Italy Day 6

We woke up Wednesday morning in fair Roma, capital of Italia. It was six a.m. when we got in and we went to see if we could drop our bags at the hotel so we wouldn't be encumbered by them anymore (at least for that day). The hotel had its own cute little courtyard.



After we dropped our stuff, we had the classic Italian breakfast: cappuccino and a pastry.

Mmmmmmm!
From there we headed to the most famous site in Roma, Il Colosseo.


It was so early in the morning, and the light was perfect.





Though I had seen the Coliseum before, I had never been inside. It was astounding.














Down there, below the platform, was where they used to keep the animals before the fights. I don't know if "fight" is the right word, but it was hostile indeed.














(we were still pretty obsessed with the tats.)














Wooooo! Jumping with glee outside of the Coliseum!


Roma is an odd city. It has the oldest relics inhabiting random spaces, surrounded by modern buildings and people and roads and automobiles.





We walked around the city, and found this beautiful fountain that Kerri and I made a wish upon.


This guy's like, "Stop throwing coins at me!"





This was the ceiling of the Pantheon, I believe, though I didn't take many pictures of the inside. Actually I didn't take many photos of Roma in general. About half of these are from Kerri and Shannon.





I LOVED this bookstore. Oh man.


What is it about writing materials of the highest quality that inspires me to write? I wanted to fill every one of these books.











We had lunch at this li'l ristorante. Wait, was it this one? Well, we had lunch at one similar. I had orange ravioli and at the end we all shared some homemade berry pie. Be still my tastebuds.


We went home to take a much-needed nap and freshen up. I tells ya, I haven't napped in years, but the moment my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. I slept like a dream in Italia. (pardon the pun.)

When we awoke, Jennifer had decided to head back to Firenze on her own to do some schoolwork, so out the remaining three of us headed again.


We got some gelato, naturally. I had pistachio. I bet you can guess how it was.


Yummy. We had that just outside of the Trevi Fountain. Here something happened to us that has never happened before, maybe in the history of the world. We asked a girl sitting nearby to take a photo of us, and she SAID NO. What?!


We made wishes here. Supposedly if you toss a coin in, you will return to Italy. It worked for me last time.


The sun said goodnight, and we made our way around town, over to the Spanish Steps. It was crowded with about a hundred and fifty teenagers. Seriously. Field trip week.


We chilled, people-watched, and Shannon contributed to the journal.


Then we were tired and hungry so we headed to an enoteca listed in Shannon's guidebook (which had served us well thus far) that happened to be located a couple of blocks from our hotel. Let me tell you, the best meal in the world is bread, olive oil, and a variety of cheeses and meats. And wine, of course.


Good Lord. Hungry just looking at it. AND we capped off the night with some cannoli.


Sigh. Made us so happy. We were plum tuckered out, and spent the remainder of the night trying to make sense of an Italian "American Idol"-like show wherein interpretive dancers, singers, and ballerinas get criticized in front of a live studio audience. It was weird. We fell asleep by 9pm. Tune in next time for the Vatican!

love,
*jenna*