I certainly have a nice feeling of contentment right about now. After a teary reunion at the beautiful *cough* Termini station on Saturday with the fam, I’ve spent a full day in Rome with them (kinda). It was so great to see them – you don’t realise how much you miss your family until you go away for eight freaking months. That said, it’s good to see that Chels is still a psycho, my father is still the grumpiest man in the world and my mother still sits placidly in between them. Ah….good times.
Apparently they got lost on the way….and Dad didn’t handle it too well. We love you for trying Dad, it’s awesome that you’re breaking out of your comfort zone (though I think Chels might like it if you didn’t have a near aneurism every time something went wrong).
What is even more awesome is that I now have new underwear. You rock Team Chelsmum. After we had some gelati and some stress attacks (I’ll give you only two guesses who from….) we ended up going out for dinner near the hostel that Chels and I were staying at. We had a great dinner and the waiters were so much fun (and beautiful, Chels keeps telling me). I was trying to encourage the olds to speak in Italian as much as possible, and although they were hesitant to begin with, the Italian enthusiasm for people attempting their language soon overcame them and they were trying out new words like a model watching BBC. It was a great night, the waiters flirting outrageously, encouraging the folks and then complimenting everybody on their ‘fantastic’ Italian. I bloody well love Italy.
We bid the olds goodbye and retired to our hostel. Although we booked two beds in a five bed dorm, we had a room to ourselves, and the only other people on our floor were two girls from Albania in another room. Sweet! Hejdi and Hegis are cousins and speak fluent Albanian, Italian and English, and some German and Spanish. Bastards. They are absolutely lovely – we went out for dinner with them last night and I hope to be able to catch Hegis later in Rome – Hejdi will be returning to Naples after coming to help her cousin settle into Rome – talk about family commitments!
ANYWAY….yesterday I carted Chels all around Rome. We went to the Colosseum first in the morning, across to the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Venezia which holds Monumento di Vittorio Emmanuel II. It was nice to visit some of the places I went to with Anna a few years ago. I’d forgotten how white the MdVEII was. It makes a nice contrast against the vivid colours of the Italian flag and the crisp blue European summer sky, and BEFORE you get into me, it was still technically summer here when I was walking around. Now it’s autumn – which is awesome for you plebs coz that means it’s spring and warmth is around the corner. But I digress….
Chels was gobsmacked with the Trevmeister and we will hopefully get to visit the Vatican when we come back in a few days. Met up with the olds again and took them to the Pantheon – can you believe their tour doesn’t cover the most amazing building in Rome? Shocker. I guess they’ve got some time though – we’ll be back here for three days in a couple of weeks. Still, I couldn’t help myself but take pictures of the bloody thing over and over….and I’ll probably take more again. I just love it!
So Chels and I tuckered ourselves out by leaving at 9am and arriving back just before 7pm last night, walking nearly the entire time. It was a nice day – certainly nicer than the other times I’ve been to Rome but Lord it was stinking hot! I’ve added to my tan and Chelsea is only an off-white colour now….did I mention how awesome it was to be darker than my perpetually tanned sister? No? IT’S AWESOME!!!!
However, my poor baby sister isn’t feeling very well, which means we have to take it slow for the next couple of days, though I’m not sure how because we’ve only got one night in Florence. I also must apologise if we post similar photos on Facebook….I left my camera with the Snuffmeister and although I’ve got his new one a) we can’t figure out how to make the charger work (I think it’s broken) so we’ve only got a small amount of battery life, and b) Chels has the same camera as me and consequently I think it’s heaps better than Andrew’s new one. So what if it can go underwater and can be dropped from 10m? It can’t do the things that I love about mine. Hurry up and get back from Poland you gimp! I certainly don’t miss you at all, I just want my camera back.
Anyway, we’re off to Firenze now. Have said hi to the folks from everybody who asked, and if they haven’t posted they loved Paris and I think they are also enjoying Italy and most of all seeing me (though I think my poor father forgot how obnoxious [read: don’t put up with his shit] I was). Chels is having a ball and last I heard from Andrew he was in Wroclaw in Poland and quite likes it (he’s so descriptive, isn’t he?? Mind you I feel like I haven’t described a thing in this post….look at the photos you lazy gits! {Insert cliché here})
Ciao belli!
Roma photos
