Last day in Roma

Kelly, Katie S, Katie C, and I woke up and went to the coffee shop, the one Fredricha told us about the very first day. It was the last thing on our Italy bucket list. I ordered an iced cappuccino and it was yummmmyyy… reminded me of a Wendy’s frosty but better. We walked around the area near the Pantheon (only took us a whole month to figure out directions) and then walked back to meet some others for lunch at the panini shop. Some people hadn’t gone yet and they loved it… we decided it is a mix between Potbelly and Jimmy John’s. After lunch we went to Old Bridge and I splurged with a 3 euro cone. My last flavors were dolce latte, caramel, and stracciatela (chocolate chip.) Old Bridge gelato is definitely at the top of the list of things I will miss the most. The majority of the day was spent at the markets. Surprisingly, we hadn’t shopped before, and good thing because I spent much more money than I was expecting. The men at the markets were so funny… “I make special price… just for you.” Just for me huh? I just heard you say that to everyone else. I bargained with one guy… he wanted 12 euros for a  ring… and I said “I’ll give you 5 or I’m leaving.” He took it. I totaled everything up I bought (on souvenirs and gifts) and only spent 210 euros. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say only… but that was definitely on the lower side compared to everyone else. I love allllll of my gifts and it was money well spent.

The wackiest things happened yesterday… here was what happened during the 3 hours we were at the markets: police started chasing the men selling fake purses… I’ve never seen people run that fast, through traffic and everything. They hopped a fence and got away. There was an outside restaurant and one man was sitting  there… all of a sudden a tree branch fell, people started screaming, and somehow it landed all around the man without even touching him. He just sat there in shock. It was absolutely ridiculous. The markets were near the water and we took a break and sat on the ledge... we all look down and a bird is struggling trying to fly. We all are watching this bird (another moment when Kyle would have been like “you’re in Rome and more fascinated by the bird than by anything else”) and another bird kept nudging it (or what we thought was nudging) and we were cheering on the other bird to help the hurt bird. Well, we finally realized this other bird was trying to eat the dying bird. We looked away fast and Lauren got pooped on. Haha. What a day. Then after we witnessed this older man running out of a restaurant, we see a tour bus pulling away and all assumed he missed his bus. We all thought it was so sad and kept saying “aw, he missed his bus.” Then two American boys came out of the restaurant and said he was pick pocketed. So much was happening in so little time… maybe it was a sign we needed to leave Rome.

Kelly, Kate, Daniela, Logan, Lori, Kyle, and I went to the pasta place for one last time. Best last dinner ever… we got so many appetizers, wine, and pasta. Then we were off to the tour of the Vatican. Our tour guide, Paola, was pretty good, but not as good as Mama Hen. I couldn’t believe how huge the Vatican is… everything was remarkable, especially all of the ceilings. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world… so technically I will have been to four countries this trip (Italy, Vatican City, Canada, and Switzerland.) World traveler. 20,000 people go through the Vatican every day. I imagined the Sistine Chapel being bigger… but it was still awesome to see. This card kept standing at the top of the room going “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO FOTO!” Kate got yelled at… and we started laughing hysterical. Unfortunately, St. Peter’s Basilica isn’t open at night so we weren’t able to go to the top…. Which actually really made me sad because that’s where we lived for a month and I can’t even say I saw it. That’s why Kyle said Kelly and I get to be the GA’s on the trip next year… how amazing would that be.

Kyle with our bread mound

best lasagna

freakiest thing in the Vatican

After the Vatican, we were walking home (Kate and I got yelled at by Vatican police) and ran into Kyle and Steve. Kyle was coming up with a nickname for me… and because he went to Georgia and he knows my whole family did he came up with “L Dawg.” I said I’ve heard that one before and then he came up with “Lawg” (log) and started singing a song that went something like “because you’re big, heavy, and wood.” Thanks Kyle. Kelly and I stayed out with Steve and Kyle for a little while longer and had a fun last night.