5 days in Rome isn’t enough….when you are sick 2 of them!

I am on the train right now to Florence (a high speed one!) and I’m just thinking about the past few days. Rome is such a nice city, for a major city and I really loved it. The sights were incredible, and it felt like the city was always busy. My first day there I cruised around my neighborhood, and looked for a grocery store, laundry mat and found a fantastic pizzeria. Here is a pic of my first slice of pizza in Italy!

The next day, I spent the majority of it at the Vatican, and the Basilica. The museum was fantastic and the basilica was incredible to see. I got a great tip from someone in my room at my hostel that if you buy your ticket online, you get to skip the line at the museum, which was nice not to have to stand in line for 20 minutes once I got there, all I had to do was print out the form and bring it with me.

I was really lucky in Rome, the weather was fantastic for my entire time there. It was sunny and hot the entire time! It was great to just walk around the city, and see all the sights it has to offer. Romans are very similar to New Yorkers…all business until you ask a question, and then they will help you out as much as they can.

The experience at my hostel wasn’t as nice as the people of Rome though. My first morning I woke up with one of my roommates complaining that she had been bitten by bed bugs. She goes down to the front desk where they say that they will replace her mattress in the room. Later on, she comes back to the room and asks if they had replaced her mattress, which they hadn’t. This really pisses her off (it would with me too.) She goes back downstairs, and gets a new room for all of us. We went from a 6 bed dorm, to a 9 bed private with 2 washrooms and a kitchen! It was a fantastic upgrade, and we were pretty happy with our new digs. After 2 nights in this room (pretty much luxury for us) the front desk calls up to us, and tells us we had to pack up and leave the room. Now this really pissed me off. We had already switched once, and they wanted us to switch again?!?! My roommates went down first and told me they got a 4 bed dorm with en suite…that’s not bad, but I would miss my kitchen. When I went down, I was pretty pissed off and voiced my annoyance at having to move rooms again. I ended up getting another free drink ticket, and a free night. They upgraded me to a single room with bathroom attached for my last two nights in Rome. This was good for me because it was those last two nights that I got really sick, and stayed in bed for most of the time. (unfortunately.)

My final night wasn’t actually in Rome, but in the small town of Santa Mirabella which is about an hour’s train ride outside of Rome. I went to meet Kevin, who I was introduced to through Shels. He runs the kitchen at a hotel there which his wife runs. We had a good night, watching football and eating fantastic pizza (I don’t think there is any other kind in Italy) and talking about the restaurant industry. The hotel was beautiful, and it was great being able to watch American TV, and speak English with someone from Canada even if it was for just a few hours.

The next day, I was off to Florence for a few days in the city, and going on an incredible Tuscan Wine Tour!