Day 1 was spent exploring the Ancient Ruins under the extreme Roman sun. We were non-stop for 6 hours straight and I earned my 4th blister on the walk back to our room. When we got home we showered, dozed, and finally went out for dinner. Dinner was disappointing (for the first and only time!) and we crashed pretty early.
Day 2 was busy, but we were smarter and made use of the Roman metro. It was easy to navigate and saved our feet a lot of pain. We got up early to avoid the lines and when there was a line we stood in the shade. I already told you about the business of this day: Vatican City, (St. Peter's and Sistine Chapel), a great lunch, then off to the Spanish steps.
So Day 3? What to do? We knew we wanted to see the Pantheon and I wanted to see the Trevi Fountain and luckily there are near each other. The fountain is simply amazing, huge, and refreshing. Then we walked over to the Pantheon and stood in awe at the ancient architecture and even the way the church went about changing it from a pagan temple to a Christian church.
We were done with this relatively early and so we took the train back to our neighborhood. Over the course of our time in Italy I saw a lot of people walking down the street eating these amazing looking sandwiches (Panini!) and I really wanted to try one. We found a cute place near the Piazza of an old church for St. Mary (we think Mary Magdaline) and I consumed the best tuna fish sandwich EVER. The bread was thin, soft, and perfect. The tuna was mixed with mayo and capers and it was delightful.
After lunch we continued walking, looking for a park on the map. The park turned out to be a major disappointment, but there was shopping to be done around the park. Kerri picked up a cute piece of fabric to take home and transform into something beautiful.
We were trying to kill time because we didn't have to be at the train station until 7:30 to catch our 8 p.m. train. We slowly walked to our neighborhood, went shopping for snacks and juice at the local grocer and it was still only 5 p.m.! I decided I could milk an hour at the cafe outside our hostel, and I did! It took me one hour to drink about 4 oz of Cafe Americano! At 6 we retrieved our bags from the hostel where they were in storage and they let us take one last shower. We milked that too!
We caught our overnight train from Rome to Zurich right on time. The train had been sitting under the hot Roman sun all day and the air conditioning on board was not turned on in time to cool off the train. It was Hot. I mean, it was HOT. We were going to spend the night in a bunk with 6 people. Luckily, we were the only 2 people for the first 2 hours and we got to cool off a bit. Around 10 p.m. 3 people joined us and they immediately wanted to make up the beds which meant that Kerri and I had to climb to the top bunks. I nearly passed out. It was too hot to breathe. I was sweating from every pore and thought I was going to lose my lunch. I climbed down to cool off, then climbed back down. I finally dug out my shami's and wet them down in the bathroom. I gave one to Kerri and kept one for myself. It helped, but not enough. Kerri climbed down around midnight-ish and didn't go back in until about 6:30. She eventually pulled out her pillow and blanket and made a mat in the corridor of the train car. Around 2 p.m. I joined her and did the same thing. I would rather be uncomfortable on the floor of a train than too hot in the bunk room.
The train ride was 12 hours long. Kerri thinks she actually fell asleep, and at the very least we were able to rest. We arrived in Zurich around 8:30 a.m., and were glad to be off the train! We were in our last City for our trip.
It's hard to believe that was all only 8 days. It felt like 6 years. In awhile I'll tell you more about the last day and then our return trip.
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