Sidenote... Monday Must-Haves

I know I am supposed to be writing about my summer in Italy because that's what the "followers" check back for, but I've got to make a quick detour onto another subject... I'm going to quickly give you my Monday must-haves. Things I'm dying over right now. Here are my current obsessions:

After living in Italy for 2 weeks, I've come to one definite conclusion: I wear a lot of color. I don't know why this is, but color seems to attract my eye and I somehow manage to incorporate it into most every outfit. I've noticed this in Italy because Italians are the complete opposite. Their color scheme consists of black, gray, brown and muted black. I swear they don't believe in the other colors of the color wheel. So when I saw this bright red purse by Madewell 1937, I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. This would be the perfect accessory to complete an outfit for a night on the town or to dinner with friends... it speaks for itself.

I know I talked about this leather bracelet from Linea Pelle earlier after I saw Jennifer Lopez rock it in her sadly disappointing rom-com, The BackUp Plan... but I'm still dreaming about it. I'm just picturing it as being an everyday statement piece to add a bit of boho-chicness to the wardrobe. Maybe my 2 month obsession over this one item should be a sign that it's no longer an In Limbo purchase situation--trying to decide if this is the right arm candy for me. Time to click that buy button..? Thoughts?

I know I said earlier that I started to read Emily Giffin's Heart of the Matter book, but that's not looking so hot for Sara Kate. Actually, that has actually stopped. I read the first few pages and they were pretty deep, not as light-hearted as I thought. So I immediately popped into the first bookstore I could find in Italy, ran to the English section (where selection was slim to none) and bought me another book to read. To my surprise, they had one of the ones that was on my list to read... The Carrie Diaries by Candance Bushnell. Its the story of Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw in high school. We get to read about what turned Carrie into the woman we know on the famous TV show. I'm already 70 pages into it and I'm thinking its a winner!

Another recent obsession that I've noticed I've acquired is a love for sneakers. I never really took myself to be a Converse-wearin' kind of gal (minus my Life In Limbo tomboy phase where I would have traded a worn pair of New Balances for stiletto Christian Louboutins anyday), but recently I've been known to rock the sneaks. And you know what? I'm loving it. Loving it so much that my lone pair of white Chuck Taylor All-Star Converses just aren't cutting it. Nope, I'm moving onto bigger and better things. And who does bigger and better better than Juicy Couture?

Sorry for the off-subject post, but when a girl's got love built up inside her like I do now, all I want do is share this love and consuming passion with others. So from Italy to your house, these are my Monday must-haves from the eyes of an In Limbo girl.

Day 12, 13 & 14: Roman Weekend

This weekend was full of highs, lows and surprises! Both Friday and Saturday were spent in Rome, and it was quite the adventure.

I'll start with The Lows:

• The rain on Friday.
• No train tickets on Saturday.
• The confusion during The Ancient Rome Scavenger Hunt.

Then The Highs:

• American food at the Hard Rock Cafe.
• Fountain Diet Coke ON ICE.
• Cannoli at Cafe Grecco.
• THE COLOSSEUM PUB CRAWL Saturday night!

The Surprises:

• Navigating Rome and the Subway fairly flawlessly!

