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When I got to rome I was pretty tired so I took a cab right to my hotel, The tour group I was meeting was not till 6 so I walked around the hotel area for a bit. It was a pretty ghetto part of town but safe enough to walk around, I walked over to the local supermarket to check out what the got and was surprised to see stuff I knew. I headed back tot the hotel and ran into some girls from the tour group. Alice, Megan and Dana were the three I met, 2 from Canada one from CT. We headed down stairs for the "meet and greet" where there were about 27 others sitting around. Our tour guide Nat Jenkins introduced herself as we filled out some insurance info and our emergency contacts. After all was settled we headed on the bus for out first "tour" of Rome. On the bus Nat explained the story of how Rome came to be from time period to time period. She also explained on the bus that she can not legally point to things or "guide" us or she will be arrested and fined 1,230 Euro. The reason for this is because actual italian tour guides have to go through years of vigorous training to get the position and for foreigners to just come and do there job is not right. We saw the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon that night then had some dinner at the s***tiest s*** hole ever. My tour mates got pasta and meat balls that tasted like Chef Boy-r-dee they said, and I had some bunk pizza that was pre-made. But it could be worse, I could be starving so I was just happy I had something. We all got some gellato and headed back to the hotel while some stayed at some bars.
The next day we got up bright and early to a really nice breakfast and a ride to the metro to start our day. I opted for the morning tour of the Colosseum and the forum. Our tour guide for that was the little ol d italian lady who filled us in on eeeeeeevery detail you could think of along the way. After Jarred, Megan, Alice, Patricia, Jason, Shin-Ja and myself headed over to St. Peters and the museum. We skipped to the front of the line a bit because it was too long at the end, so we found a break and jumped on in. As soon as we walked in all of mouths dropped. It was so surreal inside and so magnificent that you kept having to remind yourself that, yes this is a real place. I cant even begin to describe the decadence from the paintings to the marble to the statues the the tomb site of St. Peter himself, It seemed as though you were in Gods waiting room before entering his office of something. After that we headed over to the Vatican museum to check out the Sistine Chapel. Again just mind bending how beautiful it was. We headed over to the spanish steps and hung out for a bit in the area and checked out all the shops. After we headed back to the hotel on the metro and grabbed some dinner at the super market. I had whole wheat toast with sardines packed in olive oil and a big salad with a pear and water all for 4 euro, finally a cheap meal that was fantastic! After dinner a bunch of us headed over to the internet cafe to check some e-mails then came back to the hotel and had a PJ party in the hallway. Rome is very necessary when in Italy.
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