Rome is burning

Next stop of the Spring Break adventure was in Rome. Marley met us there because she had already seen Venice, so now there were four of us. We flew into Rome on Easter, probably the most crowded and busiest day of the year in Rome, so we decided to stay in another camping place that was about 45 minutes outside of the city. It wasn't a bad choice- getting to the city was easy and cheap, it just took time, but we knew that going in. It was more of a minimal cabin than the one we had been in before, but we still had a bathroom in our room so it was acceptable (somehow, all bathrooms and rooming situations get compared to Malta, so this was still an upgrade).

Of course at the same time that we checked in, a group of about 300 thirteen-year old kids checked in at the same time. The walls were so thin that we could hear our neighbors next to us, the neighbors across the street, AND all the random people walking by outside. And being 13, it was still really entertaining for these kids to stay up all night doing absolutely nothing (note, this is also the age of ding-dong-ditching.... great). Somehow, us being so mature and all, we got into a ding-dong ditching competition with the neighbors. It was pretty interesting considering we didn't have doorbells, and there was a point when one of the little creeps actually tried to crawl in our window. We were playing cards and Marley yells out: "THERE IS A CHILD IN OUR WINDOW!!!!" We definitely didn't get a lot of sleep that night.

Rome itself was much more interesting than I thought. I knew there would be ruins, but I didn't realize there would be so many and that the city itself would have so much to offer. We spent one day on the beach (for good reasons, Rome is not famous for its beaches) and then two days in the city. We waited in line 2 1/2 hours to get into the Vatican, saw the Sistine Chapel (Marley missed it- she just thought we were in some random room), and then spent another 45 minutes waiting with huge tour groups of Asians to get into Saint Peter's Basilica.

We made wishes in the Trevi Fountain, saw the Parliament Building, the Colosseum, and the Spanish Steps. We actually saw a man propose to his girlfriend while at the Spanish steps in front of everyone that was there. She said yes and the whole crowd started clapping and cheering for them- literally hundreds of people- it was incredibly cute.

When we left Rome we were happy to get away from the crowds- everything had been a line, but we knew that on Easter weekend it was bound to be that way. I loved the city and we had a really great time. Definitely a good choice for the second leg of our trip.