Rome 2013

Thursday morning I woke up. Nervous, a bit apprehensive and excited. Laura came and picked me up to take me to the airport. I love getting to the airport hours before your flight so you can make it through security and everything and then it takes 20 minutes and you sit in the terminal for an hour and 40 minutes.
The flight to New York was uneventful. The layover in New York equally uneventful. The flight to Italy was long, but I did manage to sleep for about 6 hours.
Ashley had gotten instructions from their hotel on how to get there from the airport. They looked simple enough and really I only got lost one time. But waiting for the train at the airport and then finding the right metro line and getting my ticket took longer than I think any of us were planning on. I knew they had tickets for the Colosseum for 12:00 and I just watched the time tick by. I had no way to tell them I was almost there. I finally found the place and as I was headed to my room, the lady at the desk asked me if I had seen my friends. I was so shocked and said no. She said, "Oh they just left 5 minutes ago". There was a note on the door for me, that they had waited as long as they could and that I should stay there and rest up. NOT HAPPENING! I didn't just fly to Rome to rest up!
I knew they were headed to the Colosseum so I asked for directions and RAN to the metro station. I figured catching them at the metro stations was my only shot. Once they were actually there I'd be out of luck. I got on the first metro and didn't see them. I started praying right then that some how I'd be able to find them. I ran from the A line metro to the B and was just standing there on the escalator praying when what do I hear but "Cathy?" I looked up and two steps away was my group!!! I almost burst into tears right there on the spot.
That was the topic of the day. "We found Cathy!" "I can't believe we found Cathy!" "Remember that one time we found Cathy!?" Basically God loves me, knows where I am, he hears my prayers and answers them.
The Colosseum was really cool. SO BIG. I was glad that I listened to the people who told me to download the Rick Steves walking tour. Hearing the history of it made it much more interesting. After the Colosseum we headed over to the Forum and Palantine hill. They were also very interesting. After the touring we had some delightful Italian pizza where we had a dream Italian man as our waiter. On our way home we made a stop to see the Spanish steps and then it was time to head back to the hotel. I was glad to have a place to lay my head.