Day Thirteen & Fourteen - Rome Schmome and The Way Back Home

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06 August 2008

Finally! Goodness... How long have I been postponing this? Wayyy too long, I think.

So yeah, on the third day of our fantastic roadtrip vacation-type thing. We all went to catch a train to Rome.

Yes, Rome.

I was hella excited. Because I thought I'd get to be Audrey Hepburn, eating Gelato on the Spanish steps, putting my hand in inside Bocca Della Verita, and making a wish on the Trevi Fountain.

I barely got any sleep the night before... Partly because I was so excited and partly because it was hella hot. Goodness me. I've never been that uncomfortable in my whole life... Not even when I was in the Philippines. I got up at one point during the night and contemplated on whether or not to take another shower. It was THAT hot.

Anyhoos, we left rather early. We stopped by the sandal store that wouldn't take my money the day before, because they didn't have change. LOL. And so off we went...

...Sort of.

The ticket machine ate our money... Then we had to wait in line for forever... When we finally got our tickets, we weren't sure where the binario was. And blahblahblah.

Of course, we were all like, "Pfsh... Whatever. We're going to Rome. It's gonna be awesome!"

Boy, were we wrong...

Sabi nga ni RB, "Buti nalang maganda ang pictures."

LOL.

1. As always, I took a picture of the sign of the place where we were staying at on the last day.

...Nasundan mo ba? Medyo parang konting nalito kasi ako...

2. At the stoplight...

...What? We were on vacay-shee-yown. It'd be a shame if we weren't gonna be shutterhappy.

3. Galleria Commercia E Santa Maria Novella Blahblahblah.
This is the underground mall (?) type thing where the sandals store was at. :) Happyhappyjoyjoy!

4. Poste
...Pinaglololoko ako. Poste daw, eh mailbox kaya yan. (LOL. Corny. Tsk.)

5. Ok so here we are getting a little frazzled and confused...This was at the point where the ticket machine ate our money and we were trying to figure out which binario our train was going to be and stuff.

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7. K & Me waiting in line.
8. Mapping it all out....Nagpakahirap pa... Tsk.

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10. All smiles......Puro mga excited pa.


11. Where's the map, where's the map, where's the map?
12. ...I'm the map.
LOL. Dora. Haha.

13. So after 48 years, we finally arrived in Rome at around 3pm...
We got a little lost in the train station, but we were able to get day tickets... We then checked when the last train back to Florence would be... And to our dismay. It was at 7pm. So we had four hours to see whatever we needed to see. And after much deliberation... We decided to go to the Vatican City.

Big mistake.

14. Subway.
...About two stations from Roma Termini on the way to the Vatican, we passed by the Trevi Fountain train stop. We should've gotten off there... Boy, oh boy...

15. We got to our stop and we didn't know where to walk exactly...
...Thankfully (?), we saw this Filo guy hanging out at the train station and we asked him for directions... Which he gave to us... Somewhat bewildered and somewhat trying to stifle a laugh. We only got to understand his reaction when it was all over...

16. Ang init. Ang layo. Grrr.

17. I know you probably can't read it... ...But the sign says Musei Vatican.

18. And there it is......the point of no return. Blahahaha. Tsk.

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22. Sepia is a friggin' cop out....LMAO. I'm tellin' ya.

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26. This is like a small and uglier version of Schönbrunn. LOL.

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28. If you ever go to Rome......Please steer clear of signs that say "To Sistine Chapel" or "Capella Sistina".

I'm not kidding. Do yourself a favor. And just stay away.

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30. Yayyy... Bathtub!
31. What? LOL.
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34. That image on top was taken right around this same spot.
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37. So you must have heard about the knights of the roundtable......Apparently this was the knights of the round room with a birdbath.

Yes, I'm kidding. I'm historically challenged. Forgive me, I have no idea what I took pictures of.

38. Knock, knock...Who's there? Lion. Lion who? I'm a lion knocker. IDK. Rawrrr.

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40. And here we have ceiling no. 12305 of 867312370809794751.

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42.Tourists. Pfsh.

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44. Pampam. Shempre pa.
45. Pampam ulit.
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47. Ceiling No. 12379812 of 867312370809794751.
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49. I have no idea what that is... But it's upside down and our feet are there.
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52. And the place was under construc-shee-yown. Tsk.
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Finally after a few bajillion miles, we got to the Sistine Chapel.

Unfortunately, taking pictures inside the chapel is not allowed.

But since, I'm an asshole. I took pictures anyway.

Surreptitiously, of course.

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Then, I got caught by a security guy in civilian clothing... So I left... Rather relieved might I say... I thought, FINALLY, we're done here! I can go find Irog (we kind of lost them on the way to the Sistine Chapel) then we can eat and rest and gaaahhh. Get me out of here!

...Little did I know that the walk to the exit would just be as long as the walk going in.

Grrr.

63. What I thought the Vatican City would look like....I was wrong. Huhuhu. I was so wrong.
For those who've been there, how do we get there in that square thing???

64. At the exit, I sat down and contemplated...
...I wasn't sure whether to wait or go out or go back and find them.

65. The best thing about the Vatican...
...is the exit. Not only because it's so pretty.

But because that right there is redemption.

I wanted to run down yelling "FREEDOM!"

But I thought I'd be a good girl and not act so weird.

66. Spirally spirally spirally...

67. Wala akong eyebags....wala. Wala. Wala. Walang tulog nga eh, diba? Inexplain ko naman kasi... Tsk.

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And finally, we were out.

Goodbye, Vatican. See ya! Wouldn't want to be ya.

70. And since we were hella hungry...
...We didn't get to eat lunch due to the friggin' 3 hour train ride. We ate at this little restaurant in front of the Vatican.

The food wasn't as good. But we were famished. So we'd have taken anything at that point.

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Oh... Did I mention that we were given the wrong tickets? Yes. Apparently, we were given one-way tickets, when clearly we had paid for two-way tickets. So the ticket-checker guy whom we fondly called Robert De Niro (What? He was a deadringer. I kid you not.), placed us in the front part of the train... He was really nice, he let us pay the penalty on a different stop so that we wouldn't have to pay so much.

79.
It was another 3-hour trainride back to Florence, but thankfully, Aj, the infinite source of cuteness, kept us entertained.

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87. ...Daddy RB also did a little bit of entertaining. LOL.
We were in Florence by around 10. Hella tired and hella hungry. Thankfully a pizzeria place was still open so we took out some pizzas (...by the pound. Interestingly enough.) and walked back to our bed & breakfast.

07 August 2008

Woke up. Showered. Got dressed. Stopped over at an Autogrill thing. And drove back to Fontanafredda.

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I know, I kept complaining about Rome, but hey it wasn't such a bad trip.

It was an experience, I'll tell you that. LOL.

Maybe one of these days, we'll be able to go back and have the perfect Roman Holiday, just like Audrey Hepburn's.

What? A girl can dream right?

No pictures on Day Fifteen. Day Sixteen soon.

Kisses!