Oh God...My Mother's Here

Monday morning Mariel and I got a ride over to the FCO airport in a town car, it was quite a luxurious ride compared to what we had before. The driver at one point was going 140 miles per hour...I repeat, 140 miles per hour. I thought it would be my last car ride ever. Well we made it okay, and he dropped me off at arrivals where I was going to meet my mom. Her flight was supposed to get in at 8:30 so I anxiously awaited by the gates till 9:15 and she still hadn't arrived. Gigi was supposed to get there around 9:30 and the driver was supposed to be there at 9:20. Lots of supposed to's. Well my mom got there at 9:20, the driver never showed, and Gigi never showed. We were thrown quite a curve ball. Seeing as we didn't have a phone, didn't have the drivers number, and we used a pay phone and tried calling Gigi and it went straight to the answering message, we didn't know what to do. We stayed until 11 then ended up getting a shuttle home. It cost more than the driver was supposed to, and took longer because there were two other families going to two other hotels. Oh did I mention we had to be back for a tour of the Colosseum by 1:30? Curve ball.

Well we made it back a little past 12 and my mom and I got settled. We immediately checked our email and went to the office to see if we heard anything from Gigi. She had emailed me letting me know she missed her connecting flight because of security and wouldn't get there till 12:15. Well it was a little bit past 12:15 but she didn't have her luggage because it was on the flight she was supposed to be on. Another curve ball.

We had to leave for the tour, but we left a room key for her across the street at Bar Danielle, where Max knew the owners, because the Residence office was closed from 1-3. Can you say curveball? Well we left her an envelope and I explained where her ticket was to get to the colosseum and I wrote to take a cab there and we'd try to find her. Well we called her from Kyle's cell phone, and she was still at the airport because they couldn't find her bag. So we started the tour. It was interesting to hear all of the information about the colosseum, the forum, and the palatine hill again because I was more awake for this tour than the last time. Frederica tried to adjust the tour seeing as MK, Kyle, and I had heard all of the information before. She managed to give some new information as well as the important things so our families could hear.

Mom and I at the Colosseum!

Mom in the Colosseum

The Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum

Mom and I managed to find a lot of hebrew today on relics and in the Vatican, we even managed to find a menorah!

I hummed the Rocky theme as she mastered these steps

Mom made me take a picture of these men who sat near us because "they look so Italian".

MK has her mom and dad visiting, and Kyle has his parents and his sister, and I have my mom and her friend Gigi. It's a lot of fun getting the chance to share our experience with all of our families! The tour took about 4 hours then we headed back home to see if Gigi had arrived. She made it there fine and actually went to the colosseum and walked around herself. We went back to Hosteria Pizzeria for dinner so I could show them how amazing their food is. We sat outside and were serenaded by a guitar and accordion player. We walked back and stopped at Old Bridge on the way. They agreed its the best gelato out there! We sat in St. Peter's square for a little while finishing our gelato and taking in the view. We headed home and they both passed out, they had both been up for over 24 hours! We needed to get some sleep seeing as we had an early start the next morning! I have quite the itinerary planned for this week thanks to a lot of help from Max and Kyle! Stay tuned!