Italy...the not so good.

After an amazing time in Florence we were apprehensive about Rome. Could it live up to the fun and food we had in Florence? In a nutshell, not at all. We arrived in Rome and immediately noticed all the graffiti and filth that Rome had. We didn't want to judge it too quickly, but so far we were not impressed. I had a terrible headache that lasted all day and could not find any advil because everything had closed by the time we got into Rome. I was hungry, tired, and did not feel well, so bad start for Rome. We managed to find a cute place to eat in town, but our hotel was a little further out of town than we would have liked. It was right next to the metro, but it was a 20 minute ride, and I just wasn't feeling it. But the next day was got even better. We had heard to take a tour of the Vatican city because it lasted 4 hours and they told you things you didn't know. So we were suckered into paying 40 euro and our expectations were high. Well it took an hour for them to give us our headsets, and sort out the money and take us wait to get into the museum and sort out the tickets. Then we began the tour and it started out pretty well, he told us all about the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It was a great story, but that is absolutely all I got out of it. Fifteen minutes later, I got lost in the Vatican City. Now i know you are asking yourself "how did that happen?" Well I'm glad you've asked. There were about 2,093,230,476 people in the Vatican Museum that day, as it was the day before Easter. Our tour guide was about 5'3" and we came to this part in the museum where you had to walk around this large basin. So you followed a stream of people and I had stopped for a second to take a picture. I assumed (never ever assume) my group had moved ahead. So i proceeded to walk quickly though the museum all the while texting Tom where he was. He said "Red marble boxes, my phone is about to run out of money." I had no idea where the red marble boxes were so I assumed they were still ahead of me somewhere. Again, Tom wasn't the best traveler because he had forgotten to top-up his phone. Annelise's phone had died, so needless to say this was going to be a tricky situation. I had realized i passed them. So I sat myself down outside the Sistine Chapel and sat. Ironically enough, I sat right next to the thinker. For 2 hours. I watched him think, as I thought to myself, Rome=fail. Two hours. Then I got a text saying "we're about to go into the cathedral where are you?" To which I replied "I am right by the thinker where I told you I was 2 hours ago. Have you been to the Sistine yet?" Well he texts back with this "Last text, meet us where we started this morning. This is my last text." Um, where we started? We started this thing many places...at the cafe? Where we met our tour guide? Where we started the tour? Which one of the 12 places are you referring to? So I decided to look where we started the tour. I told them (he could receive texts) that i was at the top of the escalators. Half hour later, no luck. The guard told me I had to leave that the museum was closing. So I thought to myself, how can I get money on Tom's phone? So I called Tom's roommate Martin (German guy really nice) and he picked up the phone in such a cheerful way saying "Hi Christine!" To which I almost cried, "Martin, I need help, I'm lost in the Vatican city, Tom has no money on his phone and I am getting kicked out of the museum. Can you pretty pretty please put money on his phone?" He sweetly obliged and I promised I would buy him a beer. I am basically brilliant though because I figured a way out...after I got lost and wasted 4 hours of my life sitting around...but let's skip over that. I finally found Annelise and Tom and we again turned to alcohol to get us through the night. The next day was actually okay, we toured the obvious colosseum, spanish steps and other hot spots. Ate lots of pasta and laughed at how much of a joke Rome had been. Oh and the next day, the day we left, our plane got delayed. Two and a half hours. Thanks Ryanair!