7/4 When In Rome... Celebrate the Fourth of July!

We got to sleep in today because our train wasn't going to leave Spello until about 11:30. I didn't get up until about 8:30. Combes said he couldn't find where the breakfast buffet was. It wasn't right near the lobby like it had been the day before. That had me nervous because I had to have that awesome breakfast. We got down to the lobby and the woman working at the desk said breakfast would be on the patio today. Thank goodness it wasn't canceled or anything!

We go to the patio and the beautiful buffet is set up again along with umbrellas and patio tables among a garden of beautiful flowers. I had another salami sandwich and of course oj and a chocolate cloud! Mmm! After stuffing myself, I went back to the room to read for a while. At about 10:45, we all met up again and started to make our way to the train station.

We were a bit early so I decided I had to stop in a cute clothing shop. 3 shirts, a dress and a pair of shoes later, Combes said he would carry my loot because it wouldn't fit in my already full backpack. We got on the train headed for Rome.

Between napping and snacking, we made it there in a little over 2 hours, around 2:30. We were definitely on a time schedule because the lady train to Spello left at 8:45 and we couldn't miss it. Right out of the train station we were stopped by a guy who offered a hop on hop off tour bus that would take us to all the hot spots. At 17 euros, we decided it was a good idea in the interest of time so we hopped on our green bus.

Our first stop was the Colosseum. Though I bad been there before, it is still a breathtaking sight. Before we went in we stopped for paninis. We toured the top level, took tons of pics. and went to the bottom part, and took more pics. We then quickly headed to the Roman Forum as it started sprinkling. We spent about 30-40 mins. walking around and then caught a bus that took us by St. Peter's square, the Spanish steps, and dropped us off by the Trevi Fountain where we took our pictures among the thousands of other tourists throwing a coin into the fountain backwards so, as legend says, we will someday return to Rome.

We then had about 2 1/2 hours until our train left. We wanted to be patriotic and therefore wanted to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Apparently so did every other American. It was packed and the wait was super long. We decided to head back toward the train station and eat somewhere close to there so we wouldn't miss our train. Combes, my brother and I settled on mcdonalds. Pretty American, right? I did have a nice caprese salad with a hamburger... Yummm!

We met up with my parents and Bruce and Renee around 8:15. We got on our train around 8:45 and made the 2 hour ride back to Spello. I spent most if that time falling asleep and then doing the bobblehead wake up thing. When we finally made it back around 10:40, we grabbed 2 cabs to take us back to the hotel. Our driver drove like a maniac because we made it to out hotel that sat up on a steep hill with curvy roads in about 7 mins. We headed back to our rooms to shower and finish packing... The 5 AM wake up time sucked the next morning!