Ciao Bella!

Colosseum...photo taken at the top of the memorial for the Unknown Soldier.

Some really old stuff that was cool to look at.

Gigi at the best pizza that we had that day-- along with the white wine out of a tap which rocked.

Team photo. Scott and I matched, it was very exciting.

Gigi and I spent two lovely days in Roma continually wondering how two individuals could have so much damn fun. I waited for her on her train platform Tuesday morning and somehow she walked right past me. I started to panic slightly and ran to the hostel praying on everything holy that she was there. When I saw her in the cafe (our hostel was run out of a pizza joint), we both screamed. We spent the day wondering the streets-- we saw the Colosseum, Pantheon, lots of really old stuff and men dressed up as gladiators. That night we went out to a fabulous Italian dinner (thank you Mary Karen) in the Piazzo Nevona. They told us that Grandma made the pasta and the desserts. It was the some of the best pasta I have ever tasted. Gigi and I were practically licking the plates when we finished.

After that we went to an bar and listened to Italian boys singing American cover songs in an Irish pub in Rome. It was pretty entertaining. We got back to the hostel around 3am. We woke up the next day and after picking up a nice young man named Scott, we went back to the Irish pub to use the Wifi. We began our daily mission of pizza and ate at a little Italian restaurant that had amazing pizza and wine out of a tap (which we drank). After lunch, we went to the hostel to regroup and get train tickets for the following day (Scott was going for round two at Oktoberfest, we headed to Florence) and then went on the bus tour of Rome. Scott hit his head on a tree branch, we got yelled at by the mean couple in front of us, we took some pictures and then jumped off the bus to go find more pizza. Instead of pizza, we found the Vatican in which we decided to have an extensive photo shoot. Then we got pizza, more beer and then more galatto before going to meet Rider for a glass of white wine in another piazzo.

The next morning we got up to go on the bus tour again (we had two day passes) and do the boat portion along the river. The boat was very boring and essentially being on the bus in traffic sucked out our will to live. We made it back to the hostel just in time to pack, grab some more pasta for lunch (after eating pizza three different times yesterday, we had enough...but don't think it wasn't considered) and head to the train for Florence.

After we found out hostel (which is creepy, we are moving out today...good thing I was not flying solo) we had a drink at a bar to use the wifi, walked around the city and then drank lots of wine. The words "on the house" seemed fabulous last night, not so much this morning. Today we are going to eat, shop, find David, look at a big church and bond because Gigi leaves tomorrow night to go start her big French adventure. I am going to cry for days without her. I am staying in Florence until Monday morning until I hop a train to get my flight to Barcelona although I might take a day trip to Venice on Sunday if I am feeling motivated.

Hope you are all well and I miss you all. Xoxoxo Rach