Italy part 1

Marshall, Debbie, Dad, Scott, Ryan - heading out on their tour of Rome.

And here we are - the great American tourists in Rome. At least my uncle, aunt, dad, cousin and brother before I arrived. They got to Rome a couple days before I did. The morning my flight landed, they started an all-day tour of the city. So while they were exploring the Vatican, Coliseum, etc... I was sleeping on an air plane.

My favorite part of the flight was traveling on Air-Portugal. Half the travelers were American and the rest were Portuguese. Guess what group I was lumped into? The flight attendant thought I was Portuguese - so I let him think that by not talking much and smiling plenty. Then the lady on the other side of me - who was American, like me - also thought I was Portuguese. I asked her for help with my tv in English (because I don't speak Portuguese - I don't even know how they say "yes" or "no"), but she still answered me in a very loud, exaggerate voice with lots of hand motions and slow pronunciations. Then I felt dumb - past the point of no return. So I just went along with it and was glad not to see her on my next flight out of Lisbon to Rome.

At that point, I met two girls my age. One was traveling to meet a friend in Rome and then vacation in Florence. The other was headed to some Island where her husband was stationed. She hadn't seen him since the day they were married almost a year ago! I never saw her after the flight, but I ironically ran into the first girl outside my hotel in Rome. Talk about random for how large a city we were in. This is not the first time something like that has happened to me - In Tahiti, I repeatedly ran into the couple I befriended on the plane. Now, Tahiti is not as big, but it still was a strange coincidence. Later on in my trip, I ran into my own family (completely unplanned) while we were all in Paris. At that point, we were no longer traveling together - so another weird coincidence.

Me and Dad outside our hotel on the same day I arrived in Rome.
We are heading to a restaurant by the Spanish Steps for my first taste of Italian food!

I have another story about getting to my hotel, but I'll tell you later once I get pictures from my dad to go with it. The picture above is in front of our hotel. I look a little tired from the long flight, but that didn't stop me from loving the little time I spent in Rome.

Ryan waiting in the lobby of our hotel - Hotel Monte Carlo. I loved this room!

Above is the inside of our hotel - not our room, just the lobby. The rooms are very small - my dad, brother, mom and I all stayed in one little closet. We slept on the hardest beds with rocks for pillows. I was glad I borrowed my friends travel pillow for the plane - it had multiple uses on this trip.

Ambyr and Luke - looking as cute as can be - outside Hotel Monte Carlo

We went out to dinner at a restaurant by the Spanish Steps (think Roman Holiday). Above is my cousin's wife, Ambyr, and her adorable son Luke. He was the sensation wherever he went - even getting free gelato for such cute, curly blond hair.

Three people in our group had luggage lost at the airport - Ambyr being one of them. They lost her stroller and clothes, which was pretty tough on site-seeing. My uncle's sister-in-law had her wheelchair lost, which was even worse. They eventually found each item and delivered them - but it was still pretty lame.

Me squeezed between Scott (my cousin) and Ryan (my brother) on our drive to the villa in Umbria (Oombria).
Don't I look comfy between two football players' shoulders?

The next day, we rented three cars, piled in and headed for the country. Or we tried to, anyway. Rome is pretty tricky to navigate - and we spent a solid 30 minutes trying to find our entrance to the autostrata. We'd miss the exit and all three vehicles would have to circle around, try not to loose each other, and try again. This became the standard for our group traveling together - getting lost was the name of the game.

But it was all worth it. The Italian countryside is dotted with medieval hilltop villages and farm fields between. It was also fun to see all the different cars that zoomed past. Our two hour drive went by pretty fast, I didn't even mind the tight squeeze between two football players shoulders. Although, that was the one and only time it didn't bother me.

And that is where I am going to stop today. Hope you liked seeing how my trip started!