the rome blogs: day five

AH FREAKING FINALLY. the last day (well, last full day. the last day i'll dedicate an entire blog to, anyway).

since we had already seen all of rome (okay, not all of it, but everything we wanted to see), we decided to head out to lake bracciano on sunday. lucky for us, it was a clear, sunny day, so it made for a perfect day to get out and enjoy the countryside. gosh, was it gorgeous. you remember how, last time, i said i dont really get/like art? i think it's because i've been raised to appreciate natural beauty. the arnold family likes to go camping a lot, and we've seen tons of breathtaking sights, pristine lakes and vast forests. man made art is nice, but it pales in comparison to the things mother nature put together.

bracciano is a relatively small town and it was a welcome break from big city life. we went to the grocery store to buy some bread/cheese/snacks to eat by the lake. we started walking down the big hill and BAM that's when we saw it. this was no small lake...it was like half the size of tahoe (well, actually, i just wikipediaed that, and it's only about a third of the size...whatever). the view was phenomenal. we walked about a mile downhill and found a nice spot on a dock on the lake. we took our shoes off (except for mal...that rebel) and ate a long, slow lunch. once we were finished, we just sat there, soaking up the warm sun. because we're all santa barbarians, we've missed our sun. sitting on that dock was therapeutic.

after lunch, we walked back up the hill to a huge castle (if you follow celeb gossip, it's the one tomkat got married in). we had to pay to get in, so we decided to pass on that and get gelato instead (duh). this time i got peach+strawberry+pine nut. EFFING DELICIOUS. the way they make their fruit gelatos in italy makes it seem like you're actually eating that fruit...the apple has the texture/taste of a real apple being chewed in your mouth, and the banana taste like the creamy goodness of a banana. mmmmmmmm.

once we got back to rome, we returned to our fave italian restaurant to finish the trip off right (well, first we walked around for an unnecessary 45 minutes before we made a decision...but that made the food taste that much better). i got a pasta with shrimp and some sort of shellfish with its eyes still in tact. looked gross, tasted (expectedly) grand. we ordered a glass of wine, shared first kiss stories (which can get horribly embarrassing, but is SO much fun), and simply enjoyed the long meal. oh, service in italy blows. every meal we had took about two hours. in the usa, you get in and you get out and you get on your way. none of this dilly dallying and "talking" with your friends at dinner. the waiters want to get you out, too, so they can seat another table and get more money. in italy, they don't really care to get your order in a timely manner, or bring out all your plates at once, or even bring you your check till you ask for it. i enjoyed the forced slow meals on vacation, but i'd imagine that it would get tiresome if i lived there.

because our bellies were only halfway happy, we needed to satisfy them fully with another (final) gelato. back to (where else) frigidarium. do i get old favorites? or keep trying new flavors? AH THE CHOICES!! i went for a mix, but mostly safe flavors: raspberry + cinnamon + crema paradisio (which was really just that vanilla with berry sauce stuff mixed in). gelato, i miss you so damn much.

we went back to the hostel for one more wonderful sleep. we woke up early the next morning to catch our flight and went through an awfully slow check in/security (seriously, it was so ineffective that an old guy in front of us yelled at the check in girls). i should've expected a slow airport, though...it was italy. they're not known for their quick customer service, as i found out at meals. but anyway, we made it on the plane and were headed back home, to paris (still weird to call it that). it was such a relief to return to a place where i can speak the language (if poorly) and i know how to get around. i felt so empowered when i returned, and like i really owned the city.

but...i miss italy! the italian people were really nice and talkative. i was chatting with one guy and he was like, "so, where are you from?" i tell him california, and he goes, "ohhh, baywatch!" yeah, that's it. oh, and i love the language...italians always sound enthusiastic when they talk. maybe it's because their language is louder and more pronounced, or because they talk with their hands...either way, i found myself really wanting to speak italian just to join in on the fun convos. overall, i loved rome..yes, a little dirtier than paris, but wonderful all the same. i'd go back if only for the gelato :-)

now i'm off to copenhagen to visit venz! why i'm doing that, i dunno...venz totally sucks. lol jk. this means i probably won't write till i get home on monday, so you wont have any paris updates for a while. oh, except this one...the city is slowly turning into christmas. the stores are getting there snowmen and santa claus figurines in stock and stores are starting to carry christmas chocolates and advent calendars. YESSSSS.

