ROMA!

Just a quick update before dinner... we avoided near disaster in Greece before we left for Italy. We finally ran into our first traveling snafu of the whole trip- worst part was... it wasn't even our fault!
We checked out the National Archaeological Museum and the ancient agora and headed off to the train station for our train that was to leave at 12:38 according to our Eurail timetable. We get to the station at 12, check the departure board and realize that the train doesn't leave until 1, so we get some food, settle in at the platform and wait for our train... 1 comes and goes, and the sign which previously had our train written on it had mysteriously changed... so Kathryn went to ask one of the ticket/info people what was up and she comes back and says that the train wasn't coming and that it doesn't come again until 3... which would make it too late for us to take because our ferry was to leave at 6 and it takes about 4 1/2 hours to get to the port from Athens. SO we talked to the guy and asked what was up and with all of the empathy he could muster up, which was literally nothing, he said "oh yeah, there's construction going on so the times have changed" which prompted us to naturally say "well, why didn't you change the board (too logical)" which he came back with "we just didn't." WELL thanks for the detailed and brilliant explanation but now we're totallyyyy screwed. Point is we had to shell out 150 euro for a 2 1/2 hour taxi ride (which turned out nicely actually) and we made it to our ferry! Crisis averted but with no help by anyone in Athens, shocking. Makes for a good story- and the Acropolis & ruins were worth it- I was in heaven. The ferry wasn't bad at all, we got to Bari earlier than expected so we just hung around. This 94 year old Italian lady decided she'd sit in the same booth with us at McDonald's (the only place open on a Sunday) so I talked to her in Italian for a little, I think she just wanted company. Also there was a crazy lady in the bathroom putting on makeup for 2 hours.. just saying.
We got into Rome at 6:30, I roamed around Termini for an hour trying to find someone to tell me where our hotel was, it was like a scavenger hunt- except not as fun! We made it to the hotel, and went out to dinner... pizza & pasta of course. Loving the food, obviously!
Today I hung out around Rome, walked downtown and went to all of my favorite places from last summer... Kathryn took the train to Florence and hung out there for a few hours. It rained today which is super strange... it rained one day the entire 6 weeks I was here last year, so that made it kinda crappy but it didn't even matter because, well, at least we're in Italy.
PS I don't know why guys in Europe find it acceptable to make cat calls etc, but... it's weird.

We're going to Capri in the morning- can't wait!!! We'll blog in a few days!
Silvana (and Kathryn- in absentia)