ROME - Friday, March 10th

We arrived in Rome and immediately were surrounded by the Italian print and accents. It was music to my ears. As we showed our passports to the handsome Italian men, they sang, "Lollipop, lollipop" for some reason we have no clue, but it sounds so much better coming from a handsome Italian man.

All of our luggage arrived with us, which was a victory we savored more than you know. Our first meeting with Raquel seemed promising, but we would quickly learn that her Spanish/Greek customs are far more...brash, than ours. SHOCKER!

We boarded our bus to be driven all week by AnTONIO. Who later we find out is a victim of Mafia bullying. We drove about 45 minutes into Rome and WOW...so many cars, mopeds, and graffiti. We could not get over the graffiti on such beautiful marble and limestone buildings. According to Raquel, they can not get a handle on it and it is something they are not proud of in Rome. The architecture was beautiful and as we entered THE WALL, we realized we had entered another world.

Little did we know, we were beginning our first walk, uphill, lugging our luggage to our hotel.

http://www.centerhotelrome.com/

Luckily, we were on the first floor, which was up two flights of steps. ????? Our morning breakfast was on the top floor and would prove to be a death walk the following mornings when our legs were in such pain from walking all over Rome - UPHILL all day.

We were excited to have hot water in the showers, but almost drowned because there was no room to move away from the shower head. For the men on the trip, they would often turn the water off and on while moving around in the shower to use shampoo.

Things we noted:

Loved being able to open our windows and hearing the sounds of the city.

Everyone smokes in Italy. You may lose weight from walking so much, but develop cancer from inhaling the smoke and gas fumes from the mini cars.

Coffee Americano in Italy really is not the same as American coffee.

Americans are considered loud. Each night we sat in the SMALL hotel lobby and eventually were told to go to bed or be quiet.

Honking your horn is not rude in Italy. It truly is a form of communication and it is used OFTEN!

Being able to walk around Rome at your leisure is a luxury that I will always cherish. "Leisure" being the key word. Walking at a fast pace while your guide abruptly shouts and signals, "LET's GO!" is not something we cherished.