the rome blogs: day four

saturday morning we woke up REAL early (i'm talking before 7 am) to get in line at the vatican museum. we weren't effing around...we were gonna get in. so we were in line by probably 7:45 and then we waited. to pass the time, we played dumb games like bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish (which is surprisingly fun) and big booty. we got loud and really into it, and people started staring...awk.

once we finally got in, we did some more waiting to buy tickets, then we finally got in to get ourselves a shot (and then two or three more shots) of culture. okay, i'm gonna be honest and really ignorant here: i don't get a lot of art. that painting looks just like that one i saw 20 minutes ago, and this sculpture is almost literally a replica of the one i saw in that other museum. yeah, yeah, i know i could "learn" or some crap like that, but this art history stuff just isn't the kind of stuff i dig (i prefer dirt...ha...dig..get it?). yes, the paintings are magnificent and many of the sculptures are flawless. i can appreciate that. what i mostly think about when i look at art is how long the artist worked on that...his whole entire life goal was carving that ab so that it looked JUST like a real ab. that takes a sort of dedication that i haven't had since...gosh, never.

anyway, i had a fun time looking at the pretty pictures, but then i was ready to get to the big boy--the sistine chapel. it was awesome, because they had signs for tourists like me, pointing right to the sistine chapel. but here's the thing: IT WAS MILES AWAY. there would be a sign pointing to the chapel with an arrow...and then you had to walk for like another hour. we walked into like three other hallways that SHOULD have been the sistine, but weren't. we kept going, "janettttt are we there yet?" ahhhh and then finally, we turned a corner, and there she was. i could tell not because of the paintings, but because of the throngs of people and yelling guards. apparently, you're not allowed to take pictures in there, but everyone does anyway. in a desperate attempt to stop everyone, the guards shouted, "NO PHOTO! NO PHOTO!" obviously, that didn't work (helloooo i need proof that i was here and thus am cultured), so at one point, one of the guards got on the top of the steps and screams, "BE QUIET! NO PHOTOS PLEASE!!!!!" everyone kind of shut up and put their cameras away...for like a minute. don't worry, i totally got a picture. i know, i'm a badass.

we met up outside the exit, but lost mike along the way. then we left cuz we were freaking starving (sorry mike!...but in our defense, he had other things he had to go see and do that weren't on our itinerary). for some reason, i was feeling particularly adventurous on saturday, so i went out on a limb and tried (get this) ANCHOVIES on my pasta. a little bizarre, but i actually liked it. it was a salty, pretty strong taste, but not bad. oh, know what sucks in italy? you have to pay for the water. but the food is cheaper than in paris, so i guess it works out.

back to frigidarium for more gelato. still feeling like taking a chance on my food, i got a fig/nut and rum gelato. it was my least favorite combo, but two...interesting...flavors nonetheless. after enjoying frozen heaven we dashed down to the forum, which was one of the things i was most looking forward to in rome. the sun was shining down just right so it gave the whole place this shimmering glow, and made for beautiful pictures

after staring at roman ruins for a good while, we meandered through the forum area a big and went into some museum, which i forget the name of now (maddy? mal? you remember?). tired from a full day, we went back to the hostel for a quality nap.

oh, god, i forgot to tell you guys about our other roommates. one time, when we came home, this one girl was asleep. that wouldn't have been weird, except for the fact that it was only 11:30 pm. we were sick of fumbling through our suitcases with the lights off, so we flicked the switch on. besides, it was four to one, so we could probably take her. she made these pissy, exaggerated sighing noises and dramatically covered her face with her blanket. oh, whatever, you paid for the 8 person room, cheapo. this is what you get. she was pretty cold to us the whole time, always looking slightly pissed when we came in and never asking how our trip was. we found out later that she was french. figures.

but on saturday, two really nice french guys came in to our room, and we had a good time chatting with them. see, not everybody fits the stereotype. i like hostels for meeting people. even if i do have to change in a wet bathroom and i can't read before bed...so what?

okay, back to the story. after some naps on the quality hostel alessandro downtown beds, we went out to dinner by piazza nuovo. we splurged on a bottle of white wine with this dinner :-P (btw, it's still weird to me that i can order drinks. i'm not mature enough for that). i had...uhm..oh, no, i forgot what i ate! NO WAIT i remember. gnocchi...ohhh, how could i forget! that was squishy and weird, but delicieux all the same. it's italian food...it can't be bad. like pizza and ice cream, there are no bad flavors. oh, it's because those are italian things...

nevermind my brain spew. we walked over by st peter's to see the place at night (gorgeous) and then we walked back down to see the trevi, because "they" said it was even more phenomenal at night. well, the elusive and ever-reliable "they" were right again.

