Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears

We checked out of our hotel in Venice at about 9:45am and rushed across the city to get on the 10:27 train to Rome. We had a really chill four hour ride to Rome. After having to change seats a few times we just listened to the old ipods and checked out the Italian countryside. So what can we say. It took over three weeks of relatively smooth sailing for us to hit our first man made mistake. I used hotwire to book our hotel in Rome. Somehow I managed to book our hotel for the first Wednesday in July instead of the second Wednesday in June. Don’t even asked how that happened cause I do not know. As we stood at the Sheraton desk realizing we didn’t have a reservation for Wed night in a fully booked city. One of desk workers there called the Marriot Park Hotel and was able to get us a “deal” last minute on two nights there. As we got out of the taxi, sweaty, and gross we were greeted by a doorman and we realized as we walked in to basically a resort on the top of a hill overlooking Rome that we were not in your average hotel. We checked in and went to our room opening the dark wooden door to the room we noticed that our bathroom had a bidet (first one we have ever seen!) and as we walked past the bathroom we notice our own private bathtub room as well! Two! Jordan and I agree that this is one of the nicest if not the nicest hotels we have ever been. Because it was so late in the afternoon when we got to the hotel we decided to eat dinner at the hotel. Don’t even ask how much it was! But this was the most delicious Italian food either of us had ever had! We started with a salad and then there were two different pastas. One lasagna which was really good, and the other was bowtie pasta with shrimp, mussels, and calamari! So good!!!!!!!!!!! It was a fantastic meal. We got up at nine and went and ate our delicious breakfast and then got on the hotel shuttle to central Rome. We walked to Vatican City took a lot of pictures in the square. We went inside and paid to climb the Vatican Copula which was over 520 steps! It was crazy, the walkways were tight and small and the steps so steep. Once we got to the top though, it was a breathtaking view of Rome from the top of the Vatican. It was amazing! After the Copula we went into St. Peter’s basilica (the church at the Vatican) and took pictures and watched the Eucharist being served. We then walked over to the Vatican museum and wandered through and took so many pictures and then went into the Sistine Chapel and it was stunning! After five hours in the Vatican we began to walk back to the front to get my hidden pocket knife that I expertly hid behind a pillar out in front of the Vatican we were stopped by a priest standing out front and the ensuing conversation was amazing. Father Brendan is a New Zealander priest that had worked in Rome at the children’s hospital. He stopped us to offer us tickets to a special event at the Vatican Thursday night. Priests from all over the world were to be meeting to hear the Pope speak tonight. Father Brendan talked to us much about Catholicism and protestant relationships, how he has been so impressed with how American Protestants are so enthusiastic about our faith and how we pray and worship. He was offering us these tickets for free to this event and offered to try to translate part of the service for us. We refused the tickets and told him to offer them to someone who might appreciate the event even more than us. We probably talked to him for thirty minutes and he was so surprised that we were willing to talk to him for so long. Father Brendan gave Jordan and I the greatest compliment that I know I have ever received in my life. He told us that the reason he decided to stop us was because he could tell we were Christians, he said we were “clean” and he could tell when he saw us. He said he could see the light in us. We were just walking by. I cannot express how such words feel to me. He then told us that our names were prophesy Hunter as a hunter of souls and Jordan giving life like the Jordan River, spreading like the river. It really was an amazing experience. He asked how old we were and then told us he was 67! Jordan and I both agree that he doesn’t look a day over 35!
After we left the Vatican we took a bus to the Roman Coliseum. It was a very cool place that had so much history. It really was cool. We spent probably an hour there and then got a bus back over to where the hotel shuttle picked us up. After nine hours in Rome we dragged ourselves back to our room where we are now trying to recover.
Friday we got up, showered, breakfasted, took the shuttle to town and then went back to the Vatican where my pocket knife was still hidden 28 hours later where I had hidden it to go into the Vatican. Nice! We then took a bus towards the Pantheon, I helped some Australian damsels in distress, then we checked out the Pantheon. It was kind of a let-down to me. Because the temple had been converted from the pagan temple to a cathedral after Rome went Jesus there were no remaining pagan artifacts. I really wanted to see the temple in its original splendor even though you can’t knock the victory of Italy’s salvation! After the Pantheon we went back towards the coliseum and walked past it to Circus Missimo where the horse races were in ancient Rome. It was more than ruins, it was more like a grassy area with sloping sides. Bummer. We then were so worn out from our Rome experiences we went and chilled at a table at the train station and ate ice cream. We then boarded our overnight sleeper train to Paris, ate dinner on the train, and went to sleep. We had one other person in our cabin a sophomore from the University of Pennsylvania studying Italian in Florence for the summer. As I type this it is 1140am and our train was supposed to arrive in Paris at 920am. Super late! We head to Brussels, Belgium and then on to Bruges this afternoon where we plan to act out almost the entire movie “In Bruges.” Back to England on Sunday night.