High Up in the Mountain Tops: Roma!

I know I have not blogged in awhile but that is because I have been on the trip of a life time with my incredible family in italy. I have decided because there is so much to write about that I am splitting the trip in the three different blogs, which are going to be the three different places we went.

Roma- the Italian Capital
The Longosz family boarded the plane around 4:40 pm in Atlanta and after an hour delay, 3 movies, 2 meals, a short nap, and 9.5 hours later we landed in Rome around 9 o clock! We were all so excited to have finally arrived but also SO exhausted because none of us slept very long. Everyone had blood shot eyes and tried to act energetic but it just wasnt working. After getting our luggage we took a cab to our hotel and dropped all of our bags off. Unfortunately our rooms were not ready so we had to go entertain ourselves where we went and got a quick bite to eat. You can see how tired we were...

Dad and Jay

When our rooms were ready we went back and a took a nice big family nap in two twin beds pushed together because the other room wasnt ready...that made us a closer family instantly. Against my will, my family made me wake up so we could go explore. (i wanted my 8 hours of sleep) After walking around for a little bit I finally woke up. Our first adventures were to the spanish steps and the trevi fountain. As well as our favorite hang out spot, piazza novana! My fun story from the spanish steps was there are many people there trying to sell cheap little toys as well as people walking around with bouquets of roses. Right as we arrived, I clearly looked like the American tourists, and some of the men with roses came and brought me three roses. They told me it was a gift from them and I said thanks and walked away. Little did I know they were going to follow us until my dad gave them money, so I gave them back, but I did feel really special for about 5 minutes. It definitely became one of the jokes of the trip how naive I was. Oops sorry I enjoy receiving flowers! Most a lot of walking around picture taking and we had to of course stop and indulge in our first experience of the famous Italian wine. We also had a fantastic Italian dinner consisting of caprese salad and a margharita pizza! The first day minus our exhaustion was a success to say the least.

We finally arrived!

The family enjoying our wine in the piazza

Mom and Dad in front of the spanish steps

The trevi fountain (beautiful..I wanted to jump in)

Jay and I on the top of our hotel in Rome!

The next day we woke up and headed to one of the most sacred places in the Catholic religion, The Vatican. I had studied this in art history my junior year, but I honestly had no idea what to expect. We had a great tour guide but those can get really boring after a while. We saw many different paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, but we were all anxiously awaiting to see the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. Finally after making our way through crowded hallways we got to the Sistine chapel. I walked in and was immediately BLOWN AWAY. First of all it is a million times bigger than I ever expected, and second of all to see all the messages in one painting was unreal. The ceiling was just as exciting, but the Last Judgement really hit home and I am so thankful I got to see it. Next, we were heading to St. Peter's Bascillica where as I was walking in I was told I could not go in because I had shorts on (something that italians never seemed to wear). Dad and Jay went in a took lots of pictures of us while mom and I hung outside and enjoyed people watching, which is very fun/interesting to do in a foreign country.

St. Peter's Basilica

Inside St. Peter's

My favorite picture of the whole trip...outside St. Peter's

After the Vatican, we walked around grabbed some lunch (pizza again) and then headed back to the hotel for a little rest. We all freshened up and headed to dinner. Where again we enjoyed a delicious meal filled with pasta, bread, vino, and fried zucchini flowers (that was a new one to me but very delicious). After dinner, mom and dad insisted we see the trevi fountain, spanish steps, and our favorite piazza at night. Jay and I complained, but boy were we glad we went it was so cool! This was also the same night that we decided we wanted some gelato, italian ice cream, so we went and got some ordered a couple flavors each and headed to the check out line only to find out that some how for 3 ice creams it cost 45 EUROS!!!! we were a little confused and dad double and triple checked that but the lady insisted so we paid it. In case you dont know that converts to around 75 dollars for ice cream. It was a little disappointing when the next day we got it for 2.50 each! All we could do was laugh and we didnt stop joking about it until the end of the trip! This night along with many others was really special b/c we got back to the hotel and were playing 500 Rummy, which we did almost every night. It sounds so simple but honestly was so fun and something that was so special. Lets be honest how often do you get to just hang out with your family in a foreign country and just relax and play cards?? God is Good!

Dad enjoying his Italian pasta...clearly he is Italian

Trevi fountain at night...spectacular!

Me and My one-of-a-kind brother at our piazza novana (we decided it would be such a cool hangout place in highschool...we got a little jealous)

The next day was our final day in Rome! We woke up this day and of course had to get our history in for the day so we headed to the Colesium for a tour of the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum. Of the three different places my favorite was definitely the Coliseum. The others were cool too but just not as good. There is so much history in Rome it is mind blowing. We were also so amazed at the fact that buildings and statues that were built thousands of years ago were still standing...that is CRAZY! Again after this tour we got some lunch, walked around, and went to take our nap. This last night we went to a place for dinner my parents went when they were in Rome almost 2 years ago. It was very local, cute, and the best part was our waiter. My grandmother was italian and I have never seen a lady look so much like my grandmother. It was honestly kind of weird but at the same time so special. My grandmother passed away in 2007 and we have all missed her very much, but it was cool because we honestly felt like grandma had met us in Italy and was our waitress! After dinner we obviously got some more gelato and then headed back for our nightly routine of playing cards.