we bought our souvenirs and took the metro home...er, to hostel alessandro downtown (really, it was a good hostel. i recommend it). after a great conversation with james (what do you think about california? "cool" what do you think about bush? "toilet paper"), we crawled under the sheets and fell into a deep roman sleep :-)

the rome blogs: day three

holy crap, this is a lot of reading. if you've kept with me through these rome blogs...god, i owe you something. leave me a comment saying that you've read them and i'll give you something.

anyway, here we are, day three. we (me, maddy, mal, chris, mike, janet) woke up early to get in line at the vatican museum, but when we got there around 845 am, the line was already probably a mile long. because the place closes at 1:30 or something (wtf? that's lame) and we had plenty more sights to see, we decided to ditch the museum and try again tomorrow morning, but get there even earlier.

we walked out of the country and into vatican city, the smallest country in the world (vatican city country jokes are SO funny). st peter's basilica--the pope's place--was gorgeous. you should see his view

the inside was expectedly phenomenal. of course it has to be the best--it's the pope's church! as none of us are particularly religious, we made lots of funny jokes about god and heaven. we all got separated inside the basilica, but when maddy, mal, mike and i (aw, man, i never caught on to the alliteration of their names!) met up outside, we decided to go up the copula (er however you spell that). though 551 steps to the top sign was a little frightening, we decided to save a couple euro (aka 1 gelato's worth) and make the journey up on the steps.

WAIT. one of the funniest stories happened in line before we walked up. we were talking about the trevi fountain, and mike goes, "yeah, if you toss three coins in, you'll get married." mal and i both gasped with excitement for no particular reason. "oOooooo get married??!?!?!" maddy and mike both gave us confused looks and we started laughing at our immediate, girly reaction to the marriage prospect.

anyway, back to the story. so we walked up a crapton of steps when we reached what we thought was the top...turns out it was really just the halfway point. my thighs were screaming a big "eff you!" but we dredged on. something weird happened. the further up we got, the skinnier the stairwells were. as we got up to the curved part of the basilica, we had to start leaning to accommodate the sphere shape. once i got to the top, i had to catch my breath. i caught eyes with this older woman, who also had that fatigued look in her eyes. she looks and me and goes, "gosh, look what we have to do to get into heaven!" lol. yeahhh that's totally what i was thinking.

oh, but if there is some sort of god, it's evident that he's here, because that view was amazing. it was a view fit for a god. the sun came out for the first time on our trip, which gave us a phenomenal view of two countries (no, v city jokes dont get old, like i said earlier).

on our way down, we stopped in the gift store. ooo, what to get to remember this oh-so-holy place? i had a tough time deciding, but once i saw it, i knew i had to get it--a vactican city shot glass. HELL YES i bought a shot glass in one of the holiest places on earth. i can't wait to consume some alcohol from that glass. even better, only nuns work in the gift shop (i think you have to be a nun to live in vc), so a nun sold it to me. mmmm sinning is so good sometimes.

after all that popey goodness we were ready for a meal, so we had lunch at our fave italian restaurant (well, we didnt know it was our fave at the time...it was decided a the end of the trip). mmm pizza. conversation flowed easily, no wine necessary. i love getting to know people because i get to know cool things...for example, one of mal's all time favorite movie's is jumanji. good choice, mal.

after that, we went down to the pantheon, which was actually open this time. i'm gonna admit something to you--i wasn't all that impressed. yeah, it's a really big building, but that's it. you even left a big hole in the top, so when it rains, water gets everywhere. lame.

our tummies wanted gelato, so we walked to my second fave gelateria, the one with 240957 flavors. they had a chocolate-peperoncini one! i tried it, but it was gross, so i passed. i went with pistacchio, nutella and blackberry. the nutella was a little bit richer than i expected, but delicious nonetheless. (btw, you may be wondering how, 5 days later, i can still remember my precise gelato combos. it's because i wrote them down on my special sheet of notes. yes, gelato is that important).

okay, this is getting freaking long and dull, so i'll try to leave out dumb details like why i remember the gelato combos. next on our to do list was make it to trevi fountain, which i had been preparing for all day. preparing, nicki? how? well, by thinking of what wishes to make, of course! but, once i got down on the edge with my coins in hand, i was so excited to flip them over my shoulder that i forgot what i wanted to wish for. sometimes i have the attention span of a child.

