Sorry I don't blog much.

So now that Andrew and Stevie are who knows how many miles away, I guess I'll need to start blogging for myself. Right now I'm on the train from Rome to Florence (I'm pecking this out on the PDA and will post later). After the first attempt at Florence was a bust, I decided to run down to Rome early and try to catch the Wednesday papal address. After the train debacle, I booked new tickets and hostel. That night after everything was booked I found out that the address scheduled for the ninth was canceled on the first. So long story short, I just spent two nights in Rome before I go back in six days for four more.

Even with the cancelled address, I decided not to waste any time in Rome. The train arrived around 6pm, and after a minor fiasco checking in and dropping off my luggage I decided to go for a walk. First I went to the Trevi Fountain and did the obligatory coin toss with some leftover francs. Next up was the Spanish steps, it had an awesome view of the city from the top. Unfortunately for the pictures, the obelisk in front of the church was covered in scaffolding (The major churches and piazzas of Rome seem to be really into ancient Egyptian obelisks). After that, it was the Piazza del Popolo. It was absolutely stunning, an obelisk, twin (giant and ornate) churches, fountains, etc. These churches put almost everything I've seen in the U.S. to shame ...and there were two of them. From there it was to the mausoleum of Augustus, It's so old and covered with trees, it was kind of unimpressive. I might take a tour next week to get a better look. From there I had the St. Angelo Castle in sight, so I headed that way up the Tiber. The castle and the bridges around it were very cool. By that time I wasn't far from St. Peters, so on I went. The whole area had already closed, but I managed to snap some nice pictures. On the way back I managed to stop by Piazza Navona, the Pantheon (to be revisited later), the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, and Trajan's column. ...It was a long night.

The next morning, it was off to the Vatican Museums. It was about what I expected - absolutely amazing. It was definitely on par with the Louvre and British Museum, although the portrait gallery seemed a bit lacking, but the Sistine Chapel more than made up for that. After about 9hrs there, I headed to an internet café to do the e-mail thing. It was still early so I decided to make a picture taking excursion to the colleseum, as I went to pull out my map, I glanced down the street and there it was. On the way I picked up some gelato, it was amazing. I've had gelato in the states, and some really good ice cream, but nothing prepared me for this. It was so good I felt drunk while I licked the bottom of the little paper bowl. When I got there I was amazed by how huge it was, pictures don't do it justice. Try to imagine Papa Johns stadium plus 10,000 seats, but bigger and in the form of the coliseum, and that might start to give you an idea of scale. Anyways, I roamed around the coliseum and the edge of the forum for a while and headed in.

Today the train for Florence left at 4:00 so I really only had a half of a day. The inside of the forum and coliseum seemed like it would be a good five hours worth of exploring, so I headed back that way. The forum and palatine hill were really cool in a geeky history buff sort of way (I mean this place was the center of western civilization hundreds of years, plus I had watched Julius Caesar in Central Park shortly before I left ...and I've been watching HBO's "Rome" DVD's). The scale of some of the buildings was absolutely mind boggeling, and on top of that was the fact that they've been standing for about 2000 years, give or take a few hundred, and they've survived wars, looting, mining (for marble, etc.), and wholesale demolition. The only buildings which were still mostly intact were the ones turned into churches. It was really hot in Rome, almost no hsade in the historical areas, and definitely no clouds. I've been drinking around three plus litres of water a day to make up for the sweating. I already mentioned the size of the coliseum, but on the inside it was laid out eerily similar to modern stadiums. It wasn't too much of a stretch to imagine what that place sounded like when someone got mauled by a lion (my guess is similar to a touchdown at a big football stadium).

So between the gelato and everything else in Rome, if it were not for Tessa everyone reading this blog would probably never see me again. I'd just get a job as a tour guide and never come back. I've had a few requests for more pictures, so here they are, you may be able to trace my days through the picture order. There's a lot, so you might want to view one album at a time and come back for another one later. By the way, my charger was not agreeing with my camera, so I got a new one in London, it was a great deal. So now I have 10x zoom and 7.1mp for your viewing pleasure. Hope all is well in the Western Hemisphere!


Pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119361&l=7bcea&id=38301811

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119363&l=9b9db&id=38301811

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119547&l=2a465&id=38301811

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119548&l=a5375&id=38301811

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119665&l=7470c&id=38301811

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119674&l=26b83&id=38301811

Enjoy!