PT 2

So after the tour of Rome by bus we ate at HardRock Cafe! Let me just say that we felt like we were at home for about an hour and a half! For starters (appetizer) we had southwest egg rolls with salsa and ranch dressing that were amazing! For our main course Lauren had a chicken sandwich and I had a bacon and cheddar hickory burger that was so big I couldn't finish it. I had to eat it with a fork and knife, which is quite common in this part of the world anyways. I guess people do not eat food with their hands because of germs. Thats just my guess though. The fritas or french fries that came with the food were definitely American style. Everything about HardRock was American. Even the drinks at HardRock were Shrek sized with ice! This was definitely our splurge in Rome which was quite nice because dinning in Rome was cheaper than anywhere else that we have been too. After dinner we decided to stop by a gelateria down the street from our hostel and see what all the fuss about gelato was about. It was nasty! definitely not what people made it out to be. Needless to say we were disappointed and decided that we would wait until we were back home to get some real ice cream.




On sunday we booked a walking tour of Rome which included the Coliseum, the Roman Forum and the Emperial Palace. I will only talk about the colusiem due to the length of this blog but the rest of the tour was awesome. So for the coliseum which was our first stop. It was massive, beautiful, over powering, bare, breath taking, and any other word that describe the indescribable. It is amazing to see such massive buildings and wonder how anyone erected them with such little technology. There weren't any cranes to help these people do it. It was all built by hand and I can't imagine how it was done. We learned so much about the structure of the coliseum and how they used concrete for the first time with bricks in an attempt to earthquake proof it. Which by the way, was pretty successful. I wont go into all the details in writing but it was absolutely amazing!




After visiting the Coliseum, we stopped by Trevi Fountain to see it at night and make a wish as we tossed a coin into the fountain for good luck. While we were there, we found another gelateria that looked so good that we had to give it one more try. This is where we found something way better than ice cream. I had Carmel first and had to go back for another scoop of Coconut. I'm not a fan of coconut anything but this was the best dessert ever. Lauren had vanilla with chocolate syrup and she was in heaven she loved it! It is the only thing that she would ever give up ice cream for. So I take back everything I said about it before, and if you ever get the chance, you have to try it!







Rome has been one of the best and worst parts of our trips. Lauren described Rome as a love/hate relationship due to some issues at our hostel. There is so much to see there in such a small city. If I could go back to Rome or Paris, I would choose Rome in a heartbeat.

On monday we went to the beach for a little while and enjoyed some pictures and lunch before we went back to the airport to get back to our temporary home. Our home for another 11 days.


For class, we visited the Coca Cola plant here in London. They gave us a tour of the plant and showed us their processes which was really fun and interesting. We got to wear goofy hair nets and safety vests.


Today we took a tour of the Lloyd's of London which was one of my favorite tours. Richard Rogers was the man that built the building about 40 years ago. Its a building that was said to be ahead of its time. Still today, I believe it to be ahead of its time. When the initial concept was conceived, they wanted the building to be able to be made into whatever they wanted. They wanted to be able to make offices on any floor or have any floor available for space. So mister Rogers designed the building inside out. All of the toilets, elevators, air conditioning and the such are on the outside of the building, leaving all open space on the inside. Its beautifully designed. From the inside you can see all four outer walls and almost every individual floor. Its really hard to describe. On the outside, what you would call the guts of a building, almost look like works of art. Anyone with interest in design should look up the building and all it marvels.

And lastly, I have to mention our dinner for tonight. We went to the grocery store to pick up some pasta to make for dinner and discovered that Ole Elpaso had made its way into the UK. So we quickly changed our plans and made tacos for dinner. Now it wasnt as good as home made tacos from back home, but it will hold us over until we can get there!

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and that I have not bored you too much! We miss all of you back home dearly and can't wait to see you and tell you all of our stories!