Vacations That Change Your Life: Day 5

Tuesday: We got ourselves up around 9a today, got ready and dressed, and then re-packed our bags because it was our last day in Rome. I was one of the first ones down to breakfast again and took my time enjoying what had become my favorite breakfast in Italy for the third time; but today I had a tall macchiato instead of caffé latté. At breakfast we made our plan of what we wanted to still see and do in Rome. When we were finally all done eating we checked out, stowed our bags in a luggage room, and stepped out into the beautiful Roman sunshine. The first thing we saw was Rome's opera theater for Roshanna. If I haven't yet told you, she is a music student and loves to sing opera (she's actually really good too!). Unfortunately we weren't able to go all the way inside but we did get pics of Roshanna in front of it, and that is what mattered to her. Next time we'll have to buy tickets to a show! ;)

Breakfast

The restaurant by our hostel

Opera theatre!

After taking pics in front of the theatre, we started walking in the direction of the Colosseum to see it one last time and to get up close and personal with Constantine's Arch. On the way, I bought a cheap black leather bag that I am very happy about and I was designated the new map-reader. I got us there fine and that really boosted my spirits, because I can be very bad with directions. 

Pretty museum

Wow. It doesn't get old

Arch of Constantine

Ruins

More ruins

After spending a little time on the grounds of the Colosseum, it was on to the next stop: the Pantheon! The Pantheon is now a basilica so it was free to go in. What I know about the Pantheon is a very limited amount: it is a perfectly balanced shape because the height from floor to center of dome is equal to its diameter, it is the most well-preserved, ancient Roman structure that exists today, the construction of the dome is baffling- how was it possible to construct a concrete dome like this, without supports, 39 feet off of the ground, in the first century?-, and the occulus in the center of the dome is truly open to the elements but the slight slant towards the hole doesn't really allow for rain and snow to enter.

The Pantheon!

And then, it was on to the next item on our list! We stopped back by the Trevi Fountain to see it in the daylight. :)

After a little time to admire the fountain, we had to part with yet another famous landmark to move onto the next one: the Spanish Steps. What an interesting experience that was! I have some really incredible pictures of myself on the Steps but man was it crowded with people and terribly congested with rude men shoving flowers into your hands and then demanding money. This exact thing happened to me while I was taking a picture of the steps: there was the slightest gap in between my right hand and my camera so this very pushy Indian guy comes up and just slides a rose right in there. Since all six of us were doing the exact same thing, he managed to slide a flower into each one of our hands within 10 seconds. He just went right down the line, slip slip slip! What did he do then? Smile at us and rub is fingers together. We all told him that we didn't have any money, at which his response was something kind of like, "oh it's okay, I only want little coins. No no, it's okay, just little coins." We continued to refuse to give him money, and he would not take back the flowers. I finally told him, "well, if you don't want it back then fine. I told you I don't have any money, so thanks for the flower." Well, he came to take it from me after that. Sheesh!

The Spanish Steps!

=D

I cannot tell you how happy I was with my choice of sweatshirt color today!

After spending a little time at the Steps, we felt like we had done good: we had seen everything that was on our list and we still had a good hour + left for a final great Roman meal. So we walked our satisfied selves to the nearest reasonably-priced place and pigged out! We had some bread with olive oil and a variety of pizzas and pastas. I had a salmon penne pasta in a tomato cream sauce and that was very good. 

When lunch was done it was time to find a métro stop to get ourselves back to the hostel. We made it back safe and sound but were cutting it a little close on time: the sixth person in our group (Michaela, a friend of Chantalle's who was visiting from Minnesota) had to be at the airport within the next hour and half to make her flight to Paris. Joe offered to go with Chantalle to take her there, so Selene, Rosie, and I said bye and then repacked our bags while we waited. Eventually we were bored of sitting in the storage room so we decided just to head to the train station. After all, we were heading to Pisa that evening! The three of us sat there for a good hour waiting and waiting to hear that Michaela was safe on her plane and Chantalle and Joe were going to make it in time for our train, but that isn't the call we got. After an hour and fifteen minutes those three STILL were not even at the airport.... yet alone Michaela through security! I'll make a long story short: we missed our original train, the three of us at the station decided to buy dinner at McDonald's simply to have a fairly comfortable place to sit and wait, Chantalle and Joe showed up quite some time later, got food, assured us that Michaela might have made her plane but might not have, we all ran to catch the next train, and we rode for about 4 hours to Pisa. Phew! (*In hindsight, I can tell you that Michaela did indeed make it safe and sound back to the States. Probably a little travel-worn and stressed but she has fully recovered since then.*) 

The ride to Pisa wasn't too bad, though it was late (I think we finally arrived around 12a). I got to spend most of it talking with Chantalle and getting to know her better. I really enjoyed that because Rosie is the only one of these friends who I see on a regular basis. The others are either in classes together or see each other often at the Residence Hall; I would never give up my privileged living arrangement but I do miss out on a lot of inter-USAC interactions living across town. Anyways, we got to Pisa very late and the city was like a ghost town. And, we didn't have a good map. You can probably tell that we had had a bit of a "give it a whirl" kind of attitude with planning our trip to Pisa. Fortunately, it is also not nearly as big of a city as Rome and we were able to find our hostel without a ton of wandering; plus, it was very close to the train station. The guy at the front desk was a little irritated that we were checking in so late but he didn't give us a ton of trouble. We had a really nice room considering we only paid 8 euros each for it. It was better decorated than The Yellow (our hostel in Rome) and the bathroom was cleaner- a big Yes! for me. My pillow was also much less laughably uncomfortable than the one I had in Rome. Basically, we were happy with where we had landed ourselves. And I was very content to get myself ready for bed and go right to sleep. After all, we had a big day ahead of us.... the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a train to Florence!