Last day in Rome

For our last day in Rome, we all decided to hit the beach! We were so excited to visit the Mediterranean Sea that we were fully unprepared for what we would find in Ostia Lido (Lido is Italian for beach)....the worst beach of all time! Okay, that's maybe not entirely fair because it might have been quite a bit nicer if we had paid about 10 Euro for the private beach (includes chair and towel) but we didn't and we ended up sitting on a tiny, crowded patch of beach that just seemed kinda skeezy and we only stayed for about half an hour before heading back into the city. I'm glad that we went because now we can say that we have been there and it was kinda nice to see but other than that, I'd say save your day trips for another place! Our first choice was Florence but we were told they were getting a lot of rain that day so we settled on the beach. If you have time, Ryan says that Cinque Terre is amazing, but we just didn't have enough time during this trip.

Even though the beach was a bust, we were able to get a picture in front of the Trevi Fountain (above) that doesn't have 8 million tourists in the shot! I also had an authentic Roman breakfast standing at the bar to enjoy a cappuccino and pastry. Handy tip: many Roman restaurants and bars (coffee shops) charge less if you eat at the bar. It can be up to a few Euro more to sit down and can be even more to sit outside.

After we left the beach, we said goodbye to our London friends who had to catch a flight home that afternoon. The rest of us did a little souvenir shopping and met up that evening for a final Italian dinner and a walk to Mamertine Prison which gave us the opportunity for a last look at the Colosseum and Forum lit up at night. Our trip to Rome was coming to a end but we had an amazing time and I can't wait to go back to Italy! 

Roma not Rema

On our third day in Rome, we took a guided tour of the Vatican with Italy With Us. Our tour guide, Kathy, was from the US and she was hilarious in addition to being very informative about the history of the Vatican and it's popes, artists, etc. She even threw in the story of Romulus and Remus and said that Romulus killing Remus is the reason why Rome is now "Roma, not Rema". We made our way past beautiful and priceless works of art and stood in awe of Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel. 

On our way out of Vatican City, I stopped to mail some postcards from their post office after our tour guide told us how remarkably efficient they are compared to the Italian post office(she was right! One of them made it to Michigan in 2 or 3 days). We also "cheesed some bread" near the entrance of Vatican City which is Ryan-speak for putting cheese on bread. We were able to refill our water bottles (at one of the many public drinking fountains that can be found throughout Rome) and enjoy our cheesed bread, apples, snacks and the purest water you will ever find in a public fountain in an area that would have been jam packed if the Pope had been scheduled to speak. 

We then took to the metro to the Spanish Steps and from there walked to Villa Borghese Park where we saw the Italian version of our cat Tiny Paws of Fury!

That evening, we headed back to our hostel to cook dinner and everyone joined us for fresh pasta, caprese salad and lots of wine :) This was my favorite part of our trip, it was just so nice to hang out and enjoy each others company in one of the best cities in the world!

After the family left for their hotel, we went to an Irish pub, Druid's Rock,  with our London friends for a few pints of beer (Strongbow for me!), Irish car bomb shots and "Italian shots" which were Absinthe, grenadine and some white liquor, I can't remember what it was...the colors of the Italian flag. We didn't stay out too late though because wanted to be rested for our next day at the beach...

Random Photos

The Swiss guards at the Vatican

Vatican City

Cheers to Rome!

Fragola Gelato

On our secondo giorno (second day), my friends from London met us at our hostel and we all walked together to meet Ryan's family at the Arch of Constanstine (you can just see it in the back in the above photo), which is adjacent to the Colosseum and makes an excellent meeting place if you lose your group! Ryan's fam decided to join a guided tour but we opted for the cheaper and more independent "walk on our own" tour which was just as lovely! The only downside was that we lost Ryan's family but fate was with us that day and we saw them a little later as we walked around the Forum.

The Colosseum is absolutely amazing and I have a hard time not including the 800 million pictures Ryan took of it on this post but I will restrain myself! It is amazing to me that they allow so many people to tour it each day and it is still standing. Handy tip: if you go right when it opens, the crowds aren't as crazy and you can enjoy it in relative peace.









It sounds ridiculous but by the end of our trip, the Colosseum had become just another landmark in our neighborhood since we saw it more than a few times each day on our way to other attractions. That doesn't mean it became any less impressive, it just became like an old familiar friend....another reason I loved Rome so much, it felt like home after a few hours...similar to another of my favorite places, Utila.





Directly adjacent to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum or, more simply, the Forum. This used to be the center of Rome and it is where you can imagine yourself walking around, in sandals, as an Ancient Roman...well, that's what I did anyhow. It also is the home of Mussolini's summer home, pictured below.

After the Forum, we were off to the Pantheon which is a temple originally built for all the gods of Ancient Rome but was later converted by the Catholic church and is still used for Mass today. The ceiling is a massive dome with an opening to the sky called an oculus. The only sources of light in the temple are from the entrance and the oculus...they are also the only means of cooling and ventilation. When it rains, there is a drainage system beneath the floor that collects any rainwater that comes in through the oculus. Imagine your church with a giant, gaping hole in the ceiling....it does seem to work very well though and you can't help but marvel at the intelligent design.



That evening, after a day of sightseeing, I got my obligatory gelato for the day (Strawberry (fragola) and hazelnut) and then we had a casual dinner near our hostel before crashing to rest up before our next day at Vatican City!

Random Photos

The oculus

The Forum

 Inside the Colosseum

Old staircase in Colosseum

 The Forum

 Sweet tree in the Forum

Original cobblestone road leading to Rome

Benvenuti in Italia!