So you can see, this weekend was all over the place!! Here's a brief summary of what our days looked like: Friday morning we woke up and a bunch of the group caught the 10:20 train from Albano to Rome. When we got to the train station, I only had eyes for McDonalds and their fountain drinks. So a few girls who were renting a hotel for the weekend, went ahead of us to check in and the rest went and got a drink at MickyD's. It was fabulous -- I've never been so thankful for ice in my entire life. I think its interesting that it took me 2 weeks to really miss ice... I don't realize how good we have it in the States. Anyways, after the group all met back up and rode the subway to the Colosseum, where we got off to begin our Ancient Rome Scavenger Hunt. Ok, I'll explain--one of our assignments is to answer some questions about ancient Roman buildings, and then come and take pictures of them to prove that we saw them. These sights include The Colosseum, The Pantheon, The Capitoline Museum, and many more. So we answered the questions the night before and found pictures of what they looked like so that it would make the process faster on Friday. Wrong! Things in the pictures were not as they seemed in real life, so when we got to the Roman Forum and had to distinguish which was the temple of Ceasar and which was the temple of Vesta.. it got difficult. And to add to the confusion, it statrted to rain. So you can imagine how frustrated we were that we were in Rome, walking around in the rain, trying to find structures that didn't match up to our pictures. Well, this went on for about 3 hours, and come 2:00, we were all starving and ready for lunch. So we popped into the nearest cafe and were pleasantly surprised with a delicious lunch! Tortellini with ham and cream. Yumm-o, as Rachel Ray would say! After lunch we had one last picture for the assignment--the Tiber River, which just so happens to be on the edge of the city. We figured since we had pasta for lunch, we had plenty of energy to get us to the Tiber. We made it, took a picture (it was a disgusting river--very dirty) and then broke off into littler groups for our fun time in Rome! Most of us went shopping on Via del Corso and most people had great success. I resisted in purchasing impulse items, which is a very big growth step towards shopping maturity for Sara Kate. Cheers! For dinner on Friday night it ended up being just Kasi and I, and we were determined to get some American food. We were absolutely famished from our walking around afternoon, and all that we had eyes for was The Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, you may laugh at this. Earlier in the afternoon we had gotten its address from some girls that were planning to go there for lunch, and we thought it was close to Via del Corso... wrong. We had to traipse halfway across Rome to get to the restaurant, but we didn't care because we wanted it that bad. When there's a will, there's a way. We sat down for dinner at the Hard Rock and immediately felt at home. English speaking waiters, American families having dinner and a cheeseburger on the menu. After two weeks of straight pasta and pizza--you should have seen our eyes when the waiter brought us our meal. I could have jumped up and hugged him when I saw him walk out of the kitchen. Kasi and I both ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke ON ICE. Heaven!! You better bet I got that Coke refilled as many times as possible... and a to go cup. Our waiter directed us towards the nearest Metro (subway) stop, so after we got our Cokes to go, we headed that way. The Metro took us to the train station, where we ran into the rest of the group, and we all got on the 9:06 train to Albano. Each one of us fell right into our beds and immediately passed out from exhaustion.

We had the day totally to ourselves on Saturday, so we took it leisurely. We woke up, got going and planned to get on the 1:20 train to Rome. Well, turns out, we learned the hard way that most Tabacchis (convenience stores that sell train/bus tickets) don't sell train tickets on Saturday... we were lucky enough to run into an English-speaking lady that noticed the confusion on our faces and helped us. She suggested we take the bus instead because we probably wouldn't have luck with the train, so that's what we did. The bus dropped us off at the last Metro stop, so from there we had to get on the Metro and take that to our final destination. It felt like an episode of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Once we finally got to where we wanted to go, we basically just shopped and walked around all day. A highlight would have to be the Cannoli I ordered at Cafe Grecco (a famous cafe on Via Condotti). It was fabulousssssss! For dinner on Saturday, we (Anna Curl and I) met up with the other girls that were staying in Rome for the weekend and had dinner. We went to some random restaurant near the Colosseum. The food was great but the wait staff was a disappointment. Oh well! Nothing could have ruined our night because we were about to do the Colosseum Pub Crawl!! One of the girls here, Shellie, had reserved for 15 of us to do the Pub Crawl on Saturday... it was hysterical!! When we walked up to the meeting point the guy asked (and this is a direct quote), "Are you here for the party?" What great night doesn't start out with that phrase? That got us pumped. The Pub Crawl started out with an hour down in the cellar of a restaurant where they gave us pizza and all of the group mingled. There were people from all over--West Virginia, Canada, New Jersey, Kansas, Australia... everywhere! And since there were so many of our group, everyone just called us the Auburn Girls. President Gouge would have been so proud. So after that hour of interesting conversations, they led us to our first pub. When we were walking there, we were walking right next to the Colosseum. This is when it occurred to me, "We're not just walking down College St. right now.. we're in Rome walking past the Colosseum and Roman Forum." How awesome is that? It was a pretty phenomenal moment. The night was so much fun!! I throughly enjoyed the Pub Crawl and would highly recommend it to anyone doing this type of trip.

We didn't get in until late Saturday, so sleeping in on Sunday was a must. Actually, staying in my bed all day Sunday was a must. My body hated me for putting it through the torture of walking at least 13 miles in 3 days, so it deserved some rest. I literally didn't see the outside or get out of my pajamas until dinner. I know that sounds pitiful, but its the truth. So for dinner on Sunday, a group of us walked to the Chinese restaurant and then got gelato. Can you tell we were rebelling against pasta this weekend? Anyways, it was a fabulous weekend in Rome and I hope to go back many more times during my stay in Ariccia!! I'm excited for this up-coming week. Its our third week here and I can't believe that... it's scaring me how fast the time is flying!

