When in Rome. Where do you begin? Despite guide books, forums, suggestions, and e-mails, Rome is still a huge bite to chew. We've been in Rome for two days and have been absolutely blown away with its beauty.
It kind of feels like you're in Jurrasic Park. You're clearly back in time, it's surreal.... there is no way it can be real. But it absolutely is. The whole city is built around the ruins, and they all seem to juts fall onto one another. Huge streets circling the Colosseum, cobble stone roads and piazzas near the pantheon, and restaurants down every alley and nook and cranny.
We run into each other alot. All of our heads are cranked to the sky- everything is built to epic proportions, even the statues are 15+ feet high- and we knock into each other. It's alot of 'sorrys' and stepping on the backs of each other's shoes.
The excitement fills the days. I lay in bed having a hard time getting to sleep because I want sleep to be over so we can start seeing again. I feel like the last time I was this passionate about a city was Paris. Plus, it's not just the statues or the monuments, there are marble buildings that could be the highlight of any different city, but simply goes by a small star on the map.
The first day we were here we found a great little cafe by the Trivi fountain. We were exhausted, and really hoping for some afternoon caffeine. The prices were unbelievable, and for 1 euro, we each got a cappuccino. I was hesitant to drink one, because I already had to go to the bathroom and Rome bathrooms are rarely public.
I asked anyway, and to my surprise, the man pointed down a series of stairs, and said that they indeed had a bathroom. Although I didn't know what it looked like (which can sometimes make all the difference) I was so relieved there wasn't time to think about anything else. The building that the cafe was in was probably built in was probably 300 years old so I was most likely going into some kind of a dungeon. Which would explain the door. Again, I was thinking with my bladder, so my examination of the door didn't come until after I was locked in for OVER TEN MINUTES. I slammed the key to the right which was a jiggly skeleton key. I attempted to leave and the key was STUCK. 100% STUCK.
When I get nervous I sweat. Horribly and instantly. Thinking about sweating makes me sweat because I know that means I'll be in some crazy situation that is highly uncomfortable.
Here I was stuck in this mid-evil bathroom in the labrynths of a this building. They probably trapped me on purpose!!! I'm sure that this is connected to the Colosseum, and I'm going to come up through a trap door and be met by a ton of angry gladiators... or in this case, waitstaff and patrons. I was worried that everyone would think I fell in, but that worry washed away when 10 minutes passed.JUST COME FIND ME!!!! Eventually piles of people crammed outside the door.
I squaked out a 'help' which was proceeded with a bunch of employees and a POLICE OFFICER trying to walk me through unlocking a door. How do you relay (without sarcasm and without crying) the problem isn't my stupidity it's that your key is ABSOLUTELY unmovable. To make matters worse I used my nervous brute strength and yanked the key clear out of the door... so, it didn't matter what kind of clicks were suppose to sound. The directions from the outside were useless. I would die in there.
It took everything in me to step back from the situation. I took around 1000 deep breaths, and started over. By some miracle I followed the clicks and the annoying sighs of the crowd outside the door, and I escaped. I barrelled through the crowd without looking. I could feel their annoyance, but didn't care a wink. I almost spent eternity in a dungeon like bathroom.
Sweating, breathless, and upset I raced upstairs. My cappuccino that was waiting no longer seemed appealing AT ALL. What I really needed was some fresh air to alleviate this tunnel vision, and to hope to something that I would never see a single one of those people again.
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