Woke up this morning around 9am, got ready, and walked over to my parents hotel to sneak into their free breakfast :) Shhh! Don’t tell! It was kind fun to get a free breakfast after living off of my fake toast. The breakfast was ok, not what I expected, but still decent.
After breakfast we took the metro to the Vatican. We wanted to make it there by 11am to get to see the Pope's blessing. We didn't get there until 11:10am and I figured we had already missed him so we walked up to the Vatican Museum instead of going to see St. Peter's Basilica. Good thing too, when we got to the museum all the tours were full until 2:30pm. We scheduled our tour and decided to go see St. Peter's while we waited, since the church is free.
We got to the square outside the basilica and it was packed! The Pope was holding a church service outside! I was soo excited! It was my first time seeing the Pope! We went through security and stood in the square watching the Pope hold a church service in Italian. It wasn't just a blessing, we lucked out for sure! I was super happy! After we stayed there awhile soaking in the reality that we were standing in viewing distance of the Pope we decided to venture out before the rest of the crowd got up to leave. We couldn't go in the church since the Pope was giving his service outside on the steps so we decided to see that at the end of the tour.
On our walk away from the basilica we stumbled across an art exhibit along the street with the stations of the cross set up in bronze statues. It was really awesome! I had never seen that outside the basilica before so I'm guessing they had just put it up since the season of lent had started.
After walking through the stations of the cross we went and saw St. John's basilica. It was closed, but we got to see the outside of it. Then we grabbed some lunch at a little café. We each got a Panini. I had prosciutto and mozz cheese, mom had lettuce, tom, and mozz, and Ger got veal and spinach. After our lunch we decided to go get chocolate dipped gelato because it was pretty close by and we still had some time to spare :) It was as good as ever! I finally tried their pistachio gelato and it was bomb! Probably one of my new favorites!
We made our way slowly, but surely back to the Vatican museum to go on our tour. We had a cute old Italian lady who spoke English as our guide. She was nice and knowledgeable, but it was very hard to hear her in our headsets and she walked really fast through stuff, which we wanted to take time and see. I think it's because they have to be done in a couple hours and you can literally spend hours upon hours in the Vatican museum because it's just that big with soooo much to see.
Once we got to the Sistine chapel we kind of parted ways with our lady because she said it was the end of the tour and we took our time taking in the extravagant chapel. One wall has the new testament, the other has the old. Then there's the Last Judgment on the main wall and the ceiling which has creation of man, separation of light and dark, creation of sin, Noah's ark, etc. It's a truly fascinating chapel, that alone I could sit and stare at forever!
After the Sistine Chapel we walked out and straight into St. Peter's Basilica. Part of it was closed because it was Wednesday and in the evening about to start a church service, something I also did not know they had. We got to see the majority of it though which is good :) I'm sad though, I wanted to climb up to the dome, we were all pretty exhausted though from the tour and decided to skip it, plus I found out my mom has a slight fear of heights that I had no idea about.
Once we left the basilica we headed out to find somewhere we could sit and enjoy a glass of wine and a small snack. We went to a cute café where incident number one happened. The face touching. LOL Ok, so we grabbed a table outside, but no one was coming so I went inside to flag down a waiter/ask if we needed to order inside, Gerry went to look at the outdoor menu poster just a few feet away from our table, and mom stayed at the table to save our spot. Gerry, the waiter, and I all return at the same time, and the waiter is yelling at a man a few tables down to get out of there. I was kind of confused and thought he was yelling at a bird or something. Mom explained that the guy had asked her for a euro and when he said no he like petted her face! HAHAHA sorry mom, it's kinda funny! She was really bugged and the waiter must've seen this and kept apologizing. Meanwhile Gerry and I didn't really get it/ were cracking jokes about how we can't leave mom alone for one minute hahaha.
It was an eventful afternoon ;) We enjoyed out wine, tried a tiny piece of their tiramisu to share between the three of us and I also got a cookie with Nutella and white chocolate while my parents shared some marmalade cookie thing.
After our snack we decided to head over to Castle San Angelo to see if we still had time to run through that quick. Unfortunately it was almost 7pm and it had just closed at 6:30pm :( Sad day. We took pics of the outside and made our way across the bridge of Angels where we took some more photos. Across the bridge we stopped at a store and got a few postcards to mail to the fam. We also got stamps and bus tickets since we had already walked a ton that day, I figured we could take the bus home.