Here are some pictures from this weekend (sorry, there are a lot!)

Diet Coke on ice...... there's no comparison.

The Arch of Constantine. See how massive it is? Unbelievable.

The Colosseum! It reminded us all of the movie The Gladiator, so we've decided that we're going to have to have a Roman movie night one night and watch it.

We were so afraid that we were going to have to wait in the hour and a half long line to get into the Colosseum, but then someone told us if we had the Roma pass (which we did) then we could by pass the line. Thanks Cinzia for the Roma pass--it literally saved us!!

Inside the Colosseum. Its hard to imagine all of the stuff that went on in this one building. Gladiator duels, naval ship battles, public beheadings... so gruesome in such a gorgeous building.

I'm supposed to have a sword in my hand in this picture.. its awkward. Sorry!

And the rain began to fall..... whats a good scavenger hunt without confusion, rain and open-toe sandals in the mud?

The Roman Forum!

The sculpture of Romulous and Remus being raised by a she-wolf (the two brothers were supposedly the founders of Rome). This is in the Capitoline Museum.

We had 3 scavenger hunt answers in the Capitoline Museum, but it took us forever to find them. Things to remember: the first floor in Italy is the second floor in America. If you ask Italians where a cabinet is (we had to find this cabinet of ancient coins), they think you mean the bathroom--it doesn't matter if you ask 4 different museum guides, they will send you towards the bathroom.

The Piazza del Campidoglio. It's at the top of the Capitoline Hill and where the Capitoline Museum is!

The Tiber River. See, I told you it was gross. See all that trash in it?

The Hard Rock Cafe! It was like a mirage when we finally saw it.

This is the train station. The train is our main form of transportation to and from Rome. The ride takes about 50 minutes.

The moon was so pretty on our walk back to the Palace on Friday night.

Our treats at Cafe Grecco!

My pizza on Saturday night. I think I may turn into one considering how many times I eat them a week. They're always a safe bet when ordering.

Becca, Katelyn and Lindsey at dinner on Saturday night.

Anna, Lindsey, Emily, Becca and Katelyn walking towards the Pub Crawl.

Direct quote -- "Are you here for the party?"

The Colosseum was RIGHT THERE. I couldn't get over it! It was so awesome.

Saturday night Colosseum Pub Crawl.

They brought pizza out and for some reason I felt the need to take a picture of it because I thought it was so funny.

"Shellie, party of 15" is what they said when they saw us.

Not your average walk to a Pub....

And thats all for now! Ciao :)

Day 11: ROMA, ROMA, ROMA!

Where do I even begin?? I'll start with the basics--today was our field trip to discover Rome. We started at 8:00 a.m., walked the entire time (I'm guesstimating it's around 5 miles), only had one food break, and didn't end until around 6:00 p.m. ALL of this and I don't even think we saw half of what Rome has to offer, but we did hit some of the major points! I wish I could videotape me talking about all of these places (not really though, that'd be creepy) because I may get carpel tunnel if I type all that I learned today in captions. But I will do my very best! Here are the pictures I took -- and we are going back to Roma Friday and Saturday, so there will be more. Don't fret that these aren't really blog-worthy... I'll do better this weekend (I wasn't digging my outfit and the lighting was bad... the elements just weren't adding up).

The first stop on our tour was the Spanish Steps! You could burn some calories running up these babies (196 approx.) They're ginormous. This was the crowd at 9:15 in the morning and when we walked back past it around 5:00--the numbers had tripled! An insane amount of people visit and sit on these steps every day.

Kasi, Me and Stacy in the middle of some intersection (trying to not get lost). Notice Fendi behind us! We went on the street with all of the major designer stores like Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and many more... I was practically drooling over their windows.

Brittany giving us her "Expert of the Day" on the Piazza Colona.

Me in front of Emperor Trajen's column that he built for himself. The height of this column is the height of the mountain that Roman slaves had to carve out in order to build Trajen's forum. Could you imagine hollowing out a mountain this tall, made of solid rock, in this heat? Never... those Romans had some work ethic!

Can you guess what this is?? Trevi Fountain!!

