When in Rome...Day 1.

    We departed Siena at the awful hour of 5am. The escalators were asleep like all other rational beings, so we had to walk down the dreaded slope to the train station. It was mostly miserable.  The only redeeming feature was being able to relax on the train ride over.  I've never really traveled by train, but this was great--we had our own little compartment and everything. Unfortunately, we had to share it with a chain-smoker who snored louder than I've ever heard (which is really saying something).
    When we finally arrived in Rome, we went to our hostel to drop our bags off and discovered two horrible facts. 1. Janet's cheap luggage lock had reset itself to an unknown combination, and 2. Robin's cheap luggage lock had reset itself to an unknown combination.  After happening upon this catastrophe, we decided to go enjoy Rome and deal with the vexing locks when we came home.
    This would have been a good idea if we had some kind of plan in place, but Rome was our least-planned stop.  After staring at maps with fairy-sized writing for awhile, we determined to take the scenic route to a famous art gallery, and then go on a free walking tour of Rome.  However, with two very sick companions (they had come down with awful colds over the past day or so) and an entrance to the park that seemed to have disappeared, the scenic route was quickly becoming a run through the gauntlet.  By the time we finally arrived in the art gallery, tickets were sold out for the day.  We consoled ourselves with overpriced cannolis and wandered around the Spanish steps and gardens until our tour began.

A Dionysus fountain.

The Spanish steps. ("Spanish" because the Spanish embassy is close by)

An Egyptian obelisk in Rome? Say it ain't so!
Actually, it isn't so.  This is a fake Egyptian obelisk, built in the 16th century when Egyptian architecture was a fad.

     Our tour guide was a very smart Italian woman who led us around to the Trevi fountain, the Wedding Cake Monument, the Colosseum, and the Forum Romanum.  Upon our request, she also brought us to the best gelato place in Rome.

The Trevi Fountain.  It's said that if you throw coins into the fountain, you get varying amounts of good things happening to you.  If you throw one in, you're coming back to Rome. If you throw two in, you're going to get married. If you throw three in, you're going to marry an Italian man.  I'm going to marry an Italian man.

This is the box where Mussolini declared to Italy their involvement in WWII.

The Wedding Cake Monument, the most criticized monument in Rome.  In order to build it, Mussolini had to destroy over half of Capitoline Hill (which contained thousands of architectural and historical artifacts).

The ruins of the Forum Romanum are in the foreground; the ruins of Palatine Hill (where all the emperors' palaces were located) are in the background.

     It was on this tour that I was reminded why everyone hates Americans.  It was by no means the first time on the trip--every night in Florence we would pass Americans (mostly college-aged) who were loud, obnoxious, and rude to everyone.  It was on this particular tour, however, where I met the cream of the crop.  We were sharing our tour with several other American college students.  Their first comment to us was how they couldn't wait for the tour to start because they had spent the last two hours "killing time" in Rome....by taking selfies in front of the Trevi Fountain.  For two hours.  Your first impression, dear reader, is probably an accurate one.
    Over the next 90 minutes, they had the attention span of kindergartners (first graders, if you want to be generous) and would wander off and talk about fashion while we were being told about the greatest architectural achievements this world has ever known.  My favorite moment was when we passed an old man on the side of the road dressed as the Pope, and people would pay to take pictures with him.  Their first question was, "is that a REAL religious figure?"  My response: "Oh yes, that's the Pope.  It's his last public appearance before he steps down tomorrow." They gave me the most wide-eyed look of shock and utter belief for about 10 seconds, until I couldn't help myself and giggled. (Like my daddy says, if you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer! )Then they clumped up into their Girl Power group and consoled themselves with Pringles until we arrived at the Colosseum.

    We snapped some pictures of the Colosseum and then carted off our sick to the hostel to catch some well-needed rest.  Before we could do so, though, we had to saw off the locks from our bags.  The two ladies at the front desk huffed and puffed and finally sawed them in half.