Rome was not built in a day...

but was seen in just over two.

So, our morning started out with breakfast at the hotel.  I will say this about Italian hotels, they usually have pretty good breakfast "buffets".  After this, we were ready to get our day started!

Our path led us to the Spanish Steps again because we were taking my bracelet to Tiffany to leave it for resizing.  The weird thing was that the Spanish Steps were COMPLETELY empty!  It was so bizarre, so of course we took advantage of this and took some pictures!

We dropped my bracelet off at Tiffany and they said that it would be ready to pick up on the 8th, but of course we said we would just pick it up on the 12th when we were back in Rome.  The inside of this Tiffany was nice, but still way too small; it's definitely bigger than the one in Florence.  New York is still the best of course, but I do love seeing them in other cities and countries!! So now I've been to the two in NYC, Chicago, Nashville, L.A. (Rodeo Drive), Florence (Italy), and Rome (Italy).

Our destination was The Vatican Museums.  Two of my favorite pics were taken while walking to the Vatican, and my momma was the photographer!  The date is off because her camera was still on American time...haha...I had not even thought of this until I am writing this!

 

When we made it there, the line was not terrible, but they were telling us that the Sistine Chapel was closing at 11:30 and would not reopen until 1:30, so we made the decision to go straight there when we got inside, and come back to do the other.  Everyone else had a similar plan and they were having to coral everyone in different directions, but we saw most of the things that I saw the first time I went. I was REALLY excited that we saw the tapestries where Jesus moves from one angle to the other; this is probably my favorite thing I saw in The Vatican Museums.  We saw my favorite ceilings, the map room, and then we saw the painting that Nick has been telling me about; it is the painting that led him to telling me that my brown boots are like Michelangelo's and it's why he sometimes calls me "Michelo"!  I was really excited to see it!  I thought it was cute how he pulled me aside and said, "look...it's you!!"  I was confused until he explained what the painting was! Here are a few Vatican Museum photos (most of them are on my momma's camera because I took plenty last year!):

Michelangelo and his boots!

 

So, we breezed through the museums, but personally I thought we saw all of the highlights!!  The Sistine Chapel is so beautiful and amazing that it takes the cake anyway!  We made it there, and of course they were trying to tell you not to take pictures, but just as last year, I did not listen.  I mean, it is a copyright thing...not a damage to the art thing...this one random guy (NOT a Vatican employee) walked by and told me not to take pictures!  Umm get off your high horse and shut it!  We stood in there for a bit marveling at this amazing work of art.

Yes, I took this The Sistine Chapel.  It is where the Pope is elected...I figured this was as close as I would get to giving him my message!  

After this we decided to head inside St. Peters.  This church is so striking that neither words nor pictures can do it justice.  It is so big, ornate, detailed, beautiful, and amazing.  I still have the thought that if this is what things inspired by God's love here on Earth look like, what must heaven look like? God's love is so immense, and everything He creates is beautiful; thus, these are only things that He has inspired, so His home, His creation for our eternity must be beyond what I can even imagine!  We just took some time to walk around and look, take some pictures, and try to take it all in, which is not easy to do!

My momma has on her Notre Dame button at the confessional...you put two and two together!  Haha!!!

When we finished looking around in the church, we went to climb the dome; something I missed out on doing last time, and I was REALLY wanting to do this!!  We did agree that we would pay the extra few euros to ride the elevator up to the first level, but there were still like 250 stairs to climb.  My knees were sore, but I KNEW the view would be MORE than worth it!!  The line was not terrible, and I was so excited!!  The climb was not nearly as bad as the Florence dome or the torre in Siena.  However, when we first hit the spot where the wall was curved, I felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded, but I fought through it, remembering how beautiful the view would be when I made it to the top!  Boy was I right!!  Here, I'll let pictures once again do the talking for me:

 

 

 

 

I'm Nick's Chick...cheesy...so sue me!

 

My flat loves!

 

 

Vatican Museums

The Pantheon

 

 We could not have asked for better weather; the sun was shining, and it was not too terribly cold!!  The walk down  was not too bad, and I was so happy to mark this off of my bucket list!  Yay for doing that!

Before we could make it away from the Vatican, we stopped to mail my daddy a post card from there; I cannot wait for him to get it!  I think he will like it, and it was something unique we could do for him!  It is still a bizarre concept to me that Vatican City is it's own country!