Anna Curl, Noelle, Shellie and I trying to not get pick-pocketed in front of the Trevi (we were successful--we all left with our wallets untouched).

Kasi, me and Becca about to toss our coinssss

This girl was having a photo shoot in front of the Trevi--it was hysterical, so I had to add the picture in the blog. We were so tempted to go jump in her pictures.

Noelle and I tossing our coins! Lets hope those two 5 cent Euros pay off :)

After the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon was our next stop. The Pantheon was my "Expert of the Day" so I was sweating bullets on our walk from the Trevi because I was so nervous. I am not one to love speaking in front of crowds (Jess, I should've been with you in Raven's public speaking class), so I had been dreading this very moment. But, you'll be glad to know that I survived. I said it with minor blemishes in the presentation, so that's a relief. Once I had that over with and everyone was well versed on the history of the Pantheon (thank you wikipedia), we went inside. I think all of our jaws hit the ground because it was beyond belief. Considering it is Rome's best preserved monument, it was a lot to take in. I couldn't believe the amount of effort and attention to detail that went into constructing this building. It is 2000 years old, and still being used. C-razzzzy!

This is a picture of the Pantheon's dome, which has the Oculus at the top. This dome was the inspiration for the dome of St. Peter's Basilica and the dome of the White House in Washington, D.C. (shout-out America).

Cool picture of the sunlight coming in through the Oculus.

The alter inside of the Pantheon. It's still used today for Catholic Masses.

This is another stop on our journey through Rome -- San Luigi del Francesi Church. From the outside the church wasn't much to look at, and I had never heard of it so I was not expecting much when I walked in. Boy was I wrong. This church was amazing. The ceiling, the floor, the paintings... all of it was immaculate and indescribable. I tried to get the best pictures that I could, but I'm sure they still don't do it true justice.

This is the ceiling of the church... can you believe that? All that gold!

The main alter of the church

Another picture of the ceiling (can you tell I was obsessed with it?)

Some of the paintings inside the church. Everyone was huddled around these, so I assumed they were a pretty big deal.

This is Piazza Novona. Home to the Fountain of the Four Gods, which was featured in the movie Angels and Demons. It had some fabulous paintings for sale out in the square!

Noelle, me, Shellie and Caitlyn enjoying the Piazza Novona.

All of the group could barely function in the Piazza Novona because all we could think about was lunch and sitting down (we've been walking for about 3 hours now), so we were thrilled to hear that our next stop was Campo di Fiori for a lunch break. All I saw was a little restaurant with thin slice bread (the usual thick-sliced bread that everyone has in Italy is seriously going to give me TMJ it's so hard and tough), so I headed straight for it. Turns out that was a very good impulse decision because our lunch was delicious and cheap. 2 of my favorite adjectives. I had a panini with mozzarella and proscuittio and a coke zero. And we got to sit and enjoy it on this little bench--so picturesque.

This is the monument of Victor Emmanuel II... better known as the "Wedding Cake" because it is this MASSIVE white building in the heart of Rome. It's made completely of marble, but it's extremely white marble so it doesn't blend in with the rest of the city. Truth is, this white is what all of the marble buildings in ancient Rome used to look like, but they've just faded now because they're old.

I thought the Ivy on this building was beautiful (and with the Italian flag... perfection)!

Our LAST stop -- woohoo! The Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. It was gorgeous as well, but it was very hard to concentrate at this point during our journey.

Thought this was cool.. it's on the ground of the church.

I think I must have been delirious at this point because I'm not a very "skull and crossbones" kind of girl, but I felt the need to take a picture of this for some reason. And the picture turned out really cool, I thought! Don't judge for the brief spurt of goth-ness.

We all rode the train home and when I looked out the window at the Ciampino stop (the airport), I saw these planes outside of my window and started laughing to myself. I was thinking "what if this is the Ryan Air plane?" (because the flights are so cheap I think it has to be a scam)

Then, much to my relief, I saw this pull up on the tarmac and I felt better. It may not be Delta, but at least it's not the Wrights Brother's yellow toy plane pictured above!

When we got back to the Palace after our 15 minute walk from the train station in Albano, all I wanted to do was fall into my bed. I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Rome and I think it will take a while for me to process everything I saw/learned. We are going back on Friday and Saturday to see the other sights (and to shop), so I'll try and get those pictures/posts up by Sunday. Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Ciao!