Rome: Meh...

Ok, I feel a little ungrateful saying this, but I didn't care for Rome very much. And by very much I mean I was ready to leave as soon as I saw the Coliseum. There are beautiful and extremely interesting things to see there, but we just had a bad experience with the city itself. 

To begin with, we broke every single one of the following subway rules. 

Seriously the subway nearly killed me. People absolutely would not move so we could get on and I ended up looking like the first picture. I have the bruise and skinned up hands to prove it. At one point I started to just give up and back off the damn subway, but Mike got this crazy look on his face and pried the doors open. It was insane but I couldn't help but laugh. I could just hear him saying "Hulk smash!"  

After my near death experience, we spent a couple of hours trying to find a place to stay. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't 800 degrees and if the city wasn't entirely uphill. You know when your grandpa told you he walked 10 miles to school uphill both ways?  Yeah, your grandpa lived in Rome. 

We found a place with the help of a really nice, expletive-using woman. She spoke no English, and we speak next to no Italian, but we all understood the cuss words. It's a universal language, I'm telling you. 

We headed to the Coliseum which really was amazing. 

We couldn't find a single outdoor cafe that was open for dinner (seriously!) so we stopped by a grocery store and picked up a little snack which we enjoyed in a little park right outside our hotel.

So, what was not to enjoy?  We are very slow paced, laid back people and this city is crazy high speed. And although we met some really nice people, there were 10 more that we're just flat out rude. And not language-barrier kind of rude.  Like "I won't even look up from my cell phone to answer you, even though I'm running this store" kind of rude. 

Then there was the god forsaken subway. In all the places we've visited so far, things have run efficiently and without any violence. Rome? Not so much. One should not have to throw 'bows to simply enter and exit a train. I'm not kidding!  It was a nothing but giant hoards of people pushing and shoving like their life depended on it to get on and off the subway...at the same time. To the large man behind me after getting off at the last stop...I do not appreciate you literally pushing me, a woman half your size, so hard that I would have fallen over if it wasn't for my dear Mike (who I've decided to name Ramrod) plowing through the people trying to get on like he was born to do it. Not my cup of tea. 

Sitting in the park I finally admitted I wasn't really keen on staying another night, especially since the only other site I really cared to see (the Sistine Chapel) was closed on Sunday. Mike decided we should hop a train to Gaeta this morning, and it was the best decision we've made yet!

More pictures coming soon!