Last day in Rome

I don't think that I ever talked about the weather. It has been sunny and about 78 degrees every day. They say that this is not normal for October, but I will take this weather anyday. However, I thought it was going to be much cooler and packed alot of long sleeves shirts and sweaters, so I have been a bit warm at some times.

Another thing I want to talk about is the language. Everyone told us that you don't need to speak italian to come here, but honestly, I don't know what we would have done without Michael being able to understand this language. He is not fluent by all means, but because he is such a geek and spent the last few months studying, it has helped us out of a few jams that have came up. Most people are pretty tolerant of us speaking english, however they say thank you when you try to speak italian. I have noticed that we get treated just a bit better because we are trying to communicate with them. It has been fun, I have learned a few words and will use them, but I still don't feel to comfortable saying sentences, so I leave those to Michael.

Today we were to visit the crypt and catacombs here in Rome, and I will admit that this was the one tour I was not looking forward to. Who wants to see a bunch of graves underground? Plus, Michael and I went up to the rooftop bar last night and ended up drinking way to much. HMMMM imagine that. Our waiter was the nicest man, he kept on pouring us free toppers to our wine and bringing out a egyption after dinner wine which was awesome. But, John Carlo told me today that this wine is very potent and you can not drink that much or else.....Where was John Carlo last night?

So I crawled out of bed 10 minutes before we were to meet John Carlo and Georginna. They took us to our first catacomb visit and yep, it was closed. I have never been happier. However, they knew of another one and yes, we had to take a tour of graves underground. I was not impressed, but the tour only lasted 20 minutes and I was very happy to get away from that place.

Georginna and John Carlo felt bad because our tour was supposed to be for 4 hours and only lasted 30 minutes, so they decided to give us a tour of the outskirts of Rome. They took us to the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. It is a city that is built into the Mountain tops. This city is called Tiboli. We visited a cardinals residence, they arranged for us to have a private lunch in a room with the best view and we were the only people in this room. After lunch (which they called appetizers), they took us to another restaurant that usually has a month waiting list, and because John Carlo knew the owner, they gave us a table. Again, this was next to the mountains, you could see many waterfalls and the most beautiful rolling hills. Our tour that was supposed to last 4 hours ended up lasting 7 hours. And of course, "do as the romans do." The wine began pouring, which by the way, actually made me feel just a bit better. We had such a amazing time. John Carlo and Georginna are so sweet and nice and actually I think we are leaving Rome with some new friends.

They just began dating, both just got done with bad relationships, but when they look at each other, you can see a spark. We told them that when they get married, we will come back to Rome for the wedding. I hope it happens for them, they both deserve to be happy.

So now we are back at our hotel, trying to sober up. We want to take a nap, but it is 4:00 and I know if I lay down, I will never get up. Today is our last day here in Rome, tomorrow we head to Florence and I don't want to waste this day sleeping.

I don't think I will be able to blogg on Monday as our train gets into Florence in the early afternoon and then we have a tour immediately. We will then have to unpack, and get organized. Rome was a fantastic place to visit, I recommend it to everyone. I can't imagine this trip getting much better than the last few days. All I can say is WOW! I hope all is well with everyone, and I will talk to you in Florence. I will try to post some pictures also. It just takes so long to download, I don't have the patience to wait.

Chao