This morning I woke up just as the boat was pulling into port. Its always very loud and shaky when we pull in so there is no way to sleep in. Then I had myself a nice breakfast before getting ready for the day. I packed the night before so that I would be ready to head to Rome right away today. We didn’t have a diplomatic briefing today which was nice, because they are pretty pointless. However since so many people would be needing their passports while in the country, they decided to call us by "Sea" to get our passports.

It didn’t take very long, but I was pretty antsy. I then met up with one of my friends to ride the train with to Rome where I was going to be meeting up with my family. We raced to the train station, got our tickets (€4.50), and hopped straight onto the train. It was only an 80 minute train ride, but it was pretty hot because there was no a/c and it was a very sunny day. Once we got to the station we parted and went our own ways.

I walked through the train station for what seemed like hours to the metro station. It was an easy ride to get to the hotel from the metro and it was way cheaper than a cab. It was a fun metro ride and really reminded me of Italy. There were 3 nuns on the car and a man playing an accordion. Have to love Italian music on the metro!

I got off the metro and knew I only had a few blocks to walk before reaching the hotel. Normally I am very good with directions, but for some reason Rome was throwing me for a loop. I felt like the whole city was backwards. I asked a man sitting on a park bench which way the street I was looking for was, and it was completely opposite of what I thought. Then I got to the street and wasn’t sure which way to walk on the street so I asked a nun who was walking down the street. I only had 2 more blocks to go and then I found the hotel.

I got to the hotel a few hours before my family was going to arrive so I was in charge of check in. Of course they didn’t have the room ready when I arrived so I had to sit in the lobby and wait. Finally after about 45 minutes the room was ready and the bell boy took me to the room. I didn’t even realize a hotel could have rooms under the lobby, but they took me down to the room. As soon as I walked into the room I was not happy. It was dark and dreary and not a nice room. I couldn’t understand how this could be a 5 star hotel. The room also only had 1 queen bed in it.

That’s not what my mother had booked at all. So I had to go be the mean one and go find out what the deal was. First off they were going to put our 2 rooms 4 floors apart on the hotel. And second, both rooms had 1 bed in each. We had reserved 2 double rooms, which in my mind, as well as my mothers, means 2 rooms each with 2 beds. As far as I know the word double means 2. Anyways that’s not what the hotel meant by double. They meant that there would be 1 bed in each. He told me the hotel was totally booked and there was no way for us to get 2 beds in the rooms. I eventually stopped arguing about that point and insisted that our 2 rooms HAD to be next to each other. He then told me I had to wait again for the room because it was not ready. So I moved back to the lobby where I waited for an hour.

Finally the room was ready and the bell boy took me to the room. I went inside and there was 2 beds in the room. I guess the guy at the front desk figured it out. The other room was to be right next door as well. Also this room was much nicer. It was not dark and not dreary, in fact it was a very light cheerful room. I was pretty tired, even though I hadn't really done anything, although I think the sun and heat just drains me of energy. I laid down on the bed and turned on 1 of the 2 English channels on the TV, CNN.  I ended up falling asleep for a nice little cat nap.

I woke up and my family was just arriving at the hotel. It was funny to watch them get to the rooms because they had sooooo much luggage, they looked like crazy people. It was really good to see them though!! I always miss my family. We all congregated and decided that the City-Sightseeing Bus Tour was a good idea. Our hotel was about a 5 minute walk from the Piazza del Popolo which was one of the stops on the tour. So we walked over there and got some food before hopping on the bus. The tour lasted about 2 hours and when we were done we took a walk around the Piazza del Popolo and did a little shopping before dinner. We also had gelato at some point during the day of course.

After all of that, it was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel and watched some futbol from the World Cup before going to bed.