When in Rome...

Let me begin by saying that the first twenty-four hours of our trip have probably been crazier than any of our other trips combined.

Randy dropped us off at Freihung yesterday after work, and we were so thankful that there was a train heading to Nuremberg, as our original tickets were leaving from Pegnitz. The first stop was to Vilseck, where two of our friends from Camp Adventure, Brittany and Jessica, got on the train! We were able to hang out with them until we arrived in Nuremberg, which was pretty fun to see them. Arriving in Nuremberg, we had a few minutes to switch to our next train to Munich.

This is when things got interesting. First off, when we got on the train, we realized that the majority of the seats were reserved. Fearing we’d have a repeat of Paris, we found some seats that weren’t taken yet, appeared normal, and hoped that the people wouldn’t show up. Well, they did. Which meant that we had to stand, or wait for the seats to clear out again. Jessica and Nicole got kicked out of their seats first, and they disappeared to another wagon. Sydney, Brittany and I were next, so we just stood by the luggage rack in the hallway. Last was Juliet, who then joined us in the hall. Some man saw us standing in the hall, and gave us his seat reservation ticket, which allowed Sydney to take his seat. So, long story short, it ended up being Juliet, Brittany and myself, all standing in the hallway in-between wagons. Although this sounds awful, our ride was only going to be another hour or so, so we decided to just suck it up and wait, thinking we’d get there soon enough. As we’re going, the train hit something on the tracks, and it made the LOUDEST noise. Everyone in the wagons looked down the hallway at me, thinking I did something. I stood there shaking my head with my arms up in the air signaling to the fact that I had nothing to do with the noise. Arriving at the next stop, Ingolstadt, the train cleared out decently well, so I snagged the seat across from Sydney. Not long after, a lady gets on the intercom and starts speaking quickly in German. Looking around at the people’s faces, we realized that something was wrong. In half a second, literally, everyone was on their feet grabbing their stuff and running toward the exit. Sydney and I kept looking around, trying to ask people what was going on. Finally, this woman stated that we did in fact hit something on the tracks, and that we needed to transfer to another train to get to Munich. With no more of an explanation, we grabbed our stuff, and hoped that the other girls would follow the crowd to the next train.

We all piled onto the next train, and it was unbelievably claustrophobic. Thankfully, Brittany had gotten a call from Jessica stating that her and Nicole had made it somewhere on the train. We began talking to some individuals around us, and we overheard that it would take over an hour to get into Munich… and our overnight train to Florence left in twenty-five minutes from then. As soon as we heard that, Sydney, Juliet and myself took off down the train to find a conductor to ask to contact our train in Munich and delay it until we arrived. Eventually, we made it to the last wagon, and found a (very handsome) guy who worked for the train. He informed us that all the overnight trains out of Munich were being delayed until our train arrived in the station. Praise God! The three of us made our way back down the wagons to relocate Brittany, who started making calls to the other girls. These two women, who spoke broken English, were extremely nice and were trying to help us in any way possible, since they knew we were cutting it close to missing our next train. We started talking to them and asked if they knew what had happened on our last train. Apparently, the woman on the intercom informed the passengers that someone had jumped in front of the train. Like, WHAT?!

We hit a body.

I felt the bump under my feet.

Making it into Munich, the three of us girls were the first ones off the train, and we took off SPRINTING to our next platform. I honestly haven’t run that fast in a while. Our sprinting paid off, and we made it onto our overnight train! Thank the LORD that they were able to delay our train! Finding our sleepers, we walked into the compartment to find two walls with bunk beds, each of which were stacked three beds high. You can imagine how claustrophobic I became then. We dropped our bags on our beds, and ended up walking down the wagons to unexpectedly run into our friend Darcey. We were able to talk to her for a little which was really fun since we hadn’t seen her in a while. Returning to our sleepers, I ended up in the middle of the three beds. I opened the window, put in my iPod, and didn’t move after I laid down. Although I was on the verge of having a panic attack because it was so small and there were six people in that little room, I was so thankful to have a bed to sleep on instead of trying to sleep sitting up.

Waking up at six, the four of us grabbed our stuff and hoped off the train in Florence. We had time to meet up with the other group from Vilseck, as we both had time to kill before our connections. Before long, we said our goodbyes and took off for our trains. Thankfully, the train from Florence to Rome didn’t take long, and before we knew it we were on our way to our hostel.

