The Colosseum

It was another jam packed day of sightseeing, but this time I was able to meet a relative I've never met before...

My mom's cousin or you could say aunt. It was really exciting to get to see her because having a relative in a foreign land can connect you with home and familiarity. You know?

Anyway, we got up rather early today, maybe around 7, and Alicia and I had breakfast and then waited for my Aunt. She then called Emily's phone, since it would be cheaper that way, and she let us know she was outside. We left the apartment and we were greeted by two people, my aunt and her friend. She made me guess which one of them were my aunt. It was rather easy because I could tell by her voice.

I picked her out and she gave me a big hug. I introduced Alicia to them and we went on our way. I would serve as a translator for Alicia since they spoke to me in Ilocano (a Filipino dialect). They could speak and understand English, but it was easier for them to just speak in Ilocano. I would respond to them in English since I can't speak in my native tongue, I can only understand.

So we left the apartment and we had a little adventure going to the bus stop. Instead of taking the one right around the corner we went to the one a couple blocks down. Why? I'm not sure. As we were walking, the bus we were going to take passed by and we had to wait for the next one. While we waited we looked through some photos. My aunt brought pictures of her family and told me who was who. I couldn't remember everybody, so she just said that when I got back to California, she would call and tell my mom who everybody was. I then showed her pictures of everybody back home. Luckily I had thought to put some pictures on my iPod before we left the apartment.

The bus came, we hopped on, and went to our next mode of public transportation - the tram. After that we went to Vatican City. I was told the night before from Emily's roommate, Rita, that we should go early to the Vatican because it attracts a lot of people. It was a good thing that the Vatican was the first thing on our list of things to do and see. There was nobody there...well not really...not very many people.

The first thing we did was go up the copula of St. Peter's. We first took an elevator about half way there and then we had to climb up narrows passages and small stairs to get to the top. It was worth it though. The view of Rome was really beautiful. We could see the whole city and wonder in the city's grandeur. We stopped to take some photos and there was this one way mirror thing in front of us and I blindly took this shot, which I really like a lot. After a while, we went down those same narrow steps, this time on the descending side, and I found going down to be much easier.

Afterwards, we went inside the basilica and saw more amazing architecture, sculpture, and even the pope if we looked hard enough. We then exited and went down to the catacombs where all the popes are buried. It was a bit surreal to see all the tombs of the popes and at the same time everybody looking at them.

(Side note- I'm getting tired writing about my trip. This is like my fourth extended journal entry in the past few days. I'm just going to write stuff down and not worry about structure or writing nicely or whatever. So here goes.)

Then we went outside and saw the columns. My aunt's friend said that if you stand right in the center you can see all the columns line up and only see one set of columns. If you look at the opposite side though you see all the columns scattered. It was pretty neat and I bet it took some architectural know-how to accomplish that. We then waited for the Pope to bless us. We had to wait for about thirty minutes, so Alicia and I went off and took some pictures with the columns.

After the Pope blessed us in about five languages, we left the Vatican and went to buy some religious souvenirs. After that we went to that fountain that is always televised. You know the one you see with a lot of cars going round and round. My aunt said that someone told her (maybe another friend or a relative) that it was always on tv back home. We stopped to take more photos and then had lunch across the street at the McDonald's. This would be the third time to eat at a McDo during my whole trip. Oh and I just realized that all the times I had McDo it was on Sunday. haha. I had gamberi d'ori... (golden breaded shrimp things and a Napoli...basically a chicken sandwich.

Next my aunt and her friend were trying to find a tour bus so that we could see all of Rome in a single ride. After a while trying to find a good tour bus, we hopped on and she told me that only me and Alicia would go because it would get to expensive. She really wanted us to see all of Rome on top of a double decker bus. The ride was really fun and it was great to see Rome in a different way. Just walking around is such a different experiences.

Two hours later, they were standing right at the point where we got on. They said they went to do some grocery shopping while they waited. That was good because I didn't want them to just sit there forever. Well when we got back, they asked us what else we wanted to do, so I said we could go back to the Trevi Fountain since the last time we were there it was dark and seeing it in daylight is of course a different experience.

We went and admired it again. We took pictures and then I had gelato. Alicia bought a gelato too and we went back to where they were sitting. While we ate, I think my aunt and her friend were deciding what we should do next. We finished our gelato and they said that it would be a good time to go eat dinner. They planned to go to the Hard Rock Café. We had passed the Hard Rock while we were on the tour bus, so I kinda had a vague notion of where we were going.

When we got there, we sat, looked at the menu, and ordered. Alicia and I were feeling a bit guilty about how much money my aunt had spent already, so we decided to split a lasagna, which was quite filling, so it was a good thing we shard. My aunt ordered a platter of bbq and then later ordered another one for us to share. She urged Alicia to eat some more, but Alicia said she was full. My aunt kept trying to get her to eat some more, but Alicia was firm with not eating anymore. My aunt then told me that maybe she was just a bit "ashamed"... i can't think of an exact translation of the word she used, maybe you could also say "timid". Anyway, the word was in Ilocano "mabain" for my parents who are reading. I'm not sure if I spelled it correctly, but you get.

We weren't able to finish the second platter of bbq, so we took it for to go. It would later serve as my dinner and partly my lunch for the next day. (I had bought a tuna pizza from the same Chinese restaurant we had lunch at with Emily on Friday the night before and i didn't finish it, so I ate it for lunch on the train ride to Florence.)

It was definitely dark out when we left the Hard Rock, so my aunt and her friend to us back to Emily's apartment. We we got there "nobody" was at the apartment and we had to wait for Emily to return. I had a little present of Bordeaux wine that I had to give to my aunt so she waited for a while too.

Emily finally came and she opened the doors. I got the bottle of wine and wrote on the little card thing attached to the wine bag thanking her for treating us for the whole day. Alicia got some money to try to repay her, but I told her that she probably won't accept. Although I did tell her it was worth a try.

We went outside and I gave her the bag. I told her it was just something small. I had wanted to give her something else too just in case she didn't drink wine, but as I had written in the entry on the 19th (i think) I ran out of time. For one last time we hugged and then Alicia hugged her too. Alicia tried to pay, but as I had predicted my aunt refused. I had told Alicia before that it was the Filipino way to treat somebody that was visiting you.