Italia amazingness

The past ten days have been an amazing adventure that actually started from another incredible story of which I have neglected to write out yet. The short version of how I came to be invited on a tour of Italy with 4 incredibly cool and crazy girls goes something like this:


"My friend Samantha Smith is studying in Sevilla and came to Barcelona with some friends and I said they should skip their flight and stay in Barcelona for the weekend, so they did but accidentally ended up adding 3 days, a ten hour expensive train ride home, and a bit of stress to their trip, but through the process we all became friends and I got invited to go to Italy with them if I wanted"


Whew...ok, that story is a lot better and a lot crazier, but this post is going to be about ten pages long but that story leads to this one so there ya go.



So after a week of frantically throwing together travel plans and working extra hours to get the time off it was finally time for my much anticipated Italian adventure with 4 lovely ladies. My flight got into Rome a few hours before the girls, so I checked out where and how to get train tickets into the city and to our respective hostels (this will turn out to be the first and only time I am at all ahead of the curve on directions or any sort of planning and it took me two hours alone in an airport to make it happen). I also finished a book, which I was proud of so I'm throwing it in there for you to know. When they finally arrived there was a round of hugs from the girls I had hung out with in Barcelona, and one introduction to Betsy who is good friends with the others, but a new one for me. But before I continue, let me introduce you to an incredible group of girls, I am proud to call my friends.





Meet Sam, She has been friends with Mallory forever and we went to highschool together. Also, she holds the record for the biggest sweetheart/gangster rapper to come out of LP










Allow me to introduce Betsy, from Illinois, with a flair for languages and the ability to make weird guys selling roses run away with fear. We met for the first time on this trip but after all the fun we had I hope to call her a friend.

Next we have the explorer from Boston, Caitlin. Loves, hugs, sarcasm, and food, and is always ready for an adventure. Took this girl 3.2 seconds to decide to skip her flight in Barcelona but now knows better than to listen to a "good idea" from me.

And we've saved the best for last with our very own princess from Kansas City. This journalist in the making can recite the family history of everyone on the trip while speed shopping so fast that I don't even have time to complain.

And here we all are, I know I'm hard to spot, but for future reference I'm the only one in white, the only awkwardly tall one, and as you may have noticed, the only guy, and a lucky guy I am to have been invited on such an adventure.

-short disclaimer: Many of the pictures you see I stole from the girls because out of about 450 of my own pictures only about 20 have people in them. So thanks girls for taking such nice pictures and insisting I take a picture with every camera at every possible opportunity.

Ok, now that we have all been introduced, lets return to the giant group hug meeting at the airport. Armed with my head start and expert knowledge of the airport I lead the way to the train station where I become completely useless after we buy the tickets and didn't even know we had to validate them before getting on the train. Luckily these girls are expert travelers and they set me straight and we head off to our respective hostels. I say respective hostels because due to late planing I'm in a different one from the girls for this venue.

After spending about 20 mins wondering the wrong exit of Termini Train Station, I realized the place is about 200 times bigger than I thought and find my way to the hostel. I get checked in easily enough and I meet the three random girls I'll be sharing a room with by opening the door to the room and scaring the bejesus out of them. After the initial shock we talk for a bit and get introduced, they are doing study abroad stuff just like my girls and they are shocked again when I tell them I "make sails." But after brief conversation I had to be getting back to my group so I change and head over to the girl's hostel.

We head out to meet up with some friends of theirs (I am now traveling the streets of Rome as the lone male in a group of 7), and after a considerable wonder starting at the Spanish Steps we find a restaurant with some very Italian waiters who are very impressed with my one guy to six girl ratio. We have our first of what will be many delicious meals in Italy all composed of similar parts of salad, pizza, pasta, and wine. Dinner is concluded with one of the most memorable and repeated lines on this the trip, that will be impossible for me to truly convey here but I will make a feeble attempt. As we are leaving Caroline makes some reference to the train station as "Terminal Station," to which the waiter walking us out stops and with what looks like a full body spasm and both arms waving wildly in a "come over here" motion, he informs us that its "Not 'Terminal!', it's 'Ter-mi-ni!!!'" This marvelous display of Italian vibrato warrants taking a picture with the guy. And from this point forth on our trip, any example of Italian accent is accompanied by a enthusiastic "Ter-mi-ni!"

To help you understand, may I present Exhibit A:

After this lively dinner we eventually find a bar but only stay for about an hour before it's obvious everyone could use some sleep so we pack it in and retire to our respective hostels.

The next day starts bright and early with breakfast and planing the day (which is more of a decision to start at the Colosseum and go from there). So we hop on the metro, which I believe stops at....Ter-mi ni!, and then continues on the to Colosseum. As soon as we exit the metro there it is, and its big. It is easy to get jaded about size in the modern world but this one is still up there, especially when you consider a few facts that I hope I remember correctly: The Colosseum held nearly 50,000 people arranged in sections by class standing, but all allowed to enter free of charge. While the Colosseum now has some modern reinforcement to make it safe for tourists, all of the original internal metal connections were removed after construction, meaning it has stood for around 2000 yrs under its own weight, arches, and mortar. And, back in the day the entire thing was shaded from the sun by giant cloth tarps, and guess who they got to engineer that idea... that's right Sailors. (Sam and I exchanged looks upon hearing that, both thinking of dad's cloth ceilings.

In reality, the tour we took wasn't that good, but it did allow us to skip the insanely long line and afforded up a second (much more informed tour) as well as some fun photo ops:

This picture is actually trickier than it looks. From a good distance outside the Colosseum we had to stand on a 2 foot rise, and the photographer (Caitlin) had to crouch beneath us in order to get the top and us in view.

Because the floor of the arena was simply wood covered with sand (which was simply raked up to cover blood between battles) you can see the supports and corridors that made up the rooms below.

Even off center with a goofy smile, its hard to look bad with these two on each arm.






There were some fierce Gladiator battles going on this day which would have led to massive bloodshed if only......




If only the Gladiators could keep a straight face long enough to land a punch.




After we left, the girls got a bit artsy with the cameras. If you look at her glasses you can see the Colosseum and a few of the group.

So after the Colosseum we had empty bellies and some time to kill so we ventured off to find food which led us to this place (gadda love the sign)

Which was our first big battle with the Italian language (really makes me appriciate the little Spanish I do know) but ended in some giant and delisiously greasy calzones so all was well.

The next tour was of the Palace ruins and was givin for free to all by

.....So at this point it is late on Sunday night and from what I hear I have a very busy day tomorrow so I am going to post this as is, and add the end of Chapter 1 (Rome) tomorrow. Hope you enjoy reading about my adventures, because I know how fun the were to have.