 Next up was lunch.  I was a bit past the point of even being seriously hungry, but I was hungry nonetheless.  Before we made it to the sandwich place, Nick and I stopped for a drink of water!

 

 We stopped and got sandwiches again, and paid way too much for them, but when you are near the Vatican, and Rome in general, you are going to pay more!  However, they were good.  We took them to a piazza nearby and sat down to eat!  Next up we had gelato from the place I ate the first time I came to Rome; my tour guide told me about it, and then I saw it in a guide book.  Plus, the first time I had it, I loved it! 

My momma and her famous gelato!

 The theme of the day????  IT'S REALLY NOT THAT FAR!!! 

To continue our jam-packed day in Rome, we headed to Castel Sant'Angelo.  This is one of our favorite places in Rome!  Nick of course told his story about the beheadings in front of the castle, and we enjoyed the views!  We somehow missed the ramp inside that we promised my momma, but it does not go all the way to the top anyway!  However, we did deliver on our promise that they could sit down once we got to the top; well, that and how beautiful the view is! 

 

Our whole group: Nick, Me, my momma, and Barbara

 

 

My momma wanted a "real" pose!

Nick's too tall!!

We found the ramp...AND RAMP LADY! Haha!! Roll Tide!

 I think my momma and Barbara really enjoyed the views that they got of Rome today, though the climbs to get there may have been tough.  That being said, the views are totally worth it, and potentially once-in-a-lifetime!  

Once we got outside, my momma took some cute pictures of me and Nick sitting on the wall at sunset!  

 

Our next stop was Piazza Navona.  THe fair was still going on.  We took them inside the church, and sat down for a bit.  Here I explained to Nick about my theory about the beauty of the churches, and how much more amazing heaven must be.  Anyway, we rested inside the church, taking in the beauty, and then headed back outside.  We went to my favorite shop where I bought my wax seal last year, but I decided not to buy anything today.  We slowly walked towards the hotel, making sure to stop inside the Pantheon.  It is always such a beautiful place, and of course now I will always associate it with New Year's in Rome!  

After this?? The hotel!  Barbara was once again skipping out on dinner, but we took some time to rest, and decided to once again go to Nick's restaurant!  I wanted my momma to try real Italian pizza, and so we decided to try there.  We eventually got dressed, and went for an Italian time dinner!  

The restaurant was amazing as usual!  My momma and I got pizza, while Nick tried...hmm...I dont remember!  We had wine, great conversation, etc.  We laughed a lot, and it was just fun to be with the two of them!  Nick even had the guys let me pick out a dessert, and they sang to me for my birthday...a tea light candle and all!  I was a bit embarrassed, but it was fun!  My momma seemed to really like the pizza, which made me happy! 

The wait staff was amazing as usual, and I was impressed at how much of their conversations I understood over the past few nights.  This always makes me happy! 

When we left the restaurant, we went to The Trevi Fountain.  On the way to the fountain, my momma found her broom that she lost after arriving!! Haha...these are the brooms that Italians use to clean the streets.  Well, that is how they are used here in Cosenza!
 My momma really wanted to see it at night, and I really wanted to make that happen for her!  Plus, she still had to throw in her coin!  It was INCREDIBLE how empty the fountain was.  Nick and I were SHOCKED!!! There was prime real-estate right at the front of the fountain!  So, we sfruttare(d) the opportunity!  *that was Englitaliano!*

 

 

 

 

 We hung out around the fountain for a bit, just talking, telling stories, and laughing about all sorts of things!  My main thought for the day:  I CANNOT BELIEVE MY MOMMA IS IN ITALY WITH ME!!! I wish my daddy could have come too, but I dont think he would enjoy the rough roads and such!  However, we WERE thinking of him, and missing him; despite what he may think! 

 Story I forgot to tell about yesterday:  we went into the church near the Trevi Fountain, and they would not let me stay in there because of my dress.  So, my momma took a picture of me tonight trying to "get back in"!  Haha...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 

A New Year...a dance in the rain

Well, the first few hours of 2013 were amazing.

So, we ate a late(r) breakfast at the hotel and then slowly got ready to head out for the day!  Most things were closed, so we just started walking.  We walked towards the Spanish Steps again, and found Tiffany!  As we came down the Spanish Steps, we could hear music playing, and found that a band was finishing a show (like instrumental band...clarinets, etc.).

