the day started very early - 4:45am - to be out the door and on the bus by 5:30am. we got a sack breakfast provided by the hotel, which was nice. we got dropped off at the naples train station, and had to wait about 1.5 hours before getting on a train to rome. once in rome, we dropped off our bangs at the station and walked around town. we went to a couple clothing stores, a game stop, a boba tea place, and some random stores along the way. we went back to vatican city and had gelato at the frigdidarium (i don’t know how to spell it). after walking around for a little while longer, we went to a library bar and played games until we had to leave for dinner at borghiciana eastificio artigianale. the food was pretty good. afterwards, we walked around for a while longer before picking our bags up at the train station. we had trouble finding the bus to the airport, as instructions were unclear, but after about 30 minutes, we found it. we hopped on and when we arrived at the rome airport, we saw no one was working at the check in desks, as it was about 10pm when we got there. we found a spot and hunkered down for the next 15 hours we would spend in the airport until our flight.
after a night of journaling, reading, laying on the floor, and restless sleep, we checked our bags and hung out in the main part of the airport for about 6 hours before heading to our terminal. once at our terminal, we waited another hour, then finally boarded our first flight. i fell asleep before the plane took off and slept most of the way (1hr 20 min). when we got to frankfort, we had to cross the entire terminal to get from a to z gate. once there, we only had to wait 2 hours before boarding our 9.5 hour flight back to chicago. during the flight, i watched spider-man: no way home, beetlejuice, and beetlejuice beetlejuice. i also slept for a decent chunk of time and missed breakfast on the plane. once in the airport, we rushed to the bus that would take us to rockford, il. i slept for most of that ride too (1hr). once we got to starr’s car at the bus stop, we stopped by steak and shake for some food, and then we were on the road for the 3.5 hour drive back to cedar falls. i slept a little during that ride too. we got to starr’s house around 2am and crashed on her couch for the night, all exhausted from the traveling.