Mia mamma viene a Italia!

So today is the day that my momma came to Italy!  The day started pretty early because we were going to take the bus to the airport to meet my momma!  Our plan was to take the 8ish bus to the airport because their flight was supposed to get in at 7:55, and we wanted to give them time to get through passport control.  I did get to see the sun rising over Rome, which was nice!!!

SO...the sky was GORGEOUS before we left for Termini to take the bus.

When we arrived at the station, we decided to buy train tickets to catch the 8:22 train...but then, we missed it.  So, we had tickets and no train.  Then, we hurried to the bus place to buy those tickets and catch the next bus to the airport.  The lady was on the phone and extremely thrilled to help us...oh wait...she was actually extremely annoyed! Nontheless, we got our bus tickets and were able to board the bus before it left. 

The bus ride was relatively quick, and when we arrived at the airport, we began our search for them!  I had asked Nick if I could give him my camera to take pictures, and being the sweetheart that he is, he captured these moments of when I first found them waiting just outside of the area where you get your luggage!  I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to see my momma and hug her!! 

 

 

It was so wonderful to see my momma, and nice to meet Barbara in person! Their flight landed like half an hour early, so they had been waiting for a while, but of course we had no means of communication, and therefore no way of knowing this!!  So, we grabbed their suitcases and started making our way towards the train, which we now had two tickets for!  When we got there, we found out that those tickets were only good for Termini to the airport, and not the other way around!  So, we tried to change them, but ended up getting new ones, and giving those to my momma and Barbara for next week!  So, we waited on the train, then loaded our stuff, and started our ride to Termini! 

I had been holding out on telling my momma that Nick gave me the Tiffany bracelet, but she spotted it and asked me where I got it from.  I told her that Nick gave it to me.  She then told me that she and my daddy almost bought it for me for Christmas! CRAZY!! It was just so good to be sitting in front of my momma...like she was there...in person!  I could barely believe it! 

When we got to the train station, we started walking towards the hotel!  We decided to walk so that they could see Piazza della Repubblica and other things.  Glad we did, because it gave us the opportunity to stop in a church that I'd never been in, and there my momma learned her first Italian lesson, "there is no such thing as just a church in Italy!!" 

SO then we made it to the hotel and went upstairs to get ready to start sightseeing!  First, we exchanged all of our gifts!! My momma gave me some of mine; we gave Nick his Alabama t-shirt and Dreamland sauce; I was so excited to get Erin's wine stopper with a dragonfly on it; I got amazing Vera Bradley house shoes from my Avery family; my momma brought me gifts, gum, American food, etc. etc.  We also gave them time to look at the view, brush their teeth, wash their faces, etc.  THEN...we were off to site-see.

The first thing they saw were the Spanish steps!  Then we made our way through the expensive shops, going to the Trevi Fountain.  This was the place my momma was really excited to see, and I was so excited to take her!! We definitely threw coins in, and took some pictures!

My momma was waiting to throw her coin in at night, because that is when she really wanted to see the Trevi Fountain. 

Next up was the Colosseo.  We stopped to eat lunch, and I was excited to get a sandwich, something I have trouble finding here in Cosenza.  Nick and I tried something called brasaola, which is similar to prosciutto, but it is made from beef; it was really good!  I think we ended up passing through other things on the way because there is always something to see in Rome, and we kept getting slightly sidetracked, but we eventually made it there. 

The line looked horrendous, but actually moved really quickly!  We lost Barbara for a while, and after we bought tickets and such Nick went back out to find her!  Nick and I got in for free!! I was really excited for them to see the coliseum.  They were really excited to see something they had read about in books, and to just see such ancient history.  We walked around...took quite a few pictures...I tried to tell them some of the things I remembered from my audio tour I used last year...we looked around in the gift shop...and just took our time exploring it a little bit!  NIck was so incredibly sweet to carry my heavy purse around all day!!!

Nick and his man purse

With my flat daddy

 After the coliseum we made our way to "St. Peter's in Chains", which is a church where they have the chains that were used on the Apostle Peter when he was in prison!  Holy Cow!!! I was so excited to finally see this!  We were tired and our feet were hurting a bit, but it was so worth it! There is also a sculpture of Moses done by Michelangelo, which was pretty cool! 

Then, my momma and Barbara got a break when Nick misunderstood where we were going and picked a quick route back to the hotel instead of "the white building".  We all really liked this building:

When we got back to the hotel, we needed a snack!  So, we broke into the panettone that we brought from Gubbio that Nick's students gave him!!  It was soooo amazing!  It was fresh, delicious, and just wonderful! 

We took some time to rest, unpack our stuff in our new hotel room; this room was much bigger and we had plenty of room to spread out.  Barbara decided that she did not want to go to dinner, so she got ready for bed.  We relaxed a bit, talked a lot, my momma took a nap, and eventually got dressed to go meet Mattea and her parents for dinner at Nick's restaurant! 
We had the best time at dinner!  It was so much fun to see Mattea again, and her parents are soo sweet!!  I had the veal, which I was SO EXCITED about!!  My momma got...gnocchi I think.  The food was amazing as always, and they love Nick there so we were treated really well!  They goofed off and just made the atmosphere amazing as always!  We talked for a while and shared stories, etc.  It was so comfortable to have my momma next to me, Nick across from me, and Mattea diagonal!  Blessed girl!! We had wine and just relaxed into each other's company!!! After dinner they brought us limoncello on the house!!  We laughed at so many things that night, and I was glad that Mattea and I were able to show my momma how much alike we are!  I LOVE Mattea, and she never fails to make me laugh and love her!! 

It was sad to hug Mattea bye, but I knew we would see her in Lecce soon!  So, we hugged and such and then parted ways!!!

Overall, I'd say it was a successful first Italian day for my momma!!  We made our way back to the hotel, took showers, and went to sleep.  Tomorrow is the Vatican and such!! 

MY MOMMA IS IN ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!