when in rome!

Ciao again!

Rome has been lovely. It's so bella! Ha, just kidding, that'll stop.

Our first day here was perfect. Our goal for the day was NOTHING. We went out for a cute little lunch and dinner, went to the supermarket, etc. We even got our hair cut to have some fun! So now when people compliment my hair, I can say "Oh thanks, I got it cut in Italy. No big deal." But yeah, so our hostel is GREAT (everyone here is NORMAL!!!!), Rome is warm, and the people are so nice.

Anyway, yesterday we went and saw the Colloseum. It was SO cool! So huge! It's so weird to see those things you've seen a trillion pictures of- it never feels real. And it was so nice outside, we could walk there and back, which was SO refreshing. We're definitely over the cold. Today we're going to go to the Vatican City, which I'm really excited about.

The night that we arrived here, Tara and I were so worn out that we've decided to change our plans a bit. We don't want to push ourselves to do more and more if we aren't even going to enjoy it, so we've shortened the trip. We're not really cutting much out (just Bath, which we've already seen, and Ireland, which we weren't even sure about anyway), and we both feel really good about it. It is SO stressful planning all of this (hostels, flights, trains, etc.) and THEN actually traveling! Not to mention things like being kept up all night, being freezing, and washing your clothes in the sink- haha! Don't get me wrong, it is WELL, WELL worth it, but I just want to quit while we're ahead. Plus, when I get back to Hawaii I'm going to be finding somewhere to live and stuff, so the bigger financial coushin I can have, the better.

So we're going to Florence in a few days and then to Venice, and flying out from there. I arrive in Chicago on March 4th. We're so excited, we even get to be on the same flight, because Tar's laying over in Chicago. We've been joking about how weird it's going to be to be apart- I'm SO used to having her at my side all the time, I'm going to be talking to myself! What am I going to do?!?! But yeah so then I'll be in Chicago until March 9th, and then off to Hawaii! Yayyyy I can't wait to be back in my place! Just in time for the big 2-1 :)

I'm so excited to see the rest of Italy, too! We really don't know what to expect, but we heard that Florence is just beautiful and that Venice will be really cool (but dirty, we're only spending a few days there).

All for now, more soon. Love you guys a ton.

Love,
Emily xoxo