Romin around!

Christina and Cheryl at the Pantheon

So the last I left off we were heading to Rome on an awful train ride. To Christina and I Rome would be place to relax and enjoy ourselves having visited before. To be honest I can’t say that I look forward to doing anything touristy in Rome. The weather is hot, too sunny, and way too many people! My advice is if you ever intend to visit Rome or the surrounding area do avoid visiting during the months of July and August. What were we thinking?

The first day we were in Rome, we had to say good bye to Alyssa. Her flight left the next morning very early so she decided to stay in a hostile closer to city center. Christina and I however were able to get a bungalow in a camping area right on the outskirts of Rome. The campsite was huge, almost like it’s own community having a grocery store, restaurant, laundry, pool, volleyball court and much more. We arrived too early to check in so we decided to take advantage of the pool for an hour or two. Coming straight from Vienna where the sun isn’t as strong, we didn’t even consider putting on sunblock. I mean we were only out there for a short time. Yeah in like the hottest times of the day. When we got the key to our room, we changed from our bathing suits and realized that we had one of the worst sun burns since we were kids. The best part was, since we didn’t think that we were out there that long, I never rolled over. My backside is still pretty pale. I have all of these weird sunburn lines all over my body. First stop, Christina and I picked up a huge bottle of sun block and a huge bottle of Aloe Verae (thankfully written the same in English and Italian.) The rest of the day we spent lounging around and eating dinner with some fellow travelers!

Eating Gelato outside of the Ruins

The next day we devoted to sightseeing. Since it was the last Sunday of the month, the Vatican was free. We bought our shuttle tickets bright and early for 8am (we didn’t miss the bus this time!), since the Vatican opens at 9am. The travelers that we met from dinner the previous night joined us. I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the Vatican, I took a quick video of the Sistine Chapel. Brandon (a fellow traveler) drew a portrait of me, while waiting for his friends at the Vatican.

Cheryl's Portrait

I can’t say Christina and I were in the mood for sightseeing when our sunburns ached underneath our clothes. We of course had to wear jeans and t-shirts since we were going inside churches.

Recreating a fight!

The rest of the day consisted of roaming around the city, visiting ruins, the Pantheon, and other must sees. The weather was hot, the sun was just plain mean on our already burned bodies. We tried to cool off with some gelato, (Tiramisu was soo the best, good choice Chris!!!).
Later that night, we enjoyed dinner at the campground. Some roast chicken and a bunch of other stuff from the grocery store. We had a feast, well until the bees found us and we were forced to move indoors to our bungalow. Talk about cramped eating!!!

Our Massive Feast

Thank god for facebook, it allowed us to stay in touch with Josh. He was still in Madrid doing his own roaming around. He told me that we went to go see a bull fight and now I’m super jealous!!!! I soo wanted to see a bull fight, he told me he took a ton of pic so I’ll try to post them asap if he doesn’t update the blog himself. Soon he’ll be off to Barcelona where we should eventually meet up.

Off to meet our distant relative, Asunta!!! We’re renting a car, this is sure to be an adventure!

~cheryl