When in Rome..

Hello from Roma!!

We have had a couple more awesome days in Florence! Yesterday we did a 23 kilometer bike tour of a vineyard, and we got to do wine tastings and olive oil tasting right where they bottle their products. The whole operation was run out of a castle built in 1199, and after a few grueling hours of biking we got a nice big lunch with wine, pasta, dessert, coffee, and more wine.....Then we had to get back on our bikes and try to get up a 900 meter hill. It is needless to say that not only did we not make it up the hill on our bikes, but that nobody in the tour group made it up. We all ended up walking the bikes (after about 50 meters, haha) and huffing and puffing up the giant hill. I guess we have been eating too much pizza (and pasta and gelatto, and foccaccia, and olives...). We didn't do a whole heck of a lot after that, and we spent a relaxing nite back out our "hostel."

We spent our last 2 nites in Florence camping in an olive grove near the Piazza Michelangelo, which is on a big hill that overlooks the whole city. We got to watch some amazing sunsets from up there, and camping wasn't even that bad!! We were in an aluminum frame tent (like a little hut) and it had a locking door and everything. It even had adorable little bunk beds inside, so it was barely even real camping. It was almost nicer than our last hostel, because as soon as the sun went down the tent was a lot cooler than a builing with no AC.

Today we tried to make it to Rome starting pretty early. We had heard there was going to be an Italian train strike, which apparently they do about once a month, leaving all the major intercity transportation in shambles for a while. We had the joy of trying to figure out how to get here with no regional trains running and no reservations for the EuroStar trains (the nice trains with big cushy seats and AC). We teamed up with about 6 other people from our campground that were also trying to get to Roma, and finally found a train that was actually leaving and going to Naples...We hopped on right as the doors closed and had to stand by the bathrooms on the train for the 2 hour ride!!

Oh well! It wasn't that bad considering it was one of the nicer trains (and it was airconditioned). And I don't know if you are sensing the common theme here, but I think I'm a pretty sad Floridian....Its so hot here!! We are taking about 3 cold showers a day. I don't even miss the AC that much, but I really, really, really, miss ice cubes. Why don't they drink cold beverages here?!?!? Its insane!!

Either way, we made it to Rome without too much trouble, and our hostel (although its a little scary here this time) is really close to the Colosseum. We went all through that today, and of course re-enacted several scenes from Gladiator (just for you Brittany!!). Tomorrow we have plans to wait in line for the Vatican, probably forever. We want to make sure to see everything here, but there is just so much to do! Tomorrow night we are also doing a pub crawl, so we may sleep in on Sunday instead of dealing with Rome on a Sunday :)

I can't believe I only have a little more than 2 weeks of all this left! I'm a serious travel addict now guys, and I think I'm going to be nomadic as much as possible after this. Seeing this many places is just so amazing.

Anyway, we still have a lot more gelatto to go find, so I must go explore more of Rome! Hope everyone is doing great - keep up the comments!

XOXO (on both cheeks),
Kristyn

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” -Jack Kerouac