Day 10: 3:00pm (Right after my nap) – Rome (Roma)
Seems like I’ve developed a habit of sleep talking,
or so everyone says. I roomed with Ryan, and he snores like
hell, but I was able to sleep through most of it cause I was
dead tired last night. He told me this morning that I woke him
up with my talking, so I guess we’re semi-even? Woke up at 7
this morning, and felt like crap again. We were leaving for
the city at 7:30 so I had to hurry and get to breakfast. I hopped
out of bed, and damn near fell over. It turns out that those
bites that I got two days ago in Florence had gotten worse.
The one on my right ankle is extremely swollen, and the one
on the top of my left foot is almost as bad. They hurt like
hell too! I limped my ass to breakfast, and saw Gaby and asked
where Stace was. Turns out she was in worse shape than I was.
She was still in bed and stayed there because of her migraines.
I ate a bit of cereal and went back to the room with Gaby to
see if she was okay (Bringing breakfast for her of course =)
). 7:25, I went to go get my backpack, but the door was already
locked. I had to run and get the key from Ryan… ouch! Settling
in on the bus, Matt points out to me that I can’t go into the
Vatican City with flip flops. WTF! Had to run back (ouch again)
and grab shoes. Putting them on in the coach was one of the
most painful things ever. Trying to fit my right ankle, the
size of my calf into my shoe, doesn’t work too well. I had put
on some Stingose from Amy (Sorry Amy, forgot to return it.),
but it didn’t really help, and it seemed like every single step
I took made the swelling worse. We took the overland from La
Gustiniara to a stop that was about a mile from the Vatican,
and guess what… we had to walk it.
Getting to the Vatican, we had to line up around
the block. Luckily, the line moved pretty quickly, and we got
inside in under half an hour. The Vatican City is the world’s
smallest country yadda yadda yadda. (There’s
plenty of other logs and guides out there you guys can read
if you want info on the attractions, I hope you weren’t expecting
me to give you any ;) ). Damn it hurt walking, and it
sucked without Stacey. We saw some sculptures and some paintings
and made our way down the corridors. It was hard distinguishing
between the paintings and the sculpting in the ceilings, but
it was all beautiful nonetheless. The Sistine Chapel was BEAUTIFUL!
No pics allowed though, although I did get a little clip
in. (Kind of shaky, but listen for the
cop telling the guy to put the camera away). I saw lots
that I’ve seen in books, but not having Stace there made it
almost pointless. What good is the Sistine Chapel without someone
to share it with (No offense to Dave,
Desi and Matt). I had decided earlier that I would probably
come back to camp early and rest my legs instead of melting
in the hot Roman sun, so after touring the Vatican, and grabbing
some souvenirs, Steve, Renee, Lauren, Sally, Kelly and I rode
the metro back to La Gustiniara. From there, we had to walk
back to camp since there wasn’t a scheduled coach stop then.
More walking, a crazy long one too!
So I got back and took a quick shower and headed
over to check up on Stace. She was feeling better, so we went
and had a picnic lunch. Salami, bread, cheese, chips and soda,
good food and great company, it was awesome! We ate next to
the market/bar under the shade of the trees, kind of romantic,
just a little alone time for the two of us. I
forgot to mention that all day long, while we were on the coach,
in the metro, or in line for the Vatican, everyone kept coming
up to me and asking, “Hey Henry, where’s that girl of yours,”
or “Where’s Stace.” Funny how everyone came to me, I guess everyone
else had a better grasp of me and Stace’s relationship than
I did. I’m always the last to know =(
After our lunch, it was nap time! When was the
last time you took a nap after lunch? It was so nice and refreshing,
it left me feeling good about Rome, and ready to go out and
do something!
Sometime Later:
Going over to Stace’s room, she was still napping,
so I started writing in my journal. While writing, she popped
her head through the window (she’s so
cute with her glasses on) and we decided to go check
out the pool. Getting over to the pool, we found out that we
had to pay a couple of euros just to get into the pool area,
what a ripoff. So we ended up going up top into the gazebo area
overlooking the pool, and we just talked. I finally asked her
about us, I couldn’t put it off any longer, and she told me
that she felt the same way I did. Heh,
it was A LOT harder than I made it sound in my journal.
So, I like her, she like’s me, I think we’re good to go ;) We
spent an hour just talking up there, about family, life, and
superhero powers, I’d pick this over the Colliseum any day.
We had dinner, and then another party night in the bar. CJ was
pole dancing and ripped his pants, everyone had lots of drinks
(Happy hours work), and having fun with Stace, so many memories.
Life is good!
Day 10 Photos
