roma!

Ah Rome. We just spent 3 nights there much to the delight of my taste buds! Our flight arrived late on Monday night, so we got to the hostel (by ourselves! without having to ask for directions!) dumped our bags and got some dinner- which wasn't that great. There are lots of terrible Italian restaurants in Italy do you have to do some research to know where to go; our research was in the form of our lovely roommates Kriti and Shefali! Both from San Fran but Kriti spoke pretty good Italian and told us all the good places to head. We had caprese salad, the best pizza in Rome, the best gelato in Rome (and many other gelatos also), we even found some gluten free pizza. Happy days!
It was pretty hot in Roma so in our sight seeing photos we look a bit flustered, as evidenced below. There were insane amounts of people everywhere, which sometimes confused us. This conversation actually happened:
"urgh what's with all these people"
"I dunno they're all just chilling on those steps"
"and loving that fountain"
"weird. we should go to the Spanish Steps tomorrow"
"yeah. oh look a dog!"

Haha. It was pretty funny when we navigated ourselves to the Spanish Steps the next day, and realized we had already been there. That dog was cool though!

We managed not to get gypsied, but did see them begging, and casually leaning on the ticket machines to help any tourists that needed a hand.

I think the best bit was after the Colosseum when we got a bike taxi to a piazza we wanted to go to! They don't follow the road rules in Italy so imagine taxis, buses, trams! and cars all pulling in front of each other and being on a cart being cycled by a pretty small woman. Talk about being dare devils.
The Vatican was beautiful, we kept the religious jokes to a minimum and dressed a bit frumpy.
The Pantheon was really breathtaking, I think we all could have sat there all day.

Had a pretty big 'classic Annie' moment on the plane. Throughout the trip both Claire and I have developed or continued habits that we name classics. Mainly walking in the opposite direction we're supposed to and always being hungry. Well! On the plane we got tea, and I managed to spill my cup of hot water all of my knee and thigh! I yelled a few obscenities, there was a priest sitting next to us! And ironically we were reading the gossip magazine Heat at the time. I did the best laugh/cry even and now have a beautiful blister!

Anyway, Barcelona is calling! Am going to go say ola and get some tapas. Much love xx

p.s I've included a photo of a priest drinking a coke. For the obvious reason that it's hilarious.