Rome to Paris

6/22/10

Today we departed from Rome, Italy. When we got to the airport our Easy Jet flight was delayed four hours. Of course the airport was over crowded with frantic crazy people. Roxanna and I met a French girl named Rose. She was extremely nice and gave us some pointers for Paris. When we arrived in Paris we went directly to our hotel. The outside was very cute, but don't judge a book by its cover. Our hotel room was a dump and thankfully we barely spent any time in there. The first thing we did was go to the Eiffel Tower. OMG! It was beautiful to see. We rode to the top of it admired the beautiful scenery. We took many pictures up there as well. On the way down Rox and I rode an elevator, but had to get off to ride a different one down. Well, we couldn't find that elevator so we decided to take the stair from the second floor. Looking down it didn't seem like a lot of stair, but boy can I say it was A LOT of tiring stairs! Video and pictures eventually to follow...

Note to self: Find all elevators when touring the Eiffel Tour.

After the Eiffel Tower we went across the street to check out the World Cup soccer game. The French had a projector displaying on a gigantic screen. There were so many people there screaming and cheering it was neat to witness it all.

Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica

6-21-10

Yesterday Rox and I were on our way to the Metro in Rome Italy. We had a 9:30 a.m tour scheduled to view the the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. To make a long story short we ended up on the wrong Metro. We watched all the Italians get off the Metro and we decided to stay on because in the U.S ours go in a circle. Yea! Well not in Europe! The Metro's literally come to a complete stop after the last stop. So Needless to say Rox and I were stuck between two walls underground in somewhat of a laughable panic. Thank goodness Pietro, the conductor of the Metro busted through the doors to listen to two Americans shouting, "What do we do!?" Now, our luck again, Pietro did not understand English, but he sure did find us hysterical! The cool part of all this was being able to ride the Metro in the conductors quarters. He taught Roxanna how to drive the Metro, so she ran about 8 stops before we had to get off at our final destinations. Video still to come...

Not to self: Learn Italian before visiting Italy again.

Roxanna and I were a hour late to our tour and thankfully our tour guide let us join the 1:00 p.m tour. Every part of the Vatican Museum was detailed and well thought out. Michael Angelo's work in the Sistine Chapel was amazing! The tour from Viator was great! We wore a head set so we were able to walk and look around while our tour guide was talking to us. If you love history and architecture you must see these three places!!

Pompeii and Mt. Vesvious!

Roxanna and I toured Pompeii and climbed Mt. Vesvious yesterday. Pompeii was definitely spectacular! Our tour guide, Andre was awesome. He was down to earth and spoke English! It was also nice to see other Americans who spoke English! We also got to hike Mt. Vesvious. At first it started out gradual then kept getting steeper and steeper. It was definitely a challenge, but thankfully the elevation didn't play an effect on our breathing. Lol. Note to self: Do not wear ballerina Puma flats to climb the volcano. One will get major heel blisters! Hahaha! We had a scary moment with a homeless lady, but Rox and I put the smack down. So far the Italians have been quite nice and helpful! Another note: Take Italian speaking lessons before coming to Italy. It would be nice to understand what they are saying to us. One can only imagine....

Linguini al pesto. Yum...

We landed in Rome around 1:45 p.m today (6/19/10). Our air shuttle driver was an extremely scary driver (and you all think I am bad...) We saw a Vespa accident and our driver basically shoved people people out of our way. Roxanna and I kept hitting each other saying, "Can You believe that, seriously!?" When Rox and I got to our hotel we were greeted by one of the friendliest receptionist ever! Raffaella gave us specific directions on what to do our first day.

We ate at the de Pino alla piazetta. There were too many choices on the menu, but I decided to have the Bruschetta and Linguini al pesto. Seriously the best choice ever!!

Windsor, Canada Bound

So our journey has begun... Roxanna and I made it to Windsor, Canada and are waiting for the bus to take us to Toronto, Canada Airport. It was very eventful trying to locate the bus pickup. ROXANNA forgot to google directions and we had to stop twice to ask for help! While walking to Tim Horton's we decided to j-walk like the Canadians, and had a great experience with almost being hit by all the semi's coming at us full force.

Thank you Iggy for dropping us off. We appreciate it!!
Until Toronto...

Ciao!

Packing

It's 6:49 p.m and I just started packing for Europe. This will be my first time going to Italy and France. I am super excited to be visiting my roots and learning a ton of history! Oh! Yea! The sight seeing should be amazing too. One tour that I am stoked about is our Segway Tour of Rome. I cannot wait to ride one of those things!! Hopefully I will not have any trouble with the internet connection, so check back frequently for uploaded pictures on here or facebook :)