Italy, part 2, Rome 1

today we're off to Rome. early morning, lots of sunshine, about six hour's drive from Venice, lots of crops and sunflowers! most of the flowers were droopy, but occasionally you'd pass a field bright yellow with perky flowers just waiting for their picture to be taken, but unfortunately driving by at 100 kph i couldn't really capture them. but the moment i realized what those droopy fields were, i got SO excited ... i've always associated Italy with sunflowers, so this was the moment i was convinced i was in Italy.

we got to Rome and did a driving tour of the city ... it was short, but we saw a few of the most important things by bus. then we made a drop off and did a walking tour. we saw the Pantheon, Trevvi Fountain, and one of the main plazas. then we walked to a "ristotheatre" for dinner. this place was nice and we had it to ourselves. really cool bathrooms. we didn't actually witness the theater part of this restaurant, but the dinner part was really good ... starters of pasta salad and little ham & cheese sandwiches; main entree of chicken and bowtie pasta; and dessert of tiramasu and something sorta like flan maybe?

then we walked back to the coach and went to the hotel to finally check in. at some point during the day Eelco asked me to have a drink with him at the hotel, so after finding my room and dropping my stuff, i went down to the bar to join everyone for a social beverage. some of the girls didn't like the hotel and were feeling a bit disgusted by it, so they came down and had drinks too. for the record, this wasn't the nicest hotel we stayed in, but livable.

so we all had drinks and a pleasant time. Eelco was pretty much only interested in talking with me and it was quite obvious. so now is when others started noticing and giving me a "hard" time about it all. you know, teasing and such. it was fun though. eventually most everyone left to go out or went to bed, leaving Eelco and me with some privacy. we walked outside so he could check the coach and before coming back inside we hugged. during the hug he said to me, "if i'd had one more beer i would've kissed you." i don't remember what i said, but we walked back into the hotel and said goodnight with another hug and a kiss on the cheek.

we drunkily made plans to meet tomorrow at the Pantheon at 5 p.m., but now i'm not so sure about that idea now. i'm feeling a little awkward about it all. he's a really nice guy and i enjoy talking with him and sharing smiles on the coach, but ultimately he's our driver and i'm a client and i'm not so sure it's a wise idea. we'll see how i feel tomorrow.