Day Trip and Rome!!

Last Wednesday my "class friends" asked me to take a day trip with them, so I said why not:) Our destination was the beach, but we had a train that had a transfer in Pisa. Our first train was late and therefore we missed our connecting train, soooo we had about an hour and 20 minutes before our next train... we were in Pisa... so we ran to the leaning tower of Pisa and got our tourist on! It was so great. I wasn't expecting to get to see it, and it was such a nice treat. We still managed to get to the beach by noon which was perfect! It was a wonderful, tiny, locals beach and we just waded in the shore waters and hung out until about 4. It was genuinely one of my favorite days here so far!

Classic Pisa pic:)

A beach town in Tuscany called Castiglichello

Then Rome! Thursday I had class 9-2:30, then I walked to the train station and caught a 3 o'clock train to Rome. Melinda, a good friend of my sister and I's, lives in Spain and was taking a trip to Rome with her friends and said I could meet her there. I had my most intense train struggles yet. Melinda had texted me, Moka. Meet at Moka (a cafe), it is in the train station. I was stoked. I thought I'd have to walk or metro to wherever she was. Well, it didn't end up being so easy. I got in around 7:20 or so and well, the Rome train station was huge. I walked off the platforms and saw all the resturants and book stores and other non-sense. Walked around for a solid 15 minutes and I couldn't find Moka. So I asked around, most workers didn't know which I found odd.. but eventually I was directed down a level to the metro area. WHERE I FOUND MOKA!! But not Melinda... I was like what the what. I knew she would never leave me there (because at this point I was real late.. so I knew something was off). Now at this point it's almost 8, I'm tired, the train station is getting sketchy (esp the Moka I was at- it was near a side entrance and there were a bunch of vendors hangin around). I did get cat called at Moka but I gave the most intense back off look I've ever given. No fear in my eyes, just the 'you better leave me alone for your own good' kinda look.. and they didn't mess with me no more. But I couldn't get wifi from Moka because they were closing and so they wouldn't let me buy something to get wifi. Soooo I walked back upstairs and tried to get wifi up there, no luck. Soooo I left the train station (praying constantly of course and I mean breathing pretty heavily/panicky) and walked to 6 different hotels and cafe's and finally got wifi. I I-messaged Melinda and she responded, I could have cried I was so excited. She said there were 3 Moka's in Roma termini:/ The one she was at was on platform 23 (of course the opposite side I came in on so I'd never have run into it) and she would wait for me there. I literally ran back to the train station smiling (cause for a while I was stressin- had no earthly idea what I would have done)... and then when I saw her, I ran up to her, gave her a huge hug, and cried my little eyes out. There are few times I'd ever been that happy to see someone. She had her friends on a search party for me:) They legit were walking all over the train station looking for me, and so we waited a few minutes till they all came back. We then walked to dinner, which was amazing and then went to the Colosseum (which was beautiful at night!). The rest of the trip was perfect! I loved getting to see Rome as well as catch up with sweet Melinda:)

These were the columns outside the Basilica

The Basilica which was breathtaking from the inside

The ruins

The Colosseum 

Altare della Patria built by Mussolini
(nicknamed the wedding cake because it is so white and ornate)