Rrrrrrrrroma!

Well, we made it to country number five! Italy! Which I am SUPER excited about, because I've wanted to go to Italy for forever. And now I'm HERE!

After a scary start to the morning on Tuesday, which involved me watching TJ and both of our bags leave the train station on the train that we had assumed was ours- but was, in fact, definitely not-when I came out of the store in the station after buying some chocolate and other road snacks. Thankfully, said train was merely switching platforms, so it went out, switched tracks, and came right back one platform over. So although TJ did make it off the train and back over to the correct platform, bags in tow, we learned our lesson, and my hands didn't stop shaking for a good hour afterwards. Slightly (extremely) terrifying.

Anyways, after that excitement, the train ride(s) to Rome were gorgeous! I thought I would sleep for most of the trip, because we had a super early start, but IT'S ITALY. It's hard to sleep when you're passing through the Italian countryside, seeing large villas on top of hills, cramped and colourful communities on lakes, and churches and clocktowers dotting the horizon all over the place. It's incredible. I had quite a good time staring out the window listening to music. Twas lovely.

And then we were in Rome! Crazy talk! -15 degrees on the mountain up in Zermatt to +15 here in the sun! Quite a nice change, if you ask me. That night, after sitting around the hostel for awhile, getting our bearings and Skyping some people, we headed out towards the Colosseum, which has many restaurants around it where we planned to find somewhere to eat supper. But of course, not before walking around the perimeter of the structure, TJ all the while spouting Colosseum fun facts! It's amazing! So much bigger in person than you would think from photos.

IT'S SO BIG AND COOL.

Anybody know why it isn't XIV? Rather it's XIIII ? 

MMmm dat Colosseum.

It's kinda big.

And then yesterday we went back to the Colosseum to actually go inside! We spent just under three hours walking around the inside and reading about the history of it! It is really incredible, and I can definitely see why TJ finds it so interesting.

Ancient Roman graffiti. You think I'm kidding- no. I'm not. Spectators at gladiatorial fights used to carve their favourites/the winners into the stones by their seats!

Fun fact: Did you know that the floor of the Colosseum had a series of pulleys and counterweights in order to hoist settings, backdrops, animals, and gladiators into the ring? Super cool!

Crazy that the entire perimeter of the stadium used to be covered in steps like these!

Yep, I like it.

The underground series of supports and such.

After that, we walked over to the Roman Forum to walk around there. It is HUGE, and we didn't even get to the whole thing because they were closing. But it was still amazing, and just to imagine it in it's heyday is cool. You're in amongst the remains of structures that existed almost 2000 (or more) years ago, which is insanely cool, I think.

Pretty sweet, pretty sweet.

This structure has been there since about 300 B.C. IF THAT'S NOT CRAZY COOL I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

The Roman Forum. Very very cool stuff. 10/10 would recommend.

So after walking around for HOURS, we headed back to the hostel to crash for a bit, and recover before we went back out to have supper of -what else- pasta! I am in my glory as far as food goes in this country, because Italian food is my favourite.

And yeah! I think that's about it for now! We're super excited to see what else Rome has to show us, including today- the Vatican- which you will hear about in the next post! Super cool!

Talk to you soon!