ROMA!

Ok, sorry I haven't updated the blog yet, but the past few days have been crazy! So, after a flight to Philidelphia to catch a (very long) flight to Rome, I finally arrived in Rome at 9:00am local time on May 21st. As I write, it is approximately 6 o'clock local time on Friday May 22nd. It's 9 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time. Even though I haven't been here that long, it feels like I've lived a whole additional lifetime in under 48 hours!

May 21st day breakdown:
- 9am arrive in Rome
- a little after 9am - very surprised that the Italian Customs dudes didn't really even look at my passport.
- 10am catch train to the city from the airport.
- 10:30am - hoof it to my Hostel, the Mona Lisa Hostel, in Rome while carrying both my big backpack and my carry on backpack.
- check in to hostel around 11:30am (I took pictures on the way)
- from 12noon-ish until 10:20pm: the Colloseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps and countless other beautiful monuments and ruins, late lunch of Bruschetta, vino and Pelligrino (I need to buy a box of it from Costco when I get back, I can't live without it now) and a complimentary limoncello and biscotti after my meal from the waiter somewhere in between and then met up with my aunt and grandma (who happened to be here too) for dinner. Then, on my walk home - which I was happy about so I could take some nighttime photos of the Trevi Fountain on the way - I was followed by a crazy young woman that wanted me to take her home and stay with me. I had to turn around and yell at her a few times before she got the picture, it was a little weird. Anyway, she went away and I got home safely and then tried to go to bed after taking a shower, which was difficult becase it was only 2:20pm in my body clock but 11:20pm here. Couldn't sleep for the life of me so I got up around 2:30 and sat in the bean bag chair and cat napped on and off until I gave up around 5:30am local time.

May 22nd (today) breakdown:
Obviously I was up early, so I began my walk to my planned visit to Vatican City today at around 7am. I stopped on the way for a pastry and a cappuccino in an outdoor bistro - the weather has been so hot here that the morning was actually pleasant. My visit to Vatican City was amazing. I absolutely loved St. Peter's Cathedral and I cannot say enough about the Sistine Chapel - it was breathtaking. The only thing that made it not as cool as it would be was the complete lack of respect by many people there - they were taking video and pictures and tlaking very loudly when they weren't supposed to and the guards kept shushing them. It would have been nice to be completely submerged in the beauty of that place in complete silence, but life isn't perfect, though the paintings most certainly were. It was amazing. I actually followed the rules and didn't take pictures though, so don't be asking for 'em!

Tomorrow morning I will leave for Florence - my train leaves at 9am and I should be in Firenze by 10:19am (hopefully). I won't be too sad to leave Rome, I saw all the big stuff and it can be a little crazy here - lots of vespas whizzing everywhere, noisy, a little smelly and slightly dirty - though it is a lovely city. I'm just looking forward to a little more low key place, like Florence, as I'm still a bit burnt out from school and going to start classes on Monday (yikes! I need to read!) - maybe part of my problem was the fact that I squeezed too much into 2 days :) It was well worth it though. Tonight, I'm relaxing. I'll have to go find some dinner here in a few minutes...

Wow, that was a lot of run-on sentences and information. I'm not changing it. Ciao for now!

P.S. I'm understanding a lot more Italian than I thought I would, speaking the very basic pleasantries better than I expected and finding it slightly funny that people keep mistaking me for a local. Ha!

P.P.S. My internet is being funky so I can't post pictures right now.... stay tuned.....