Holy Toledo: Italy Day 1: Rome...It almost didn't happen

DAY 1: MADRID

So Fall Break was finally here and off to Italy I went. Since our flight left at 4 on Tuesday we (me and the other two girls I travelled with) thought we'd hit up Madrid early so we left at 10 am. Nicki and I needed to buy a new suitcase because ours were too big for Ryanair and Clare needed socks so we went straight to shopping. Nicki and I found suitcases for 25 euro but bargained them down to 20 and Clare found her socks. Next order of business was to take out money for our big trip. This is where my blondeness was at its peak.

So I go to the ATM and try to take out 200 euro...no luck the ATM ends the transaction. So I try another ATM because sometimes they can be funny little things over here...I end up trying 6 different ATMs and none work. At this point I am freaking out because I am about to go to Italy with no cash and no way to get any. So I call my dad internationally...completely forgetting that it is 6 am back in the states and tell him to check on my account when he gets to the bank because something is not right. Then we go to mickey d's for a quick lunch...because at this point we are running late...when my brain magically turned on and I thought of an idea. I run out of McDonalds to the nearest Caja Madrid and try taking out 100 euro and it works! Stupid me forgot about my 200 US DOLLAR a day limit and since 200 euro exceeds 200 dollars it didnt work. So I took my money and we started our trek to the airport.

When we got there we only had 40 minutes til our plane left and naturally our flight was all the way on the other side of the airport. So we hurried our little buts off only to get confused at the check in counter because there was no passport stamping place like ryanair has. Well apparently easyjet is just nicer than ryanair and doesnt care about silly little things like that so we headed through security. Security in europe is nothing like the U.S., basically you just walk on through, they really dont check and frankly they really dont care. So luckily that was no time at all. We ran to our gate and got there just as they started boarding. It was fantastic timing. In line we even bumped into some people from St. Bens in Minnesota who were doing a Greece Rome study abroad and were heading out to the second half of their study abroad in Rome but had just had a break and went to Spain for vaca. And this little adventure is only one of the reasons my theme for this trip is "it almost didn't happen"

DAY 1: ROMA

We finally landed in Rome and found the traint to get into the city. We were relaxing on the train when suddenly we noticed that we were at our stop...we quickly ran down the stairs only to have the train doors close on us so we ran to the next doors and they closed on us too. It was very sad. We got off at the next stop and looked around confused and dazed when a cute little italian girl came up and asked us if we had missed our stop. We told her where we were trying to go and she gave us directions. We hopped on a train and went back to the last stop and continued on from there. We finally found our hostel, which had a hip fresh atmosphere. For the record all italians really do speak how people think they speak and the manager and the front desk worker had very italian accents. They gave us orange juice while we waited for our room, since we had showed up late it wasnt ready. After we finally got settled in our room we hit the town.

First we visited the Colliseum...which is absolutely amazing to see at night. The lights coming from the gorgeous arcs and pillars is breathtaking. After the Colliseum we walked and old ancient pathway through the ruins...it was the perfect activity to do on a halloween weekend. The pathway led through old temples to the Roman gods and buildings that were thousands of years old....after awhile we got kind of creeped out and decided to explore more of the city. We saw a gorgeous museum on our way to the Trevi Fountain. When we got to the Trevi fountain we asked some Romans about the coin toss tradition (in case you were wondering its right hand, left shoulder) and made our wishes. Next we climbed the Spanish steps and then we looked at some more pretty fountains. As we started to go back to our hostel we walked past a tea bar and went in for a cup. Lets just say the waiting staff was very excited to have foreigners come in...we didnt even have to pay for our tea or the free strawberries and grapes and other delicious items they gave us. After being stuffed with fruit and tea and yummy goodies we headed back to our hostel...ready to wake up early and head to the vatican. Here are pictures from day one in Rome: