Roma!

Hello from Rome! On Friday we left the small coastal town of Vernazza and took a 4 hour train ride south to Rome. After finding our hotel (the most comfy of our trip so far; hooray for air conditioning, a shower separate from the toilet, TV, a phone, and even a balcony) we took a shuttle to central Rome to begin our adventure. We were starving and luckily found an excellent little pizza place. For 5 euros each we ordered huge pizzas and scarfed them down. Refueled, we took an evening stroll through Rome passing such well known places as the Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and the first Mcdonalds in Italy, est in 1986 and nicer than most restaurants we have splurged at. Seriously, the McDonalds in Italy have been super nice (even have computerized ordering systems.) Oh yeah...and a little place called the Colloseum!!

Yesterday (Sat) was our first full day in Rome and we began with a guided tour of Vatican City. We learned that the pope must be a smart guy (to leave Rome during the 100 degree temps of July.) Vatican City is one of the most visited locales in the world. There were probably more tourists there than gelato shops in Italy, which really is saying a lot. After the audio tour of the Vatican Museum we stepped into Michaelangos Sistine Chapel, one of the most amazing artistic sites we have ever seen. It is unbelievable that Michaelango painted the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and he didnt even consider himself a painter! The figures of the sistine chapel seem 3d, like they are literally falling from the ceiling, incredible!! After the sistine chapel, we entered St Peters Basilica, which many consider the most impressive church on earth! It was equally gigantic and beautiful.

This morning, we woke up early to beat the heat (as best we could) and visited the colosseum, roman forum, and the pantheon. The colosseum is as amazing in structure and fascinating as jen had hoped. The events that took place in the colosseum (gladiator fights, etc) are pretty disturbing, but our audio tour helped put this past into some context. Standing in front and inside of the colosseum was one of those huge WOW, I CANT BELIEVE I AM REALLY HERE moments...love those!!

We finished our morning of touring at our new favorite restaurant, Miscellanea (we were there last night for dinner and today for lunch.) We love Miscellanea for a few reasons. They have tasty food at affordable prices, generous salads, pasta and sandwiches for 4 to 7 euros and if you have the rick steves book (which is our travel bible) you get FREE STRAWBERRY WINE....JENS NEW FAVORITE DRINK (sorry coffee!).

Now, we are hot and tired after a long day of sightseeing in the hot sun (about 100 degrees), so we are gonna go back to the AC and take a nap.

Ciao for now,

Jen and Josh