The piazza below was so crowded, and the band members had funny hats!! What little we heard of their "concert" was really good!  I had never seen the one in Rome, and I had been soo close the first time in Rome without even knowing it.  They were closed today, so we knew we would have to go back another day; we had determined that my bracelet was a bit too big, and so we needed to have it made smaller.

Then we just started walking around and we made our way through the expensive shops, making wrong pronunciations out of the names for fun!  It seems silly, but we had fun!  We walked along the river and found that the castle was also closed!  It was getting close to lunch time, and we were walking near the Vatican, so we decided to grab a sandwich near there!  They were just simple sandwiches, but they were good!  It was a somewhat touristy place, but it worked.  The people piratically refused to speak Italian to us; even when I asked for the bathroom in Italian, he answered me in English...oh well, at least I tried! Then we made our way to Campo di Fiori because Nick had been talking about it since I met him, and I had never seen it!

We missed the market hours, but we did see the place where the University of Washington has offices.  We also stopped and watched a few guys play the guitar!  We just took our time walking through the city and enjoying the sites!

We walked through Piazza Navona where we discovered a huge fair going on.

 There were sooo many people and so much candy and games and stuffed animal type things.  We found candied apples, candy canes (3 euros for 2 candy canes...that's like $6 for two candy canes...they are like $0.49 a BOX at home...crazy people!!), and much more.

We saw a lot of witches, but could not figure out why!  It was like a huge sugar festival going on!  We also went inside the church in the piazza and it was BEAUTIFUL! Though, I have yet to find a church in Italy that is not beautiful!  We tried to go to my favorite store in Rome, which is in Piazza Navona (where I bought my wax seal last year), but it was closed!

As we walked, we found more and more churches to go in; they seemed to be the only thing open today!

However, I did not mind because as I said, they are all so beautiful!  When we left one church, I really wanted a picture of the front of it, and so I had to cross the street.  Nick got a huge laugh out of videoing me crossing the street "Cosentine" style, which is when you do not use the cross walk and you just go when there are no cars coming.   You take a few steps out...look...wait...and when nothing is coming, you run!  The video really is funny, and I'll try to post it when I get it.  He was laughing so hard at me!  He's so cute!  However, I got the picture I wanted!!! 

So, at this point in our "lazy" day, we had seen:
Spanish Steps, Tiffany, walked along the river, Castel Sant'Angelo, St. Peter's, Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, churches, etc.  It was not a lazy day at all!  We were exhausted, so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest, and then we would go to "Nick's restaurant" for dinner!  We never did get to meet up with Mattea, but they were busy seeing things, and it took them 2 hours to get to their hotel this morning, and two more bottles of wine!  Haha!!


So, when we made it out for dinner, we went to Nick's place.  They were excited to see us (we stopped by yesterday to tell them we would be there for dinner the next night!).  They are so sweet to him, and then to me as well!  They said it was a shame that I was with him though! Haha...they were just kidding!!  So, we sat down in the back, where the real people sit, and ordered wine and food!  We had red wine, bread, and olive oil.  Nick even had some vinegar with his bread that he thought was flavored olive oil until he had me try it and I gagged like no other.  YUCK! Silly boy!  So, I ordered orecchiette, which is small "ear shaped" pasta which is native to Mattea's region of Italy!  Nick had the gnocchi that Mattea had the first time we all went!  The food was amazing, and we ended up shutting the restaurant down!  We sat there and drank our wine and talked for like 2 1/2 hours; it was amazing!! They even brought us some free "dessert", which was some free amaro, which is a dessert liquore; it basically tastes like Goldschlager (which I probably spelled wrong).  Anyway, we left as they were closing, and it was starting to rain.  We made it back to the hotel without getting to wet!

Once upstairs, Nick made the comment that he had wanted to dance outside on the balcony, but now it was raining.  So, I told him the story about the Alabama Softball National Championship game, and how they danced in the rain, and then went on to win the game, and thus the championship!  I also told him at Sarah Mason's shirt that said it, and he said, "well, let's go dance in the rain!"

So, that's exactly what we did!  He set up the music and speakers where we could hear it, and we danced in the rain.  It was so much fun!  We did not get SOAKING wet, but it was still raining pretty heavily, enough that my hair was pretty wet!  It was amazing though, and so much fun...so spontaneous...and so unlike me to be willing to get wet AT ALL in my clothes!  I would not have traded it for anything in the world though!  So, in the spirit of Alabama softball, Rome, and an amazing night...we danced in the rain! 

Thus, I'd say that the first DAY of the New Year was equally amazing as the first few hours!!