Before heading home I decided to introduce them to an appertivo. An appertivo is where you order a drink and get a free little buffet of appetizer like food. We went to one in Campo di Fiori and it was delicious! The veggies were super fresh and good! This place basically had a bunch of different veggie dishes compared to the one I had on my birthday that had a bunch of different bruschettas. I think I liked this one more, there's something about fresh veggies that you just can't compete with :)
After the appertivo we were still a little hungry, but not enough for a sit down heavy dinner. I decided since we had already had a few beverages, I might as well introduce them to Scholar's an Irish Pub where the kids at my school often go. We went there an had a beer and nachos. I also got Ger and I an iIish car bomb and Mom and I a rum and pear shot. Haha neither of them were expecting this ;) Oops! The college kid in me strikes again! Lol my bad.
After that we made our way home they dropped me back at my place and walked back to their hotel. Just as I was about to fall asleep I get a call from my mom. Incident number 2: Cockroaches! Yup, that's right. Mom called to inform me that they had just found not 1, not 2, not 3, but, 4 cockroaches in their hotel room! SICK SICK SICK!!! EWWWW! I freaked out. I don't really mind bugs or whatever, but cockroaches and in a hotel??!! That's disgusting! Plus, we don't really have cockroaches at home.
Haha side note, my one experience with a cockroach, I have to say it because it's super funny. Jus, you know what I'm talking about ;) lol Justine and I were making our way up to the cabin one night in her car. It was pretty late and we stopped to get gas at one of the big stations we normally stop at near Clearlake? Clearwater? One of the two, anyways I'm sleeping in the front seat, she's out pumping gas, and I thought her dog/puppy, Jax was sleeping in the back seat. Wrong. When Jus went inside to pay all of a sudden I hear commotion that wakes me up in time just to see Jax slipping through the half open window. Yes, half open, how the heck he did that I do not know, that dog is insane! Lol anyways he takes off running and I jump out to go after him just as Justine comes out chasing him too. We catch him and put him in the car and just as we are buckling back in and turning on the ignition to roll up the window he does it again! He jumps out and starts running in circles around the car. Seriously, he looks crazy! We can't figure out what he is chasing because we can't see anything. Just as Justine grabs him again she spots it. A COCKROACH! Hahahaha! Jax of all people would be chasing a cockroach that none of us can see because it's super dark out! Lol it was probably one of the funniest nights I have experienced driving up to the cabin!
Anyways, back to my Rome/Parents story. Their hotel had cockroaches, mom asked if they could stay at my place tonight because their hotel wasn't going to do anything, I said yes and after I hung up so they could pack I immediately started setting up my bed on the floor. 15 minutes or so go by and I have not heard anything from them. I start to get worked up thinking about it and head down the block to their hotel to help them with their bags because I can't take it any longer.
I find them in the lobby of their hotel. The guy at the front desk is on the phone calling a hotel associated with them that's right down the block to see if my parents can stay there for the night since the hotel they are currently in is booked. That hotel wouldn't be booked full if the people staying there knew there was cockroaches! UGH! GROSS!!! I was really made and kind of making a scene being a drama queen. I couldn't understand why my parents were being so calm, but they told me later they had already freaked out up in the hotel room and that's how they got the hotel to finally do something about it because the hotel didn't want them scaring off other guests. Screw the other guests! I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs and get everyone stirred up! I was really mad and upset because my parents had travelled all this way to have a nice vacation and day two it was already ruined because of this stupid hotel and their cockroaches!
They got a room at the other hotel and the guy behind the front desk carried their luggage for them to the next place. I was ranting and raving the whole way over and into the next place. The guy from the first hotel explained what happened to the guy at the second hotel saying there was a "small problem". This made me even more made and I went off saying it's not a "small problem" it's a HUGE problem! There were cockroaches in their hotel room! Ugh!!! This would never have happened at home! We now understand that Rome truly does go by their star reference. If they are a three star place, they are not that good or clean, so for future travelers of Rome, by the extra buck and for to a four or five star place, then you might not have to deal with cockroaches and the crap we went through!
After all was cleared up and they got settled into their next hotel, Gerry walked me back home. I was crying and upset and he said the guy at the new hotel front desk asked about me when he returned. Gerry explained to him why I was so worked up, I don't know why, but neither of the front desk guys at either hotel found cockroaches to be a big deal, it just goes to show the different mentalities of different countries I suppose…
I slept like crap that night because I was tossing and turning thinking about cockroaches, thanks a lot, stupid hotel! You're lucky I'm not saying your name! I could totally rat you out on my blog, but I'm going to hold my tongue… for now.
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