Again in Roma

Staying with my Italian family again involved mostly sleep. I didn’t experience a single morning there. I knew traveling with the girls would wear me out. After a few days, and yet another tearful goodbye to the family, I hopped on a bus at midnight and made my way to Rome. You would think that after multiple nights spent in chairs that I would be used to it, but sadly that’s not the case, and I didn’t get much sleep at all. I did get to see another sunrise, though. After a lugging my suitcase through the metro system, I made it to my hostel and dropped off my stuff before going to the airport to meet Heather and Kahea. I ended up waiting for them for over two hours! It turned out that the airline had accidentally marked Kahea’s bag to be delivered the next day. She was a little stressed out, but handled it like a trooper. I had been pretty homesick the past week, but when I saw the girls, I was happy. I can handle being here another two weeks now. Immediately after getting our beds we set off for the Roman forums and the Coliseum. The girls were excited, but so tired they could hardly do anything but walk slowly and snap pictures. The Coliseum was still amazing. And Rome was still Rome, only hotter. I had only had about an hour of sleep the night before and the girls were faring even worse, so we went to bed early. Six o’clock to be exact. The next day, we woke up at a decent hour and went to the Vatican. We were all peppier and enjoyed ourselves. That place still blows my mind. Afterwards we ate pizza at the Largo Argentina, marveled at the Pantheon, and got gelato at my favorite place, Giolitti. I am going to miss that place. I am going to miss ALL these places. We spent the third day, the 24th, at the beach outside Rome. It was absolutely wonderful! A whole day lying on the beach next to the Mediterranean with my best friends is my idea of relaxation. Heather and I went swimming, which is when she stepped on a jellyfish. That part wasn’t so much fun, but we got some sort of Italian liquid for jellyfish stings that made her feel much better. Since she couldn’t walk, I went up to the bar to get her a Carona. The bartender asked me if I was sixteen, and didn’t believe me when I said I was twenty-one. It’s good to know that my (extremely) youthful looks are obvious in every country. Tomorrow we will be leaving Rome for Venice!

Rome, Italy