali Norton who we randomly ran into on a street corner in Rome. She was with her tour and they were hanging out waiting for their tour of the Colleseum to begin- we had no idea that the other would be in Rome at that time. So we met a couple of Ali's new friends, gave her a couple of hugs and headed off to the Vatican. While at the Vatican, Jen wanted to attend Catholic mass, so we did. That was my first experience at mass and it was amazing to look at all of the works on the walls and inside the Vatican (lots of stuff by Michelangelo) while the Priest conducted the Mass and the Choir sang--it was good. Then, on the way to meet Courtney for dinner, we decided to stop by the Piazza De Paopolo (?) just to see it, it was on the way. When we arrived to the Piazza, a film crew was set up and there were hoards of people wearing tags that said "extras" on them. We heard some mumblings and someone say "is Tom Hanks still here?"--yes he was! As we were leaving the Piazza for dinner we walked past a mass of people all taking pictures and it was Ron Howard and Tom Hanks! They were talking and then Tom began to climb this scaffolding- they were filming parts of "Angels and Demons" right in front of us. So we all had our cameras out and I began video taping the film shoot. I have some great shots of Tom (we're on a first name basis now) running up and down the scaffolding to get the right shot and then he walked to the edge of the scaffolding and began talking to us (the crowd), waving, and making faces at us. It was great---we were so thrilled! Then off to meet Courtney for dinner- when we arrived, she was sitting down outside this cute, little Italian (of course) restaurant. The waiter knew her so he was very kind to us and gave us lots of food and wine (3 liters of wine to be exact) for 30 Euro total (for four of us...that was ridiculously kind) so we chatted and got a little drunk. After a 4 hour dinner, we walked to the beautiful Trevvi (?) fountain and sat there for a little while. It was an absolutely fabulously amazing day!!!!

Rome day 2 was great as well. We finished our sightseeing of Rome with the Sistine chapel with the ceiling by Michelangelo (of course) and met Courtney for the Borghese Museum which was also really cool. We had dinner, some gelato, and parted ways with our new friend...like I said- Rome was awesome. So much in two days--we had a lot of fun!