Italy Day 1 - Barberini

December 28, 2011

Without further picture editing I bring to you the insane amount of pictures from our Italy trip last week. I have realized upon editing 670 pictures that my initial idea of blogging by day is just not going to work. Instead I will break in down into manageable bites. But be prepared...it is still picture overload.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

We landed in Rome's FCO airport. This should have been the foreshadowing of how the trip would pan out. Jeremy and I met up with Velma and Monroe, easily passed through customs (or whatever the heck that was), and wandered out to the front door where we were to meet our group. 

But they weren't there. 

I remembered something about taking a train, so we then lugged our bagage (or should I go ahead and point out that I had only a backpack to carry while the whole group lugged bagage, but more on that later) to the train terminal...but changed our minds. Monroe called Elle, but the number didn't work. We called again...didn't work. After a bit more phone fun we decided to go back where we started and just wait. Well by that time they were all there...and we hopped in our private death mobile to our hotel. 

 When we got to the hotel we were early and a few of the rooms weren't ready. I was dying for a shower and the girls let me take a shower in their room. I now regret not washing my hair, by the end of the day I felt like a death trap. Once everyone's luggage was shoved into someone's room, since we didn't have all our own, we trekked out into the streets of Rome for the beginning of our adventure.

 No one warned me ahead of time about just how intense the streets of Rome are. We weren't riding around on this trip except to take trains to other cities. I seriously walked up hill or down hill on old cobblestone in Nikes and was in big time pain all the time.





 The picture above and below are of the Four Fountains. This is at a 4 way stop in Barberini, if you can call it that. Good Lord Italians freak me out with their driving. Anyway, all of the fountains in Rome are potable, unless stated otherwise. So we all made sure to have water bottles and just refilled them up as we progressed through the city. I drank out of a lot of fountains!




 Spanish Steps. Somehow we got started off at the top of them. We were already exhausted, remember we had all just gotten off of about 13 hours of flying and from what I hear no one slept worth a crap. We slowly made our way down the steps. Slowly.

 Almost there.
 I should rename every post "Jeremy Goes to Italy", because from the looks of it I was barely there. I need to hire a photographer to follow me around ha!

 Finally...the Spanish Steps!
 The opposite view. All of my blog friends would appreciate this view. Prada. Missoni.





 Had I had 3G I would have tweeted this pic right on the spot. Oh I so wanted to go into those stores but we were on such time crunch. I told you this was an educational trip and not so much of a holiday.
 We then continued our walking towards the Trevi Fountain...all on our way to Ancient Rome.

 Trevi Fountain
 It was beautiful. Since it is tradition to throw a coin into it to wish that you will one day return to Rome I tossed a penny. I was not about to chunk a Euro, 1.44 American is a little steep to throw away. Ha!
 By this point our group was starving. Well, some of us. Across the street was a cute little pizza shop so we stopped in, grabbed some grub and went to the first Italian potty of the trip. Oh was it a site to see. Luckily this one had toilet seats, most didn't. The sink was cool though, instead of hand handles you had to operate it with foot peddles. I kind of want those for my home now.
We will end today with my greasy makeup free jet lagged self eating pizza across from the Trevi Fountain. Oh how excited I was to see pizza, who knew that by the end of the trip I would be searching for anything leafy green and meat. It was carb overload for real!

Next post will finish up Day 1 with Ancient Rome, the Colosseum, and walking with conviction.

(We've only made it about 5 hours into the trip!)