Roma + 1

After awaking from a great red wine induced night of sleep, we had to check out of our hotel. We made our way down the street to the metro, bought a ticket and were off to the main train station. Our goal was to drop off our luggage in a locker and head to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. When we arrived at the train station there were only luggage drop off points which I didn't trust. After waiting in line and talking it out we decided against luggage drop off and we headed out with our stuff. We boarded the metro and headed to the Colosseum stop. Upon arriving we walked out to a massive Colosseum only a few hundred feet across the street. We made our way around the giant structure and decided we would come to that last. Our real goal was to see Palatine Hill. We made our way in that direction being hassled by street peddlers trying to sell multi-colored sunglasses and umbrellas. When we arrived at the gate there was a sign hanging that said it was closed due to security issues. We later found out that the security issues were due to the G8 summit happening a few streets down. Kristen and I were pretty disappointed. After being denied access we walked around the gate housing Palatine Hill, taking pictures through the metal bars. We then made our way back to the Colosseum and decided against going in. After getting a few pictures, we made our way into town on foot to grab a bite to eat. After eating we wandered around on foot looking at a few different places of interest and then made our way back to the main train station. We got to the train station and got some work done. While writing in our travel journal, an old woman, who Kristen warned me about previously, came up to our table. She was a small Italian woman who was wearing a very open lacy shirt with no bra and started ranting in Italian. We tried to cut in numerous times saying that we only spoke English, but she didn't stop once. We sat there and let her finish not knowing anything she just said and she was on her way. It was interesting. It was finally time to board our night train so we headed to our platform and joined about 200 young Korean travelers. We found our car and met our roommates for the night, a young Australian couple and two young Korean boys. We previously reserved the top two bunks so we could talk to each other, this wasn't the best idea. The train was hot from sitting in the sun, so the top bunks were unbearable. We couldn't deal with the profuse sweating and stuffy air, so we had to find another car. We spent about and hour in there and then an hour in the hallway, trying to get a little sleep. After a bit we went in and toughed it out, which was pretty difficult, but it got cooler around 2 a.m. or so. That's when we finally got some sleep. We awoke to the train attendant letting us know we were close to our next destination Bern, Switzerland.