Rome Is Where the Heart Is: Gelato, Stamps, and Great Views

Finally the weekend has arrived! Today, Anne, Krissy, and I decided to make the most of our free time before we go to Florence tomorrow. We started out by conquering our stamp dilemma. Anne and I both had at least 10 postcards to send to the U.S. but everyone we asked told us different ways to find stamps and mail them. In Rome it is not easy. So I accidentally bought stamps that only go through Europe but at least I found out they were wrong. Then we found out that you can go to the Vatican to get stamps to the U.S., so we walked all the way to the Vatican to find the special stamps. The first shop we went in told us we had to buy postcards with the stamps and I was like, "NOOO!" So I went into the next one and was so tired of asking for stamps to the U.S. that when I asked the guy behind the desk and he said yes, I did a victory dance and he laughed at me. So I bought my stamps and put them in the red box for outgoing mail. I was so excited to be done with that and I hope everyone who gets them loves their Rome postcards with Vatican City stamps!

Then we went back to the gelato shop that gives you 3 scoops for 1.50 euros called "Old Bridge." I HIGHLY recommend it :).

Once we walked all the way back to the apartment it was 1 pm and we still wanted to go to the Borghese gardens. So we took a short rest and then tried to figure out how to take the buses there...that did not work out. Not all the stops are on there and the directions we got from the website were not matching up with the bus stop signs. "When in Rome," you walk. So we walked along the Tiber all the way to the Borghese gardens which we had to do more walking in haha. But it was so gorgeous and we got beautiful views of the city of Rome. We saw lots of darling dogs and Europeans do a lot of making out in public as well. But we really enjoyed the afternoon once the sun went behind the clouds and we headed back to our apartment at about 6 pm. On the way back we got our first quadruple-take when a guy on a scooter looked at us while he sped by and kept looking back. Anne even waved to him haha!

We sure did a lot today and we walked so much that my legs and feet were screaming! I ran into my room and flopped on the bed just to get my feet off the ground. To give you a grand total, we looked up that we walked about 10 miles today!

Tomorrow we are going to Florence with our whole group and we're staying overnight. It's going to be a blast! This time I will be prepared for the rain with my new Northface jacket!

Grazie e ciao!