New Years in Rome!

I am finally in Rome. The keyboard here is a little different so bear with me! Anyway, Iàm so glad to be here. It is absolutely beautiful. It is about 730 and New Years will be here soon. Yesterday, we had a 4 hour flight from Cairo to Rome and took a shuttle to our hotel. I am rooming with Brandy again, and we have to share a bed, but it is okay because she is really cool! We will be getting 2 new roommates this evening...4 total. It will be hectic getting ready in the morning with 4 girls!

Anyway, after we settled in our room I inquired with the front desk about getting a dentist to fix my teeth. They said that dentist offices are closed on Sunday and I would have to wait til Monday. So...we went to lunch! Our first real lunch in a couple weeks. It was so awesome. I shared a prosciutto pizza with Brandy, made from a pizza oven. It had the amazing thin crust. Yum! After that, we wandered briefly to check out stores. Our hotel is kind of on the edge of Rome, which is good and bad. It is a little walk to the main sights, but at the same time is quieter and not too hectic. There are tons of amazing clothing stores and restaurants in the near vicinity of the hotel. I found this really neat store around the corner that has really cute clothes and the owner is also the designer. I picked up a really cute top for €20. After wandering, we relaxed in our room for a bit and then headed out for dinner with the whole group to another pizzeria. Since only a few hours had gone by after lunch, I wasnt too hungry and didnt eat. After the dinner, some of the group went to an Irish pub that reminded me of TGI Fridays restaurants. It was just okay, so we left.

Today, I woke up and had breakfast...bread with Nutella and coffee...the perfect breakfast! After that, it was dentist hunt time. The front desk man sent me to a dental office down the street. Jessica and Brandy accompanied me. The person there only spoke Italian, and from what I understood, they only cleaned teeth and didnt have a dentist to do dental work. I loved that I could finally put my 1 1/2 semesters of Italian to work! We went back to the front desk man and told him that it wasnt a dentist, just a tooth cleaner. So, he sent us to another dental office. We walked there, and rang the bell, but no one answered. I wrote down the telephone number and went back to the hotel. The front desk man called and the dentist said he would come in at 12 to see me. I was so happy! I went back, and the dentist was really nice. He put a temporary filling in to seal out the air until I return home to get dental work. He said it was a very good break....grr! Anyway, he only charged me €25 for the whole thing, which is really good. I was afraid it would be at least a couple hundred euro. I was happy and my mouth was numb.

We decided it was time for a short break. There was a street fair right next to our hotel that we checked out. They had all sorts of good things! I got some amazing salami from a meat market at the fair...10 slices for less than 2 euro. Cheap lunch! I also picked up a knockoff Burberry scarf for myself and a little something for Marcey. We took our lunch back to the hotel and ate it. After that, some of the group decided to take a walk to a lunch spot. I decided to check it out. I ended up getting a torta della nonna, which is a cake that is hard to describe but it was just okay. We wandered a little more to see the New Years Eve stages being set up across town and I found another cute clothing store (got a cute red top for NYE for only €15), but headed back to the hotel after that. I have just been hanging out, waiting for dinner time to arrive and 15 more people to be added to our group.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Years Eve! I will try to update soon.

Love, Amy