Drew trying to learn Italian at the Mobile, Alabama airport.  We didn't learn much.

Rome was our first stop.  We left the states (Atlanta, to be exact) at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon and arrived in Rome at 8:30 Wednesday morning.  We tried to sleep on the plane so that we could enjoy our first full day in Rome, but that didn't happen.  We were forced to watch crappy movies on our 9-hour plane ride.

We got to the Rome train station and were automatically lost.  No clue where to go.  This is when I started to dislike Rome.  This is when we started getting stressed and cranky.  It lasted the entire trip.  Thanks, Roma.  We appreciate it.

Remember those cute outfits I told you about?  Yeah, they never left the suitcase.  It was waaaaay too cold.  Too cold for the Italians, too.  They were having some weird cold snap or something and we arrived smack dab in the middle of it.  I didn't puchase a jacket until 4 days in, but we will discuss that at a later time.

On the street of our hotel.  I was suffering from the freezing cold.

Rome was quite an experience.  Let's start with our hotel: Hotel Ars.  The Ars is located far away from the city center.  We had to get on two different buses to get to all the good spots.  We also had to take the Metro train to a couple of major locations, such as Vatican City and The Colosseum (another entry, coming soon).

I was honestly a little scared of our hotel location.  Drew was not.  It was really nice, but in a very non-touristy part of town, and let's face it, I'm scared of everything anyway.  The hotel was very nice on the inside.  Very contemporary architechture and decor.  The only downside to it was the fact that once it gets cold, they turn off the air conditioning for the entire building for all of winter.  We were A/C-less, which is no fun at all.  HELLLLOOOOO!!!  I come from a place where we run the A/C all year long, even in winter.  You can't turn off my cold!!!  Other than that, it was nice.

The absolute BEST part of our hotel location were the places to get coffee and pizza.  Since we were mingling with the natives, it was the best food and coffee we could get.  Everything in the city center was Olive Garden worthy...and I don't like Olive Garden.  That right there is Americanized crap that they call Italian food.  So if you want to know what the Italians are serving the Americans in Rome, just mosey on over to your local Olive Garden.  Bon appetito.

Here's where we enjoyed our first and last meal in Rome:

Oh yeah.  Yummy stuff right there.  I had no clue what they were saying but I somehow got hot and yummy pizza out the door and into my mouth, so all was well.

This coffee shop was the best!  It was truly the last coffee we had in Rome.  We enjoyed a couple of machiattos here at about 6:30am on our way to catch a train to Florence.  We also graced them with our presence every morning on our way to the bus.

See the woman in the picture?  She was out barista every morning.  The only English she knew was "Do you speak French?"  But she couldn't speak French either!!!  Ha, I loved her!  She made some awesome caffe.

Before I wrap this up, let's talk about how the Italians drink their coffee.  First of all, they drink it standing up.  They drink it quickly.  Afterall, it is just a shot.  When you walk into an Italian coffee shop, there aren't usually any chairs.  Only the tourist places have chairs and they charge you a ton to sit down.  No, the natives walk right up to the coffee bar, order an espresso, get it in about 10 seconds flat (they were super fast), pay next to nothing for it (waaaaay cheaper than Starbucks), and walk out the door.  I swear this entire process takes less than two minutes.  This was difficult for me to get used to because I spend a good hour every morning drinking my caffe americano and playing on the internet. 

Which leads me to my next point: I thought Italians didn't like to rush?!?!?!  They were rushing like crazy.  It was mad, I tell you.  MAAADDDD!!!

Next time: Pantheon, Colosseum, Roman Forum, and The Vatican

With love, Ev