Our hostel ended up being just down the street from the train station, which was awesome because we all have two bags plus our purses. We weren’t able to check into our room until after three, so we changed our clothes in the bathroom, and left our luggage in their luggage area. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at their free breakfast and made our way outside to find some stuff.

We ended up walking and finding the Coliseum. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go inside as the line would have taken around four hours, but it was beautiful regardless! The entire time I was there, I was thinking about how much I wished my dad were there to see it with me. Like Dachau, it was one of those things where you could close your eyes and envision exactly what happened there. The stone had started to break down in some areas, so you could see into the arena itself. Additionally, you could see some of the entrances to the arena itself. How many gladiators do you think have walked through those gates? How many took on lions for the entertainment of thousands? How many people had died there? It was so surreal but so unbelievably fascinating. Dad, you would have loved it!

After leaving the Coliseum, we jumped on a bus tour and were able to see some other really awesome monuments. We ended up hoping off at the Vatican so we could get some pictures. Walking up to Vatican City itself, we were ambushed by all these peddlers and tour guides asking for business. We ended up getting swayed into attending a free introduction to one of the Vatican City tours. The tour guide’s name was Mateo, and he was HILARIOUS! As we’re standing there listening to his intro, our friend Mikey (from the Vilseck group) walked up and hit me in the ribs. Apparently he had done the bus tour and got talked into attending the introduction as well. How crazy is that?! At the end of the introduction, we decided to pay the money to tour the inside of the Vatican, which also included a tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Church. (As a side note, did you know that Vatican is it’s own separate country? They have all their own resources, besides water, which they bring in from Rome.) The Vatican was gorgeous! We toured two of the museums inside, got to see the outside of the Pope’s apartment, learn about all the history to the artifacts inside, and learn a lot about the history of the Vatican itself. Moving on with the tour, we then went into the Sistine Chapel. This is something my mom would have loved! The Chapel itself did not allow photography or any type of photo taking, as it is a holy place as well as it has its own copyright. Furthermore, because it is holy, we were not allowed to speak. The Chapel itself was not as big as I imagined, but Michelangelo’s artwork is breathtaking. One wall of the chapel displays pictures representing stories from the Old Testament, whereas the opposing wall represents the New Testament. Across the ceiling, the paintings showcase the creation of the world. It is said that Michelangelo only made one mistake during the painting of the Chapel, and it was just that he made some figures too small to see from the ground below. When Michelangelo died, two other painters took over to finish his work, under the direction of the Pope. In spite to the Pope, the two artists drew themselves into some of the scenes. For example, the two men can be seen sitting on the end of the Last Dinner scene. Pretty clever I’d say. Leaving the chapel, we then moved onto St. Peter’s Church, which was the most beautiful church we have seen yet. There was actually a service in session when we walked in, so we were able to sit in the back and watch as they gave their sermon. The alter itself was unreal, and the detailing of the decorations was mind blowing. Overall, the tour was definitely worth the money!

Leaving there, we took the bus to the Pantheon, and were able to tour the inside of that as well. The Pantheon is considered one of the most dangerous buildings in Italy because it has a huge circle cut out on the dome ceiling, which still stands from its original creation. Because the circle is open, the floor of the Pantheon has drainage holes. That alone is pretty cool in my opinion.

Moving on from there, we went and grabbed some Italian food at this small restaurant. We all ordered pizza and pasta of course! It was delicious and SO fresh! Once we finished eating dinner, we then went and got some gelato. I mean, we had to, right?

We ended up walking to the famous Trevi Fountain, where we each took part in the tradition of throwing one to three coins over your shoulder into the fountain itself. The first coin represents that you’ll return to the city, the second represents that you’ll find love, and the third represents that you’ll find marriage. I threw three.

Our final sightseeing stop was a walk to the Spanish Steps, which were created in the 1700’s. The steps were created to connect one area to another, so it was pretty populated with people. We ended up sitting there for a while before leaving to head back to our hostel for the night.

I’m currently sitting on the train on our way to Venice! Rumor has it that since it’s Sunday, a lot of the city will be closed. I guess we’ll see how much of it is actually open, as we have a few things planned out that we would like to see. We do hope to head to some of the islands in the lagoon, and I cannot wait to touch the Adriatic Sea.

Italy is turning out to be nothing short of amazing.