Ciao Roma! Day 1 in Rome

Hello all! So we arrived safely to Roma, bright and early (the sun hadn't risen when we arrived). So I guess it wasn't really "bright" and early. Anyways, we are at this hotel which provides free wireless internet. We also got upgraded to a room where we get our own private bathroom! quite a commodity. We are currently watching Italian MTV and Madonna is singing. 

So we took a nap when we got in (about 2 hours of napping).  We eventually got to walk around Rome (aka ROME-ING AROUND-- GET IT?!?!!) and had lunch at this really good Italian restaurant. We were the only gringos there (in other words, we were the only Americans/foreigners). The menu was all in Italian and so I (J) randomly picked this one dish that ended up being a cocktail of beans and vegetables embedded in soggy bread (it was really good) and Miya got ravioli. And then we both got fried chicken which they renamed "pollo alla Toscana estillo". Basically more expensive Chicken McNuggets, but it was still pretty good. We wandered around and ended up walking into St. Peter's Square. Miya says that there were about 50 billion Catholics waiting to meet the pope. It was more than a few hundred, but 50 billion is a close approximation. =P

After we checked out St. Peter's we wandered out of the Vatican and walked around a while longer. We ended up at some bridges that cross the Tiber River. Most of the pictures that you will see below are taken at the bridge. Oh! We were attracted to loud American music across the bridge and found that there was a cool/random ice skating rink in the middle of a park. They played "Funk Soul Brother" by Fat Boy Slim. We left the rink and walked down the park more and there were benches that were occupied by overly-affectionate couples that were just eating each other's faces off. We didn't partake in the festivities, mainly because we weren't hungry.

We continued on and found ourselves in a densely populated strip of shopping areas. We bought a bottle of Prosecco (Italian Champagne but better, says Miya) and boxed peach juice... you know, what we used to drink out of when we were in elementary school. We also bought SIM cards and the dude didn't know English. And we don't know any Italian. The language barrier is definitely tough but it has inspired us to really work hard to learn and assimilate ourselves in the Italian culture. We are going to make a goal to not go to a lot of touristy restaurants/pubs and stick around with the authentic Italians instead. Nor do we want to step foot in any american stores such as Starbucks or McDonalds or any of that nonsense. 

We also can't understand why Italians like to close everything from 12pm-4/5pm so they can go do their own thing and not be of service. Oh, and the banks open at 9 and close at 12 in the afternoon. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! Wouldn't you think the economy would be a bit better if they had their shops open for longer? Oh well, just another culture thing. 

Anyways, we are having a blast, and we've only been here for less than a day! We're about to go out to eat some dinner, there's a nice wine bar that smells like good lasagna. So we're gonna go check that out. Enjoy the pictures! I took the last one and the rest are from Miya.

ps: let us know if our blogs are too long. we don't want to lose your interest!