EuroTrip: Rome to Venice

I wish I had more to say about Rome, but much fit reminded me of Florence...only hotter. I liked the Colosseum and the shopping. Phil got his sister a really cool wooden bowl here. I also liked going into the Pantheon. It took me back to taking Roman and Baroque Architecture at Rutgers in the musky Art Library with what would become the chair of my department...he was such a stickler. I really hated him by the end of that class, but what had kept me attending were the slides of Italy and all of its beauty.  It kept me going through my junior year and into my senior, where I would get to go to Paris for the first time and completely and absolutely fall in love with everything European.

Phil & I on a Gondola.

We got to do the romantic things like riding a Gondola. I had done this by myself in my teens and it was cool, I had some awesome roommates, but it's very different when you're there with the one that you love. WE really made some amazing memories here like this Gondola ride and when we walked so deep into Venice, I got worried we weren't get out to find me ointment for my bites.

Kelsey, Ellie and I.Venice Summer 2014

We also met up with these ladies and got to have a fun afternoon. Ellie's GoPro never got old. Phil also wanted to feel ever manly here and  bought me a keychain. I had carried all the money in my purse so he had saved for a day or so and I now have a Venetian mask keychain that came from the change he gathered.

Back at the campsite, we were introduced to the Contiki bar and Amnesia...a drink that goes down like juice, but within 30 minutes has you having out of body experiences. Phil and I had two, and I have little remembrance of that night other than the photos from people we were traveling with....

Siobhan and I. 

Hannah and I. 

This was the first and nearly last night that I sort of "let go" and partied. I was too focused on my last graduate classes that I was taking during this trip and my job that I was going back to. Venice, though, was beyond romantic and beyond fun.

I again, was really sad to leave it.

EuroTrip: From Florence Into Rome

I felt rested and rejuvenated after my birthday. I think that this was the part of the trip where jet lag subsided and I was ready for more adventure. This was another early departure for us. We left our nice campsite in Florence for Rome.

Now, for those of you reading this blog to learn more about backpacking with Contiki...please be sure you read my Rome entries. Our TM bragged that this was like an award winning campsite and that we should all be excited. It was similar to the last one we stayed at in that there were two people to a room, four to a cabin and a shared bathroom. However, these cabins were wood ones. And they were old and absolutely disgusting. These were also Contiki cabins which enraged me to no end. I really began to see here how Contiki rips off people by cramming them into these dirty accommodations to make money. I've done budget tours before and I was in now way expecting Rockefeller treatment, but I was expecting to be kept clean and to feel safe. Here, I felt neither. Latches held the doors closed and the campsite is pretty much empty during the day when you're in Rome, leaving your stuff open to anyone with poor intentions.

Also, if you are going to get bedbugs, you will be more than likely to get them here. The cabins are wood so they live in the walls and Contiki just sprays when you complain. They did move us to a new cabin, but that too had bugs. I got bitten badly, but Phil only had a few bites. This is where I really began to hate Contiki. Our TM literally just stared at me when I complained and there was nothing done about it. We had to deal with it for the two nights we were there.

For those of you who have had bed bugs, you haven't seen anything yet! These bugs are HUGE and black, when you roll over, your bed becomes covered in blood from squishing the ones that have been sucking on you. You can literally pick them off your body.

I spent much of my time in Rome feeling uncomfortable, sweaty and tired because we couldn't sleep. Then in the day, you would be in Rome where there is little to no shade and that Mediterranean sun beats down  on you unmercifully. The last time I had been in Rome, I had been 19 and it was March. It was cold and rainy then, but I liked it so much more than the humidity that killed me at the end of August at 28. Now mix that humid sweat with your bug bites and you are just miserable.

I wound up missing the Vatican which was not a big deal to me as I had been there before, but I felt bad that Phil felt he had to stay with me and miss it too. He has never been.

My favorite part of Rome? I think it was finally getting to go into the Colosseum:

From Rome, we would leave for Venice and on to an entirely crazy part of our trip and one that renewed my crushed spirit after the Contiki curse of Rome.