La Dulce Vita

Ahhh... Italy. It was an amazing trip. I saw amazing sights, ate amazing food, and enjoyed the amazing people. Did I mention that the trip was amazing?!? :)

So... remember how I said I was being flexible with my little change in plans? Well, the plans changed again on Saturday. Just as I was walking out the door to take the train to the airport and begin my solo trip to Italy, I received a phone call from Sean. No, this is not Hollywood, this is my life. Well, as things would have gone in a romantic comedy (although I'm not sure how funny this whole thing was), Sean told me that he hadn't slept the night before and thought that it was because he had made the wrong decision. He had called the airlines and changed his flight - he was coming. And he loves me. A little numb and with a spinning head, I headed to the airport, now trying to get my romantic hat on again.

I have to say one thing about living in Europe and travelling so much - I have become a power traveller. I logged into a computer at the gate once I was at the airport, and within 10 minutes, had re-booked hotels for two (in Europe, you can get a single room with only one twin bed for cheaper, so I had changed all my reservations on Friday night), got tickets for Sean to all the art museums that I had purchased the night before, and helped with one last leg of Sean's travel. Voila! Trip complete! :)

On my flight to Rome that evening, I met a really nice girl from Manhattan who is doing a part-time assignment in Rotterdam. We hung out that night, and, unfortunately, didn't find too many restaurants that were still serving food at midnight. :( What we did find, however, was this really weird 7-11 looking store... that is also a bar. That serves shots of alcohol. It was kind of bizarre, but they had sandwiches, so we hung out there for a while.

I should back up and tell you about my interesting hotel experience... so, I had booked my hotel online, and had a pretty good idea of where it was - right next to the train terminal. Elizabeth and I parted ways after we arrived in Rome, agreeing to meet later after we dropped off our stuff. I went to the place where I thought my hotel was, which was a really dark, dirty, scary street. There was no elevator, so I lugged my somewhat heavy suitcase up four flights of stairs to the floor that the hotel was on (very strange, by the way). The guy that was there looked at me like I was crazy when I told him that I wanted to check in, but then, a lightbulb went off. He told me, "Oh, we ran out of room at this hotel, so we booked you in our sister hotel. It's a three-star hotel (which is pretty darn nice!)." So, I lugged my suitcase back down the stairs, and went to this REALLY nice, clean hotel. What a great deal for our money! Then, they didn't have a room available for 5 nights in a row, and when I put up a fuss about moving, they just upgraded us to an even nicer room that was available for 5 nights in a row!! Yippy!! What luck!! :)

One strange thing... the men in Italy were VERY forward. I was waiting for Elizabeth (my new friend) outside of the train station, and, in a matter of 10 minutes, was asked by not one but TWO men if I wanted to have a coffee with them. The next night, I met another guy that wanted to give me a ride on his motor bike and show me the city. Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I seriously have not had this much attention from men since I was a freshman in high school! It was flattering at first, but then really started getting annoying!

So, I'm going to do a few posts to break things up a little... enjoy!