back at the hostel, after we showered and ate, we asked the front desk what sort of other things we should do in and outside of rome. this is when we met james. he was the hairy, roman guy working the front desk. he was helpful and god was he opinionated...and hilarious. he told us to visit lake bracciano, where he likes to go in the summer to see the girls with the plastic surgery (he made a boob motion on his chest). as he's looking through a list of tourist activities in rome, he mutters "bullshit...that's bullshit" to half of them. "oh, the colosseum? pay 11 euro, walk around for 10 minutes smelling piss and leave. bullshit." he also suggested this cheap but delicious gelato place 5 minutes away on a bus.

on james' advice, we tried to find the gelato place. we got a bit lost and couldn't find the place for about half an hour, but once we did, it was totally worth it, because they piled on the ice cream HIGH and for cheap. i got a crema and berry gelato. crema (like vanilla but a little sweeter) is my second fave gelato flavor...oh, man, i should've gotten a cinnamon/crema gelato. gosh, looks like i'll have to go back.

once we got back to the hostel, we tip toed around our room (of course our roomies were asleep) getting ready for bed. maddy and i did some yoga in the hallway and we all drifted to dreamland, resting up for day four.

the rome blogs: day two

my beer is only half done and i'm on a roll, so i'm gonna do this next one right now. i'm not sure if it's kosher to post two blogs right in a row, but here i go doing it anyhow.

we woke up early day two (luckily, our only rainy day) to meet chris's friend janet by the colosseum. she's studying at uc rome right now and i owe half the greatness of my trip to her expert tour guiding skills. we would have been lost/confused/doing lame things if she weren't there to point us in the right direction and tell us about the neatest roman things. so janet, if you're reading, GRAZIE!

anyway, we bought our roma pass and zoomed past a huge line into the colosseum. this was one of my fave parts of rome because it let me daydream about being in ancient roman society...knowing me, i'd be up in the nosebleed section, where the peasants sat, but whatev. i'd still be at the colosseum.


apres ca...i mean, after that (when i get back, please excuse my franglais...it's become a habit to mumble french words when i don't know what to say), we had lunch. i had a delicious lasagna...mmmm italian food. once we were done, we had one thing on our minds: gelato. pretty much the whole trip, our conversations consisted of three things: figuring out directions, talking about gelato, and talking about christmas. mal, aka mrs. claus, obviously had a lot to do with this. we walked down the street to frigidarium. even though there were only about 16 flavors to choose from, i was overwhelmed. the only thing that consoled me was the fact that we'd be enjoying at least 7 more gelatos (2 times/day), so i'd have plenty of time to try all the flavors. for my first combo, i had classic peanut butter and banana...and ohmigod, i love gelato. from my first bite, i knew i'd be eating too much of the stuff and gaining weight. i reassured myself that we'd be walking a million more miles so i'd be working all the gelato off, but i really didn't need another reason to eat the gelato. god, that stuff was delicious.

we wandered down to the pantheon with our umbrellas in hand and were minorly upset to find that it was closed. but no matter, there were plenty other sights to see and more time to get back to the pantheon tomorrow. so then we walked to the spanish steps, where chris and i drank from the fountain (after we waited in like behind 3 little kids, of course). i'm gonna be really honest with you right now...i have no idea why the spanish steps are famous. in the autumn/winter, when they don't have those flowers on them, they're so ordinary that i wouldn't have been able to tell if they were anything special.

we got back to the colosseum when janet decided she needed to get home to get out of her heels (heels on cobblestone? not for me, thanks), so she left us to roam on our own. we wanted some coffee, so we went into a place called, "coming out." yes, it's a gay bar/café. the waiter was friendly (as were many of the italians we met...maybe it's because their language sounds happy) and we were having a good time chatting with him. he seemed pretty gay, but we didn't think much of it...after all, we are in a place called, "coming out." BUT when i went back to the bathroom, he calls me back to the kitchen and hands me a slip of paper. as i start to open it, he goes, "no no no! my friends and i are going to a club tomorrow night. maybe we can get a cup of coffee. you have my number." wow, thanks, gay sam, but your a boy and i'm not...why are you giving me your number?

hostel allesandro downtown (which always had this fresh, welcoming shit scent wafting down the halls) offered free pasta weeknights at 7pm, so we hurried back to catch that. as we were enjoying our surprisingly yummy pasta, i looked up to see a familiar face sitting next to us. "mike?" i asked. holy geezis, it was mike from budapest, who i met at oktoberfest. he's the guy who blacked out and came to in a moving cab 150 euro poorer! i told maddy, mal and chris about him, and now he's here! small freaking world. we ate dinner and chatted with him, and he ended up joining us for the rest of his time in rome. good times were had by all :-D

after that, we needed (yeah, needed) to get another gelato, so we went to piazza nuovo and found blue ice, a gelateria recommended by some friend. i had my fave combo there--chocolate, cinnamon and cappucino. cinnamon was def my fave flavor, and with the cappucino, it tasted just like starbucks at christmas. mmmmmm.

