ROME!!!!!!!

On my flight to Rome, I recall writing in my journal that I felt like I was going to end up sleeping with the fishes...a guy in the row in front of me had been saving seats for two cary looking guys in business suits who sat in front of and next to me...During the last 20 minutes of the flight, the mafia man next to me started speaking to me when he realized I spoke Engligh because he was so excited to practice and then he leaned over and started pointing out all the places of Rome to me and at the end of the flight shook my hand and called me a friend. Precious, I know.

Driving in Rome is scary - point blank, you gotta have balls. The crazy taxi driver I had to get to the hotel did not obey street lines, street signs and just barely obeyed stop lights. She missed the turn and started yelling in Italian which is pretty scary if you ever witness it. I had to eat dinner at the hotel since there was nothing else around and my waiter was also glad to speak English because he really enjoys it. I had some lovely pasta and eben though I am not a big fan of tomatoes, I enjoyed every single one of them in that salad. Fresh veggies!!!! I had another king size bed, another balcony complete with a table and chairs, some awesome American shows dubbed over in Italian, a hot shower, a heater to dry my sink washed clothes on and even a urinal in the bathroom!!!! It took me a while to realize what it was...I must have looked like the caveman when he discovered fire.

The hotel offered a taxi to the nearest metro station so I hopped on that and took the stop the hotel man told me to...well, no one knew the street I was trying to get to. Ended up calling the hostel and after some trial and error, found my way through the constuction zone to the street I needed! The man at this hostel was awesome - when I told him I would have two days here, he took out a map and quite literally, made me an itinerary. I had two other girls from America staying in my room and the three of us spent the first day together. We grabbed some pizza at a local shop for lunch and then continued full speed ahead so we didn't waste any time! We visited the keyhole to the city which is where you can look through a keyhole and through the gardens, see the Vatican! We headed through some orange gardens to get a good view of the city and then ended up at the mouth of truth. As legend says, if you stick your hand into this mouth and tell a lie, it will bite your hand off. (The walking tour guide the next day told us that this 'mouth of truth' is actually an old manhole from ancient Roman times). Next, we headed along the Tiber and crossed over into one of the smaller neighborhoods to get a local chocolate shot - a shot glass made out of chocolate and filled with chocolate liquer or Baileys then topped with whipped cream and powder. To do this shot, you pick it up and stick the whole thing in your mouth bottom first. Difficult but delicous! We headed back across the river and walked through the old Jewish ghetto which was really neat. There are a lot of monuments and statues that I don't know the name of or their significance but I took a lot of pictures anyway! It was getting dark early because it had been cloudy and overcast all day and it sprinkled for about an hour. We walked past the cat sanctuary which was an old ruins site that a bunch of stray cats took over. It's walled off and they can't get out and people and vets do take care of them - they are all tagged. Above, there were tons of bats and they were pooping so we ran out of there! Next, we hit up Piazza Navona which is where they have the Christmas market and Santa was there!!! We had to pay to get our picture with him and the Mrs. though. We also made it to the Pantheon on this part of the walking tour which is very impressive! All of the building are just so old but extremely detailed and it's hard to describe just how awesome they are in person so go see for yourself =] Grabbed a nice bite to eat and shared a bottle of wine before heading back to the hostel for the night. We also had the chance to eat some gelatto - there was a shop with over 100 flavors!

Day 2 involved breakfast at the hostel and then straight off to go chill with the Pope. I battled my way through the street vendors to the Basillica and walked around the inside for a long time. There was no opportunity to light candles in there though because the Italian guard kept saying something along the lines of NO FLAME! at me...Oh well. The building was beautiful and incredibly detailed. What Notre Dame had for size and Gothic architechture, this rivaled with it's incredible number of paintings, things that involved gold, and decorated columns. Don't worry, I have a lot of pictures! Next, I popped inside the Vatican museum which was exhausting. I thought taking the scenice route to the Sistine Chapel was a good idea but half way through it, I needed to get out. I'm not much of a museum person and I have seen an overwhlming amount of churches on this trip so I think that the Vatican and St. Peter's will be my last one if I can help it! The Sistine Chapel was pretty incredible. (Between you and me, I managed to take a picture of the ceiling so I will put that up!) After my tour of Vatican City, I headed back to the center and explored Circus Maximus and the Colleseum. Wow. The ruins are incredible. I don't think I can effectively describe it all in words but it was just AWESOME. I spent quite a bit of time walking around this area and had an old lady take a picture of me in front of the colleseum! Time for food and then I headed out for another free walking tour! We started at the Spanish steps which literal name doesn't mean that at all (it was a lot of words and I can't remember them, sorry!) We headed around to a few smaller churches and checked out their differenct architecture. Our tour guide told us that a lot of the columns that are displayed throughout the city are recyled - if the building wasn't a church, it could be knowcked down so that it's parts could be reused to build new things (he called it recycling instead of looting ha). There was a lot of information being thrown at me and I was tired and cold so my memory was very out of focus so I can't offer you too much information =/ We made it around to the Pantheon again and then headed over to the Fountain of Trevi which was really cool! Neptune is in the middle of this statue and the way that it is structured and just almost appears out of the street is really neat. Grabbed a late dinner and then found my way all by myself back to the hostel on the bus! Woot!

Rome has been awesome but I think the most exhausting out of all the cities I have been in. It's an early bed time for me since I am catching an 8:43am train to Florence tomorrow! Good night and I will try to post as soon as I can so I don't forget important historical information!

P.S. - Do not worry about seeing pictures; I have already filled one memory card and am almost halfway through a second. It's just a matter of how soon can I get them up when I get home...