Alright my little adventurers, now we have entered into our favorite part of the trip: Rome! I'm not sure why Ryan and I liked Rome more (probably a mixture of warmer weather, less walking and PIZZA/GELATO) but we did. Since I am so enamored with Rome, it's going to take up a few posts :) Ryan's mom and sisters enjoyed Paris more, so it really is just a matter of opinion. My opinion is that while we were in Rome, I felt like I was living in a movie. I loved throwing open the windows of our guesthouse and letting in the sights and sounds of neighbors hanging laundry from their balconies, birds flying around like crazies and diners from the restaurants below.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Rome was....check in with our hostel! I know you were expecting me to say "EAT" because that's the kinda girl I am, but we were patient and left our luggage with the front desk of our hostel first since we were a few hours early to get into our room. Then we went and got some pizza and vino bianco at a great place called Meid in Nepols where the service was friendly and the food was delicious! For about 15 euro we shared a delicious mushroom pizza and a half liter of white wine. My Italian is pretty bad but they had an English speaker who seated us and the servers were incredibly kind and patient with us and our mangling of their language :)

After lunch, it was finally time to check in so we picked up our luggage at the hostel and headed to our guesthouse. The main hostel, The Beehive, is super amazing but we actually stayed in an offsite guesthouse they own called "Acacia" which is essentially a massive 3 bedroom apartment next to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (pictured to the right). For 80 euro/night we had a private room with a shared bathroom and living area. Since we were there for four nights, the other guests changed a few times but it was usually young couples that we only saw in passing and everyone was very quiet and respectful. I felt like a local as I used my key to slip into a nondescript door on the street, head up the tiny 2-4 person elevator and enter my temporary home.

Since we beat Ryan's family to Rome, we were on our own that first night so we decided to go exploring! We walked down to the Colosseum which was just a short walk from our house. I got some pistacchio and coconut gelato and it was the happiest moment of all time. Handy tip I read in a guide book for choosing a good gelato place: look at the pistacchio flavor! If it's bright green RUN!! It should be a light olive color because that means they didn't add a bunch of artificial crap. Here are a few more tips for choosing a good gelateria that I wish I had read before we arrived, it also mentions choosing gelato based on natural colors.

We wandered around to a few shops on the way back to our house but with a long day of traveling behind us, we both welcomed an early bedtime so that we'd be nice and refreshed for seeing our family and friends the next day at....the Colosseum!

Paris and Rome, here we come!!

Ryan and I decided to join his mom and sisters on a trip to Paris and Rome in May, even though it's quite a bit out of our budget! We decided that the memories we will make with them are priceless and worth the splurge ($900/person to fly to Paris...ouch). This doesn't mean, however, that we will go willy nilly (who says willy nilly??) with our budget.

Planning a vacation on a budget isn't exactly the easiest thing to do when you're planning on visiting two of the most expensive cities possible and they're both pretty far away from sunny Florida. Really, visiting the main cities of any country are going to cost you more than staying in the small villages and towns where prices are cheaper or visiting a country much closer to your own (For example: our flights to Honduras in 2010 were about $250/each, plus the hostels were like $10-20/night). And since it's a big vacation for us, we also don't want to miss out on things just for the sake of saving money...in other words, we don't want to be cheapskates! We want to have a good time. So, how can we do the things we want to do and not deplete our savings completely?? I'll tell you how we're doing it, step by step:

1. Stay with friends or in a hostel OR buy a package deal

We are super lucky to have friends that live in Paris and have (graciously) offered to let us stay with them. Not only will we be able to spend time with friends and hear about Paris from a local's point of view but this is also a huge money saver. The only cost for lodging will be a nice thank you gift to them...which, I assure you, is quite a bit less than 4 nights in even a Parisian hostel.

In Rome, we have found an adorable hostel online, The Beehive, where for about $100/night, we will have a shared kitchen and a clean, well reviewed place to lay our heads not too far from the train station and the hotel where Ryan's mom and sisters are staying.

I'm usually against package deals and tours because I feel that, overall, you can usually save money if you're willing to stay in a hostel or some other form of cheap lodging. In Paris and Rome....hostels are expensive! Instead of $10-30/night, you will pay $100+/night for even the most homely of rooms (The exception being, of course, if you stay on the edge of the city or in a nearby town).

The deal that the in-laws got, $1500/person, includes airfare to Paris and from Paris to Rome PLUS lodging in both cities for 10 nights. Not bad when you consider that the rooms they're staying in go for $300-400/night normally. We will still save money because we're staying with friends for half of the trip, but otherwise, it would have been cheaper to get the package deal when you factor in the flight from Paris to Rome and the 11 nights lodging.


2. How to pay for the trip?

We have decided that, rather than clean out our savings and stocks, we will lower our student loan payments for a few months. We're still paying at least the minimum, but normally we pay 2.5 times the minimum to accelerate paying the debt off. It's not ideal but again, the memories of a family trip are worth the splurge (to us). I do not suggest using a credit card to pay for any trip! An expensive trip can quickly become an un-Godly mountain of debt when you factor in the interest you'll be paying on that trip.


Total spent so far (in USD):

Airfare for 2 from Orlando to Paris: $1800
Airfare for 2 from Paris to Rome (We love you RyanAir): $185
(We will hit up a total of 8 airports...direct flights cost more!)

Estimate for hostel in Rome: $440 (includes 2 Euro/day/person "tourist tax")
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$2,425 (Made me a little nauseous to type that)

These are pretty much non-negotiables...our only opportunities to save money will be how we choose to get around the cities (bus vs. taxi), how we choose to eat (restaurants vs. utilizing grocery stores), places we choose to visit, etc.

Since we're still about a month away from going, that's as far as we've gotten! I'm still researching the best options for getting around the cities, where and what to eat and how to see the sights without paying too much. Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated! Let me know in the comments :)