satisfied by gelato #2, we headed back to the hostel and were greeted by wet bathrooms and poop smell. the ny girls, who were now in their rightful beds in our room, came home hours later at something like 4 am (i dunno, i was sleeping and probably snoring). but it was beginning to feel more like home and...well, now i miss it.

the rome blogs: day one

now that i've got my list of notes of funny rome things in my hand and my beer beside me (yeah, i'm drinking by myself, but really, i'm talking to you, so i'm not an alcoholic), i'm ready to share my roman adventures.

okay, i know i said before that i was gonna do this by category, but i lied. i just tried to do that, and it was awkward sounding because i wrote mostly at random. okay, that's not really different than usual. whatever, i don't have to give you a reason for what i do...this is my blog, not yours.

we (we=mal, maddy, chris, me) left for cdg airport around 230 on halloween and finally got on the rer after a few minor mishaps (we forgot to buy tickets...whoops). luckily i was still wearing my ears and black paint on my face, so people were really nice to us. we arrived at fumicino airport in rome that evening and hopped on the leonardo express without a hitch. we walked down the street to the exquisite hostel alessandro downtown, which we called home for the next five nights. seriously, at the end of the day, i'd be like, "guys, i'm tired, let's go home."

we walked into our room and met our first roommates. they were really friendly and outgoing and really excited to have us...on opposite day. they were these 2 hella awkward guys that didn't speak english very well and didn't seem excited that we came in.

anyway, we were starving because all we'd had on the plane was shitty plane food and free wine (ooo but that wine was so glorious), we asked the front desk where we could eat. they directed us toward a restaurant and told us to hurry because they'd close the kitchen in half an hour. we marched over there and ordered ourselves our first real italian meal. i almost forgot i was still wearing my costume until the waiter made this awkward, slow "rawrrrrrr" noise at me after i ordered. every time he came over after that, he sort of pawed at me like a cat and did that weird "rawrrrrrrr" thing in my ear. lol. after our delish meal, on our way out, the "rawrrrrr" waiter and his friends laughed at/with me some more. but he did give us our drinks for free, so i guess i can't be that mad at him.

exhausted from traveling, we went back to the hostel with the intention of just going to bed. but when we got back, the lights were off and those two awk guys were already sleeping. it was only like 1230 am. none of us have ever stayed in a hostel before, so we didn't know hostel etiquette...can you turn the lights on? should we change in the room or in the bathroom? do the roommates get to complain if we're too loud? we decided to roll our stuff into the hallway and change in the bathroom. as we were all finishing up around probably 1 15 am, we saw three girls wander down the hall..and go straight to our room. problem: there were already 3 people sleeping in there, 4 of us, and 3 going in...and only 8 beds. i'm no math major, but i think that's not enough beds. the girls (who were from new york and turned out to be a riot) went to the front desk to complain. they brought down a desk attendant--don juan--who must have been stoned/on some kind of drugs because he wasn't sane. he walked in the room to confirm that yes, there were not enough beds. one of the guys had gotten up to go to the bathroom, and on his way back into the room, don juan says to him, "you or your friend have to come to reception." it's 1 freaking 30 in the morning, and he wants them to go to reception. yeah, right.

anyway, the ny girls sleep upstairs, and we crawl into our beds. as we finally get settled, the guy sleeping on the bunk under maddy gets out of bed...and he doesn't have pants on. this sends mal and chris into a giggle fit, and their laughs do nothing to help me suppress my own. it was one of those cliché moments...we're all in our rented beds, sleeping on probably dirty sheets in a hostel in europe, and i finally fell asleep with a smile on my face even after the laughter died down.



check out the pictures of our sexy room. though you can't see them here, there were these wonderful blankets with tigers and dolphins and palm trees on them.

j'aime italie

i got home from rome safely (i know you were concerned). instead of making this one really long blog, i'm gonna break it down into related sections: hostel experiences, seeing the sights, eating and traveling...or something along those lines. i put pictures up on fbook for you to see and i wrote captions there. i'm too tired to give you any more interesting stories right now. traveling wears down my body, but lifts my soul. *barf*