Big Day!

First “real day” in Rome, yesterday was all travel and little exploring. Started off with an adorable breakfast in our hotel with tons of croissants (yes they’re French but delicious). Next off to the Vatican, which was journey in and of itself. We had to take the metro for the first time, which ended up being easier than expected and easily found our tour group. As the Pope drove by in his Pope Mobile (minus the bulletproof glass) we struggled to chase the car and get a good picture lol.

After viewing the introduction of the papal audience, we embarked on a four-hour tour of the Vatican museum, Sistine chapel and St. Peters. Our tour guide was very informative, but I won’t bore you all with the history that we learned today. It was amazing to see the paintings and sculptures studied in art and Italian classes. Speaking of which, I’ve barely been able to use Italian. Everyone speaks English! I tried speaking Italian at various places but its no use. Well, it makes things easier for us.

By mid-afternoon the tour was finished and I mailed my mom a postcard from the Vatican post office. Hopped back on the train and found our way to Piazza del Popolo to begin our “Dolce Vita” stroll. Immediately we were approached by this guy selling flowers. He stuck three in my hand without me noticing and proceeded to talk about God knows what and tie a rainbow string around my hand. And yes he had the nerve to try and charge us, but I didn’t want the stupid flowers or string bracelet. Walking through the famous shopping district (I promise we didn’t splurge, yet), we found the Spanish steps. After attempting to recreate the famous scene from “Roman Holiday”, we power-walked to the Galleria Borghese since I was super paranoid we would miss our reservation. Again we were stopped, and someone tried to tie a string bracelet around both our wrists. Super aggressive.

Made it in time but by this point we were super tired, I swear I was sleep walking. After the museum we wandered the Borghese gardens and found ourselves looking over the Piazza del Popolo, where we’d started earlier. We have no idea how we got there; the city must be built in circles or something. Anyways, we had a beautiful view of the entire city. The Vatican towers over every building.

After a short break at the hotel we ventured to Campo de Fiori for dinner. Dissappointed at the long wait at the restaurant in the square we wandered a little further to Piazza Navona and at dinner in front of the Four Rivers Fountain. Our odd waiter made me get up from the table and walk to the kitchen to see which vegetables were available. Finally full, we almost jogged to the famous Giolitti gelateria to get ice cream before it closed. A few wrong turns later and we made it! Afterwards we ate our ice cream ( I had limoncello and strawberry, Joe ate tiramisu and caramel). It was delicious!!!

Finishing the ice cream we walked past the Pantheon and settled at the Trevi Fountain. Absolutely beautiful. Both of us tossed a coin over our shoulders in order to guarantee that we would return to Rome some day. And that’s when it happened. Getting down on one knee, Joe proposes. I freaked out because I’ve been teasing and joking about it for a while. I didn’t think it was real. I said yes! WE'RE ENGAGED! After calling my parents and close friends (sorry mom I’ll pay the bill, lol), we wandered the streets back to our hotel since the metro was closed. It's all taking a while to settle in...I'm still in shock, but thankfully Joe isn't super tense anymore.

Super awake, can’t fall asleep!

Camille & Joe