Rome, Italy, Europe

Today was the day we were dreading this whole trip: Laundry day! Luckily for us we found a Laundromat just down the road from our hotel, so we bagged all our stuff up and went down there expecting to spend the next few hours waiting and folding. We showed up and fortunately there was a guy working there who said that it would be the same price to leave the clothes with him and just come back in an hour. So that’s exactly what we did. We went down the street to McDonalds to try and use their free WIFI but that didn’t work. For some reason you need to have an Italian sim card in your phone to get it, so that’s annoying! We sat there and had a drink and did crosswords for an hour and went back to our clothes washed, dried and folded! That guy was the best!!

So after getting our clothes back to the hotel and out of the bags, we made our way into town. I have been dying of a cold for the past two days and unable to find a pharmacy that was open, so my plan was to find one ASAP and get some medicine. I had downloaded Tom Tom for my iphone before we started this trip, (which has been a godsend!) so I was able to search for the closest pharmacy and it was open! I went in there, got myself some meds and was ready to face whatever Rome had to throw at me.

We walked over to Vatican City and checked out St. Peter’s Square before getting in the line to enter the basilica. I had been to St. Peter’s Square a few years ago, but it had been Good Friday, so the Pope was giving his sermon and St. Peter’s Basilica was off-limits. So with this being the first time I’d ever been into the Vatican, I was blown away. This is one of the most architecturally and artistically impressive buildings I’ve ever been into. We walked around for a long time and took as many pictures as possible to try to capture the beauty this building holds, but I can assure you the pictures don’t do it justice.

We finally left the basilica and tried to get into the Vatican Museums to see the Sistene Chapel. Unfortunately for us, the museums were closed for the day, so we’re going to have to try again on Friday. We walked over to Castle St. Angelo and then crossed the bridge to have a seat in Piazza Navona. We found a place called Bernini’s Cafe that had free WIFI so we decided to have dinner there. This is the perfect place to sit and people-watch. We sat for a couple of hours watching all kinds of people walking by.

The only bad part was that there was a homeless woman who was covered in makeup so much that she looked like a clown, and the rest of her was covered in dirt. She decided that the public water fountain was a good place to clean herself in front of everyone, including her “nether regions”. This was definitely not a family show, or one for any who was planning on eating in the next few hours! That was so disgusting that it made us both feel a bit sick, so we decided this was as good a time as any to finish our first long day in Roma. Plus, we have an early rise tomorrow, off to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast!!